Chair Riley asks how community board recommendations influence CPC decisions

Councilmember Lewis had to leave, so I'm going to ask this question on behalf of her.

And then next, we're going to go into Councilmember Wong, who's here, and then Councilmember Brewer.

So given that the City Planning Commission rarely, if ever, recommends rejecting or modifying

a proposal based on concerns raised by community boards and the borough president, there is a significant concern that the perspective of the communities most directly affected by the land use decision may be disregarded.

What specific mechanism does the Department of City Planning have in place to ensure that community boards and the borough president's recommendations meaningfully influence the commission's decision?

And will the department commit to great transparency by clearly documenting how?

These recommendations are considered, addressed, and incorporated into final determinations, particularly when the Commission ultimately disagrees with the recommendation of these local bodies.

Thank you for the question.

So, as you know, the City Planning Commission is an independent commission.

Obviously, we are focused on making sure that we're meeting the needs of New Yorkers and obviously addressing the city's affordable housing crisis.

By the time an application reaches the City Planning Commission, it has gone through pretty extensive review at the borough president and community board level, as well as the department level for pre-certification.

As I mentioned earlier in this hearing, there's certainly lots of modifications we see on applications before they reach the CPC, but there still is the ability of the CPC to recommend and make modifications before approval.

Most of the vast majority of affordable housing that we're creating in the city, at least through zoning actions, is done in partnership with the city council.

And so we're certainly seeing that the projects that we are approving at the city CPC level are also being approved at the council level.

And to the extent that the council seeks modifications, right, they're coming back to the CPC for final scope determination.

And so I think that that exchange will continue as we start to see projects across the city, including in the fast-track districts.

We take every piece of testimony seriously.

We want to make sure that we're listening to community boards and borough presidents.

And our CPC commission reports typically will outline how we arrived at our decision based.

And all the varying factors.

Thank you.

Council Member Wong, followed by Brewer.