In 1987, leaders in New York City's Chelsea neighborhood began using an untested tool: a process that allows communities to prepare advisory plans for consideration by the city's planning commission and city council. Their plan was approved in 1996, and in 1999 sweeping zoning revisions covering most of 60 blocks on the West Side of Manhattan took effect. But 25 years after the "197-a" process was created, only three other community plans have been approved, and local observers are wondering how effective New York's expensive, complicated community planning process really is....
Critics charge that the 197-a process is simply too slow and the impact of the community plans on city policies is meager. Defenders counter that the process draws a broad spectrum of local residents into planning discussions and allows community boards to test their proposals in the political arena....
Whether they love the process or hate it, planners generally attribute its problems to unrealistic community expectations, difficulty in getting attention fromn city agencies, inexperience, and a lack of resources.... Given the time and effort needed to see a plan through, communities sometimes run out of steam. If the most active members move away or turn to other things, "the plan doesn't have the same ownership or commitment," comments one observer.
The limitations of the 197-a plans have led some communities to seek alternatives aimed more directly at getting results. Some communities have worked through the normal zoning and urban renewal processes. Manhattan's community board 8, which covers the Upper East Side and East Harlem, initiated a zoning map change when it became concerned about tower-style development....
A key component is the involvement of local community development corporations. They have the experience, political savvy, and staff resources to get things done.
--Planning magazine
--American Planning Association
This material is excerpted from "Digging Into the Grass Roots," in the March 2000 issue of Planning magazine. Copyright by Todd W. Bressi. To download the full text, see http://www.planning.org/pubs/mar00.htm.
The story author is Todd W. Bressi. Contact him at [email protected].
# # #
RSS