Committee on Land Use, FY 2027 Preliminary Budget Hearing

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Hey, hey, hey. I do not think... Hey, hey, hey.

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Our 56.8 million FY26 adopted budget allocated 35.9 million or 63% to personnel services which include part-time staff, interns, and members of the city planning commission. The remaining 20.9 million went to other than personnel services. Now, the FY27 preliminary budget in comparison to the FY26 adopted budget represents a net $5.3 million decrease. This is almost entirely due to the expiration of 7 million in temporary funding, either grants or funding granted for environmental impact statements for projects that have since been approved by the Council.

At the same time, there is a new 1.7 million in funding to support work for the 2030 census and to begin implementation of the city map charter amendment. Looking at personnel services, there was a net six position change in headcount. In total, the agency gained 12 new positions for census, city map, and capital planning work. At the same time, the agency lost six positions that were either temporary or grant-funded. This increased headcount came at a net increase of 1.3 million for personnel services which supports the increased headcount.

Overall, the FY26 preliminary budget reflects a strong foundation with a total of 51.4 million in an increased full-time headcount of 370 positions. We are committed to allocating our resources effectively to advance the department's mission and to help create a more affordable, equitable city for all New Yorkers. Thank you.

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Thank you, Commissioner. I am just going to ask counsel to swear you guys in before we start the questions.

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Good morning. Could you please raise your right hand and state your name for the record?

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Gita Nandan. David Parrish. Su Chen.

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Thank you, counsel. Thank you for your testimony, Commissioner. Just want to say for the record, we have been joined by minority leader David Carr and also CM Justin Sanchez. All right. So my first line of questions, I really want to focus on staffing and resources. It is a concern for many CMs who are leading neighborhood rezoning projects like myself in the Bronx.

DCP and the borough offices, the DCP borough officers are responsible for both neighborhood planning and working with private applicants to shape individual zoning applications. This work is very essential to addressing our housing crisis and support equitable development that uplifts all of New Yorkers. However, the borough offices are understaffed and under-resourced for this important mission. Many small cities around the country, cities smaller than New York City Council districts have more planners on staff than DCP borough offices. For example, in the Bronx serving 1.4 million residents has only 16 budgeted staffers at this time.

With this small staff, it is not clear if the office has the capacity to undertake more than one neighborhood rezoning at a given time. There is a clear consensus that New York City must aggressively plan to increase our housing supply. Yet, there is no proposed change to current staffing levels. So, with that being said, Commissioner, does DCP believe that the borough officers have sufficient resources to meet this moment? And if yes, can you let us know why you believe so?

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Sure. I will start and then I will turn over to our chief operating officer. So I think as you heard from my testimony, overall, while we have had a net loss of 5.3 million, a lot of it was driven by temporary funding that has since expired. So the organization essentially is in somewhat of a steady state with a net increase of six heads.

However, certainly I know that we need resources to do the work that we are charged to do moving forward. I feel confident that we will be able to carry out the work. Obviously, I am in my sixth day and certainly still assessing the needs across the organization. And as we go through this budget process, we will remain in conversation with OMB around what we see, but at our current state, the organization between central office and the borough offices, we certainly see that we would be confident in carrying this work out. I will turn over to our chief operating officer to talk a little bit more about staffing in the borough offices.

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Excuse me. Could you just move the microphones closer to you? Sure. Thank you. Sure.

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Thanks Chair Riley. This is a very important issue for us. I think as you have already seen we have also engaged staff at our central office particularly in community engagement, capital planning, our policy divisions like housing, zoning, etc. to support our borough office staff. So, we all hear you and understand the importance of the borough staff and agreed.

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Do you have a breakdown by each borough? How much staff is in each borough office? I can get that back to you. I believe we shared some data with the committee beforehand, but we can get that to you.

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Okay. And I believe you. I would not say that even though you guys are short staff, you guys have been working tremendously with me in the Bronx, but this is important work that we have to do. I think everyone's message has been affordability. We have to build more. We have to develop more. And we know how important your role is in this. So, as we are asking these questions, I just want you to be assured that we understand the important role and we want everyone else to understand the important role and provide you with the resources that you

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need. Okay. So, as of January 2026, DCP has a vacancy rate of 16.3% over triple the average vacancy rate across all city agencies, which is alarming. With similar vacancy rates over the last six fiscal years. Are there any specific roles or divisions that are driving these vacancies?

So, I can share obviously addressing vacancies will be a priority for me and I know that there are a number of efforts already underway to do so. I think our chief operating officer can share a little bit more about what the pure vacancy rate is.

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Yeah, let me break that down a little further. We began fiscal year 26 with 364 positions. We have been gratified to receive six additional. So now we are at 370. And as of February we had 300 active employees, four on leave, leaving us with 69 vacancies or about 19%. Within that though, within those 69, we have one person pending payroll, two pending OMB approval, and out of the 46 remaining, 23 are posted and actively recruiting. 20 are unfunded from former grants completed projects, leaving us with an adjusted vacancy rate of about 12%.

I just wanted to note we have taken extraordinary efforts to think about how to improve our hiring by working with DCAS to look at civil service specs to come up with a fellows program and think of new ways to onboard folks more quickly. That work continues.

And do you have a breakdown of specific

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roles that you are looking for within those vacancies? So across the agency, if we look at our borough offices, our central teams, our technical teams, the vacancy rate is pretty steady across all of those groups. So we are hiring a little bit on every team.

What is DCP doing to reduce vacancies that could expedite the neighborhood studies and rezonings?

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So, one thing we are gratified that DCAS came out with the civil service list for city planner at the end of last calendar year. We have already completed our first round of civil service hiring pools. That process, if utilized consistently, will allow us to fill

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vacancies quickly. And we look forward to doing more of that this

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calendar year.

Is there any barriers that you see that are leading to the struggle of filling these vacancies? Not at the moment. Okay.

The median number of days for simple zoning action projects to enter public review was 308 for the first four months of fiscal year 2026. This represents a 19.8% increase over the same period in fiscal year 2025. The median number of days for projects requiring environmental quality review increased by 162.9% from 278 days during the first four months of fiscal year 2025 to 731 in the first four months of fiscal year 2026. We also hear from developers that DCP continues to lack the basic staffing necessary to quickly move applications forward. Is DCP considering increasing staff and or other resources in order to speed up applications during this process?

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Thank you, Chair Riley. Again, I think we heard you very clearly. We have a mandate to both speed up applications to allow private actors to build more housing while focus on proactive neighborhood planning. And so this is really important for us. Since the start of the administration, Mayor Adams has put forward the speed task force that is targeted to push agencies to build homes faster to reduce red tape.

For us, one of the signature issues that will help improve those numbers you just cited connects to the governor's push for her let them build agenda to streamline environmental review. We believe that if this change happens, it will take our 2-year process and allow us to shrink down to a six-month process, speeding up the overall flow of applications and reducing the staff time required for each individual application. We think this is a huge innovation. We are working to implement that while at the same time trying to keep on top of these stats that you mentioned and push applications out.

On the specifics I wanted to note for zoning actions with EAS. We think improving the environmental review process that really is the critical path for these projects and drives them to be several years long. It requires inter agency coordination, detailed review and is really hard to expedite on our own. So that systematic change from the state would be very welcome.

On simple zoning actions, I will note that while we are still below goal, we have improved each of the last three fiscal years from FY23, we were at 57%. Last year, we closed at 64%. And while we have work to do to improve this year, I will note that we are ahead in the number of applications process. So, we are trying to get things out of our system. Some of those have been delayed for a long time, which leads to a lower on-time completion rate, but we are working on this.

And you touched on environmental. We are

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going to touch on that a little bit later. But, going into the new administration, is the new administration currently preparing a citywide housing agenda?

Yes, there is work underway to prepare a citywide housing agenda. There is also work underway, as you know, in alignment with the Council's legislation to prepare an updated fair housing plan as well.

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If so, can you discuss DCP's role in this plan?

Sure. So, as one of the many agencies

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that contributes to housing in the city, we are certainly working with city hall to contribute ideas as well as on the fair housing front. I do not know if executive director Su Chen if you want to jump in.

Thank you. Good morning, Chair. Thank you, Gita.

Good morning, Chair Riley and all city council members. Good to be here with you today. We took a historic step with City of Yes and the neighborhood plans to unlock housing across the city. We are committed to doing yet more bold actions. This includes more neighborhood plans, text and zoning changes. We are streamlining how we work and we are working hard to activate city-owned sites. We greatly appreciate City Council's partnership in everything we do and we look forward to talking with you about what more we can do together.

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That was my next question. So, you guys are planning on engaging with stakeholders like City Council in developing this new housing plan?

Absolutely. We are partnership with City

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Council is critical in everything we do. So you can rest assured that we will continue our collaboration and discussions with you.

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Okay. Are you guys considering any further text amendments for the City of Yes proposal?

There is still to be seen what text amendments we will pursue.

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Sorry, Gita, I need you to talk right

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into the mic. Sorry.

Excuse me. Yes. Thank you. We are

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still assessing what specific text amendments we will pursue. Certainly City of Yes was a huge undertaking and we are seeing really great strides already in the past year and in just a few months. The signs are really good. We really need to unlock housing across the city. Housing the housing shortage is a citywide problem. We need city-wide solutions.

Okay. And I must I have to go back

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into staffing. Sorry. Okay. So, returning to the question on staff and the resources, being that we are going to be coming up with bold plans, that means we are going to need more hands on deck. So within that, is DCP thinking about personnel necessities for the implementation of this new housing plan? Because it seems pretty simple that if we are looking to increase development opportunities around the city, we are going to need more planners.

Well, we heard from David about different strategies. And I love what you said earlier, Chair Riley, that we need much more planning, not less. But we also need a lot more smart planning. And we believe with City of Yes. And with the charter reform, we have a lot of new tools that are letting us advance more projects at speed and at scale. We need every tool we can get to advance to alleviate the housing crisis.

Okay. Going to neighborhood

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rezonings. Neighborhood rezonings deliver thousands of homes. We all know

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that, right? Paired with comprehensive planning for infrastructure and services and are an essential tool for the solving New York City's housing affordability crisis. What role does DCP see for the neighborhood rezoning in this coming term and how many neighborhood rezonings are you planning to undertake this term?

I am sorry.

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Okay. Well, I will jump in. So right now we are still determining the amount and volume of rezonings to pursue and neighborhood planning efforts to pursue. But that will still continue to be certainly a priority of our work and obviously we are also focused on efforts in communities that have not contributed fairly to the city's affordable housing supply and housing supply overall in the past. I will turn it over to Executive Director Su Chen.

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I do not think I have anything to add. Thank you.

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Okay. I mean, so you do not have a number?

We do not have a specific number for

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I think five between 10 should be a good amount. Just putting that on record. Okay.

I mean, we have to build as much as possible. So,

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thank you. So, as you have heard, we have said many, many times, we need more housing, but housing

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alone is not enough. Residents need access to essential services such as schools, open space, daycare, transportation, and libraries. My question is, how does the new administration plan on funding these infrastructure investments when pursuing neighborhood rezoning?

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I can start with that. In no world would a neighborhood plan, an ambitious neighborhood plan advance without the necessary capital investments. We do holistic planning. It is really important that we are just more than just dialing up the densities for housing that we are looking at every single neighborhood need and services. So David has more on this.

As we did previously we look at everything from school capacity to transit to the public realm open space. Those are tenants that we expect to continue in this administration. And also thinking about areas that where that have experienced disinvestment and have significant resiliency needs. So we intend to continue that holistic planning.

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Do you guys have indication where the money is coming from? I could give an example because I know during the de Blasio administration there was a dedicated 1 billion fund for neighborhood rezoning. So just wanted to know if you guys have any commitment and if so where would the money exactly be coming from?

So the money will come from a variety of

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sources. Once we agree on projects with individual CMs, the projects will be funded. Sometimes these projects are funded through new needs. Sometimes these projects are funded through existing agency budgets. But we work holistically across the city and with members to make commitments and then fund those commitments when we once we have made them. I also want to note that we have refreshed the neighborhood commitments tracker which is hosted by the mayor's office of operations and we ensure is kept up to date.

Yeah. And I just want to encourage the administration if they could set aside a specific number because we are asking for more density within communities. We

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We all want to play a very important role with adding housing but we have to go back to our communities and we also have to give back. Our communities are struggling when it comes to school seats. They are struggling when it comes to infrastructure, struggling when it comes to transportation. So we just want to ask the administration if they could set aside a specific number for these neighborhood rezonings if we are going to make that commitment. So I just wanted to go to the Sunnyside Yards proposal. I know Chair Louis, if she was here, she would want to touch on some of these questions. So did DCP have any role developing or evaluating that Sunnyside Yards proposal that Mayor Mamdani raised with President Trump last month? Yes, we all know that Mayor Mamdani traveled to Washington to speak to the president about potential investment, federal funding to redevelop Sunnyside Yard to deliver over 12,000 new homes. This is a once in a generation opportunity. But it is very early days. We have not been any discussions about land use actions that would be necessary to carry

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out the plan but we will be sure to talk to you all as plans further develop. Because of the unit count, was that the reason why that was brought up to the president because it was 12,000 units and why it was asked for federal funding? There is federal property interest at Sunnyside Yard. Okay. And 12,000 was a unit count that was put forward in a plan developed by the city in what year? In the prior administration, two prior administrations perhaps. I have heard an estimate of $14 billion investment in this project. Is that true? It will take about 14 billion federal dollars from the federal government. It is to be determined. To be determined. Okay. Rather than investing all the money into a new community project, why would we not invest more in our current communities? And if the answer is that the plan is to do both, then I want to know what funding this administration setting aside to invest in our communities would be. Funding is important for all neighborhood plans. So whether a Sunnyside yard is advancing alongside a neighborhood plan, there will be a very close examination into what capital investments are needed.

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Okay. I just want to state for record, we have been joined by CM Cabán. I am just going to ask a couple more questions, then I am going to turn over to the committee to see if any members have questions. Turn over to the City of Yes neighborhood rezoning commitments and my project White Plains Road. Near the end of the prior term, DCP committed to undertake neighborhood planning in Coney Island Avenue areas south of Prospect Park, East Flatbush, and Forum Landing, Park Avenue, and White Plains Road in the Bronx. Is DCP currently moving forward with these planning areas? Yes, we have been working hard to fulfill our commitments that we made to the City Council to initiate studies and public engagement in the Bronx and in Brooklyn. All of this has been a very positive experience collaborating with you as we begin the new year with a new commissioner and we are ready to talk with you about next steps. Okay. So I want to talk about my project

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the White Plains Road Plan. So we started off really strong. I feel like

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we really started strong, but recently it feels like we are kind of slowing back. And just want to understand why that is happening. When we first announced an initiative, we understood and we asked our community to help us deliver as much density as possible. My experience with White Plains Road seems that the perfect example of the Bronx borough office at DCP not having enough planners. We are trying to have a very ambitious plan over at White Plains Road, but recently it seems like we are kind of slowing back. Even though you guys have been tremendous within the borough office, they are just taking on a lot of work at that time. So if we are serious about building more housing, investing in our neighborhoods, I do not want us to slow down with projects like White Plains Road in my and CM Dinowitz's district. So can you tell me why DCP and this administration is not pushing this rezoning forward? And I would like a commitment from you today if possible that starting tomorrow this rezoning will become a priority for DCP and the administration.

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Oh, sorry. Well, we appreciate so much Chair Riley that you recommended that we take a look at White Plains Road. Again, the best starting point for any effort is partnership with City Council. We did launch the neighborhood planning process last year. We have had ongoing engagement. In fact, we just had a community meeting on March 10th. So planning efforts are continuing.

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And I would just add, chair, I have not obviously I am getting up to speed on the work on White Plains. I have not had a chance to go to the community meetings, but certainly we make a commitment to come out to the district and really understand what the issues are to make sure that as those conversations continue that we have the support needed for the team members in the Bronx to make sure that those are robust sessions.

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Thank you, Commissioner. I am really looking forward to seeing you up there. I think the community would love to have you up there. It will show a good sign of faith. I am going to take a pause on my questioning. I am going to turn it over to council members who have questions. We have also been joined by CM Phil Wong. We are going to start with CM Encarnación followed by Thomas-Henry and then Salaam.

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Good morning. I want to thank the chair for talking so much about the neighborhood studies. Some of my questions were around that. So some of them were already answered, but I did want to ask around DCP's prioritizing and analyzing neighborhoods with high immigration population. You know, given the hardships that are faced by immigrant New Yorkers, can you talk a little bit about how you identify those and if that is a consideration of DCP when looking at neighborhoods to study?

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When we do neighborhood planning, we are looking to improve the lives for all New Yorkers, all New Yorkers. It is a big city, very diverse city. You know, there are many communities across New York City that have not had the attention that they deserve historically. And certainly we are laser focused on making sure that we are delivering the best planning across the board. And this includes many communities that have higher rate of immigrants. So yes this is something that we keep in mind.

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And do you collect individual level data about immigration status when you collect when you do these studies?

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Oh not when we deal with neighborhood studies per se but as you all know the Department of City Planning we do have a population division. We are very proud of the work that our population division takes on. It is one of the few planning agencies in the nation that has a specialized population and demographics team. And they are very hard at work in making sure that our census work is thorough, complete, and every New Yorker is counted.

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And do you know if they collect individual level data and if it is electronic or physical and if it is indeed protected by our in accordance with our sanctuary city policies? Everything we do is in accordance with sanctuary city policies. And with respect to your question about we do not collect individual data as we engage with the community. Sorry, I thought I put it off. And the private companies that you contract with, they are also not sharing any data or anything like that, right? You do not have to ask the questions. So it is okay if you repeat the answers and they are all yes and that is fine. I just have to ask the question.

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Absolutely not. Our consultants we work with are not collecting individual data on immigration status.

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Okay. Now I know DCP recently updated its bed to population ratio calculation. It helps inform housing shelter placements. How do you plan to regularly assess and update those numbers so that the shelters are fairly distributed across the city? We have gone through an effort working with our partners and other city agencies where in the past we would make one-time requests of data. We have actually signed with agencies to get that data on a more regular basis so that we can ensure that it is updated annually. So it is really important as you note to get that updated frequently as required. But it takes in pooling data from DHS, from

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Health and Hospitals, New York State, Department of Corrections. And so what we have done is try to build a smoother, more regular pipeline so that we can pull that data together quickly.

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So regularly is quarterly possibly or mid year.

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We are going to start annually and then if we can get more frequent frequency with the state we will try to do that. Okay. Now, I know I am open to talking to you about that,

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CM. Thank you. I know that DCP also recently dissolved the urban design division before the inauguration of the current mayoral administration. Do you have plans to reverse the dismantling of the UD?

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Urban design remains a core value and function at the Department of City Planning. And what we did at the end of last year is that we actually enhanced and strengthened our ability to deliver good urban design at Department of City Planning. And we did this by shifting just six urban designers to other divisions. Many people do not know that we have over 25 urban designers and architects working at the Department of City Planning distributed throughout many divisions. They have long been in borough offices and strategic planning offices. So at the end of last year, we shifted six urban designers to work on mission-critical work directly in certain divisions. So instead of having one division, they are just they are distributed throughout and frankly it is a model that we have had for many decades, very successful model. So we are expanding upon that model.

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Okay. And I know we are obviously facing a budget deficit. So many planners have discussed ending free parking in New York City as a way to raise revenue. Do you currently have plans to end free parking?

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That is outside the purview of Department of City Planning.

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Okay. And wait, just want to make sure any of these are really, really, really important. I do have Oh, no. This is for LPC, but not for you guys. Okay. Thank you.

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Thank you.

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Thank you. Next we are going to hear from CM Thomas-Henry followed by Salaam followed by Wong.

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Thank you chair. My first question is around the neighborhood study done for Willets Point transformation. So the 23 acres of approximately 61 acre footprint has begun with the first 880 affordable units opening this spring. Thank you. Have there been any other studies of about acquiring and potentially developing the remaining acres that are out at that site? We will have to get back to you. Not to my knowledge, but I will get back to you, CM. And I guess in the process in that neighborhood study, were there any environmental studies done in terms of once individuals do move into that site because this is the first housing that will be over there approximately 2500 units. If the existing conditions remain, which are largely auto body, mechanic shops, some construction plants, and others, what the environmental impacts will be to those new residents. An extensive environmental review was

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conducted with the Willets Point proposals. And all mitigations are required to be carried out. But there was an extensive review, environmental review. I will get back to you if you have further questions. Okay. My next is regarding the Sunnyside plan. Because this plan seems to be heavily relying on federal funds, would we have to adhere solely to the

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federal DBE program, which recently has been revamped to exclude women and minorities as part of the criteria, or could we use our MWBE program that we currently use to ensure 30% participation? Sure.

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Yeah, that is a good question. I think that is still to be determined what the restrictions may or may not be with respect to federal funds. Obviously, the city is still carrying out its MWBE program. And our chief operating officer can share more of our work. I was just going to add that it would depend whether federal funds come from existing grant channels through some other process etc. So a lot to be determined in determining what the federal need is and what funding would be used to meet that need.

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Thank you, chair. That is all I have at the moment.

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Thank you, CM. CM Salaam followed by CM Wong.

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Thank you, chair. Thank you for your testimony. Just a few questions. Want to start with housing production. Land use actions projected to produce homes declined 61.9% in the first four months of fiscal year 26. How does the department plan to reverse this trend? And does the proposed budget additions, census updates, city map amendments and so forth adequately support housing development goals?

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Sure. We can start with an update on just your first question regarding applications. Sure. Yeah. I just want to note I believe that is MMR data and that data includes projects put forward by the department so large rezonings and our City of Yes proposal so we would expect a decrease in the first quarter MMR

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and then can you repeat the second part of your question CM I am sorry

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yes the second part is how does the department plan to reverse this trend well second part to that part does the proposed budget additions census update, city map amendments and so forth adequately support housing development goals. The housing understood. So as noted within our prelim budget there is additional funding to support census work as well as the map updates that are required by DCP. In totality a number of the actions that we are taking forward regarding with respect to the recently passed city charter amendments as well as City of Yes overall will help the city increase its overall affordable housing supply and housing supply

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regarding professional services reduction. Why is the professional services engineering and architectural services budget declining from $10.8 million fiscal year 26 to $3.8 million fiscal year 27. And what projects or services will be reduced? Thank you for that, CM. I appreciate your eagle-eyed attention to that. So those are project funds that fund environmental impact statement consulting. So as we work with council members on each rezoning, we size a pot of funding necessary to pay for the environmental review for that project. As you noted, we have a steady state budget of about $3.6 million for the next few fiscal years, but as we work with the council and the administration to greenlight neighborhood studies, that budget will be right sized in later years as we go. So I think it is just the nature of where we are in the cycle. Thank you.

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And regarding borough office vacancies, borough offices show vacancy rates ranging from 9.5% in Manhattan to 25% in Staten Island. Why is the disparity so significant and how will the budget address these gaps? Yeah, I think generally we are talking about a handful of individuals in each borough office. In Staten Island, it is three individuals, which is 25% of the office there. I would note in the last administration, we passed a zoning text amendment that reduces the number of private applications coming to that team. You know, we hear the council clearly that the need to fill our positions is paramount. But the rate of vacancies across teams I would say is generally pretty standard across all five.

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Thank you. And lastly, regarding the zoning review timeline, the department's target for simple zoning actions is 365 days to enter public review. Current performance shows increasing delays. Should the fiscal year 2027 budget include additional staffing for the zoning division? So I think again with this we are

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thinking about how to deploy our resources more strategically as part of the mayor's speed process. We do think that there could be additional there could be time savings that lead to additional staff capacity with changes through environmental review. And we have worked steadily over the last three years to improve this timeline. I just want to note with the decrease this PMMR so the last four months I believe we processed I believe 25 projects this go round where last year at the same time we had done 18 and some of the 25 were older projects that had been in the queue for a long time. So we are trying to clear our backlog right now. Which unfortunately has led to a number of projects being completed that are also behind schedule.

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Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

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Thank you. CM Wong, followed by Minority Leader Carr.

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Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Director Shu Chen for coming and members of the panel for coming. I have a few questions regarding out of borough zoning and regarding carbon neutrality on lithium ion battery plants. I represent Middle Village, Maspeth, Glendale, Elmhurst, Rego Park and Richmond Hill neighborhoods that work with the city, plan responsibly and fought hard for zoning that actually fits their communities. And now they are watching all of that get overridden. City of Yes is not planning with communities, is forcing change into neighborhoods that never asked for it and cannot support it. We are talking about areas in my district where infrastructure is already strained. Sewer lines, traffic, schools, parking, public safety. These are daily realities and not hypotheticals. And instead of addressing those issues, the city is adding more density, more pressure and more uncertainty. Nowhere is that clearer than with the City of Yes for carbon neutrality. And because in my district we now have a lithium ion battery facility being pushed as of right directly across from a school near residential homes, small businesses and a daycare. No meaningful community input, no local reviews, no real say. And all that is a direct result of decisions made by this agency. And from where I sit, this is not thoughtful planning. This is a one-size-fits-all policy being forced into neighborhoods that are already at the limit. And I want answers on how we got here. My first question is on forced zoning.

Why is DCP overriding locally planned zoning in communities that already downzoned? Can you answer that please? Sure. Happy to answer. Thank you CM. City of Yes was a historic achievement that we did in partnership with City Council. We have a citywide housing crisis and we need citywide solutions and the City of Yes approach was about delivering a little more housing in every neighborhood. So, in the lower and mid

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density areas, you are seeing the return, the relegalization of missing middle housing, for example, those three, four and five-story beloved buildings on corridors in the boroughs. We also allowed for accessory dwelling units, which is giving homeowners more flexibility and opportunities to provide opportunities for families to stay together or perhaps even some rental income. There were many moves in the City of Yes. And again we did a lot of outreach across the city in every single community district and with all council members. With respect to City of Yes for carbon neutrality. Yes. Battery energy storage systems was included in City of Yes for carbon neutrality to expand their allowance in other neighborhoods. Battery energy storage systems have long been allowed in New York City in commercial manufacturing areas. They are a really important tool to get our city to carbon neutrality. So, we did expand their allowance into residential neighborhoods, but these systems require extensive oversight by the FDNY and DOB not just in their application phase, but also in their installation. There have been no fire incidents in the city of New York for the BESS.

(00:53:20)

Okay. Did the city planning analyze placing lithium ion facilities next to schools? Yes or no? Because this is happening right now. They are talking about construction across the street from PS 128 Middle Village. There was a very close look at BESS across the city and in various zoning districts. Again, these are safe when they are installed correctly and properly and they are indeed in New York City with the extensive oversight by the FDNY and DOB. Do you believe a battery storage site next to a school is appropriate? Yes. Given their track record, yes, I do believe they are appropriate. And in fact, schools can benefit from BESS as well. How did you conclude there was no risk on these facilities? We can get back to you with more information. But we certainly would not be siting any facility that is dangerous to a sensitive use such as schools. We would not be facilitating that through zoning. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank CM Wong, Minority Leader Carr. And I just want to say for the record, we have been joined by CM Zhuang. Thank you so much, Chair Riley. I just want to associate myself with the comments on BESS by my colleague, CM Wong. There is no other example where we

(00:54:52)

literally permit something to be

(00:54:53)

constructed in all zoning areas like BESS. So this is sort of an exception I think to our approach to zoning citywide and I think it is an unfortunate one. And even if you want to dismiss the safety concerns which frankly I

(00:55:08)

do not think we should be dismissing them but even if you did there is something to the notion of planning which I am sure is an idea that you are committed to being committed to. And I feel that we absolutely need to think about what is the best use for our sites. And to say that a BESS could literally go up anywhere in the city based on the zoning type there, I think that is a ridiculous proposition. But we will agree to disagree on that for now. I want to talk a little bit about ELERP and the changes that are now upon us due to the recent charter revision. And in particular, I am concerned because the commission and city planning now has significantly more power and responsibility over the course of rezonings than they did previously. And I think there is going to be a resulting concern from the community and the stakeholders and neighborhoods about transparency and whether or not they are being heard as a part of this new ELERP process. So I just wanted to ask if your part of this process is to determine whether there is adequate existing transportation and sewer infrastructure and determining the course of an ELERP project. Can you explain how you are going to do this and what staff determinations may have to be made in order to reach that point?

(00:56:23)

Thank you for your question, CM. I think the battery is fading. Okay. Oh, here we go. Thank you. All right. Thank you. With ELERP, New York City voters voted for a faster way to approve housing and resiliency projects. There are very clear eligibility criteria for the housing projects. In the low density areas, we are talking about modestly up to 2 FAR or 45 feet in height. In higher density areas, we are talking about an increase up to 30% of the allowed density. What ELERP does, it reduces the extensive seven-month review process to 90 days. And this is a really important tool. This is a really important thing to do as we are

(00:57:15)

trying to deliver more housing in New York City. I am so happy CM Cabán is back in the room because it was my honor to stand with her on Park Avenue last month when we launched with HPD an ELERP that will result in the transformation of an underutilized city parking lot into a mixed-use development with 84 new homes, permanently affordable homes, as well as with some community uses. So, we look forward to seeing more ELERPS deliver more housing for New Yorkers. I understand that there was the criteria that you were referencing in determining whether something is even eligible for ELERP, but my understanding is that there is also going to be an assessment of infrastructure that goes along with that and that is up to city planning to make. So I was wondering if you can elaborate on how that part of the process is going to be

(00:58:07)

approached. The eligibility criteria for ELERP is really for the more modestly sized housing proposals and of course also for the resiliency projects for larger neighborhood initiatives. We would absolutely be looking across the board at the infrastructure needs, the community needs. So that remains a very strong practice at DCP city planning. So in terms of when an ELERP is underway, right, what is going to be city planning's approach to community consultation and their part in this process?

(00:58:39)

ELERP retains the review period for community boards and borough president. So that, when a project is ready, the application is ready to be referred out, it goes to the community board to the borough president for their simultaneous review, 60-day review, and then it comes to city planning.

(00:58:59)

I think the issue though with the process, right, is that in the past that community boards, sometimes even borough presidents would opine on the details of a particular project and they would go unheeded by the time the commission did its vote. Maybe there would be some minor modifications and then it would come to the council and the community's perspective was that we the council members representing the area would champion that local perspective. That is no longer going to exist here. Right? So, I am asking what you are going to do differently in terms of how you listen and process and digest what the local input is, whether it is the board's official opinion or what is said at the board by members of the community, because members of the community do not have the ability to come to city planning to repeat their testimony. They are giving their testimony to the board.

(00:59:45)

Sure. I would just add of course with the understanding that these are still modest projects that would go through ELERP. It will be important to the team at DCP as we are working to route these applications that we are also engaging community members and making sure that that happens up into the certification process. Obviously, as Edith noted, there is the community board and the borough president process, and there is still the CPC process, right? Making sure that we are listening to the public testimony and taking that seriously. As chair of the CPC, I will make sure that we are taking everyone's testimony into account.

(01:00:20)

Thank you. Thank you, chair. Thank you so much, Minority Leader. Just to continue on, how many ELERPS have happened so far and how many are in the pipeline?

(01:00:31)

To date, excuse me, to date there have been three applications launched into public review. The first one I referred to earlier in the Bronx on Park Avenue that is an HPD ELERP and at city planning we have two active ELERPS in the pipeline. One on Staten Island that will facilitate the acquisition of more land for the Sawmill Creek Park to help with conservation and preservation in that area.

(01:01:03)

Okay. Can you discuss how many units these ELERPS usually produce? I do not know if there is an

(01:01:14)

average per se because each will be different in the Bronx on Park Avenue that was a proposal that is going to lead to 84 permanently income-restricted units.

(01:01:25)

Okay. And the one in Staten Island,

(01:01:26)

the one in Staten Island is to facilitate the expansion of a park. So that is not a housing project but that is a resiliency project also allowed under ELERP.

(01:01:36)

Okay. Going into community engagement because I think that is what minority leader Carr was going into. During the public review process during the City of Yes, you guys had opportunity to go through 59 community boards throughout New York City. After visiting all 59 community boards multiple times, could you guys attest if there are any lessons learned about how community board trainings and engagements can be improved? And compared to last year, has DCP staffing for community engagement increased or decreased?

(01:02:13)

Engagement with the community. Engagement with community is such an important thing what we do. It is a top priority. Thank you. Okay. We meet regularly with the community boards for training. There is a lot of technical information in zoning. So we want to make sure that we are all speaking the same language. We do extensive training with the community boards and we have a public engagement team at city planning which has been expanding our reach across all community stakeholders.

(01:02:52)

Has the team increased or decreased since last year? Our team has actually increased

(01:02:56)

increased. Okay.

(01:02:58)

And I would just add chair

(01:03:01)

very early in my career I started a lot of my work training community boards helping them to understand planning helping to demystify planning. And so I think as we continue this work with a community focus that will certainly be a priority.

(01:03:13)

And just want to emphasize the importance of it. I just think if community boards are engaged more with understanding the need that New York City needs right now and the type of resources that are usually needed for big planning within their communities. I think it will be much helpful when we are going through these little projects or within these projects with them. Just wanted to speak go back to the Sunnyside project for a little bit. Do you believe New York City has a good track record delivering affordable housing through the platforms of train yards? Well, I mean we have few examples.

(01:03:53)

But I think that there is What are the few examples do you have? Do you think we have a good track record? Atlantic Yards is understand that that is one of the few examples. I do think however we have a clear commitment in this administration to addressing affordability. We also have a sentiment across New York City where people understand the importance of affordable housing. And so, I know that this is still to be determined, but there is a pursuit to make sure that whatever we move forward with and whatever we commit to is realized.

(01:04:25)

So, I know we had Hudson Yards and we have Atlantic Yards. Do you know how much affordable housing was built on Hudson Yards and how much affordable housing was built on Atlantic Yards? We can get back to you with those specific numbers, but certainly there were affordable housing commitments as part of those plans. And now in this era that we are in where we are maximizing and doing everything we can to deliver affordable housing, it is a top priority for us that we are making sure that we are maximizing affordable housing opportunities on redevelopment over rail yards. Have economics of housing changed so much that you believe the administration would do any better in delivering affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards in Queens?

(01:05:12)

Could you restate the question? Excuse me. Have the economics of housing changed so much that you believe that the administration would do any better in delivering affordable housing at Sunnyside Yards in Queens? I think it is still very early days for Sunnyside Yard. But I think we should be looking at all opportunities especially big swings where you can deliver a lot of housing for New Yorkers.

(01:05:38)

Yeah I mean the cost of building insurance we just want to know if the economics have changed in this current climate if the administration is going to take any other different approach. I mean 12,000 units is very ambitious. So we are going to take all approaches across the city. Sunnyside yard is just one thing that we are pursuing. But it is rail yards do provide opportunity for us to think big Atlantic yards Hudson Yards even Grand Central Midtown of course that is primarily office space around Grand Central but when New York City when we think big we can deliver big. Want to go back to my favorite topic staffing can you discuss the average salary of a planner at DCP? Sure. We will I will turn to our COO. We are pulling that information for you. No problem.

(01:06:41)

Yeah. I am glad to let you know that it has increased over the last few years, both with increased staff retention and the citywide economic agreement. Across our team it is about $97,000.

(01:06:56)

Okay. Just want to highlight for the record we are retaining planners they are probably getting double in the private sector. Even though we want to do as much for public service. I just want to highlight that we are losing a lot of amazing planners to the private sectors because the pay is so low for them. So just want to highlight that for the record. Can you speak to how DCP utilizes outside and private consultants in day-to-day operations at city planning, whether that being large neighborhood rezonings or any other process within DCP?

(01:07:37)

Yeah. Yeah. We try to keep it minimal. We primarily use consultants for large-scale environmental impact statements for our neighborhood plans. And generally that is because they are of such scale and we try to do those reviews quickly with council members and communities so they do not get stale and we can get through that.

(01:07:57)

Is there a set aside budget for that?

(01:08:00)

Currently it is $3.6 million. As we have talked about it fluctuates based on the plans we agree with council members to deliver.

(01:08:10)

Okay. I just want to touch on city-owned sites under the Adams administration as an executive order. Prioritizing housing production and accelerating the production of housing on city sites require city agencies to identify public land suitable for new housing development to address the city's housing concerns. How many sites has DCP identified to date and where are they located?

(01:08:37)

So, Chair, I know that on day one of this administration, the mayor put into effect the LIFT task force, which is focused on identifying city-owned sites. We are contributing and part of that work. The goal is I think the LIFT work should be wrapped up this summer. We should be able to share more information about the sites that have been identified.

(01:09:00)

Thank you, Commissioner. Do you have a process to identify those sites? So, I know that this is happening across multiple city agencies. I do not know if there is more to share at least on the DCP end, but I think the City is identifying the various sites that they own and operate. Okay. I just want to state for the record, we have been joined by Chair Lee and Majority Leader Shaun Abreu. Okay. All right. So going back to urban designing, urban design is very critical and we heard you speak about it earlier with CM Carr. For providing a healthy environment is also crucial to maintaining public support for growth and development. How does DCP plan on having a coordinated urban design policy without a central urban design division? Can I get new mics y'all? Okay. Yes, thank you for your question. Again, urban design remains a core value and function at the Department of City Planning. We still have a chief urban designer at the department who has general oversight across the urban design work across our agency. We again have urban designers distributed throughout the agency, many divisions and in every borough office and also strategic planning offices. Urban design is critical and as you mentioned Chair Riley in making sure that we have buy-in and beautiful great livable neighborhoods. So this work that our urban designers are doing across the agency, they will be doing this work from day one from project inception across the agency.

Okay, I would now like to ask a series of questions about the implementation of the effectiveness of the City of Yes reforms. Starting with ADUs. ADUs are largely... excuse me, ADUs are a large percentage of the projected citywide increase in housing production from the City of Yes for housing opportunity, but the implementation has been slow and we have seen some criticism from advocates that the regulations are too complex and costly. How many permits to date have been issued for ADUs?

(01:11:18)

Thank you for your question. We are very excited to say that we have over 150 ADU applications in the hopper right now. We have been doing a lot of work in the past year to make sure that folks seeking to build or provide an ADU have the tools. Just last week the City launched a toolkit that has ready to go designs for ADUs and also guidance on financing these ADUs. Earlier last year we promulgated rules to make sure ADUs are safe and the ADU application portal was opened at DOB last fall. So we are really excited to see a lot of activity in the ADU applications.

(01:11:59)

Do you have a breakdown of 150 borough wide? We have Queens and Staten Island leading the way. I will give you the... I can get you the specific numbers afterwards.

(01:12:14)

Is DCP involved in making sure NYC has a

(01:12:16)

workable ADU regulations? Absolutely. All these efforts are about making sure that we have not just workable but easy to use and great regulations to help homeowners who want to provide an ADU provide one. Thank you. And that is the website you just mentioned, right? Yes, the website. Okay, good. With that being said, I

(01:12:39)

do want to commend the administration on the new website you just released for

(01:12:42)

homeowners to navigate the process for ADUs. It has been very useful for those who are interested in it. Office conversions. Is DCP monitoring the progress on office conversion developments? And if so, are the zoning reforms from City of Yes and tax incentives proven to be effective in supporting increased conversions?

(01:13:02)

We are so excited to see the boom in office conversions with City of Yes regulations and the state's 460M state program. Together, we are seeing this incredible surge in delivering housing by also repurposing vacant or low-performing office space. Okay. Do you know how many office conversions have gone forward to date? I do not know how many buildings per se, but I know that the pipeline includes 12,000 new homes, a quarter of which are permanently income-restricted. Okay. City of Yes also included the

(01:13:39)

transit oriented development and town centers proposal to allow three to five story multifamily housing more broadly as of right in low density areas. Is DCP monitoring the implementation and uptake by developers of these proposals? And how many TODs and town center proposals have been filed across the city to date? We are working with DOB to compile the filing permits at the locations and we will be able to share this with City Council soon. But we are really excited to see that the three, four, five story buildings that have long been loved in New York City have been relegalized and we are seeing more housing developed across the city in these missing middle typologies. Okay, I am going to ask some questions on

(01:14:29)

environmental review reform and then I am going to turn it over to Chair Lee to ask our questions. Hi, how are you? Thank you. Oh, sorry. I will be right with you, Chair Lee. So, the governor is proposing to broadly exempt residential projects with up to 500 units from environmental review. Under the governor's proposal, developers would not even have to study ground, air and noise pollution. This raises fundamental environmental justice concerns. What is DCP's position regarding the governor's proposal? I just wanted to note that the governor's proposal as I understand it and their competing bills in Albany focuses different housing limits in different density areas. So 500 would be in the most dense parts of the city, be lower elsewhere. And the proposals that I have seen apply to only areas where homes are being proposed in existing residential units. So or existing residential districts. So today as you can go and get a building permit and an area zoned for residential without doing those environmental reviews. This would be very similar to that. So DCP is in favor of the governor's position. We do think that this is a smart reform that will shorten our process and speed the creation of housing across the city. Okay. Yeah,

(01:16:00)

I would just add that as noted right

(01:16:03)

much of this is still in the proposal phase and so we are in conversations with the state and we will continue to work through the details.

(01:16:10)

Thank you. When DCP proposed green fast track, it limited the exemption to projects to residential projects up to 250 units which is half the size of what the governor is proposing. Why did DCP limit its... excuse me exemption to 250 units and does the extensive data analysis you perform establish that projects up to 500 units have no environmental impacts? So we were proud to do research for green fast track but I think when looking at the green fast track we were looking within the universe of state SEQRA law. So the things that we could not change despite the lack of mitigations or number of housing units. So we still for example had to go through certain processes and there were limits that we could not overcome. Okay. Just to push a little bit on that. So you were looking at the SEQRA laws in order to come up with that assumption. But I think the push back that we want to say within that is that within that exemption of the 250 units do you feel like that is suitable for the green fast track because there are a lot of members that have concerns about this? I think within this process we are trying our best to make sure that we are investing as much in our communities as possible. We do understand that this is a process that takes a long period of time, but this is how a lot of those issues are going to be addressed. So, being that you guys did look at that law, do you feel like that has been efficient to date? David mentioned that when we proposed City...

excuse me, green fast track, we were looking at it within the existing SEQRA regulations. We have reviewed the governor's proposal and found that over the last 10 years, 99.6% of the projects that would qualify for the governor's proposal had no impacts. So that is virtually all of them had no impacts.

(01:18:18)

Thank you. Okay. The environmental review process is critical to addressing environmental

(01:18:23)

justice needs and local infrastructure needs, specifically funding for our local parks and playgrounds, the creation of new open spaces, space for schools and creating more early childhood facilities. By exempting the projects from environmental review, projects would no longer have to contribute towards the basic needs of our communities. If the governor's reform is passed, what is DCP's strategy to provide our communities with those needed investments such as schools, parks, residences, libraries and those facilities to make sure that our communities can still thrive with density? So I think as Edith just noted the vast vast majority of these projects do not have impacts today and I think the answer to your question is thinking holistically about capital planning across our city. Which is something we are strong advocates for in partnership with other agencies. We also look at this whenever we look closely at a neighborhood or through a citywide text to look at the provision of public services. Okay. All right. I am going to turn it over to Chair Lee. I am just going to ask if DCP could share that analysis of the 99.6 percentage.

(01:19:36)

Chair Lee, sorry, my ears are half working these days. Thank you so much for being here. Just really quickly, who has been identified at DCP for the chief savings officer?

(01:19:54)

Hi.

(01:19:55)

Oh, nice. Okay, great. I know that they were due last Friday, but are you able to share any of the proposals for savings within DCP's budget? And are you anticipating any potential revenue loss resulting from implementation of the savings plan?

(01:20:09)

So, thank you, CM. We took very seriously the guidelines in this proposal to find

(01:20:16)

savings that were both sustainable but did not impact the provision of services. So we do not expect services to be diminished or revenue to decrease.

(01:20:27)

Perfect. And especially if revenue generating positions are reduced such as headcount for planning staff who facilitate neighborhood studies and rezonings. Is that still also not going to impact?

(01:20:41)

That is correct.

(01:20:42)

Okay. The two for one hiring restrictions, is that still in place or... Yes. Okay. And when do you anticipate the timeline for... So, it was as part of the chief savings officer program, the goal was to release agencies from the two for one hiring freeze.

(01:21:03)

Okay. Sorry, just going to the OMB report because I know that it is in the financial summary, the headcount is pretty much the same. If there is like it seems to be one position difference between FY26 and 27, but there is quite a decrease in the overall budget. And I am just wondering, I know you mentioned in your testimony that a lot of the decrease is due to the grants or funding, temporary funding going away, but is there anything else that is in that or is it mostly that reason?

(01:21:35)

It is that is the vast majority. Two big things that I will cite. So environmental consulting dollars that were for prior administration projects that are no longer needed. That is about almost $3 million and $2.5 million is funding for the Jamaica rezoning that came through a federal grant and that with the Council we were excited to complete.

(01:21:57)

Yes, definitely. Okay. And then in the OTPS, what is the reason for is it the same issue of... That decrease is that also because of the funding going away or is that a different category of funding? That is the lion's share of it, right? The... Okay,

(01:22:17)

that is... Yeah.

(01:22:19)

Okay. And then in terms of the preliminary plan changes, I know that in FY26 for new needs it pretty much went up from 603 to 1.3 and then other adjustments also increased. And so I know in your testimony you have outlined funding for the census to address that. So is that most of the lion's share of where the new needs is going towards?

(01:22:54)

Yes, it is $716,000 headcount for the census. $760,000. $716,000. So... $716,000. Okay. And then what about the rest?

(01:23:05)

So we received $300,000 in personnel dollars to activate dormant headcount

(01:23:11)

for city map changes. Dormant headcount for I am sorry... to for city map changes. So we are expected to take on address assignments by January of next year and the city map over the next two following years from the borough presidents. So we are working on establishing the plan for that with this early investment.

(01:23:31)

Okay, perfect. And then just in terms of the neighborhood planning, I know the neighborhood studies and subsequent rezonings and plans have a large economic impact by facilitating housing development and driving activity for small businesses and increasing the tax base. Have you done an... have you evaluated the economic benefit that a fully staffed department would have on your ability to undertake a greater number of these plans because I know that it is going to increase. So, you know, we think these plans

(01:24:04)

are tremendously impactful in different neighborhoods that we work in, both in adding both construction jobs and long-term jobs and then homes for people during this significant housing crisis. We have not done a full economic impact, but we have looked to see the outcomes of our work both in terms of jobs and housing. And, you know, we look forward to speaking to all CMs.

(01:24:29)

Okay. So, you have done a full impact study on it. We have looked at the outcomes of

(01:24:35)

past zonings. Correct.

(01:24:37)

Okay. And can you share what some of those would be? You repeat the question. Can you share what some of those would be?

(01:24:43)

I do not have that information with you. I would have to get back to you.

(01:24:46)

Okay. Perfect. And then what have been some of the impacts on city revenue from past rezonings like East New York or Inwood?

(01:24:55)

We at City Planning have not done an analysis of I assume you are talking about tax revenue. We have not done that type of analysis.

(01:25:06)

All right. Great. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

(01:25:09)

Thank you. We will hear next from CM Felder, followed by Majority Leader Abreu, then CM Cabán.

(01:25:17)

Thank you.

(01:25:21)

I first want to address the comment before I start. Congratulations. Thank you. And good luck. You know that you are only going to get complaints from everyone including us. So at least today you are not getting any complaints. Yeah. That is the nature. Your colleague had mentioned something about the voters of New York with the charter commission and I just want to comment on that. I think, and I am not looking for an answer because the thing is going to go off and we will not have time to debate it, but historically, first of all the way the questions are asked that is how the answers are given and that is not my creation. That is a general statement and that is how the charter questions go, you know, since I could remember. Depending on how the questions are asked that is whether they get approved or not. So I do not believe that referring to the voters of New York approving the charter, and I have deep respect for the voters of New York, but I would be willing to bet that if somebody spent time with the voters explaining in detail what they voted for, they would tell you that they had no understanding of what it meant. Period. So that is that.

Second, in terms of the comments that you made about reaching out to the community through the community board and the borough president, again, deepest respect for some of the community boards. I am not speaking for my colleagues. I am speaking for my own district. I have community boards that are very active and really do the job well. And clearly I think your reference would have been accurate. And I have others that the time you spent with those community boards in those neighborhoods, I do not know what they told you, but they have no idea what they are talking about. Period. So I do not think that you would really get a good picture about what is going on and what I would like to know, you know, here is the question. All sorts of things go into the property building. The thing that I do not hear is about the play area for the children that should be something that is part of the requirement just like you do anything else unless there is... I do not know what to tell you. To me, you know, I think it is critical and I would just say is that under federal law, I keep on looking at the clock because depending on if I am behaving or not, they make it go quicker when I am talking or slower.

So no, I just want to tell you that in the City of New York, I dare say, and this is nothing to do with this administration, but because you just started, in the City of New York, there are only two playgrounds in the entire city that accommodate disabled and special needs children. Every other playground accommodates them by having one red or orange swing. That is how they are accommodated. It is embarrassing and outrageous. And I dare criticize it because I have a grandchild with a disability. I had no idea until he was born what that meant. And the one is in Queens and one is in Felder's district, believe it or not. I would just ask and beg that that be taken into consideration among your many priorities. Thank you, CM Felder.

(01:30:30)

Thank you, CM. And absolutely you have our commitment to giving attention to that.

(01:30:36)

Next we are going to hear from Majority Leader Abreu followed by Cabán and Thomas-Henry.

(01:30:41)

Thank you Chair Riley. Last year DCP announced it was pursuing an initiative dubbed City of Yes for families with potential citywide zoning reforms to support uses like childcare facilities that help families stay in New York City. Is DCP still working on this initiative?

(01:30:58)

I think so much of our work is centered around making sure New York City is a great place for families that they can stay, they can grow and flourish here. We are doing so much work across the board to make sure that this is the case. We have seen in our neighborhood plans the delivery of parks improvements, of schools, of safer streets. These are really important elements in making good neighborhoods. Is the City pursuing this initiative dubbed City of Yes for families?

(01:31:31)

We are pursuing many initiatives, maybe not under a specific... But this specific initiative that was dubbed City of Yes for families in the past administration, is this administration...

(01:31:43)

taking on that specific initiative? We are taking on many initiatives under the umbrella of making sure New York City is a great place for families. Is there anything currently in place with respect to potential citywide zoning reforms to support uses like childcare facilities? Well, I think we have all seen and heard that it is a top priority for this mayor. And we are seeing really...

(01:32:11)

exciting action to make sure daycare is much more affordable for New Yorkers. It does not sound like to me that there is a current pursuit of this City of Yes for families as was envisioned by the prior administration. Is that fair to say?

(01:32:25)

Because you are not committing to whether or not you are following this specific initiative. It is okay if you are not.

(01:32:30)

We are following many of the initiatives that were certainly developing and developed under City of Yes for Families. It will probably come under perhaps different branding or come under other initiatives, but we are 1,000% committed to making sure that New York City is a great place to grow families.

(01:32:50)

I understand there is a commitment to the issue. But it does not sound there is something specific in the works right now.

(01:32:56)

Can I just please... Can I just add whether it is being called City of Yes for Family. I think as the executive director shared the components are in play, right? Making sure there are safer streets, making sure that we are taking into account school seats, all of the things that are needed to support thriving families, as well as making sure that we are facilitating access to the types of facilities that families need. I think it may not be called that same umbrella, but the components are a priority and...

(01:33:22)

hopefully will be part of future plans.

(01:33:24)

Absolutely. Okay. Right. Great. Regarding City of Yes implementation, the universal affordability preference from City of Yes created zoning incentives for affordable housing in all high density districts R six or higher. Is DCP monitoring the implementation and are developers using the UAP as expected? Yes, we are very excited to see that UAP is being taken up. We are seeing over 150 applications for UAP. So, that is wonderful. We are collecting more and more data working with DOB to be able to share out some more information about how UAP... That is great and 150 UAP applications...

(01:34:02)

across how many sites do you have that information? I do not have that specific number but we can get back to... If you can share that with this...

(01:34:08)

committee that would be great and my last question is on development on houses of worship. City of Yes implemented several zoning changes intended to make it easier for houses of...

(01:34:16)

worship to develop affordable housing. Are we seeing an increase in development of faith-based organization sites as a result of the City of Yes...

(01:34:23)

reforms? Let me get back to you with specifics on sites and applications. Sounds good. If you could just get that information to the chair, that would be great. Yes. Thank you. Thank you, Council...

(01:34:35)

Member.

(01:34:36)

Thank you, Majority Leader. CM Cabán.

(01:34:41)

Thank you very much. So, I want to start with asking about neighborhood plans. Obviously, they play a significant role in securing housing potential and neighborhood investment. What is the process DCP takes to make sure that the planning efforts are equitably distributed across the city?

(01:35:03)

We are taking a hard look across the city for opportunities for neighborhood planning. I think a top priority... Like mine, we have got a neighborhood plan. Well, thank you actually. Thank you very much, CM, for your community work on looking at Astoria and the surroundings. Well, thanks to our land use division because they did that. They saved you guys a lot of money by doing that in house. So... Well, it is, you know, certainly working, getting recommendations directly and work from CM is hugely important to us and certainly very motivating. When we are looking at opportunities across the city, we are certainly keeping our eye on areas that have historically underdelivered. So that is also one of our motivating factors.

(01:35:45)

Yeah. I mean I understand that that is a motivating factor, but then there is the alternate issue of like for example, you have a district like mine or a district like CM Won's where we are doing our fair share and housing development is exploding but it is not happening in a way that really is grounded and rooted in community. And so while we will, you know, there are plenty of us who will be like yeah some of these other districts need to do their fair share. While we are trying to do the right thing, we want to make sure that the administration has a plan for investing in our neighborhoods so that these rezonings are sort of community driven. So, so I guess that leads into my next question of like there is this issue where if there is an appetite for upzoning like there is in my district but only if there is...

(01:36:36)

funding for infrastructure, how are you considering that? Yeah. So, I think CM, to your point, we want to make sure we are taking a holistic approach. And so, while there is a focus on communities that have not delivered to the City's housing supply in the past, a community such as yours, we also want to make sure that we are working in partnership with you for communities where people may be experiencing displacement, development pressures, and making sure that we are taking a more holistic planning approach that also brings in the capital needs and all of the other components that come with a neighborhood plan. I think moving forward, right, it is sort of a two-fold approach. Looking at where there is need, social economic characteristics, all of the things that we know impact neighborhoods, as well as having a really important focus on communities that have not contributed in the past.

(01:37:22)

Well, we are ready. And so, can I get a commitment from you guys to at least follow up with me on our district plan? Something that I would really like to see done. We had a lot of community engagement on it. And some of the areas do also involve manufacturing. So, I want to ask about manufacturing districts in general that like there are rezonings in manufacturing districts that are not prepared for residential. How does DCP plan for the infrastructure improvements needed in those areas?

(01:37:57)

I heard two questions or... No, just... Well, okay. So there is the added challenge of where we are looking to rezone, right? In districts that have been heavily manufactured, but historically heavily manufactured. Like for example, in Astoria, we actually did, I think it was 2012, 2014, a rezoning of what was mostly manufacturing into residential except there has not been any building. But with the surrounding area also there are things that need to be done to make it liveable as residential zoning. So whether it is there or in other places when you are looking at those particular types of rezoning where you have manufacturing districts that are not prepared for residential necessarily, how do you plan for the infrastructure improvements in those areas when you are moving from manufacturing to residential?

(01:38:54)

Thank you, CM. With any major neighborhood plan, including rezoning from manufacturing to allow for residential, we take a hard look at the potential effects and the services and the infrastructure so that we are prepared to and we are making sure that the area is ready for residents. With respect... What does that look like? Like... In many cases, it is an environmental review. The ULURP that we have seen for transitioning manufacturing areas to deliver residential have had a very complete environmental review where we are looking at categories across the board. Okay. And then what do you do once those environmental reviews are done? Like what are some of the things that you are investing in and actually doing in those scenarios?

(01:39:39)

Well, there may be mitigations that are required in that environmental review. And mitigations are required to be carried out. And with respect to industrial areas, not all industrial area is the same, right? So there are many areas that may be more ready and ripe for non-industrial uses. The City Council directed us at City Planning to work with our city agencies to develop a strategic plan, a policy plan for our industrial areas. And we are very pleased to report that this past December, we issued the City's first strategic plan for industrial for the industrial sector, the industrial plan as you all know. And one of the strategies laid out in the industrial plan is looking at areas and classifying them whether they should remain core and primary for manufacturing or industrial or secondary or even you know areas that may be ready and more ready for non-industrial uses. So...

(01:40:40)

Chair can I ask one more followup? So, and I also appreciate that there is a need to maintain and preserve some of our manufacturing areas and shout out to CM Gutiérrez who I think has done just like a lot of work on that front. But I just in addition to environmental review I understand that districts are different. I just...

(01:41:00)

would love to know what some of the other concrete things that you all are looking at or investing in when making those changes. So there is the environmental review. Are you doing street safety? Like what else is happening? May I add one thing before the commissioner? I was remiss to say that when we are doing holistic neighborhood planning that is ushering in, you know, major new uses, you know, moving a manufacturing to housing, let us say. You know, it is not just mitigations we are looking at. We do extensive and collaborative discussions with the community, with the stakeholders, and with the electeds to see what the needs are in these neighborhoods. So, there are a number of commitments sometimes that come out of neighborhood plans and we see them carried out through POA, which is tracked very closely by the City of New York. Thank you. Thank you, Chair.

(01:41:50)

Thank you, CM Cabán. CM Thomas-Henry.

(01:41:53)

Thank you. Chair, I do want to echo CM Felder's comment about playgrounds. I had a real life instance in my district with Willets Point. I took a tour a couple of months ago and asked that very question. It was 880 units and no outdoor space for kids. And I am happy to say when I went back around, they did designate an area outdoor specifically to build a playground. So, I think this is something very important when we are thinking about building more units that are supposed to be family-friendly to make sure that there is outdoor space for those families. Kind of piggybacking off CM Cabán's question, when we do these planning, how does transportation come into play? And I would, you probably do not have it now, but I would be interested in knowing the transportation plan for Willets Point. Currently, with the new bus redesign, there was a new bus route that was placed there, but the only accessible the only train station is the number seven line, which on a good day is terrible, and it is not ADA accessible. So curious to know how transportation comes in in general with these neighborhood plans, but also if you guys could get back to me...

(01:43:03)

specifically with Willets, what the transportation plan is.

(01:43:08)

Sure. Transportation and access is key when we are planning anything in New York. We have a transportation division at the Department of City Planning and overall our agency. We work very closely with the City's DOT and with MTA. You know we are just generally a transit oriented development city. We should be more so. We should be taking all opportunities to leverage this incredible asset. It is really unparalleled maybe in the world. We have an incredible transit system. It is not just subways, of course, it is bus and other modes of moving around. With every neighborhood plan, we make sure that there is good transit or improved transit so that we are maximizing our, we are leveraging transit and neighborhood planning to help each other.

(01:44:04)

And who can I follow up with for the Willets Point plan? Exactly. Okay. My last question is last year a former JFK Hilton hotel in Queens was converted to over 300 units of affordable housing. As hotels seem to become the preference to house individuals, is there a long-term plan to do more conversions like this into affordable permanent housing?

(01:44:31)

We look to the property owners and operators. There is not a plan per se from our side to see more of those conversions. As someone who lives near airport, I would and a lot of those hotels have been converted. So if there is

(01:44:51)

something that land use could look at that would be great.

(01:44:58)

Thank you, Council member. I just wanted to touch on the racial equity reports. So under the leadership of Public Advocate Williams and then Committee on Land Use Chair Salamanca, this Council passed legislation requiring developers to conduct racial equity reports for large scale developments. Chair Commissioner, I know how important this is to you. A lot of times when we are doing these large rezonings, displacement is a word that tends to be put out there. Even when I am thinking about my neighborhood planning, I do not want anyone to be displaced. So as we are doing these large plans, I just have a question. How does DCP continue to work with developers to ensure projects do not negatively affect minority communities?

(01:45:48)

Sure. So thank you for your question. And yes, this is obviously very important to me. I know that the racial equity reports went in effect in 2022. Since then they have been used as a tool to help reach deliberation as applications go past certification. I know for the CPC and the City Council, for instance, they have been used to help reevaluate AMI levels in certain projects. And so we certainly want to make sure that that is a tool that we continue to use moving forward and strengthen.

(01:46:19)

Back to the housing strategy as you guys are developing this. It is no secret housing projects face multi-year delays in receiving financial subsidies through HPD. Does DCP advocate for quicker closing on city-led development priorities? And if so, how do you do so?

(01:46:38)

So obviously there is a need to address the affordable housing crisis with the urgency New Yorkers deserve. I think on our end, we shared in this hearing some of the efforts that we have underway to at least help environmental review move along more quickly and some of the processes that we control. We are certainly regularly in conversations with our colleagues at HPD to do whatever we can to support them as they work towards closing on projects.

(01:47:02)

Okay. Because usually, typically after we close out of our hearings, it has taken years for developers even to get the shovel in the ground. So I know everyone is thinking about units units units we have to produce, but we also have to advocate for how long it takes for developers to actually build. So just wanted to put that out there on the record, Commissioner.

(01:47:22)

And I know it has been mentioned the speed task force that has been launched and so there are multiple agencies that have a role in the affordable housing pipeline. Everyone is at the table to figure out how we can do this more quickly.

(01:47:34)

Thank you. Fair housing framework. So Local Law 167 of 2023, the fair housing framework is for the first time requiring a citywide analysis of housing needs and housing production targets for each community district to be released in October of 2026. In what capacity has DCP worked alongside HPD on this plan so far?

(01:47:59)

So I know the team at DCP has been hard at work as well as our colleagues across the City to develop such a comprehensive fair housing framework with to your point targets across districts. And so I can certainly perhaps you could lend more on the collaboration with HPD. We work very closely with HPD on a number of things and certainly on this framework. And this is of course a direct result of the City Council legislation and we are really excited to use this framework to help guide our work moving forward.

(01:48:33)

Does DCP have an adequate budget line for this framework? Yes, and I would just add fair housing

(01:48:40)

is not ancillary to the work. It is core business and so staff across the organization will be part of

(01:48:46)

shaping this work. Does DCP intend to use the community district targets as part of its evaluation of where to undertake neighborhood rezonings? I think that should inform the work that we do. Absolutely. Part of the fair housing goals

(01:49:01)

are to address the patterns of segregation, make sure that we are working to connect people to high opportunity communities, addressing displacement, all of that should inform how we pursue neighborhood rezonings and

(01:49:11)

planning efforts. To piggyback off of Chair Cabán, Chair Louis wanted me to ask this specifically. Within her district, they are looking forward in moving forward with a neighborhood rezoning plan, but similar to my neighborhood rezoning, it is not receiving as much attention as possible from DCP. Can you please commit to moving forward with that attention and resources for the neighborhood plan in CM Cabán and Chair Louis and CM Joseph's district. So it is exciting to me that there are a number of Council members who are looking to proactively plan for their communities.

(01:49:46)

Means you have a lot of work to do. Yes. And so as noted obviously, just got here certainly assessing where we will go but happy to get out to everyone's district and really understand what the issues are so we can make sure to prioritize that in our early days.

(01:50:04)

Thank you, Commissioner. I just have two more questions. This is from CM Brooks-Powers. She wanted me to ask these two questions on her behalf. As a part of the City of Yes for Housing Opportunity, DCP has begun approving accessory dwelling units. By law, ADUs in the basement, cellars or backyards are not permitted if they are located in coastal and flood plain areas. How is DCP coordinating with DEP to ensure that all new ADU construction is environmentally feasible and safe for residents and their neighborhoods? Sure. I can share more about the criteria. Sure. As I mentioned earlier there we have been hard at work implementing very strict rules for safety of ADUs. And this is coming out after the City of Yes legislation legalized ADUs. We have to make sure that all these are safe. So we work we have worked very closely with the agencies moving forward. DOB are looking very carefully at the applications for each individual ADU. As DCP looks to support the City's effort to expand affordable housing, how is the agency considering transportation access or lack thereof as a factor in new zoning amendments? Oh, transit is so key. We are a

(01:51:33)

transit-oriented city. We should be even more so. I think it is really incumbent upon all of us to look for opportunities that leverage our incredible transit across the City. It is not just subway. It is also bus and bike and all modes of transit. Transit provides great places to locate homes, access to jobs, growth of institutions, you name it. So access to transit is a very important motivator in our neighborhood planning.

(01:52:10)

Okay. Well, thank you so much for your testimony today. Thank you for answering our questions. Commissioner, looking forward to working with you. Thank you so much to the DCP team. And we will be in touch. You are excused from the panel.

(01:52:22)

Thank you very much, Council members.

(01:52:23)

Thank you.