1 2 CITY COUNCIL 3 CITY OF NEW YORK 4 -------------------------------x 5 THE TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES 6 of the 7 SUBCOMMITTEE ON PLANNING, 8 DISPOSITIONS And CONCESSIONS 9 -------------------------------x 10 December 17, 2007 11 Start: 1:40 p.m. Recess: 2:10 p.m. 12 City Hall 13 250 Broadway New York, New York 14 15 B E F O R E: 16 DANIEL GARODNICK Chairperson, 17 18 COUNCIL MEMBERS: Sara Gonzalez Inez Dickens 19 Vincent Ignizio 20 21 22 23 24 LEGAL-EASE COURT REPORTING SERVICES, INC. 17 Battery Place - Suite 1308 25 New York, New York 10004 (800) 756-3410 2 1 2 A P P E A R A N C E S 3 Carol Clark 4 Assistant Commissioner NYC Department of Housing Preservation 5 And Development 6 Ted Weinstein Director of Bronx Planning 7 NYC Department of Housing Preservation And Development 8 Lucille McEwen 9 President Harlem Congregations for Community Improvement 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 3 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Good 3 afternoon, everybody. Welcome to the Subcommittee of 4 Planning, Dispositions and Concessions, Subcommittee 5 of Land Use of the New York City Council. My name is 6 Dan Garodnick. I'm the Chair of the Subcommittee. 7 We've been joined by Council Members Inez Dickens, 8 Sara Gonzalez and Vincent Ignizio. We're going to 9 get right to it and get started with the hearing. 10 I'd like to ask representatives of 11 HPD to come to the table. We're going to start with 12 Land Use Nos 593 and 594 related items. The Longwood 13 Gardens, both in the district of Council Member 14 Maria del Carmen Arroyo. C080019 HAX and C080020 PQX 15 in Community Board 2 in the Bronx. So, welcome. If 16 you could just introduce yourselves, we'll get 17 started. 18 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CLARK: Good 19 afternoon, Council members. I'm Carol Clark, 20 Assistant Commissioner with HPD, and I'm joined 21 today by Ted Weinstein, who is the Director of Bronx 22 Planning. And Mr. Weinstein is going to offer the 23 testimony on Land Use Numbers 593 and 594. 24 MR. WEINSTEIN: Longwood Gardens is 25 going to be a 25-unit project to be built. The 4 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 actions are the usual disposition and UDAAP 3 designation. But in addition, this is currently 4 private property, and so there is an additional 5 action where the City first has to acquire it. The 6 background of that is that, that entire block front 7 back in 1990 was sold by the City through the 8 Partnership New Homes Program to the New York City 9 Housing Partnership for the purpose of building 10 small homes. The rest of that block front the homes 11 were built but this particular lot which is the end 12 of the block in the corner at that time was deemed 13 to be too close to the elevated train line, which 14 runs perpendicular to that block, and, therefore, 15 the federal funds which at that time were being used 16 could not be used to build a home on that corner. 17 All the years since then the lot has 18 been owned by the New York City Housing Partnership, 19 the HDFC, and at one point then they worked out an 20 arrangement with a developer to acquire the property 21 with the interest of building multi-family housing. 22 Since the original authorization was 23 through what we call the "accelerated UDAAP 24 process," that only authorizes construction of one- 25 to four-family homes, therefore there was not legal 5 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 authority for building a 25 unit. We would have to 3 do full ULURP. In order to do ULURP, the City has to 4 own the property, and so we first have to acquire 5 the property back in order to then dispose of it to 6 this developer. 7 These actions are being done 8 simultaneously, and that closing will be done at the 9 same time as well. The conveyance from the New York 10 City Housing Partnership to the City and then the 11 City to the designated developer. 12 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you. I 13 know Miss Clark mentioned it, but if you could just 14 go ahead and state your name for the record. 15 MR. WEINSTEIN: Sure. Ted Weinstein. I 16 am Director of Bronx Planning for HPD. 17 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you. And 18 the disposition is to which private developer, did 19 you say? 20 MR. WEINSTEIN: TNS Development. 21 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: And how was 22 TNS selected in this process? 23 MR. WEINSTEIN: They were actually 24 selected by the Partnership at some point years ago. 25 And in fact, they helped the Partnership to take 6 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 care of the lot, keep it clean during that time, but 3 then when the Partnership realized that they 4 couldn't legally sell directly to them, that's when 5 we then came in and said you have to go through us 6 as well. But since they had already worked this out 7 with them, that was fine with us. 8 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: And what 9 process did the partnership use in selecting TNS 10 Development? 11 MR. WEINSTEIN: I really don't know. 12 They're a private entity. I don't know. 13 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Okay. But now 14 it goes to -- it's an acquisition and then a 15 disposition, as you described it. 16 MR. WEINSTEIN: Yes. 17 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: And it's to 18 create 25 units. And who are those units available 19 for? 20 MR. WEINSTEIN: It's going to be for 21 low- and moderate-income. There will be different 22 income tiers among the 25 units. 23 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: What are the 24 income tiers? 25 MR. WEINSTEIN: There will be some 7 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 units at 50 percent of the area median income, some 3 at 65 percent of the area median income, and some at 4 80 percent of the area median income. 5 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: And by some, 6 how many in each? 7 MR. WEINSTEIN: There is two at the 50 8 percent, eight at the 65 percent, and 15 at the 80 9 percent. 10 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Okay, thank 11 you. 12 Seeing no other questions or members 13 of the -- oh, sorry, Council Member Ignizio, I 14 didn't see you. 15 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: Yes. Thank 16 you. 17 Ted, dove-tail on what the Chairman 18 is saying. How do we know that the City is getting 19 its value in this situation and there is not some 20 sweetheart deal between two entities that ultimately 21 are using the City as the intermediary? 22 MR. WEINSTEIN: Well, we're getting 23 the property back from the Partnership. 24 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: And then 25 turning it over to this other entity which was 8 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 selected by the original organization? 3 MR. WEINSTEIN: Right. We're not 4 paying the Partnership to get it back. We're just 5 acquiring it back from them. 6 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: And you were 7 just turning it over to this other entity, right? 8 MR. WEINSTEIN: There will be a 9 payment to us, which I'm sorry I don't know the 10 amount offhand. But, yes, they will be paying. In 11 other words, once the City has acquired it back, 12 it's like any other disposition. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: If you don't 14 know what we're paying -- 15 MR. WEINSTEIN: I apologize, I don't 16 have that with me. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: Is there a 18 ballpark roughly? 19 MR. WEINSTEIN: It could be appraised 20 value. 21 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: Is that what 22 it is? Is that what HPD is saying it is, the 23 appraised value? 24 MR. WEINSTEIN: I don't know. 25 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: Does anybody 9 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 have that information here? 3 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: We'll give you 4 a minute to see if you can track it down. 5 You're ready, good. What have you 6 got? 7 MR. WEINSTEIN: Okay, he's billing it 8 for a dollar a tax lot. It's one tax lot, going to 9 be a dollar, which is pretty common on affordable 10 housing. 11 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you very 12 much. 13 I'm sorry, and also the affordability 14 for those 25 units, I assume that is for into 15 perpetuity, as opposed to a particular period of 16 time? 17 MR. WEINSTEIN: For 30 years. 18 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thirty years. 19 Thank you. Seeing no other members of the public 20 wishing to testify, Land Use Nos 593 and 594, we 21 will close the hearing on those items, and open the 22 hearing on -- well, we're going to open the hearing 23 on Land Use 616 and 617 together, although they are 24 in different districts, at the request of HPD. They 25 are, Land Use 616 is a third-party transfer, in rem 10 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 Number 49, 20085176 HAR in the district of Council 3 Member McMahon, and Land Use No. 617, a third-party 4 transfer in rem number 47, 20085177 in the district 5 of Council Member Inez Dickens. 6 So, Ms. Clark, if you can go right 7 ahead and introduce those items, we'll be ready to 8 go. 9 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CLARK: Yes, 10 thank you, Chairman Garodnick, we appreciate that. 11 LU 616 and 617 consist of the 12 proposed disposition of five properties located in 13 Staten Island and Manhattan through HPD's 14 third-party transfer program round seven. 15 By law, as you know, third-party 16 transfer properties are deemed approved after 45 17 days unless disapproved by local law, and in this 18 case that did not occur. 19 What happened is that the affected 20 Council members were briefed by HPD and subsequently 21 indicated their approval of the third-party owner 22 developers selected by HPD through a competitive 23 process. 24 To enable the transfer of the 25 properties today we are asking the Planning 11 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 Subcommittee of the Council to make UDAAP findings 3 which will enable title to be granted to the 4 third-party owner developers who are proposed to own 5 and manage the properties. 6 Council Members McMahon and Dickens 7 have each expressed their support of the transfers 8 in round seven of the third-party program. 9 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you very 10 much. 11 I believe Council Member Dickens has 12 some comments. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: Thank you so 14 much, Mr. Chair. 15 Hi, Carol. 16 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CLARK: Hi. 17 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: Thank you for 18 this opportunity to allow me to testify on behalf of 19 Land Use Item 619. I have been working very closely 20 with HPD, NHS and HCCI on this projected located at 21 2073 Adam Clayton Powell Boulevard since HPD first 22 brought it to my attention this summer. 23 Neighborhood Housing Services will 24 develop this -- 25 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Council Member 12 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 Dickens, hold on one second. 3 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: I strongly 4 support this third-party transfer, by the way. And 5 Carol, you've worked very hard on this, as has HPD 6 on getting this done, and in this instance I support 7 it. 8 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: And we're 9 going to come to 619. I'm sorry, Council Member 10 Dickens. 11 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: I thought you 12 were calling it off. 13 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Yes, right. I 14 got confused, but we're going to be at 619 in one 15 second, but you support 617 and I see no other 16 members -- 17 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: I support 617 18 but I've got a lot to say about 619. 19 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Good. Okay, 20 good. We'll come back to you for 619. Thank you. 21 Seeing no other members of the public 22 wishing to testify on 616 or 617, we will close the 23 hearings on those items and open the hearing on Land 24 Use No. 563, which is the last one we will have 25 before we come back to 619. 13 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 This is non-ULURP No. 20085083 HAX. 3 Address is 697 Dawson Street in the Bronx, again, in 4 the district of Council Member Maria del Carmen 5 Arroyo. 6 Ms. Clark. 7 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CLARK: Yes, 8 thank you. And I'm joined by Terry Arroyo of HPD's 9 staff. LU 563 consists of the proposed disposition 10 of one occupied City-owned building, which as you 11 noted is located at 697 Dawson Street, through HPD's 12 Tenant Interim Lease Program. We call that TIL and 13 TIL assists tenant associations in City-owned 14 buildings to purchase and manage low-income 15 cooperatives. 16 This project consists of 16 17 residential units and Council Member Arroyo has been 18 briefed and indicated her approval. 19 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you. 20 Seeing no other members of the public 21 wishing to testify on this item, we will close the 22 hearing on Land Use 563 non-ULURP 20085083 and open 23 the hearing on the last item of the day. This is 24 Land Use Number 619, the much awaited Land Use No. 25 619. Non-ULURP No. 20085181 HAM. The address is 2073 14 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 Seventh Avenue in the district of Council Member 3 Dickens. 4 Ms. Clark, if you go ahead and 5 introduce this one and we'll turn to Council Member 6 Dickens. 7 ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER CLARK: 8 Certainly. 9 Council member, the LU 619, as you 10 said, is the proposed disposition of one City-owned 11 building. It's located at 2073 Seventh Avenue, and 12 it's to be developed through HPD's StoreWorks 13 Program. The proposed sponsor Neighborhood Housing 14 Services Community Development Corporation plans to 15 rehabilitate the three residential units for sale to 16 eligible purchasers and NHS also proposes with the 17 Harlem congregations for community improvement to 18 use the ground floor commercial space for a 19 homeowner assistance center to serve the community. 20 I believe that Lucille McEwen, the 21 Executive Director of Harlem Congregations for 22 Community Improvement, HCCI, is here and wishes to 23 speak as well. And Council Member Dickens has 24 reviewed the project and indicated her support to 25 HPD. 15 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you. Why 3 don't you bring up Ms. McEwen and then we'll turn to 4 Council Member Dickens. 5 Welcome. If you can just introduce 6 yourself and go right ahead. 7 MS. McEWEN: Good afternoon, Chair 8 Garodnick and members of the Committee. I'm Lucille 9 McEwen, President of Harlem Congregations for 10 Community Improvement. 11 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you. Do 12 you have anything else to say in support or 13 opposition? 14 MS. McEWEN: Yes. This project with 15 NHS is a collaboration with Harlem Congregations for 16 Community Improvement to bring additional homeowner 17 services to the Harlem community. It's a project 18 that we've worked on for some time, and NHS is 19 acquiring the commercial space in this building so 20 that they will have a permanent presence here in the 21 Harlem community, and while we have no ownership 22 interest in the storefront, we are working 23 collaboratively with them to bring services to the 24 community. 25 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you very 16 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 much. We appreciate your presence here today. 3 Now Council Member Dickens, it's all 4 yours. 5 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: Thank you so 6 much, Chair. 7 As I said, the Neighborhood Housing 8 Services will develop this project which will be 9 three condominium units, as well as 982 square 10 commercial space on the ground floor. This building 11 has remained under-developed and undeveloped 12 property for a very long time, and it will finally 13 be given new life. 14 However, when this project was first 15 brought to me, I had strong reservations about it. 16 None of the condominium units was to be affordable 17 to my community where the average yearly income is 18 below $20,000. 19 However, NHS, as well as HPD, has 20 been working together to install a home ownership 21 counseling service for the street level commercial 22 space. Home ownership counseling has a new-found 23 importance in today's market, given the recent 24 problems in the subprime mortgage market, and many 25 people losing their homes across the country. 17 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 While this phenomenon has not reached 3 the heights in New York City that it has in Upstate 4 New York, as well as in other states within the 5 country, it is proper that we in the City government 6 take measured steps to prevent this trend from 7 sweeping across New York City as well. 8 In the beginning HPD and NHS had 9 ideas about possible candidates for a partner to be 10 the primary provider for home ownership counseling. 11 Since there were no affordable units to protect my 12 community against the erosive forces of displacement 13 and gentrification, I advocated strongly for 14 installing a counseling provider that was rooted in 15 Harlem. 16 After much negotiation between HPD, 17 NHS, and myself, I am proud to say that HCCI will be 18 the community-based provider of this counseling 19 service. 20 HCCI brings a unique set of 21 qualifications to this service which makes it the 22 best choice for this project. 23 Under the leadership of Executive 24 Director Lucille McEwen, HCCI has been a force in 25 the affordable housing community in Harlem and 18 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 Northern Manhattan, they have continually 3 demonstrated a commitment to resisting the forces of 4 displacement, protecting the indigenous population 5 and serving many who otherwise would be left behind. 6 For this project, HCCI was the 7 perfect choice because of their expertise in 8 providing housing services and advice within 9 minority communities. Subprime mortgages and the 10 resulting foreclosures have disproportionately 11 affected minority communities across the country. It 12 is vital that Harlem's home ownership servers be 13 minority operated to protect against predatory 14 lending, uninformed consumers and the racial bias 15 that impacts housing sales and repossessions. 16 Most importantly, HCCI knows perhaps 17 better than anyone considered for this space, that 18 unless you own the buildings, you do not own your 19 community, you just live there. 20 HCCI will be a crucial line of 21 defense in the loss of Harlem for Harlemites. For 22 their commitment to hearing my concerns and 23 suggestions for this counseling service, I also want 24 to thank Nell Grier, the Chief Operating Officer for 25 NHS and their staff. 19 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 Mr. Grier is a Board member of HCCI 3 and has been an asset to the affordable housing 4 community. While I remain concerned about the lack 5 of affordable housing at this site, I will not agree 6 to projects of this nature in the future without 7 protection from my community. 8 But I do want to say thank you to the 9 Assistant Commissioner from HPD, Wendell Walters, 10 and also Carol Clark for their commitment to finding 11 a solution that will help protect affordable housing 12 and homeowners in Harlem. 13 Last, I want to thank Lucille McEwen 14 and HCCI for their tireless efforts to stand in the 15 face of the storm surrounding all of us to preserve 16 affordable housing throughout Harlem. 17 Thank you, Mr. Chair, and my 18 colleagues. I vote yes on this project. 19 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you very 20 much, and with that we will close the hearing on 21 Land Use Number 619, on ULURP 20085181 HAM, and we 22 will lay over all of the items on today's agenda 23 that were not heard, at the request of the 24 individual members in whose property the items sit 25 for further discussion, and we will couple together 20 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 for voting the items that we heard today. 3 The Chair recommends an aye vote and 4 I will ask the Counsel to call the roll. 5 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Chair 6 Garodnick. 7 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Aye. 8 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 9 Gonzalez. 10 COUNCIL MEMBER GONZALEZ: Aye. 11 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 12 Dickens. 13 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: Aye. 14 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: Council Member 15 Ignizio. 16 COUNCIL MEMBER IGNIZIO: At the 17 request of the Chair, my friend Inez Dickens, I 18 proudly vote aye. 19 COUNCIL MEMBER DICKENS: Thank you. 20 COUNSEL TO COMMITTEE: By a vote of 21 four in the affirmative, none in the negative, and 22 no abstentions, the aforementioned items are 23 approved and referred to the full committee. 24 CHAIRPERSON GARODNICK: Thank you very 25 much. And with that, we are going to recess this 21 1 PLANNING, DISPOSITIONS AND CONCESSIONS 2 meeting until 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the 19th day 3 of December in the Committee Room. So, please mark 4 your calendars. Wednesday the 19th, that is two days 5 from now in the Committee Room, 9:30 a.m., with 6 that, we stand in recess. 7 (Hearing concluded at 2:10 p.m.) 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 22 1 2 CERTIFICATION 3 4 5 STATE OF NEW YORK ) 6 COUNTY OF NEW YORK ) 7 8 9 I, CINDY MILLELOT, a Certified 10 Shorthand Reporter, do hereby certify that the 11 foregoing is a true and accurate transcript of the 12 within proceeding. 13 I further certify that I am not 14 related to any of the parties to this action by 15 blood or marriage, and that I am in no way 16 interested in the outcome of this matter. 17 IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto 18 set my hand this 17th day of December 2007. 19 20 21 22 23 --------------------- 24 CINDY MILLELOT, CSR. 25 23 1 2 C E R T I F I C A T I O N 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 I, CINDY MILLELOT, a Certified Shorthand 10 Reporter and a Notary Public in and for the State of 11 New York, do hereby certify the aforesaid to be a 12 true and accurate copy of the transcription of the 13 audio tapes of this hearing. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 ----------------------- CINDY MILLELOT, CSR. 25