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S319Senate2013-2014 Session

Requires that variance and special permit decisions made by the board of standards and appeals be made by a two-thirds majority of the quorum

Sponsor Tony AvellaSD-11+1 co-sponsorAffects Local Government
Status
In Senate Committee
Cities
Impact
Pending
Passage
Pending

Bill progress

Step 2 of 7

In committee · Cities

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Who cares

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Sponsors

Primary sponsor
Tony Avella

Senator · Senate District 11

Chair, Social Services

1 Co-sponsor

History

  1. Referred to cities
  2. Committed to rules
  3. Advanced to third reading
  4. 2nd report cal.
  5. 1st report cal.920
  6. Referred to cities

Full text

The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.

Sponsor's memo

BILL NUMBER:S319

Title of bill

REVISED 12/10/12

An act to amend the New York city charter, in relation to requiring the variance and special permit decisions made by the board of standards and appeals be made by a two-thirds majority of the quorum present and voting

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill sets forth the legislative findings and intent of the bill.

Section 2 amends subdivision b of section 668 of the New York city charter, as added by local law number 102 of the city of New York for the year 1977, by requiring that variance and special permit decisions shall only be made by a two-thirds majority of the quorum present and voting.

Section 3 provides for this act to take effect immediately.

Justification

This bill is being introduced as a companion piece of legislation to a proposed local law to expand the membership of the Board of Standards and Appeals (UBSA") to thirteen members, with the eight additional members to be appointed, one each, by the borough presidents, Public Advocate, Comptroller and City Council. Therefore, should the membership of the BSA be increased to 13, this legislation to require a two-third majority vote will not create a difficult mandate.

The justification for this amendment is based on the understanding that decisions of this nature - zoning decisions - represent permanent alterations to the fabric of the city and can affect the rights of many property owners for years to come.

Therefore, it is reasonable that zoning decisions made by BSA should only be done where there is a two-thirds majority of the quorum present and voting.

This will ensure that decisions of such magnitude are addressed by a substantial majority of the BSA.

Prior legislative history

2011-12: S.6105/A.9197 (Brennan)

Fiscal implications for state and local governments

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.

Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.