Chair Sanchez round 2: sidewalk sheds and public safety in the Bronx

So I won't go into too many of my own local issues, but I've been having probably weekly discussions with the Deputy Mayor of Community Safety, for which I'm very thankful.

One of the themes that is arising in this hotspot where we've had arson, open-air drug sales, like you name it, it just feels like a part of my community is something out of a movie, is sheds.

Sheds are a place where dangerous activity happens, where the community members do not feel safe.

And so a question for buildings, a question for you all is, what can I take back and what can communities dealing with sheds that attract negative activities, what can we take back to our communities in terms of how will these sheds be taken down?

What do we do to get them down?

So I think just coming out of this discussion is working with your team to get a list of all the addresses, start mapping out these sheds.

We can start doing the background research on each of these properties to understand what the source of the shed issue was.

Is it related to a facade inspection report, an individual issue?

And we've had success engaging with owners to figure out, is it something that we can do from the plan review permitting process?

Is there a...

something that they need or we can connect them with other resources, just start doing that case management to get those sheds down.

At the same time, our enforcement team will go out as soon as we have addresses to start looking and canvassing these sheds to see if there are any problems with the sheds or the repairs,

just to make sure they have the appropriate lighting, that there isn't any structural issues.

We'll do that in parallel.

So we'll evaluate, see if the sheds are...

Are not up to code, make sure that they are at least working properly and have the appropriate lighting, which hopefully helps with the public safety piece.

And then beyond that, we want to bring the sheds down.

So separate and apart from new rules that will go into place that now bring down the permitting process, permitting allowance for one year to 90 days, the new requirements for owners to represent to us through a licensed

professional, what they're doing to bring down that shed, that's citywide.

We will work as part of Bronx Plan to focus on these sheds particularly.

Thank you.

And do you anticipate that some of the changes that you are making described in the speed report described in, I always get it wrong, Thomas, I'm looking at a girl, Thomas, okay, I'm not going to remember the name of the report.

Thornton Tomasetti.

Thornton Tomasetti, thank you.

There you go.

That one.

That's sweet.

That report.

The beloved TT, yes.

The Get Shuts Down report, the technical report.

Some of the changes included...

you know, differential treatment for newer properties, the longer cycles between local law 11 inspections, things like that.

Do you anticipate those changes will help the Bronx in particular with respect to the number of sheds we have up?

I think parts of the Bronx where there is newer construction will see the benefit of the fact that our analysis showed that buildings, particularly in this situation, 40 years or newer,

if they have a safe report, can extend to 12 years before they have another full inspection using abbreviated visual inspections in between.

Parts of the borough where the older building stock exists, we are moving from five to six years because we can create a little bit more breathing room but still maintain that safety.

And then where there are campuses that require sheds to be erected, trying to reduce the radius of those sheds so that it's not completely consuming

the sidewalk and the areas of walkway, returns more space to people, and also is less cost for less shed to have to go up.

So, yes, I think different parts of the Bronx will see it impact them positively differently.

Thank you.