S.W.I.M. testimony on LL5 Reporting
Jaime Stein, a member of the S.W.I.M. Steering Committee, attended the hearing held by the Reports & Advisory Boards Review Commission on Friday, May 11th, 2012. You can read the full testimony here.
Report & Advisory Board Review Commission Hearing this Friday!
The City has requested to eliminate the biennial report on the Sustainable Stormwater Management Plan, claiming such reporting is redundant with the GI Plan and PlaNYC reports. The request goes before the Report & Advisory Board Review Commission, which will vote on it. The Commission is soliciting public comments and is hosting a hearing this Friday.
Public Hearing Information:
Friday, May 11, 2012
2:00 PM
Department of City Planning, Spector Hall, 22 Reade Street, New York, NY
SWIM is preparing a comment letter focused on the following major concerns:
Gaps in reporting: There are SSMP initiatives not reported under any other plans.
SSMP milestones beyond 2010: There are several initiatives with milestone dates beyond 2010, as well as many initiatives that warrant updated milestones.
Geographic coverage: The SSMP is a plan for the whole city while the GI Plan is only for CSO areas and the PlaNYC is predominantly focused on the CSO areas as well.
Leadership and coordination role of the Office of the Long Term Planning and Sustainability: The OLTPS has been the lead agency in the implementation of the SSMP, which spans many different city agencies. Such a role for the OLTPS should be preserved.
LL5 requires report and revision: The intent of the Law was to update the SSMP every four years because we understood the sustainable stormwater management to be an emerging field with new technologies and data. 2012 is the first year for the plan update and we believe an update is still relevant particularly given all the progress made by the City to date.
We are in favor of eliminating redundancy. We also support the City agencies, particularly the OLTPS, wanting to focus their resources on implementing the projects. However, we still believe the overlap between the SSMP and other plans are not complete and we think a simplified report that covers those not reported under other plans is still necessary. We will post our comment letter as soon as it is finalized. In the mean time, plan on attending the hearing or submit your own comment to the Commission!
You can send your comments to: ReportsandBoards@cityhall.
Toronto First North American City to Require Green Roofs
“Toronto is making history. The first city in North American to require green roofs on new developments moves into the third phase of its Green Roof Bylaw on April 30, 2012.
Adopted in 2009, the bylaw required the environmentally friendly roofs on residential, commercial and institutional buildings starting in 2010. Now, with the addition of industrial developments, all new buildings with a minimum Gross Floor Area of 2,000 square meters will be required to devote 20-60 percent of Available Roof Space to vegetation.”
Check out the full article here!
S.W.I.M. Seeks Input on Green Roof Tax Abatement
The S.W.I.M. coalition hosted a public meeting Friday, March 23 to improve and extend the green roof tax abatement. We have re-kindled the S.W.I.M. Green Roof Working Group, comprised of interested stakeholders in New York City. If you wish to provide feedback to S.W.I.M. on the green roof tax abatement or would like to join the working group, please contact Eric Dalski at eric@hvcnyc.com
Upcoming Shoreline Clean-Up!
Come out and support the EMPIRE DRAGON BOAT TEAM for
Jennifer’s Annual Flushing Bay Shoreline Clean-up!
