City of New York COMMUNITY BOARD NO. 9 Queens Borough Hall (718) 286-2686 120-55 Queens Boulevard, Room 310-A Fax (718) 286-2685 Kew Gardens, NY 11424 Email: qn09@cb.nye.gov Website: www.nyc.gov/queenscb9 Kenichi Wilson, Chairperson * James 8. McClelland, District Manager * Melinda Katz, Borough President September 27, 2019 TO: Corey Johnson, Speaker, New York City Council and Members of the City Council FROM: — Queens Community Board 9 SUBJECT: Borough Based Jails ULURP The NY City Council should vote NO on the blatantly flawed and incomplete borough-based jails ULURP, because this ULURP project violates the New York City Charter which the Council is sworn to uphold, (Chapter 9, sections 210 and 222; Chapter 8, sections 197 and 204). In brief, this ULURP application contains No Plan, No Design, No Budget and No Program Details, all of which are specifically required by the New York City Charter for a NYC capital budget project. The so- called facts presented by the Mayor's office are a moving target. The eventual project cost is in the billions of public dollars. We believe that no comparable private applicant, even one using only private funds, would have had such a vague application certified to enter the ULURP process. To vote for a “concept,” a vague outline that will cost billions of public dollars is a violation of the New York City Charter. 1. New York City Charter - Chapter 8, City Planning, section 197—b No Advance Notice Received § 197-b. “Notification of plans and proposals. a. Advance notice of all preliminary and final plans of public agencies and public benefit corporations or of private agencies, entities or developers filed with the city that relate to the use, development or improvement of land subject to city regulation shall be given to the affected community board or boards and the office of the affected borough president, provided that, exceptions may be made in matters of no appreciable public concern by agency rule.” This never happened for the proposed Kew Gardens jail. The Community Board and the Kew Gardens community only learned of this proposal after an August 15, 2018 press conference given by the Mayor. Yet nearly 8 months before, in January 2018, the city had already entered into a $7.4 million contract with Perkins Eastman, a contract which eventually grew to $13 million.2. New York City Charter, Chapter 8, City Planning, Citywide Statement of Needs, Section 204 Required New York City Charter Notification Process Ignored. ‘The New York City Charter requires the Mayor to notify affected community boards, ete. of major city capital projects cited for their districts. However, no Citywide Statement of Needs included the proposed Kew Gardens Queens jail until the recent 2020 Citywide Statement. Yet, as noted, nearly 2 years ago, in January 2018, Perkins Eastman was awarded a contract supposedly to seek out potential jail sites and prepare designs. Not only was this never done for Queens, the first “notification” of this proposed capital project was only revealed at a Mayoral press conference in mid-August 2018. 3. New York City Charter - Chapter 9, Capital Projects and Budgets, sections 210 and 222 ‘The City has failed to follow all but one of the requirements listed in section 210 quoted below and specifically referred to again in section 222 when referencing the Mayor. Seetion 210 “4, The term "scope of project" or "proposed scope of project" shall mean a description of a capital project included in the capital budget that contains specific guidelines for the design and implementation of such project consistent with the standards for the appropriate category of capital projects and includes each of the following items of information which are relevant to the capital project involved: (a) Purposes and public to be served; (b) Programs to be conducted in the facility; (©) Gross and net amounts of space and bulk for any building or structure and for areas for different functions and activities; (@ Identification of required architectural, engineering or other consultants and estimated fees for such consultants; (©) Estimated completion dates for scope, design and construction; (f Total estimated project costs, including costs for site acquisition, preparation and tenant relocation, design, construction and equipment; (g) Estimated expenditures for the project for each fiscal year until its completion; (h) Estimated annual costs to operate programs within the facility when fully staffed and to maintain the facility; and, () Such other information as shall be required by the mayor or by resolution of the council.” Section 222 “d, No scope of project shall be approved by the mayor unless (1) it contains the information required by paragraph four of section two hundred ten and it conforms to the applicable standards for the type of project adopted pursuant to this chapter, and (2) funds are available within the appropriate program category of the capital program that can be reserved for each fiscal year required to complete the project.” 4. Design-build - a Process Distorted in thi: JURP Application ‘The New York state legislature 2018 budget authorized Design-Build for the first time in New York City in the” New York City Rikers Island Jail Complex Replacement Act” which “passed into law as part of the 22018 budget.” This legislation enables the city to bypass New York State’s Wicks law which mandates separately bid contracts for Construction, Electrical, HVAC and Plumbing on publicly funded projects over a certain cost which in 2000 was $3 million in New York City. The goal of Design-Build is to save money and time in large construction projects. Allowing close collaboration between the designers and builders can reduce extensive and costly “change orders.” ‘The State’s bill is basically a detailed guideline of rules and regulations to ensure that ‘ive participating companies are qualified and are held to the many building contract and labor rules of the City and State, The bill also contains a statement that none of the buildings on Rikers may be demolished until all of the new facilities are built. ‘The bill further states that “any construction or reconstruction performed pursuant to this act shall be subject to any applicable uniform land use review procedures and local zoning requirements.” Design-Build is not permission to bypass Charter requirements or used as an excuse for having no program, no design, no budget, and no defined plan. Indeed, one City Planning Commissioner at a CPC session noted that in ULURP, the Commission is presented with a defined building plan to consider. Yet from week to week and month to month, the plan has been and is a moving target. As late as the last. week of August 2019, planning Commissioners were given reams of new materials. Yet on September 3, 2019, CPC voted 9 to 3 to approve - exactly what is still to be determined. ‘The new State bail reform takes effect January 1, 2020. Not only does the City estimate it will release 2000 currently detained people, but that going forward, on January 1, it will not detain even individuals charged with violent felonies provided that they are not considered a threat to public safety. So, what kind of programs, etc., should be planned for those in the proposed mega jails, programs that determine the design of the buildings themselves? 5. Proposed Zoning Text Amendment for New Special Permit Regarding Jails This proposed text amendment (dated March 15) was inserted in the borough-based jail application. The current zoning resolution has no reference to jails, only prisons. Given the language in this proposed text amendment, it seems intended to be a blank check for building jails, not just the currently proposed jails (The proposed amendment is attached). This should be especially troubling to the City Council in light of the Department of Design and Construction (DDC) REP issued in October 2018 for the jail projects, referring to “at least” four jail projects. Moreover, this RFP was issued despite the fact that the ULURP application had not even been certified let alone passed. And in May 2019, DDC awarded a $107.4 million contract to AECOM-Hill for work on the borough based jail system before the legal process had even been completed. Ve Is What Is Required at this Stage. Kenichi Wilson Chairperson Community Board 9 - Queens ‘New York state Senate Bill $. 7508C, pages 161 - 165 3