1 CITY COUNCIL CITY OF NEW YORK ------------------------ X TRANSCRIPT OF THE MINUTES Of the SUBCOMMITTEE ON ZONING AND FRANCHISES ------------------------ X October 2, 2013 Start: 10:17 a.m. Recess: 5:35 p.m. HELD AT: Council Chambers City Hall B E F O R E: Mark S. Weprin Chairperson COUNCIL MEMBERS: Leroy G. Comrie, Jr. Daniel R. Garodnick Robert Jackson Jessica S. Lappin Rosie Mendez James S. Oddo Domenic Recchia, Jr. Diana Reyna Joel Rivera Debbie Rose Albert Vann Vincent M. Ignizio Ruben Wills James Van Bramer World Wide Dictation 545 Saw Mill River Road – Suite 2C, Ardsley, NY 10502 Phone: 914-964-8500 * 800-442-5993 * Fax: 914-964-8470 www.WorldWideDictation.com 2 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Christopher Gonzales Associate Commissioner at the Department of Housing Preservation and Development Thehbia Walters Director of HPD Manhattan Planning Office Kirk Goodrich Monadnock Development Tim Sullivan Chief of Staff to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel Penny King Policy Officer at Robert K. Steel Jerilyn Perine Executive Director of Citizens Housing and Planning Council Jessica Walker Vice President with the Partnership for New York City Michael Slattery Senior Vice President at Real Estate Board of New York Eric Bunge Founder of nArchitects 3 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Rick Bell Executive Director of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter Graham Hill Designer/Owner of LifeEdited Eugene Lee Senior Policy Advisor to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert Steel Tom McKnight Executive Vice President for New York City Economic Development Corporation Nick Molinari Chief of Planning and Park Lands for the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. Jesse Masyr Land Use Council Chip Place New York State Parks Michael Sillerman Kramer Levin Counsel David Wolkoff G&M Realty H. Thomas O’Hara Architect 4 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Jerry Wolkoff G&M Realty Marie Cecile Flageul Long Island City Resident Rebecca Kennedy Paul Joyce Andrew Gutterson 5 Pointz Volunteer Aditi Sen SEIU 32bj Paul Fernandez Chief of staff of the Building and Construction Trade Council of Greater New York Nicolai Conn 5 Poitnz Artist Martalicia Matarrita 5 Pointz Artist Andreas Varrarutsos Queens Resident Adam Milroy Christine Whitaker Artist 5 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Andy Sydor Tour Guide Lois Stavsky Stephanie Caballero Andrew Faria Samuel Sellers Co-founder Hip Hop Re:Education Project Cynthia King Anthony Sherika Artist Ben Velzaquez Artist Jerry Rotondi Hans Van Ritturn Euegene Lee Senior Policy Advisor to Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Robert K. Steel Kyle Kimball President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation 6 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Tom McKnight Vice President of the New York City Economic Development Corporation. Don Capoccia Principal in BFC Partners Shelly Friedman Friedman & Gotbaum LLP Shirley Aldebol Vice President of SEIU Local 32bj Paul Fernandez Chief of Staff of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Greater New York/Build Up NYC Stan Hellman Staten Islanders for Responsible Development of New York Wheel Josh Gold Representing Hotel Workers Annette Kraljev Owner of ATO Contracting Reverend Demetrius Carolina Executive Director of Community Development Corporation Theo Dorian President of St. George Civic Association 7 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Michael Arvanites Representing State Senator Diane Savino David Goldfarb Land Use Chair of the Civic Association of St. George Susan Bradley Staten Island Resident Linda Winkler Staten Island Resident Edward Josey NAACP Michael Harwood Member of St. George Civic Associaton Priscilla Marco President of Van Duzer Street Civic Association Lynn Kelly CEO and President of Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Botanical Garden Steve Margarella For James Prendamono Joe Carter Security Officer Epifanio Ortiz Build Up NYC 8 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Ronaldo Torres Build Up New York Bob Bradley Resident Phillip Harris Bobby Digi President of North Shore Business Association Al Peters CEO of Men Who Build Reverend Janice Harris Curt Ward Waterfront Chair Juana Velez New York Trade Council Jeannette Harjo-Cobb Member of New York City Council of Carpenters Local 20 Staten Island/Build Up NYC Alex Simpson Member of Local 7 Tile, Marble, & Terrazo/Build up NYC Karina Bednarek Local 79, Representing Dan Finley 9 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Isetta Brown New York Trade Council Member Lenore Friedlaender Assistant to President for Local 32bj William Cuffe Staten Island Resident Michael Brown United Work Force Mike Lombardi Staten Island Harley Davidson Arjo Phillips Staten Island Resident Etorie Mazzei North Shore Business Association Mark Macron City Council 49th District Candidate Martin Green Staten Island Resident Frank Rizzo Director for the Staten Island Board of Realtors Peter Gioello Contractor 10 A P P E A R A N C E S (CONTINUED) Michael Kramer Electrical Contractor Linda Collier On behalf of Reverend Doctor Kathlyn Barret- Layne President of United Ministerial Alliance of Staten Island Joel Bergstein President of Lincoln Equities Group Robert Schenkel Head of Development with Lincoln Equities Group Ken Fisher Land Council Bishop Mitchell Taylor President and Founder of East River Development Alliance and Pastor of Center of Hope International 11 1 SUBCOMMITTEE ON ZONING AND FRANCHISES 2 CHAIRPERSON WEPRIN: Okay. Could we 3 have everyone’s attention please and a little 4 quiet? Thank you very much. My name is Mark 5 Weprin. I am Chair of the Zoning and Franchises 6 Subcommittee, and I am joined this morning by 7 the following members of the Subcommittee, 8 Council Member Diana Reyna, Council Member 9 Leroy Comrie, Council Member Dan Garodnick, 10 Council Member Ruben Wills, and Council Member 11 Vincent Ignizio. We also have a few other 12 guests of the Committee here today, Council 13 Member Debbie Rose, Council Member James Otto, 14 Council Member Rosie Mendez, and I don’t think 15 I missed anybody else, who have items on the 16 agenda that they are very involved in. We have 17 a very long day ahead of us. So I just want to 18 warn you these things are hard to predict on 19 time. They take a long time. We do want to, 20 you know, we have important business to do 21 here. We want to hear from every member of the 22 public as well as the applicant. The 23 applicants take a while because we have 24 questions for the applicants. So I just want 25 to warn you it’s going to be a fairly long day 1 SUBCOMMITTEE ON ZONING AND FRANCHISING 13 2 today. So we, we’re going to try to take it as 3 quickly as possible. Just so you know what’s 4 going to happen, just how it’s going to work, 5 the applicants will have presentations and 6 they’ll answer questions. Following the 7 applicant’s presentation we will turn to 8 members of the public to testify. Those 9 members of public will have two minutes each to 10 testify only. So if you have testimony that’s 11 a lot longer than that, you can submit it and 12 we’ll take it for the record, but if you have 13 testimony that’s longer than two minutes, try 14 to take a pen right now and start summarizing 15 it to get your highlights in. You’re also 16 going to notice that some other people may say 17 the same thing that you want to say. You might 18 want to pull that out of your testimony or just 19 acknowledge what was mentioned before. It’s 20 hard to get into that two minutes. We’re going 21 to try to enforce that rule as much as possible 22 just ‘cause everyone--this is going to be a 23 very long day. We have five items on the 24 agenda and each one has people to testify. So 25 this is an unusual day for us here at the 1 SUBCOMMITTEE ON ZONING AND FRANCHISING 14 2 Zoning Committee. So just for a couple of 3 housekeeping items, there were a number of 4 items that we heard hearing--had hearings 5 already which have been closed, but we haven’t 6 voted on yet because there’s still issues being 7 negotiated. We are not voting on these items 8 today. This is being laid over ‘til another 9 meeting. That would Willets Point Land Use 876 10 to 881, MSK CUNY Memorial Sloan-Kettering CUNY 11 Land Use 885 to 890, Land Use 902 The 92nd 12 Street project on the Upper East Side, and 13 Waterfront Resiliency, which we heard at our 14 last meeting, Land Use 922. Each one has 15 issues that we’re negotiating. These will not 16 be on the agenda today. We are scheduling and 17 agenda for tomorrow, although we don’t know 18 what’s on that agenda, but a meeting for 19 tomorrow morning before the Land Use at 9:45 20 tomorrow. That’s going to be across the street 21 at 250. So that is scheduled now. We don’t 22 exactly know what’s on that depending on 23 whether we get agreements on some of these 24 things. So, with that in mind, we’re going to 25 start with Adapt New York City 937 and 936 in 1 SUBCOMMITTEE ON ZONING AND FRANCHISING 15 2 Council Member Mendez’s District.