Aimed at those seeking economic development benefits such as direct project subsidies, low-interest financing, tax benefits, tax-exempt financing, and tax-exempt bonds and grants, the bill would require the developer of each project to submit a comprehensive report to City Council outlining the intended social and economic effects of the project on the surrounding communities. Organizations in contract with the city for the purpose of providing social services, or those that create affordable housing units exclusively, are exempt from the requirement.
“We need to have a way to monitor the benefits that are given to developers,” said Councilman Thomas White Jr., a Queens Democrat who chairs Council's Economic Development Committee. Around the city, such benefits are legion: In fiscal year 2006, the New York City Industrial Development Agency alone granted at least $700 million in tax breaks to individual firms.
Councilman Albert Vann, in consultation with Councilmembers White, Bill de Blasio, Letitia James and others, created the bill to "help us to understand how city funds are being used in communities, to help them directly," according to Vann’s legislative director, Dottie Conway. Introduced June 29, the bill is now being further shaped by feedback and is not yet scheduled for a hearing or a vote.
Intended to increase transparency in the development process, the bill requires reports to be submitted to Council 60 days prior to approval of benefits by any city agency or entity. Information gathered will be accessible to potentially affected communities to give them a chance to react, and any councilmember can hold a hearing on the matter.
“The reports disclose information that can be used by communities and legislators to leverage outcomes, which will strengthen communities by way of affordable housing, improving neighborhood services, and creating jobs," Conway said. “This bill goes beyond job creation and types of jobs. It reveals information about the quality of jobs, whether they are permanent, part-time, seasonal, salaried or hourly, and asks to know how residents in those particular communities are able to access these jobs.”
The legislation was originally proposed around the time of the unveiling of the mayor’s Five Borough Economic Development Plan, as part of a strategy to tie together economic development with poverty issues. A large portion of the required report is dedicated to acquiring an exhaustive level of detail about social and economic effects of development within a given neighborhood. The bill also addresses displacement of residents and businesses, a common concern of those currently living in areas subject to redevelopment.
But Tom Angotti, director of the Hunter College Center for Community Planning and Development, notes that the bill does not distinguish between direct displacement, or how many people will actually lose their apartments and how many businesses will be forced to relocate – and the “more damaging” indirect displacement, or the eventual number of businesses forced out when rents and prices go up.
