Hankerson challenges late permit approvals as problematic

Okay, let me just state this disclaimer before I go into questioning.

I love parks, and I'm grateful for the work that you all do.

Given that it's only two of us here today, it gives me more time to ask more questions.

I do want to just ask a few questions and I'll turn it over to

Councilor Murano, and then I'll jump back in.

Just from your testimony.

You stated in your testimony, as such, we ask that people apply with as much lead time as possible to ensure they can ensure their desired dates.

And keep in mind that final permit approvals and insurance issuances are typically not issued until closer to the event date.

Do you not see that as problematic?

And if not, why not?

Thank you for the question, Council Member.

Thank you for this hearing.

We really appreciate your attention to this matter.

I think as a baseline, we always want to do the best we possibly can for the public.

And that means each person that submits an application has to have a wonderful experience.

That's our goal.

We have so many permit applications.

Last year we had over 24,000.

This year we're actually tracking slightly ahead of that.

I think we might get close to 25,000.

So we've got to do our best each time.

Sometimes we're going to do better than others, honestly.

And I think as part of that, I just want to highlight some of the work that my colleague, Ann McTiernan, is doing with the citywide special events.

When she started in this role, she sought feedback from as many different stakeholders as she could about the permit process.

And one of the things that she heard and that we heard as an agency is that applicants felt like they needed more time to apply for a permit.

And there wasn't enough time to apply for events that they wanted to plan.

So for an example, here we are in 2026.

A few years ago, if you wanted to apply for a permit in 2027, you couldn't do that until the second week of November.

What Ann did is she worked with our council's team and made a rule change so that now people can apply the Tuesday after Labor Day.

So really by about a little bit more than two months, extending the time that permit applications can be submitted to the agency.

So we do hear you.

I think our goal is to be able to get back to everybody as quickly as we can.

And in some cases, we're going to be able to do that.

In other cases, it's going to be a little bit tougher.

I think in the case of being able to allow the public to submit permit applications earlier, in theory, if someone were to submit

for an application in 2027 and they submitted on that Tuesday after Labor Day, they would be applying for a permit application up to 14 months in advance.

So in instances like that, that's on the extreme end, of course.

But the permit staff in each borough is going to focus on what's coming up sooner.

So they're still going to be focused on September, October, and so forth.

And then also, depending on the time of year, in the month.

of June and July, just those few weeks, we're roughly going to process probably close to 20% of our permits, maybe in like, you know, eight or so percent of the time.

So, you know, and it's going to depend how quickly we're able to respond.

But our goal is to be as responsive as possible to everyone who submits an application.