Virtually all who spoke urged City Planning to give communities more time to study the potential impacts and unintended consequences of the plan. Board 4 is expected to vote on a resolution on the Unified Bulk Program tonight, April 5th. A Public Hearing starts at 6 pm and the board will vote later in the meeting. While some components of the UBP may be good, others may be undesirable or harmful. Positive Declaration states there may be significant impacts in sixteen categories, the Draft Environmental Impact Statement dismisses the potential of any such impacts.
Further study is needed to identify consequences, intended or unintended.
But the DCP has not given communities the tools they need to properly analyze the plan's impacts, including models and examples of how the UBP would work in various zoning districts. The complexity and size of the UBP calls for careful examination. The 1961 Zoning Resolution was the product of many years of study and debate. DCP's argument that the UBP must be passed now to avoid the fear of further inappropriate development, might have validity if city residents knew what they were getting or if DCP had consulted with communities prior to the plan's certification. A goal of UBP may be simplicity, but the proposal is hardly understood, even by experts.