When's the next Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation meeting? It only met twice* last year. It's supposed to meet quarterly.
The Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), the putative monitoring and advisory body that sometimes can ventilate useful information about the project, was supposed to meet 12/4/19. That meeting was canceled and supposed to be rescheduled, but no information was forthcoming.
The delays in scheduling have been attributed to the difficulty in getting a quorum. But AY CDC meetings also have been scheduled to accommodate a rubber-stamp advisory vote to ease the passage of a project change or contract extension by parent Empire State Development (ESD)
According to ESD records (and my coverage, in the hyperlinks), there have been essentially four meetings in the past two calendar years: 1/17/18, 3/27/18, 3/15/19, and 7/22/19. The latter deserves an asterisk, because directors asked for more time to assess two project changes, so they returned for a vote on them 8/12/19. But that was essentially an extension of a meeting, not a new one.
Questions: affordable housing, and timing
There are important questions to be asked, such as: does the developer in fact plan three "50% affordable" towers over the first railyard block, as it has indicated in a state document, and with what timetable? And if it can't build them by 2025, what are the alternatives to meet the affordable housing deadline that year?
Perhaps we'll learn something at the next Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, 1/28/20. But that meeting does not generate video or any official minutes, and there is less obligation for representatives of the state and developer to answer questions.
The delays in scheduling have been attributed to the difficulty in getting a quorum. But AY CDC meetings also have been scheduled to accommodate a rubber-stamp advisory vote to ease the passage of a project change or contract extension by parent Empire State Development (ESD)
According to ESD records (and my coverage, in the hyperlinks), there have been essentially four meetings in the past two calendar years: 1/17/18, 3/27/18, 3/15/19, and 7/22/19. The latter deserves an asterisk, because directors asked for more time to assess two project changes, so they returned for a vote on them 8/12/19. But that was essentially an extension of a meeting, not a new one.
Questions: affordable housing, and timing
There are important questions to be asked, such as: does the developer in fact plan three "50% affordable" towers over the first railyard block, as it has indicated in a state document, and with what timetable? And if it can't build them by 2025, what are the alternatives to meet the affordable housing deadline that year?
Perhaps we'll learn something at the next Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park Quality of Life meeting, 1/28/20. But that meeting does not generate video or any official minutes, and there is less obligation for representatives of the state and developer to answer questions.
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