Mayor Adams is starting a pro-over-development caliphate to supersede City Council powers and community interests

 

 MTOPP

Mayor Eric Adams Blasting

His Way Into Your Community!

Mayor Eric Adams directed a commission to create a blueprint that would allow development projects to happen faster and cost less to developers.  The NYC Economic Development and Housing committee, working with Citizens Budget Commission (CBC), a nonprofit organization organized a report to address Adams’ agenda.  They made recommendations for changes in both the law and City and State administrative  policies regarding applications for development requiring rezonings. Their main justification is an economic model of supply and demand, the more supply (increase heights of buildings) the lower and more affordable the rents will be.

Of course they are ignoring all of the evidence which shows the opposite.  That increase development has in fact caused rents to increase and homelessness to sky rocket, as a recent study just revealed.  

13 Points of Change to the Rezoning Process of New York City and New York State

1. No more court cases brought against developers or the City, instead the rezoning project will be reviewed by the City Planning Commission.
2. The elimination of the New York State's Environmental Review process for all development projects.
3. In the alternative, the Environmental Review Process,  does not have to be completed until the end of the Uniform Land Use Review Process "ULURP".
4. In addition, New York State will reduce the number of environmental impact categories.
5. The Community Board’s and Borough Presidents review of a rezoning application during the ULURP process, will be eliminated. 
6. In the alternative, only the Borough President should review rezoning projects.
7. The Community and Borough President review of a rezoning application should take place before an application is certified and starts the ULURP process.  
8. The City Council Deference (the power to say no to a rezoning project in their district) should be eliminated.
9. In the alternative, when the City Council disapproves a project, immediately an alternative group of decision makers would convene with the power to overturn the City Council’s vote. The group would consist of the Mayor, Public Advocate, Borough President and Council Speaker.
10. Additionally, the City Council would need to have a Super Majority, not just a majority to overrule the City Planning Commission’s recommendation on a project.
11. All development projects that are not near or in sensitive wetland and greenfield sites (not brownfields) should be “as of right”. 
12. Instead of focusing on environmental concerns and their impact upon a community’s land, air and water, the focus should be on negative consequences vs. benefits.
13. Streamline the Environmental Process by not interacting with other government agencies that specialize in a particular environmental impact concern.  Instead, have one agency  – i.e. the City Planning Commission – conduct  all of the environmental impact analyses.

The Real Estate's Dream
 

Overall, these proposed changes reflect the real estate’s industry’s determination to escape any and all requirements for environmental reviews, with 99% of their projects being considered “as of right”.  This terms means developers can build what they want, where they want with no one having a say or being able to stop them.

  All of these proposals would require New York State to make changes to its legislation, for NYC to make revisions to the New York City Charter, as well as an unknown number of administrative changes in both the State's and the City's regulations.

  The importance of this Commission’s report and the creation of the

*“BLAST” commission to engage in some of these changes lies not only in its revelation regarding the intent to drastically reduce the power of the community to protect itself against developers, but what it reveals about Mayor Eric Adams’ plans for the next four (to eight!) years of his administration.

*We don't remember exactly what "BLAST" stands for but it hit us how arrogant and powerful the Mayor and the Developers believe that they are in even naming a commission BLAST.   They are sending a clear message of their intention to BLAST there way into any community, any neighborhood and harming any environment that they see fit.

Note: Please take this commission's report seriously.  There are already "opinion” pages popping up everywhere stating the ULURP process is broken, that what we need is more development projects and that the New York City Council's powers need to be reduced.  Even Brooklyn Borough President Reynoso is proposing a "borough wide" rezoning, based upon his failed rezoning process in his council district when he was its councilperson.  He is claiming that the 99% success rate of developers’ ULURP applications and 100% success rate for City sponsored district wide rezonings are not working for developers and/or the City!

Six Things You Can You Do!

1. Please forward this email by clicking on the link above and spread the word.

2. Testify at the CB9's hearing on these proposed changes.

Community Board 9 Hearing on City Citizens Budget Commission Proposal for Rezoning
Date:

Wednesday, September 28 at 7 pm sharp!
 Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84858396883
Dial In: 1(646) 558-8656  
Webinar ID: 848 5839 6883; No Password
This hearing will only last for half an hour so please come on time!

3. Read a more detailed description of the changes along with their rationale and MTOPP's position by clicking on this link.

4. Read the upcoming emails coming within the next couple of days and pass those along to others.

5. Write your own opinion pages in local media outlets etc...

6. Ask your Community Board to conduct its own hearing on the proposals.