City of Yes Economic Opportunity; Brief Synopsis and Thoughts
This part of the 3-part City of Yes Proposal plan has already been passed by the Council and Mayor. This information is available at: https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/plans/city-of-yes/city-of-yes-economic-opportunity.page. My source is the DCP’s City of Yes for Economic Opportunity Info Session PPT presented on July 11, 2023. Further information can be obtained by emailing: [email protected].
Changes:
1. Enable more businesses to locate in ground floor storefronts. Examples given are dance studios and clothing rental shops.
2. Remove arbitrary barriers to appropriate uses on commercial streets (inconsistent zoning).
3. Expand opportunities for small scale clean production. Examples given are bakeries, sewing, and jewelry making in spaces that rely on retail foot traffic or prefer to locate near customers.
4. Allow for upper floor commercial activity. Allow commercial uses above the ground floor of a residential building in all commercial districts.
5. Create new job intensive zoning districts for future. Create a range of new job intensive zoning
districts to allow for modern loft style buildings by permitting higher densities, more flexibility on permitted building form, and right sized parking and loading requirements.
6. Ensure life science facilities can expand. Clarify the definition of a laboratory to allow any life science business to occupy office space if it can meet environmental standards that protect neighbors. Some laboratories utilize radioactive materials or toxic materials. The city MUST enforce these standards.
7. Provide bulk relief for new buildings such as a film studio. Allow businesses to appeal to the City Planning Commission to seek limited bulk relief to construct new buildings that exceed current setback and yard requirements.
8. Support nightlife with common sense dancing and live entertainment rules. For businesses with maximum occupancy under 200 people, dancing, comedy, and musical acts with posted show times or cover charges would no longer be prohibited by current zoning. Currently venues can have live music but cannot have dancing. Some of our local bar/restaurants have already caused issues in the community, with fights and drunk patrons spilling out into the residential streets. Allowing dancing will attract more people and change the character of these places.
9. Simplify rules so amusements & experiential businesses can flourish. Allow indoor amusements up to
10,000 SF in neighborhood commercial districts (C1/C2) and at a larger scale in more dense commercial areas. I enjoy going to Coney Island and arcades. I am concerned about the noise and patrons coming into local neighborhood districts. This may cause more problems than it solves.
10. Potentially enable state licensure of casinos. Casinos represent a great economic opportunity for NYC. The Mayor looks forward to working with the Council with the State's process. Ah, here we have it.
To allow the state to decide on casino licenses in our boroughs with no city or local say in the matter, and is this any wonder? No one wants a casino in their borough. Not Coney Island, or Queens, or certainly not Ferry Point Park on park land. We do not need a casino. We are close to several casinos already. Why do we need another one? Because this is a money grab by the state, which gets revenue from gambling.
11. Clarify rules to enable indoor uses, such as urban agriculture (including cannabis cultivation if licensed by the state). Pot farms in apartments. Who would have ever thought it would come to this?
12. Ease pathways to reactivate vacant storefronts in Residence Districts. Self-explanatory.
13. Create process for new corner stores in residential areas. Provided the space is located within 100 feet of an intersection, or within a Large Scale Development.
14. Increase allowances for home occupations. Relax size limitations on home occupations and expand the types of occupations allowed, while maintaining noise/environmental rules, limits on signage,
and restrictions on selling items not produced on site. Examples are hair salons/barbers and music schools. This has already been occurring since the covid pandemic, this would allow it through zoning changes.
15. Introduce corridor design rules that ensure buildings contribute to surroundings…. commercial ground floor design requirements that with greater pedestrian activity and more flexible in auto oriented corridors. The city is “encouraging” us to leave our cars and use mass transit, enabling these “pedestrian areas” and through congestion pricing, which is simply a revenue stream for the city. They create these traffic obstacles and then charge for “congestion.” Everyday, literally, there is someone getting stabbed, shot, or pushed onto the subway tracks. Let them clean up the subways before they force us to give up on cars and use mass transit.
16. Clarify small scale wholesale &storage rules to facilitate safe and sustainable deliveries.
The idea is to decrease difficulty in deliveries far from the businesses they serve.
17. Simplify and modernize use definitions to clarify where businesses can locate.
18. Modernize loading dock rules to allow buildings to adapt over time. Self-explanatory.
As I said at the beginning, this has already passed. There are several “Easter eggs” hidden in this proposal, which will cause issues down the road.
Next time will be Metro North development and a summary. Thank you for reading.
This part of the 3-part City of Yes Proposal plan has already been passed by the Council and Mayor. This information is available at: https://www.nyc.gov/site/planning/plans/city-of-yes/city-of-yes-economic-opportunity.page. My source is the DCP’s City of Yes for Economic Opportunity Info Session PPT presented on July 11, 2023. Further information can be obtained by emailing: [email protected].
Changes:
1. Enable more businesses to locate in ground floor storefronts. Examples given are dance studios and clothing rental shops.
2. Remove arbitrary barriers to appropriate uses on commercial streets (inconsistent zoning).
3. Expand opportunities for small scale clean production. Examples given are bakeries, sewing, and jewelry making in spaces that rely on retail foot traffic or prefer to locate near customers.
4. Allow for upper floor commercial activity. Allow commercial uses above the ground floor of a residential building in all commercial districts.
5. Create new job intensive zoning districts for future. Create a range of new job intensive zoning
districts to allow for modern loft style buildings by permitting higher densities, more flexibility on permitted building form, and right sized parking and loading requirements.
6. Ensure life science facilities can expand. Clarify the definition of a laboratory to allow any life science business to occupy office space if it can meet environmental standards that protect neighbors. Some laboratories utilize radioactive materials or toxic materials. The city MUST enforce these standards.
7. Provide bulk relief for new buildings such as a film studio. Allow businesses to appeal to the City Planning Commission to seek limited bulk relief to construct new buildings that exceed current setback and yard requirements.
8. Support nightlife with common sense dancing and live entertainment rules. For businesses with maximum occupancy under 200 people, dancing, comedy, and musical acts with posted show times or cover charges would no longer be prohibited by current zoning. Currently venues can have live music but cannot have dancing. Some of our local bar/restaurants have already caused issues in the community, with fights and drunk patrons spilling out into the residential streets. Allowing dancing will attract more people and change the character of these places.
9. Simplify rules so amusements & experiential businesses can flourish. Allow indoor amusements up to
10,000 SF in neighborhood commercial districts (C1/C2) and at a larger scale in more dense commercial areas. I enjoy going to Coney Island and arcades. I am concerned about the noise and patrons coming into local neighborhood districts. This may cause more problems than it solves.
10. Potentially enable state licensure of casinos. Casinos represent a great economic opportunity for NYC. The Mayor looks forward to working with the Council with the State's process. Ah, here we have it.
To allow the state to decide on casino licenses in our boroughs with no city or local say in the matter, and is this any wonder? No one wants a casino in their borough. Not Coney Island, or Queens, or certainly not Ferry Point Park on park land. We do not need a casino. We are close to several casinos already. Why do we need another one? Because this is a money grab by the state, which gets revenue from gambling.
11. Clarify rules to enable indoor uses, such as urban agriculture (including cannabis cultivation if licensed by the state). Pot farms in apartments. Who would have ever thought it would come to this?
12. Ease pathways to reactivate vacant storefronts in Residence Districts. Self-explanatory.
13. Create process for new corner stores in residential areas. Provided the space is located within 100 feet of an intersection, or within a Large Scale Development.
14. Increase allowances for home occupations. Relax size limitations on home occupations and expand the types of occupations allowed, while maintaining noise/environmental rules, limits on signage,
and restrictions on selling items not produced on site. Examples are hair salons/barbers and music schools. This has already been occurring since the covid pandemic, this would allow it through zoning changes.
15. Introduce corridor design rules that ensure buildings contribute to surroundings…. commercial ground floor design requirements that with greater pedestrian activity and more flexible in auto oriented corridors. The city is “encouraging” us to leave our cars and use mass transit, enabling these “pedestrian areas” and through congestion pricing, which is simply a revenue stream for the city. They create these traffic obstacles and then charge for “congestion.” Everyday, literally, there is someone getting stabbed, shot, or pushed onto the subway tracks. Let them clean up the subways before they force us to give up on cars and use mass transit.
16. Clarify small scale wholesale &storage rules to facilitate safe and sustainable deliveries.
The idea is to decrease difficulty in deliveries far from the businesses they serve.
17. Simplify and modernize use definitions to clarify where businesses can locate.
18. Modernize loading dock rules to allow buildings to adapt over time. Self-explanatory.
As I said at the beginning, this has already passed. There are several “Easter eggs” hidden in this proposal, which will cause issues down the road.
Next time will be Metro North development and a summary. Thank you for reading.