On Friday, the staff of the New York City Charter Revision Commission sent commission members its recommendations for questions to put on the ballot on election day. Tonight, the commission will begin reviewing those recommendations. The processes for approving development and siting decisions won’t be among them. The charter commission’s staff recommends that land use “should be reserved for future consideration.”

But one thing that can’t wait are urgently needed fixes to the City Charter’s “fair share” provisions designed to ensure that no community is overburdened with polluting facilities.

The City Charter’s “fair share” provisions were widely hailed when first introduced and approved by voters in 1989. But two decades of experience has shown serious shortcomings that require charter revisions to fix. Most seriously, fair share only applies to city-owned facilities or those that receive most of their funding from the city. That has ended up excluding numerous facilities — including privately run waste transfer stations and power plants — leaving them highly concentrated in just a few, predominantly low-income areas. The fair share rules are failing to fulfill the City Charter’s intentions of making sure that no community district is burdened with a disproportionate number of polluting facilities – and the result is that communities continue to see their health and quality of life compromised.

The Charter Revision Commission staff report devotes most of its recommendations to changes in New York’s election processes; it proposes reinstating term limits, simplifying ballot access, and a new innovation called instant runoff voting, which would make all primary races for citywide elective office decisive even when no candidate gets a majority of votes. All of these proposals are worthy of discussion.

But meanwhile a previous charter innovation is dangerously broken, and needs to be addressed before the commission can responsibly take on new proposals. Fair share needs to be fixed this year, so environmentally overburdened neighborhoods don’t continue to serve dumping grounds for polluting facilities.

While tonight’s meeting will not include public testimony, future hearings will. We’ll keep you posted about opportunties to make sure the commission fixes fair share this year.

The City Charter acts as the constitution for the City of New York.  It sets out the rules for how the city functions.  In 1989, in recognition of the fact that certain communities –

especially low-income and communities of color –

house a concentration of facilities that together are damaging to the health and fabric of those neighborhoods, the Charter was amended to create a “Fair Share” provision.

The Fair Share provision promises to enable a system that “shall be designed to further the fair distribution among communities of the burdens and benefits associated with city facilities…and with due regard for the social and economic impacts of such facilities upon the areas surrounding the sites.”[1]

What’s broken and how can it be fixed?

The intent of this provision was betrayed by its implementation after the 1989 charter revision. The process that set up how Fair Share would work exempted important kinds of facilities, and made it very easy for the facilities to which it does pertain to escape the review process that the provision was intended to require.

Fair Share must be fixed by closing the loophole that allows exceptions to the mandated process. Fair Share should apply to a broader set of facilities, including private facilities whose operations are contracted by a public entity, and ones owned or operated by public authorities.  The determination of a community’s baseline burden should include all infrastructure and polluting facilities in order to accurately take into account the cumulative burden that a community bears. In addition, health statistics, air quality measures and other relevant data indicators should be incorporated into determining the baseline of burden upon a community.  Finally, the Statement of Needs should be replaced with a frequently updated and publicly available development information system that is coordinated with a comprehensive plan.

Why is it important now?

The 1989 Charter Revision Commission recognized the need for a Fair Share provision and crafted it.  Subsequent processes have betrayed the original intention.  This summer, a Charter Revision Commission has been formed and is deciding which issues it will address.  At the same time, the Department of City Planning is updating its Comprehensive Waterfront Revitalization Plan, which will directly impact how siting is performed in the city. These two processes should be consistent and closely aligned.  Charter Revision must address Fair Share this summer to ensure that overburdened communities are protected.

How can I help make sure that Fair Share gets fixed?

Speak up and tell the Commission that Fair Share must be fixed now!  Thursday, June 24^th , starting at 6p.m. at the Flushing Library, the Charter Revision Commission is holding its only Land-Use hearing before it releases its scope. If you plan to attend and speak about this topic, please contact nyceja <at> gmail.com for more information. If you cannot attend the hearing, you can contact the Commission here.  To learn more about upcoming opportunities for action, visit this site frequently.

Thursday, June 24th

Land Use Hearing at 6 p.m.

Queens Borough Public Library

Flushing Branch

41-17 Main Street, Flushing, Queens

By subway: 7  to Main Street (last stop)

By bus: Q12, Q13, Q17, Q19, Q20A, Q20B, Q25, Q26, Q27, Q34, Q44, Q58,Q65, Q66, QBx1

By commuter rail: LIRR’s Port Washington line to Flushing-Main Street