Department of City Planning Launches New Online Platform to Help Community Boards Share Their Funding Priorities

For Immediate Release
July 30, 2024

Contacts:
Casey Berkovitz, Joe Marvilli - [email protected] (212) 720-3471

NEW YORK - Department of City Planning (DCP) Director Dan Garodnick today announced the launch of a new online platform to support NYC's 59 Community Boards to share their funding priorities with the City through the Community District Needs (CD Needs) process. A vital step in the creation of New York City's annual budget, the CD Needs process helps ensure responsive neighborhood and infrastructure planning and equitable and efficient delivery of services to communities.

The new online platform was developed by DCP in response to Community Board feedback and makes it easier than ever for them to participate in this process. Providing an individual submission form for each District, it allows Community Boards to submit customized budget requests that more fully reflect their needs, simplifies the process of submitting requests, includes a new submission tracker feature, and provides an overall enhanced user experience. The web platform is being launched after extensive preparatory work with Community Boards, including two months of feedback sessions and weekly training workshops.

"Community Boards play an essential role in our city's budget, and we should do all we can to make it as easy as possible for them to share their funding priorities. That's exactly what this new budget request platform will do. Thanks to its straightforward, intuitive design, Community Boards will now be able to more efficiently advocate for the resources their neighborhoods need. That's a big win for good governance and for all New Yorkers," said Department of City Planning Director Dan Garodnick.

"We thank DCP for the thoughtful, user-centered approach they took in developing this new platform. In addition to being more functionally responsive to the needs of Community District staff, the design is a beautiful and pleasant digital workspace. I'm especially excited by the new ability to upload our own additional content to supplement the standard questions, which will allow us to provide visual context and substantiating data to strengthen our narratives," said Taya Mueller, District Manager of Brooklyn Community Board #2.

"The new platform is quite user-friendly, for novices and experts alike," said Felicia Johnson, District Manager of Queens Community Board #14. "The training that DCP provided to Community Board members was extremely helpful to me as a first-time user and submitter, and I appreciate their patience and support."

The Community District Needs process plays a part in setting the next overall budget, and is separate and apart from Participatory Budgeting, which sets aside funds from the existing budget. Since 2015, DCP has worked with the Mayor's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to streamline and simplify the submission work for all 59 community boards.

In addition to managing the submission platform, DCP supports Community Boards in the preparation and submission of needs statements and budget requests by holding one-on-one training sessions to guide them through the budgetary process, highlighting recommended next steps, identifying opportunities to amend requests, and offering agency feedback where needed.

As part of the CD Needs process, Community Boards list their "top 3 pressing issues" with the City. In Fiscal Year 2025, affordable housing was once again the top-ranked concern, as it has been every year since 2015. This underlines the importance of the steps this administration is taking to combat the city's housing and affordability crisis, including "City of Yes for Housing Opportunity," the most pro-housing zoning proposal in New York City's history. To view the Fiscal Year 2025 Board's Statement of Community District Needs, go to DCP's Community District Profiles, select a District and click on the "Community Board" tab.

New Yorkers seeking to get involved in CD Needs conversations can contact their local Community Board by visiting the Community Affairs Unit's website.

Department of City Planning
The Department of City Planning (DCP) plans for the strategic growth and development of the City through ground-up planning with communities, the development of land use policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide, and its contribution to the preparation of the City's 10-year Capital Strategy. DCP promotes housing production and affordability, fosters economic development and coordinated investments in infrastructure and services, and supports resilient, sustainable communities across the five boroughs for a more equitable New York City.

In addition, DCP supports the City Planning Commission in its annual review of approximately 450 land use applications for a variety of discretionary approvals. The Department also assists both government agencies and the public by advising on strategic and capital planning and providing policy analysis, technical assistance and data relating to housing, transportation, community facilities, demography, zoning, urban design, waterfront areas and public open space.

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