I don't believe for one minute Mayor Bloomberg is not seeking to make a city successful, but, this is problematic.
If a city says, "Go ahead, build those buildings to custom demands, BUT, bear the cost for the government infrastructure," it creates long term problems should any of those companies fail and/or move on.
There is no doubt any business large enough to buy into a plan like this has plenty of money to spread around so they can have what they want the way they want it. What they don't have is the cost of unemployment when they aren't there anymore or the monies needed to remove the blight when it occurs and the building no longer serves the needs of others with a different vision.
Zoning for any city or town or hamlet has to be based in 'land use' and not profitability. This plan is going to fail. It won't fail immediately, but, it will ultimately fail. There will be no monies in the city's treasury to make up for the loss of tax income to pay for re-zoning when it becomes necessary. It will ultimately become necessary.
Zoning is a big deal. LAND is a big deal. Land and it's use is something everyone understands as they have to live and work somewhere. I sincerely believe a dollar figure can be assigned to drive a tax base for a MUNICIPALITY. But, realizing the BUDGET that has to be generated for municipal services is somewhat fixed if the elected government has done a good job and provided for quality of life for it's citizens.
Working with public employee unions should never be that much of a big deal unless their demands are simply outrageous. It is called planning. It is why a portion of the tax dollars are INVESTED for returns on that investment. Investment is about the future. No one says taxes have to go up when public employees are given a raise or their pensions are granted.
Privatizing zoning is not the way to do it. Long term plans by a government to drive stability and success is the way to pursue the best outcomes for generations. People become attached to their lives and build histories, high school reunions, it is not conducive to stability to hand off land as if it should be nothing but profitable or privatized. When people hang on to their lives in this way, the way Americans do, then the government has to match that emotional bond with a long term plan.
By David W. Dunlap
Publishded: August 27, 2013
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan (click here) to encourage construction of large new office towers around Grand Central Terminal as a way of keeping East Midtown commercially competitive amounts to an illegal game of “zoning for dollars,” the City Club of New York has asserted.
If a city says, "Go ahead, build those buildings to custom demands, BUT, bear the cost for the government infrastructure," it creates long term problems should any of those companies fail and/or move on.
There is no doubt any business large enough to buy into a plan like this has plenty of money to spread around so they can have what they want the way they want it. What they don't have is the cost of unemployment when they aren't there anymore or the monies needed to remove the blight when it occurs and the building no longer serves the needs of others with a different vision.
Zoning for any city or town or hamlet has to be based in 'land use' and not profitability. This plan is going to fail. It won't fail immediately, but, it will ultimately fail. There will be no monies in the city's treasury to make up for the loss of tax income to pay for re-zoning when it becomes necessary. It will ultimately become necessary.
Zoning is a big deal. LAND is a big deal. Land and it's use is something everyone understands as they have to live and work somewhere. I sincerely believe a dollar figure can be assigned to drive a tax base for a MUNICIPALITY. But, realizing the BUDGET that has to be generated for municipal services is somewhat fixed if the elected government has done a good job and provided for quality of life for it's citizens.
Working with public employee unions should never be that much of a big deal unless their demands are simply outrageous. It is called planning. It is why a portion of the tax dollars are INVESTED for returns on that investment. Investment is about the future. No one says taxes have to go up when public employees are given a raise or their pensions are granted.
Privatizing zoning is not the way to do it. Long term plans by a government to drive stability and success is the way to pursue the best outcomes for generations. People become attached to their lives and build histories, high school reunions, it is not conducive to stability to hand off land as if it should be nothing but profitable or privatized. When people hang on to their lives in this way, the way Americans do, then the government has to match that emotional bond with a long term plan.
By David W. Dunlap
Publishded: August 27, 2013
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s plan (click here) to encourage construction of large new office towers around Grand Central Terminal as a way of keeping East Midtown commercially competitive amounts to an illegal game of “zoning for dollars,” the City Club of New York has asserted.
Under the plan, developers seeking to build towers larger than zoning
rules ordinarily allow would pay $250 for every extra square foot. This
money would go into a fund that would finance pedestrian and transit
improvements in East Midtown, and the mayor has said it could reach $500 million.
The City Club likened this mechanism to extortion, and said it would not survive judicial scrutiny...
