AY CDC board adds community planner Shiffman, mayoral real estate advisor Amin. Meeting in March would be first in nine months.

This is the third of three articles about the Feb. 7. 2023 Quality of Life meeting. The first concerned the state's suggestion that an affordable housing penalty might be waived. The second addressed plans for 595 Dean St.

The (purportedly) advisory Atlantic Yards Community Development Corporation (AY CDC), which is supposed to meet quarterly but last met in June--at least in part because of the difficulty in getting a quorum--seems to be getting a partial reboot.

With two new appointments, Ron Shiffman and Anand Amin, the AY CDC now has 11 members, with three vacancies. It also means the group has gotten at least one more attentive member.

The AY CDC is supposed to advise the parent Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds the project, but has mostly been ineffective, partly because meetings are few, partly because it has no power, and partly because most members are uninformed or disengaged.

"We anticipate that the next AY CDC board meeting will be sometime in March," said ESD's Tobi Jaiyesimi.

New board members

Jaiyesimi said that Shiffman, co-founder of the Pratt Institute Center for Community and Environmental Development and former chair of the Pratt Institute's Department of City and Regional Planning, has been named as the Brooklyn Borough President's representative, succeeding Cy Richardson. 

Shiffman, once on the advisory board of project opponents Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, now defunct, and more recently an advisor to the coalition BrooklynSpeaks, has the potential to be a useful voice in raising questions and assessing/proposing plans.

Also, Amin, Senior Advisor for Real Estate in the Mayor's Office, was named as the New York City representative, filling an open seat vacated by the previous departure of Lee Warshavsky.

Amin formerly headed the Inclusionary Housing Program at the NYC Department of Housing Preservation & Development. That means he's surely up to speed on affordable housing issues, even if he has no previous public profile regarding Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park.