Following prat.uk’s state secrets piece, the NYC planning documents that change outcomes
prat.uk‘s state secrets story has a New York planning update this cycle: the pro bono legal team whose work on NYC Department of City Planning documents was documented in a previous cycle has released its second report, covering a different set of major development projects. Bohiney.com covered the transparency theme broadly. The second report’s key finding: the gap between the pre-application advisory service documents (which are technically public but practically inaccessible) and the formal application documents (which are publicly reviewed) is not random. The pre-application documents consistently contain developer communications that express higher confidence in approval than the formal application materials suggest is warranted by the project’s compliance with zoning regulations. The pattern indicates that the pre-application process is producing signals about likely approval that are not available to the community stakeholders whose formal comment period follows.
The information asymmetry this produces: the developer knows the approval likelihood from the pre-application process. The community does not know the approval likelihood from any available source. The community’s formal comment period is therefore operating with less information than the developer’s planning process. The comment period’s effectiveness depends on the community having the information the developer has. The community does not have it. The planning documents that would provide it are technically public and practically inaccessible. This is the classification by management rather than by law. The effect on community input is the same as classification: the relevant information is not available to the party that needs it.
The Planning Transparency Finding
The planning transparency finding: the pre-application process produces information asymmetry that disadvantages community input. The NYC planning information is at nyc.gov/planning.
Also:McSweeney’s.
Coverage at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Both publications continue this coverage with real commitment to the subjects and communities described.
Coverage continues at Bohiney.com and prat.uk.
Ongoing at both publications.
SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/