| Releases
& Statements
For Release: March 7,
2007
Contact: Frank Sobrino
(212) 669-4193
Testimony
of Public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum
for City Council Hearing on
Governmental Operations for Fiscal Year 2008
Thank you, Chair Felder, for holding
this important hearing.
With experts predicting that New York
City’s population will grow by one million within the next
twenty years, the act of planning for the future has taken on
a note of urgency. The recent flurry of council hearings on planning
for 2030 demonstrates our growing commitment to looking ahead.
We have become a city that understands the value of long- term
planning. As we move forward with a comprehensive citywide plan,
we must also recognize the importance of local, community-based
planning.
Since the 1960s, New York City’s
Community Boards have represented the interests of community residents
whose neighborhoods are undergoing redevelopment. Community Boards
are the first level of government responsible for publicly reviewing
building projects through the city’s Uniform Land Use Review
Procedure. Their annual Statements of District Needs help agencies
deliver government services where they’re needed most. Their
role in reviewing applications for liquor licenses and street
fairs gives communities an opportunity to shape their own character.
Yet when it comes to creating the kinds of multi-year comprehensive
plans that can help guide these month-by-month decisions, Community
Boards have had no choice but to take a back seat to the Department
of City Planning.
For more than thirty years, Community
Boards have had the authority to develop their own large-scale,
long-term plans. Yet as of today, only eight of these “197-a”
plans have been written and approved for seven of the City’s
59 Community Districts. It’s no wonder: there are a range
of barriers to creating a 197-a plan including lack of time, lack
of expertise, and lack of funding. According to a report by the
Municipal Art Society, in 2005, none of the Community Boards had
a full-time urban planner on staff to oversee the creation of
a 197-a plan. This week, my office reached out to the City’s
59 Community Boards and learned that since 2005, only one Board
has managed to hire a planner—and doing so meant that it
could not afford to hire another much-needed staffer. Community
Boards that have successfully seen a plan through to completion
have had to rely on costly experts hired from for-profit firms
and non-profit institutes. Interns from local graduate schools
and staffers in at least one Borough President’s Office
have helped to fill in the gaps, but they can hardly make up for
a full-time planner with a deep understanding of the community.
The Municipal Art Society claims that
the process of putting together a 197-a plan can cost a Community
Board from $50,000 to $250,000, depending on how ambitious the
plan is. The 2008 preliminary budget calls for an average allowance
of about $238,000 per Community Board. With that kind of funding,
it’s unlikely that many—if any—new plans will
be launched next year. This puts communities up for redevelopment
at a distinct disadvantage: while 197-a plans are not, by themselves,
enforceable, they can be a powerful tool for guiding Community
Board policies that are enforceable. The priorities spelled out
in a 197-a plan can lead a Community Board to apply for permanent
changes to the local zoning map through ULURP. A plan can also
help a Community Board develop thoughtful and strategic long-term
requests for municipal services through their annual statement
of needs.
The process of developing a plan is valuable in and of itself.
Through public deliberation, debate, collaboration, and consensus-building,
the act of drafting a comprehensive plan creates what sociologists
call “social capital.” Put simply, community planning
is a vital part of community building. With a plan in hand, communities
strengthened by the process of working together, can go on to
work with developers to ensure that neighborhood growth benefits
local residents.
The citywide plan for 2030 is set
to be released within a few weeks. Our enthusiasm for planning
should not end there. We must ensure that our Community Boards
have access to the resources that will allow all communities to
plan for their futures. To that end, I urge you to make a meaningful
investment in community-based planning in the 2008 budget. I look
forward to working with the Council on this important issue.
Thank you.
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