Wilson asks about access agreements and arbitration for scaffolding
Wilson asks whether DOB can address property access disputes that keep scaffolding up through arbitration or legislation; Tigani says such disputes are largely governed by state law Section 881 in civil court, and that DOB has clarified netting alternatives and will finalize a netting rule later this year, with arbitration questions remaining at the state level.
Thank you again.
Another question about scaffolding.
Sorry, I'm obsessed with scaffolding.
Scaffolding seems to be the topic du jour.
Another reason that I've heard, and I can think of a few specific examples of prolonged erection of scaffolding has to do with disputes over access agreements between properties.
Are there, you know,
Are there ways that the department is thinking about some procedural or legislative or some kind of change that
through something like arbitration, that when there are disputes between properties that we're trying to avoid going to drawn-out legal battles that result with
maybe work being completed or not starting yet and keeping the scaffolding up for a sustained period of time that it doesn't.
Need to be.
So there is a section of state law 881 and most of these conversations are governed in civil in state civil court where
where there were recently in the last couple of years some changes to try to alleviate pressure and move these further along.
We have heard other suggestions about this but it largely is outside of the OB code lives in civil litigation and largely at the state legislative level.
The other thing that we did as part of the Shed reform work is also clarify different ways that people can use netting as a way of still meeting their pedestrian protection requirements
that may not include staging structural elements on an adjacent property.
So it's very often given how congested and tight the city is that access is needed, but we are trying to see if there are other netting, other high grade.
tight netting that can be used to be used in place of sheds, not only to start the work, but keep the work going and complete it.
So between that and I think that the arbitration or actions at the state level that
We're still open to hearing ideas of how the agency can play a productive role.
There's nothing for the new.
That netting rule is something that we're working on toward the end of this year.
And we've already, in the most recent years, put out clarifications on related questions.
So you think legislative changes specifically around arbitration would have to be legislated at the state level?
I think most recent discussions have been state-level conversations about Section 881.
But when it comes to providing information about what's necessary, for instance, we work on a site safety plan that is required and necessary.
We make sure that's available to the owner and the people doing the work so that when they have those conversations with the adjacent neighbor, they can have substantive conversations and hopefully resolve those discussions more quickly.
Well, I just hope that as we're measuring these new policy changes and we can have an open dialogue about reports about how these,
how it's working for the scaffolding timelines.
And I hope you can keep this committee informed about how you're tracking and, you know, what's working and not working.
Yes, sir.
All right, thank you so much, Councilmember Wilson.