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February 11, 2010
Liu Wants To Change Community Benefit Agreements, Development Subsidies
NY Observer
by Eliot Brown
For the second time in as many days, Comptroller John Liu has announced plans to revamp a process related to real estate development.
On Tuesday, he called for general changes to the way subsidies are awarded.
Wednesday belonged to community benefit agreements, the un-regulated deals often struck between eager developers and community groups concerned about their projects, usually after concessions and money have changed hands.
Calling the unstructured employment of CBAs in New York City an "embarrassment," Mr. Liu, without offering much specificity, said in a statement that he would create new standards for the agreements "in the coming months."
There's much criticism to go around about CBAs in New York: Just who sits at the table to negotiate with the developer (i.e. who represents the "community") is always subject to debate, and the same elected officials who are approving the project are often negotiating the CBAs as well. The CBAs, which usually have nothing to do with zoning, have become a prerequisite nonetheless for a necessary zoning approval, a common complaint from developers.
The Observer has Liu's full statement. Here's a snippet.
From Atlantic Yards to Yankee Stadium to the Columbia University expansion, the public has seen a string of broken promises to communities and questionable involvement by some government officials. Furthermore, an additional layer of unpredictability confronts developers when they engage in private negotiations over benefits associated with their projects. In fact, studies have singled out New York City's community benefit agreements as examples of what not to do.
NoLandGrab: Of course, the poster-child for NYC Community Benefits Agreements — and all that's wrong with them — is the Atlantic Yards CBA.
Posted by eric at February 11, 2010 9:59 AM