In announcing his PlaNYC 2030 sustainability goals for the city on Earth Day last year, Mayor Bloomberg committed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 30% by 2030, placing New York at the vanguard of the fight to combat climate change. In his statement, the mayor said:

“…you can’t formulate a land use plan… without thinking about global warming.”

But, almost one year later, development projects are still going ahead in New York with little analysis of how they impact climate change.

To help address this problem, MAS is drafting guidelines that would require developers to analyze and disclose their impacts on climate change — including a project’s greenhouse gas emissions and vulnerability to the effects of climate change — in environmental impact statements (EIS) under the state and city Environmental Quality Review Acts (SEQRA and CEQR).

Late last year, the City denied a work permit for the development of a community dormitory facility at P.S. 64 in the East Village. The proposed building would be almost twice the size of other residential buildings in the zoning district. MAS recently filed an Amicus Brief supporting the City’s decision to demand that the applicant provide satisfactory evidence that the building will be owned by, or leased to, an educational institution prior to receiving permission to begin construction. Read brief.

For more information about P.S. 64, click here.

Click on the play icon on the image at left to watch video. In mid-November 2007, MAS hosted a Continuing Legal Education (CLE) panel discussion on law policy and urban retail diversity, titled Mom and Pop Among the Chains, which investigated the legal mechanisms available that could be used to help maintain diversity – large and small retailers, national chains, and mom and pop shops – in the city’s retail that has witnessed a noticeable growth in national chain stores in certain areas.

The program touched on a wide range of issues, some of which were also raised at a Jane Jacobs and the Future of New York panel discussion, titled “The Oversuccessful City: Neighborhood Character in the Face of Change”, a short video of which can be viewed here.

For more on the changing nature of retail in New York, click here.