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NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

SUMMARY

The CEQR Technical Manual, a guidance document, written in 1993 contains 22 chapters. The goal was to update the Manual to reflect current regulations, policies, practices and procedures for environmental review in New York City and to clarify confusing language. The ultimate goal was to strike a delicate balance of addressing economic, environmental and social concerns. Overall, the changes reflected in the update make the Manual more user-friendly, clearer and more favorable to economic development, while at the same time remaining protective of the environment.

To this end MOEC and the CEQR Task Force focused on fixing the chapters that were "broken." While some chapters had only minor changes, some chapters were replete with obsolete methodologies and incorrect references. For those chapters that required conducting studies or developing current methodologies, the City hired consultants. The changes are outlined below. Where there were "issues" with a chapter, the issue is highlighted in bold typeface.

Chapter 1, Procedures and Documentation and Chapter 2, Establishing the Analysis Framework were updated. The State SEQRA regulations were amended in 1995 and took effect in 1996. Those changes were incorporated.

Chapter 3A, Land Use, Zoning and Public Policy and Chapter 3B, Socioeconomic Conditions had minor changes, for example update of contact information, website addresses.

Chapter 3C, Community Facilities, was done in-house by the Department of City Planning. The chapter was significantly updated. The revisions include clarifying confusing instructions, simplifying the required analysis, and conforming to exiting community facility practices. The changes include:

• The threshold Need for Assessment was changed from 100 residents to 100 housing units. • The threshold Need for Assessment for 100 workers was eliminated based on experience. • The analysis of libraries was simplified to reflect current library usage and analysis of impacts community district level to borough level. • The requirement to analyze for hospitals inpatient services was deleted. • A new table, the Estimated Number of Housing Units Yielding 50 Children for Public Day Care was added to clarify the criteria for day care analysis and be consistent with public schools criteria. • The Fire and Police Protection sections were updated with the Fire and Police Departments. Indirect effect analysis was eliminated in both the Fire Protection and Police Protection sections.

Chapter 3D, Open Space, Chapters 3E, Shadows, Chapter 3F, Historic Resources, Chapter 3G, Urban Design/Visual Resources and Chapter 3H, Neighborhood Character were updated to reflect current contact information, polices, practices and procedures. There were no substantive changes for these chapters.

Chapter 3D, Open Space Issue: The Department of Parks and Recreation wanted to add a screen for indirect effects. City Planning objected. MOEC deleted the screen because MOEC believes the screen was inconsistent with other agency practices and potentially more cumbersome to economic growth.

Chapter 3F, Historic Resources Issue: Landmarks Preservation Commission wanted to delete existing screens and have all Historic Resource reviews go through LPC. The Task Force objected. MOEC asked LPC to reinstate the screens.

Chapter 3I, Natural Resources:Mitigations strategies were defined. Regulations were updated and flowcharts were added that provide instructions for completion of permits. Overall the chapter was totally rewritten with all agencies" approval.

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