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Preface
These
criteria are intended to guide the siting of city
facilities, as provided by Section 203 of the
City Charter. The fair distribution of city facilities
will depend on balancing a number of factors,
such as community needs for services, efficient
and cost effective delivery of those services,
effects on community stability and revitalization,
and broad geographic distribution of facilities.
Furthermore, these factors can be weighed more
effectively, and siting decisions can be accepted
more readily, when communities have been meaningfully
informed and consulted early in the siting process.
The intent of these guidelines is to improve,
not to obstruct, the process of siting facilities.
Under the provisions of Section 204 of the Charter,
the Mayor will prepare an annual Statement of
Needs in accordance with these criteria. The Statement
of Needs will provide early notice of facility
proposals to Borough Presidents, Community Boards,
and the public at large. It will be accompanied
by a map and text indicating the location and
current use of all city properties and of state
and federal facilities, as designated by the Charter.
This will allow the public and city agencies to
assess the existing distribution of facilities
and analyze factors of compatibility and concentration.
Section 204 also provides procedures for public
review and comment on the Statement of Needs,
permits Borough Presidents to propose locations
for city facilities, and requires city agencies
to consider the statements that ensue from that
review. Those provisions, together with these
criteria, should provide a more open and systematic
process for the consideration of facility sites.
The criteria will have several applications in
the Section 204 proceedings. The Mayor and city
agencies will use them in formulating plans for
facilities. Community Boards will refer to them
in commenting on the Statement of Needs, and Borough
Presidents will employ them in recommending specific
sites for facilities. The City Planning Commission
will consider them in acting on site selection
and acquisition proposals subject to the Uniform
Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP) and in the review
of city office sites pursuant to Section 195 of
the Charter. Sponsoring agencies will also observe
them in actions that do not proceed through ULURP[
such as city contracts, facility reductions, and
closings. Although recognizing that non-city agencies
are not subject to these criteria, the Commission
encourages all such agencies to consider the factors
identified in these criteria when they are siting
facilities in this city.
Since the principles and procedures contained
in these guidelines are new and untested, it is
important to monitor and evaluate their effects.
The Department of City Planning will undertake
this evaluation and report its findings to the
Commission and the Mayor within twenty-four months
of adoption and periodically thereafter.
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