01T2019-4310Filed
CEQR
Held as a public oversight hearing examining whether the City Environmental Quality Review process actually predicts and mitigates the impacts it is meant to assess.
Mandatory inclusionary housing
Land-use review
Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises · Tuesday, May 7, 2019
The one where the Council put the city's own environmental-review math on trial
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filed
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This wasn't a rezoning vote , it was a reckoning over how NYC predicts (and ignores) who gets displaced. Moya, Salamanca, Reynoso and Barron pressed DCP's Susan Amron on why the city never looks back at whether rezonings actually displaced the people its CEQR 'SEKER' manual said they wouldn't. Amron defended the manual as a 'living,' conservative, forward-looking process; the dais and a parade of witnesses , RPA, Municipal Art Society, CASA tenants, Bronx clergy , said assessing impact isn't addressing it, and demanded a legislatively-mandated citywide displacement look-back. The clergy asked
From the room
“my neighborhood of Willsburg has become infamous for the spectacular failures of the 2005 Winnsburg Green Point waterfront rezoning”
— Antonio Reynoso
“the groups exceed 5% of the study area population, the secret technical manual indicates that a significant adverse impact may occur”
— Francisco P. Moya
“MIH often gets cited as a mitigation for displacement, ignoring the gap between those affordability levels and the actual needs of local residents”
— Emily Goldstein
my neighborhood of Willsburg has become infamous for the spectacular failures of the 2005 Winnsburg Green Point waterfront rezoning
01
The decisions
602Int 0252-2018Laid over
A Local Law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to tracking mitigation strategies in final environmental impact statements as part of the uniform land use review process
03Int 1487-2019Laid over
A Local Law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to studying population and housing changes in areas that have been the subject of neighborhood rezonings
04Int 1523-2019Laid over
A Local Law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to studying and reporting on transportation impacts of decisions of the city planning commission in connection with certain land use actions
05Int 1531-2019Laid over
A Local Law to amend the New York city charter, in relation to studying and reporting on the education capacity and overcrowding impacts of decisions of the city planning commission in connection with certain land use actions
06Res 0009-2018RES 0009-2018Laid over
Resolution calling on the Mayor, the Mayor’s Office of Environmental Coordination, the New York City Planning Commission, the New York City Department of City Planning, and all other relevant City agencies to re-examine the standards in the CEQR regulations and the Technical Manual for assessing when a possible adverse impact on a neighborhood’s character or socioeconomic status requires a detailed analysis and possible mitigation, and calling on the relevant agencies, when such significant adverse impacts are identified, consistently to seek mitigation or development alternatives that provide long-term or permanent protection for the residents, businesses, and character of the affected community, including through the provision of permanently affordable housing and commercial space.
Cited repeatedly as a cautionary example, the Downtown Brooklyn rezoning's FEIS predictions were contrasted against what the rezoning actually produced, fueling skepticism about CEQR's forecasting.
Also in the record
Records not linked to a specific agenda item
Conditions
- Modification makes clear the amended zoning text only applies to the project site, per the intent of the proposal
Questions & answers
Inez D. Barron: Barron asks the panel what their response is to Reso 9, the resolution she introduced
Inez D. Barron: How many businesses existed in the downtown rezoning area before the rezoning, what became of them, and were any returned?
Inez D. Barron: Dentist analogy: just as a dentist evaluates work after drilling, the city should go back and evaluate rezonings rather than declare them done
I. Daneek Miller: How many affordable units were created between downtown Brooklyn and Long Island City?
I. Daneek Miller: contrast: Miller states he knows precisely the unit counts, affordability, and AMIs in his 27th district
+18 more exchanges
Citations & precedent
State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) · Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) · Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
CEQR Technical Manual · Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
CEQR Technical Manual - secondary/indirect displacement definition · Francisco P. Moya
CEQR Technical Manual - 5% threshold · Francisco P. Moya
ULURP · Susan Amron
SEQRA and CEQR · Susan Amron
New York State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) · OEC witness
Local Law 175 · Thomas Devaney
197a plan · Thomas Devaney
Procedure
- 11:17 a.m.
- 2:52 p.m.
- Chair opens meeting, welcomes committee members — Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
- Thanks Chair Moya and Chair Adams for land use subcommittee work; announces votes + joint CEQR oversight hearing — Rafael Salamanca, Jr.
+14 more procedural steps
02
The people
Public testimony: 2 in favor
Practitioners & applicants
William Martin · Rafael Salamanca, Jr. · Inez D. Barron · OEC witness · Esther Bruner · Council Member Miller · Marcel Negret · Thomas Devaney
03
The intelligence
Every parcel, owner, and applicant in this meeting, cross-referenced against Zonable’s NYC ownership, enforcement & legislative graph — the record behind the record.
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Owner portfolios, open OATH/ECB violations, 311 & DOB permits across every parcel discussed, developer track records, and an “ask this meeting” chat. For this meeting: 48 oath/ecb hearings across the 1 site discussed.
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