Date: Tue, Jun 30, 2015 at 9:55 AM
Subject: Development Management Program is still Community Benefits ...
I fully agree with Liang, who has gotten right to the point. Zoning exists
for a purpose -- which is to regulate land use (what may be built where, with
what heights, densities, setbacks) in accordance with the vision of the
community at large. It is the blueprint, the norm, not a "base" from which
variances are regularly granted. The variances are the exceptions, which should
be few and far between, and only when the project in its essence (not a few
amenities) is of overwhelming benefit to the community.
A "community benefits program" or formal list of amenities, is merely a
pretext to justify four or five major variances each year. At the end of
ten years (45-50 projects), the developers achieve piecemeal what the community,
even through last year's biased survey, clearly has rejected accomplishing
globally -- namely, changing the skyline of our city from 45 or 60 ft to
perhaps 75 or 90 ft.
Phyllis Dickstein
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