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Q&A

Chair Menin Questions DOT on Addressing Restaurant Owner Complaints

New York City Council · Apr 23, 2025 · starts 1:43:12 · 58 sec

Chair Julie Menin asks DOT how they plan to address the myriad of complaints raised by restaurant owners regarding the confusing and expensive application process.

Julie Menin

There are a myriad complaints.

Julie Menin

How do you recommend that the agency fix those complaints?

Julie Menin

Everything from the revocable consent portion to the excessive fees to the backlog to the delay to the issue around architectural drawings.

Julie Menin

I mean, we heard how are you proposing that you can fix all of these different issues?

Margaret Forgioni

Okay, so some of that comes back to a complicated process that comes back to both the local law and the city charter.

Margaret Forgioni

So I think there are discussions for us to have with the council on some of this.

Margaret Forgioni

Um but I think you know what we want to do is get through this first year or so and see how restaurants are doing once the program settles in a little bit and then take stock of where we are and um keep making improvements.

Margaret Forgioni

But but maybe Michelle will talk to you a little bit about some of the measures we have taken so far to make sure that the process is as smooth as possible.