Tag Archives: industrial action plan

Advocates Celebrate Council’s Fulfillment of Key Industrial Action Plan Promises

Council set to vote on key zoning protection at last stated meeting

New York, NY – Today, the Industrial Jobs Coalition joined with City Council members to celebrate the upcoming passage of zoning protections for the City’s 21 Industrial Business Zones (IBZs). These protections, meant to clamp down on competing non-industrial uses and ensure space for good-paying jobs, create the foundation for broader zoning reforms. The Coalition, having advocated for this crucial protection as a part of the Mayor’s 2015 Industrial Action Plan, thanked members of the Council who led the charge through the land use review process.

“The City Council is delivering a big victory for the manufacturing industry and the middle class jobs it brings to New York’s underserved communities,” said Council Member Donovan Richards, chair of the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises. “As promised in the Industrial Action Plan, we will continue to work towards preserving the essence of Industrial Business Zones. I’d like to thank my fellow IBZ colleagues, the Industrial Jobs Coalition and the City Council’s Land Use staff for this truly collaborative process.”

“For the first time, New York City is actually putting teeth behind the IBZ designation,” said Council Member David Greenfield, chair of the Land Use Committee. “We are saying today that we will fight for industrial jobs in New York City. We are saying that good jobs are more important than self-storage facilities. I am proud to have been a leader in this fight and congratulate the coalition led by ANHD that fought for years to get us to this historic place.”

The proposal, which would limit self-storage via a City Planning Commission special permit in the vast majority of the IBZs, had broad support from the City Council and industrial advocates. While efforts to dilute the original proposal occurred during the land use review process, the collective effort of industrial advocates and the Council were pivotal in changing the proposal into its current version. Having passed both the Zoning and Land Use committees by wide margins, the full Council is expected to pass the text amendment in their final stated meeting on Tuesday.

“We are thankful to this City Council for their continued leadership on industrial and manufacturing issues,” said Benjamin Dulchin, Executive Director at the Association for Neighborhood & Housing Development. “Their partnership with the Industrial Jobs Coalition to advance common sense zoning reforms and protect the Industrial Business Zones from speculative uses means more good-paying jobs can stay in the city.”

“Enactment of a special permit requirement for self-storage facilities is a great victory for good jobs,” said Adam Friedman, Director of the Pratt Center for Community Development. “We’ve been pushing for this for years as part of a comprehensive strategy to reduce real estate pressures on manufacturers. The Mayor promised it in his first campaign, and today he delivered on his promise.”

The current City Council has a strong record of focusing on industrial and manufacturing issues. Their 2014 report, Engines of Opportunity, laid the blueprint of current manufacturing discussions in the city. The 2015 Industrial Action Plan, launched alongside the Mayor and advocates at Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, was largely based on the Council’s recommendations. While multiple aspects of that plan have moved forward, members of the Council and advocates alike recognized the significant importance of use group reform.

“Protecting and promoting industrial jobs is important for the City of New York and especially for my district. Passing this text amendment will help to ensure that businesses in the Industrial Business Zones serve real manufacturing needs, and that means more jobs,” said Council Member Antonio Reynoso. “I am committed to continue working with the industrial communities of Williamsburg, Bushwick, and Ridgewood so that they thrive.”

“Strengthening New York City’s manufacturing sector is an essential way to create good jobs for a wide range of New Yorkers, and to advance more inclusive growth in the innovation economy. I am thrilled to join my colleagues today in limiting self-storage in Industrialize Business Zones throughout the City, which undermine more job-intensive manufacturing uses,” said Council Member Brad Lander. “In my district, this will help enable Gowanus to remain a vibrant, creative, inclusive, sustainable, mixed-use neighborhood. Thanks to Speaker Mark-Viverito and the tenacious industrial advocates and manufacturers for their grit and determination to keep ‘making it’ in New York City.”

“Thanks so much to the New York City Council for following through on their commitment to growing working class jobs in New York City’s Industrial Business Zones. This is a great first step in achieving this goal,” said Leah Archibald, Executive Director at Evergreen Exchange. “We look forward to working with the Council to address the proliferation of other non-compatible uses in manufacturing zones throughout the city. Special thanks to North Brooklyn Council Members Levin and Reynoso for their commitment to the local industrial community!”

“This text amendment was a huge win for the South Bronx, and demonstrates our commitment to ensuring we can protect and promote industry and manufacturing jobs in New York City,” said Council Member Rafael Salamanca. “I’m very proud of the work we did to make this a reality.”

“The special permit for self-storage in New York City’s Industrial Business Zones is a crucial first step in protecting industrial and manufacturing jobs in the City,” said Nancy Carin, Executive Director of the BOC Network. “Blue collar workers, a majority of which are working class immigrants and people of color, can rest easier knowing that City Council has recognized this critical opportunity to actively prioritize job creation and encourage growth of the industrial sector in New York City.”

“This new special permit requirement is a solid victory. Industrial businesses are truly the heart of New York City’s economy – providing essential services and making decades of sacrifices on behalf of employees and our communities,” said Ben Margolis, Executive Director, Southwest Brooklyn Industrial Development Corporation (SBIDC). “We are heartened to know that the City Council believes that IBZs are dedicated places to prioritize our city’s industrial community, and that it is working to implement the Administration’s own 10-Point Industrial Action Plan.”

City Steps Back from their Industrial Action Plan

Almost two years to the day since Mayor de Blasio announced his historic Industrial Action Plan, the City seems to be stepping back from their plan. Yesterday, the City Planning Commission voted on a proposal to mix manufacturing and self-storage in core industrial areas. Rather than vote on the City’s own original proposal to limit self-storage, which was supported by the majority of community boards and industrial service providers, the Department of City Planning (DCP) put forward an amended proposal that will continue the self-storage industry’s as-of-right access to our core industrial areas. As the final stop in Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the City Council has the power to make alterations and corrections to a proposal before the text is enacted.

Two years after the Action Plan, the Administration is losing sight of some of the Mayor’s goals. Land-use policies that protect good jobs are an important part of an equitable economic development vision for the City. Employment-dense, blue-collar manufacturing uses are increasingly being displaced by non-manufacturing uses, including and especially self-storage, across the city.

The reforms that would have limited self-storage and hotels in the Industrial Business Zones were announced in the Action Plan two years ago. While the process for self-storage is reaching the end of its ULURP, the ULURP on hotels has not even started. All the while, these and other competing uses have continued to go up in core industrial areas, placing rent pressures on manufacturers to either pay up or get out. At this point, the City has the opportunity to fulfill one of these long-overdue promises to strengthen the IBZs.

But to do this, the City must ignore the self-storage industry and listen to the diverse set of manufacturers, developers, community boards, borough presidents, and city councilmembers, who are fighting in support of the Mayor’s original vision.

The self-storage text amendment (in both the original and A-Text forms) is unique in that it would finally map the Industrial Business Zones in zoning maps, creating a foundation for future use group reforms. However, the A-Text that passed yesterday only creates a foundation for more carve-outs in our core industrial areas, essentially putting a bullseye on the Industrial Business Zones. Once the City opens the door to the self-storage lobby to shape policy, you open the door for arguments about manufacturers needing hotels or big box retailers nearby, the next important fight. This same tactic – watering down a protection through a mixed-use proposal – can be re-applied in any future attempt at use group reform. It is true that this proposal is setting a major precedent; it is crucial that the City and Council ensure it set the right precedent.

Councilmembers know from their local Industrial Business Service providers and manufacturers that Industrial Business Zones need to be protected with meaningful zoning protections. As the core areas of industrial and manufacturing activity, Industrial Business Zones are hubs for good paying jobs and engines of economic opportunity. The Council has historically led and must continue to lead on strengthening Industrial Business Zones and championing industrial issues. ANHD and the Industrial Jobs Coalition look forward to continuing to work with the City Council to strengthen the IBZs, protect and grow industrial jobs and businesses, and keep the engine of opportunity running.
Armando Moritz-Chapelliquen, ANHD’s Campaign Coordinator for Equitable Economic Development

‘Fight’ Over Zoning Reform Should Be About Jobs, Not Industry Interests

Tuesday’s Crain’s story on the expected fight between the self-storage industry and City Hall announces industry efforts to weaken City industrial policy. The article recognizes the delay on crucial land use reforms yet improperly frames the state of current industrial policy. The City’s focus on the industrial and manufacturing sector to advance economic equity is the result of extensive research and assessment on the subject. The Mayor’s 10-Point Industrial Action Plan aims to support the creation and sustainability of good paying industrial jobs by limiting non-industrial uses through zoning reform.

The suggested “fight” is essentially the City standing up for well thought out policies that lead to the creation of more good-paying jobs in the City against the self-storage industry’s interests.

An out of control real estate market is the overarching problem for both existing and potential manufacturers looking to locate in the City. As Leah Archibald of industrial business provider organization Evergreen Exchange pointed out to Crain’s, nonindustrial uses that are permitted in industrial areas feed speculation, driving up rents and property values to the point where manufacturers are unable to compete. Jobs that leave as a result of this speculation are unlikely to come back if underlying conditions are not addressed. Competing uses like self-storage or hotels create fewer good paying jobs and drastically alter the composition of a neighborhood and further accelerate speculation.

As concluded in the Industrial Plan, limiting these competing uses through zoning mechanisms like a special permit is a sound policy tool with both local and citywide precedent. The Bridging Gowanus report, which comprehensively examined ways to move the community forward amidst speculative forces, explicitly highlights the need to restrict the capacity of competing non-industrial uses. Citywide, the City Council’s own Engines of Opportunity report on the industrial and manufacturing sector recognized the need for broad zoning reform to advance economic equity. This Administration’s Industrial Action Plan rightfully focuses on addressing competing uses as a way to create more jobs and economic opportunity for New Yorkers.

Now, over a year after the Mayor’s announcement, the Plan still provides a solid foundation for industrial policy to create economic equity. But implementation remains incomplete, to the detriment of employees, businesses, and communities citywide. Jobs are disappearing as the cost of operating an industrial business continues to rise. Delays to the full implementation of this plan – whether logistical or as a result of industry interests – do not change these realities. ANHD and industrial advocates throughout NYC will work with the Administration and the City Council to protect and grow the critical industrial jobs that serve families and their communities.

Industrial Action Plan One Year Later: What Has Moved and What Hasn’t

On the one-year anniversary of Mayor de Blasio’s unveiling of the Industrial Action Plan, various critical components of the 10-Point Vision remain unfulfilled. While aspects of the plan have moved forward, others have either seen little progress or gone a different direction than the original intent. Ultimately, the purpose of the plan is to ensure that New Yorkers can continue to tap into economic opportunity and mobility.

• Industrial advocates today sent a letter to the Administration highlighting major concerns and the urgency for advancing the full breadth of the Industrial Action Plan.
• Evergreen Exchange, North Brooklyn’s Industrial Business Service Provider, has a new video that demonstrates just why #ManufacturingMatters, not only for its strong wages, but for its crucial role in supporting local economies.
• The economic opportunity presented by the industrial and manufacturing sector was covered in the New York Times last week. In addition to reinforcing many points previously raised in the City Council’s Engines of Opportunity report, The Times reminds us that most manufacturers are small businesses, employing less than 20 workers.

As the Industrial Action Plan enters its second year, we are optimistic of opportunities to work alongside fellow advocates and with the City and the Council to develop an equity agenda that provides economic opportunities for all New Yorkers.

The promise of use group reform remains unfulfilled.

Almost one year ago, the Administration and the City Council, with the support of many of us in the economic development community, announced the Industrial Action Plan, a ten-point roadmap for strengthening the industrial and manufacturing sector, a growing source of middle-class jobs and entrepreneurial opportunity for New Yorkers in all five boroughs. One of the most significant promises out of that plan was the development of new “safeguards against the influx of tourist hotels and personal mini-storage facilities”. Unfortunately, the Administration’s publicly stated October 15^th deadline has passed, and the promise of use group reform remains unfulfilled.

The rationale behind creating these safeguards is “to preserve opportunities for industrial and manufacturing businesses” and the good paying jobs they bring to NYC. But these businesses are closing because they are being priced out of the City’s little manufacturing zoned land by non-manufacturing businesses. ANHD and the Pratt Center for Community Development, along with industrial advocates from across the city, were proud to stand with the Administration when it announced it would limit hotels and “implement restrictions on personal mini-storage and household goods storage facilities in IBZs through appropriate land use controls”. However, those land use tools have yet to be announced let alone implemented.

The jobs created by industrial and manufacturing businesses provide an opportunity for economic stability and social mobility; this has been central to the discussion of industrial policy for years. As demonstrated by the Council’s 2014 Engines of Opportunity report, jobs in this sector pay more than double in annual wages than the types of jobs that are often displacing them, such as retail, restaurants, and hotels.

Industrial use group reform can help the Administration, the Council, industrial advocates, and our communities in our shared goal of expanding the number of good quality jobs for lower skilled workers who so often struggle to achieve economic stability.

However, the Administration’s failure to fulfill this crucial commitment may be a disappointing sign for its Industrial Action Plan and for the broader realm of policies that can help ensure greater economic stability and social mobility for all New Yorkers. While the Administration has moved forward on some of its commitments, others that are essential to the City realizing the full economic benefit of this sector remain delayed. We urge the Administration to move forward on use group reform, and we look forward to continuing to work with the Administration and the Council as we work to serve and grow the jobs and business in the industrial sector.