Senate Bill S7365

                                 
BILL NUMBER: S7365

SPONSOR: HARCKHAM
 
TITLE OF BILL:

An act to amend the environmental conservation law, in relation to smart
growth public infrastructure criteria

 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:

To ensure that state-funded infrastructure projects are developed in a
manner that promotes sustainable land use, supports existing communi-
ties, preserves open space and natural resources, and reduces environ-
mental impacts.

 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:

Section 1 amends subdivision 1 of section 6-0107 of the Environmental
Conservation Law to require that no state infrastructure agency or the
New York State Urban Development Corporation approve, undertake,
support, or finance a public infrastructure project unless, to the
extent practicable, it is consistent with the smart growth criteria
              

outlined in subdivision 2 of this section.

Section 2 amends paragraphs i, j, and k of subdivision 2 of 6-0107 of
the Environmental Conservation Law to clarify and expand the smart
growth criteria. Adds a new paragraph 1, which promotes public transit
ridership by requiring transit infrastructure to facilitate access to
jobs, cultural, and recreational amenities, and to be located within a
quarter-mile walking distance of such destinations, while being
protected from extreme weather and traffic violence.

Section 3 sets the effective date.

 
JUSTIFICATION:

This bill by requiring projects to support transit access within a short
walking distance of employment, cultural, and recreational amenities,
and protecting said infrastructure from extreme weather & traffic
violence addresses environmental justice, reduces greenhouse gas emis-
sions, and promotes safer, more connected communities.

The mission of Empire State Development ("ESD") is to, among other
items, promote a vigorous and growing state economy and job creation,
and support diverse, prosperous local economies across New York State.
Yet in examining ESD's portfolio of projects, a key factor credited with
accelerating the growth of New York's economy, enhancing the socio-eco-
nomic mobility of its workforce, and making New York's per capita carbon
emissions the lowest in the United States is seldom considered: public
transportation.

As a public development corporation financed by taxpayers, it is incum-
bent upon ESD to ensure that New Yorkers are able to access the opportu-
nities ESD's projects bring. Yet all too often, ESD's projects show
little consideration of (and thus are out of reach to) transit riders.

Development without consideration for public transportation has been
shown to encourage automobile dependency and urban sprawl, which the
Regional Plan Association estimates is attributable to 94% of the 68,000
lost acres of forest land in New York State between 2001 and 2019. With-
out intervention, this and other ESD initiatives will yield more of the
sprawling development patterns that threaten New York's natural heritage
and open space.

As documented by NY Renews' report, ESD has repeatedly ignored both the
Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Policy Act and the Climate Leadership
and Community Protection Act. After a proposed project in rural Alabama,
New York failed seven of the Smart Growth Infrastructure Policy Act's
ten criteria, ESD deemed the requirements "impracticable" and proceeded
with the project anyways. The project, equivalent in size to 945 foot-
ball fields, would develop or decommission 950 acres of farmland, 275 of
them considered "prime" according to the Investigative Post.

Making ESD subject to the State Smart Growth Public Infrastructure Poli-
cy Act requires them to demonstrate a good-faith effort to comport its
plans to the principals of smart growth outlined in existing New York
State law. This will ensure that the economic growth ESD fosters is open
to all New Yorkers regardless of their preferred mode of travel and does
not needlessly deplete New York's natural and agricultural resources.

 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:

New bill.

 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:

TBD.

 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.