BILL NUMBER: S1362

SPONSOR: SERRANO
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act relating to the sale, lease or other disposition of property of
the New York city department of education, the New York city educational
construction fund and the New York city school construction authority

 
PURPOSE:

To ensure greater involvement by local officials, and community stake-
holders on any proposed disposition of public lands by New York City
municipal education agencies

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section one mandates that any disposition of public lands or buildings
by the New York City Department of Education, New York City Educational
Construction Fund, and the New York. City School Construction Authority
must go through the New York City's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure
              

(ULURP).

Section two sets forth the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

Recently, New York City's Department of Education (DOE) solicited
proposals to sell, lease, exchange or otherwise dispose of public lands
to private developers. These proposals have been devoid of any meaning-
ful community input or consideration of neighborhood needs.  Too often,
parents, neighbors, and community stakeholders have been met with walls
of silence from city agencies and a dearth of information on the future
of their neighborhoods.

In one example from November 2012, many parents, neighbors, and communi-
ty stakeholders were surprised to learn that the New York City Depart-
ment of Education had begun engaging developers to potentially demolish
and build on the sites of Manhattan's Upper West Side P.S.199 and P.S.
191, and the Upper East Side's School of Cooperative Technical Education
without first consulting the community. Only after a parent found a
Request for Expressions of Interest for developers in a November 2012
issue of Crain's did DOE even acknowledge it was considering develop-
ment.

In spite of repeated calls by local elected officials, community boards,
and concerned residents, NYC DOE continue to move forward with develop-
ment plans without any meaningful community input.  Clearly, the re is a
tremendous need to ensure greater input at the early stages of any
development plans that involve public assets.

By requiring ULURP in cases relating to the public-private redevelopment
of public lands, we can ensure that a robust public process, involving
community boards, the borough boards, elected officials, the city coun-
cil and the general public are incorporated from inception to
completion.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

2013-2014:S5597- Referred to Cities
2015-2016:S1166- Referred to Cities
2017-2018:S3088- Referred to Cities
2019:S.1556- Advanced to Third Read
2020:S.1556a -Referred to Cities

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.