The City of Yes for Housing Opportunity was a good example. It was explicitly designed to add a little housing in every community, but not the same amount in every community, to avoid changing their character. It was proportional, meaning dense areas like Midtown South would get more units than low-scale neighborhoods such as College Point, Whitestone, Bayside, Douglaston and Little Neck, all of which Paladino represents.
Wednesday, Oct. 8 at 10 a.m.: The City Planning Commission will meet to vote on the following land use applications: St. Raymond Demapping, MTA 125th and Lexington Rezoning, 1551 Broadway MiD Signage Text Amendment and SP, Barbey Building, 29th Street Towers, Fashion Tower, Furcraft Building, Lefcourt Clothing Center, 1720 Atlantic Avenue Rezoning, 699 - 703 Lexington Avenue Rezoning, Brooklyn CD 5 Walk to Park Site Selection/Acquisition, Queens CD 3 Walk to Park Site Selection/Acq., and 242 Seigel Street Bulk Authorization. The CPC will also hold public hearings on: Praise Tabernacle, NYCTA Tuskegee Airmen Way City Map Change, Coney Island Business Improvement District, and Herkimer-Williams.
The Council's message when it ignores the custom of member deference seems to be: See? We're not provincial, turf-protecting insiders! We act in the interest of the whole city! But we're talking about four instances in two decades, if not longer. The Council has considered thousands of land use applications in that time, and in 99.9 percent of them, the local member has decided the result. Make no mistake: Member deference is alive and well.
The extreme weather that fuelled astonishing blazes across Spain and Portugal last month was made 40 times more likely by climate breakdown, early analysis suggests. The deadly wildfires, which torched 500,000 hectares (1.2m acres) of the Iberian peninsula in a matter of weeks, were also 30% more intense than scientists would have expected in a world without climate change, according to researchers from the World Weather Attribution network.
Removing the Council from these processes would undermine accountability, silence local voices, and ultimately lead to worse outcomes for the very communities we all seek to serve.
"We are very pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with the previous landowner to have achieved such a positive outcome," said Gordon Clark, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust.
The bill would set a 90-day deadline for decisions on housing applications in urban areas and ease design review requirements, aimed to expedite land use.