No Grand Plan for NYC Development

The city’s piecemeal development is common, set by a “build first and worry about infrastructure later” mentality.
No Grand Plan for NYC Development
Tara MacIsaac
10/6/2011
Updated:
10/1/2015

<a><img src="https://www.theepochtimes.com/assets/uploads/2015/09/MacIsaac_100611_Citanning.jpg" alt="Richard W. Eaddy (R), vice chairman of the City Planning Commission, and Brian Cook (L), director of land use and planning for the Manhattan borough president's office, discuss community-based planning on a panel at The New School's Center for New York City Affairs on Thursday. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)" title="Richard W. Eaddy (R), vice chairman of the City Planning Commission, and Brian Cook (L), director of land use and planning for the Manhattan borough president's office, discuss community-based planning on a panel at The New School's Center for New York City Affairs on Thursday. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)" width="225" class="size-medium wp-image-1796769"/></a>
Richard W. Eaddy (R), vice chairman of the City Planning Commission, and Brian Cook (L), director of land use and planning for the Manhattan borough president's office, discuss community-based planning on a panel at The New School's Center for New York City Affairs on Thursday. (Tara MacIsaac/The Epoch Times)

NEW YORK—The city’s piecemeal development is common, set by a “build first and worry about infrastructure later” mentality. Concentrated areas such as Williamsburg-Greenpoint in Brooklyn are experiencing a building boom, but major development projects of this type are rather disconnected from their surroundings and the big picture is missing from the city’s development plans, says Paul Graziano, a consultant who specializes in land use and city planning.

This is not the best course of action, according to Graziano. Cities across the nation are increasingly building according to a larger blueprint, he noted, and New York must get on track, as Seattle and even Houston, which is notoriously resistant to zoning and other city planning controls, have done.

“Too often we end up going to each individual neighborhood and saying [that] this one neighborhood is the entire city’s preservation project or the entire city’s development project,” said Brian Cook, director of land use and planning for the Manhattan borough president’s office, at a panel discussion titled “Community-Based Planning: The Future of Development in New York,” hosted by the Center for New York City Affairs at The New School on Thursday.

“We need that larger thought, that larger perspective. [We need] to put each development plan into that larger perspective,” Cook asserted.

Vice Chairman of the City Planning Commission Richard W. Eaddy disagreed, saying the process in New York is the right way to go. “We need to address market forces for development when they occur, where they occur, in response to the needs of residents and neighborhoods,” he said. “I think we need to have a process that’s responsive, that’s flexible, that’s evolving as New York evolves.”

According to Graziano, a master plan is working just fine in New Jersey, one of the few states where it is mandatory to have one. The master plan has to be re-evaluated every seven years, which provides enough flexibility, he said.

Cook pointed out that New York City’s 10-year capital plan is difficult to get through and overly bureaucratic. It says a lot without saying much, he noted. He suggested an easy-to-read plan with more community input.

Community Involvement

Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer has been advocating for city planners at every level of the community to gain a more comprehensive overall picture. When he took office, only one city planner was on staff. He hired 60.

Stringer wants to see city planners in community organizations, on community boards, and at the borough president’s office, as well as a Department of City Planning that communicates better with other agencies. The Departments of Transportation and Education are also important players, he says.

Stringer isn’t calling for more power to the city’s 52 community boards. He’s calling for more funding to give them the tools they need, so they can better advise the City Planning Commission. Community board budgets have not changed in the last nine years, falling far behind inflation, according to Stringer.

His office takes community board information and develops a bigger picture at the borough level. However, no borough is an island unto itself, Stringer noted. Even the island of Manhattan needs to have a plan that grooves with other boroughs.