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TESTIMONY
Testimony by Candis Tall from SEIU Local 32BJ on land use proposals
1:05:42
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164 sec
Candis Tall, Executive Vice President and Political Director of SEIU Local 32BJ, testifies on behalf of the union's 90,000 members in New York City.
While supporting the goal of more affordable housing, she expresses opposition to the commission's current land use recommendations.
She argues that the proposals to fast-track housing construction fail to include important democratic checks and would remove the public's ability to weigh in on large projects.
- Tall states that SEIU 32BJ does not support allowing affordable projects to be approved by unelected bodies like the Board of Standards and Appeals or the City Planning Commission.
- She argues that community board hearings are not meaningful if the local, democratically elected council member does not have a say in the final approval.
- The union opposes awarding developers a 30% density bonus without any check by the local council member.
Candis Tall
1:05:42
My name is Candice Tull.
1:05:43
I'm executive vice president and political director of SEIU Local thirty two BJ.
1:05:48
I'm here representing our union and the 90,000 strong we represent in New York City.
1:05:53
We are a member driven union dedicated to ensuring that our workers share the prosperity of the industries that they contribute to.
1:06:01
The foundation of our union is here in New York City, where our workers have attained a middle class wage standard of living and affordable, high quality health care.
1:06:08
As a labor union, we know well that New York City faces the critical housing shortage.
1:06:13
We believe our city can both build more affordable housing and create more middle class residential service jobs.
1:06:19
That is why we led the way fighting for the forward thinking City of Yes framework and fighting for the much needed 485x tax abatement.
1:06:29
However, we do not believe the Charter's Commission's land use recommendations accomplish these two intertwined goals.
1:06:35
We have spoken before this commission previously about the importance of creating more housing with all important democratic checks and opportunities for public engagement that we use to protect standards for workers.
1:06:47
Question one and two in their current form failed to do this.
1:06:51
We are looking forward to working with this commission to learn more and amending these recommendations.
1:06:57
On question one, thirty two b j does not support allowing affordable projects regardless of size to be approved by the board of standards and appeals, nor do we support allowing large, predominantly market rate projects in districts designated under the fair housing framework to be approved by the city planning commission.
1:07:15
While we emphatically support the construction of more affordable housing, this should not come at the expense of the public's ability to weigh in on large projects which employ hundreds of New Yorkers and have significant impacts on the communities that where they're built.
1:07:30
Community board hearings, which would be retained under these proposals, are not relevant if the local council member, the democratically elected official who is accountable to their community board, has has a say has doesn't have a say in the final approvals.
1:07:44
Otherwise, these hearings are not real public consultation.
1:07:48
As such, we do not support ultimate approval authority going to an unelected group such as the Board of Standards and Appeals and the City Planning Commission.
1:07:56
On question two, we are supportive of an expedited process for low density r one through r five districts and small to medium sized developments in transit dense areas.
1:08:06
However, awarding developers across the city a 30% bump in density, which in some areas could represent hundreds of units without any check by the local council member, it is not workable in its current form.
1:08:20
We hope these proposals can be changed and amended by the commission to help support working people of New York City.