Mayor Bloomberg to address conference on future of rezoning in N.Y.C. - November 15; Co-chairs: N.Y.C. Planning Comissioner Burden and Harvard's Kayden

Mayor Michael Bloomberg will address the agenda-setting conference "Zoning The City," November 15 at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center. Decision makers, scholars and noted planners will explore how zoning can confront 21st century economic, social, environmental, and physical challenges facing New York City at this day-long event sponsored by the New York City Department of City Planning, the Harvard University Graduate School of Design and Baruch College's Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute. Join Bloomberg LP CEO Dan Doctoroff, architects Thom Mayne and Robert A.M. Stern, The New Yorker's Paul Goldberger, NYU professor and deputy chancellor Hilary Ballon, and Alex Garvin, professor of Urban Planning and Management at Yale University, among others, to debate how to chart the city's future. They will be welcomed by Bloomberg who will open the conference. The conference co-chairs, New York City planning commissioner Amanda Burden and Harvard University professor Jerold Kayden have assembled 24 influential urban thinkers of varying backgrounds, including prominent New Yorkers and current and former heads of the planning departments of San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Denver, Newark and Boston, to envision New York City's future and explore how zoning can help shape it. In this fiftieth year anniversary of the landmark 1961 New York City Zoning Resolution, participants at this conference will prioritize the greatest challenges New York City faces for the next 50 years and spark ideas about the role zoning will play in addressing them. Burden said, "This conference is an investment in New York's future. The Zoning Resolution must continue to evolve to promote investment in the city's future, address issues of equity, increase the city's climate resilience and raise quality of life for all. That's why this conference is so pivotal. Convening urban thinkers to anticipate challenges the city may face in the 21st century and conceive innovative strategies to address these issues will ensure that New York City remains at the forefront of planning, poised to fulfill the needs of future New Yorkers and to remain the world's greatest large city." Kayden said, "For close to a century, New York City has been the leading city in the United States for zoning innovation. The city's enthusiasm for challenging itself about the role zoning will play in its future, as demonstrated by this conference, is not only refreshing for the city, but if history is any guide will influence how cities around the country and even the world approach zoning." Bloomberg will set the stage for conference participants, who include: Rohit Aggarwala, C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group; Hillary Ballon, deputy vice chancellor, NYU Abu Dhabi,University Professor of Urban Studies and Architecture, NYU; Burden; Rick Bell, executive director, American Institute of Architects New York; Matthew Carmona, professor of Planning & Urban Design, Bartlett School of Planning, University College London; Vishaan Chakrabarti, Holliday professor and director, Center for Urban Real Estate, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning & Preservation, Columbia University; Daniel Doctoroff, president and CEO of Bloomberg LP; Alex Garvin, professor of Urban Planning and Management (Adjunct), Yale University; President and CEO, AGA Public Realm Strategists ; Paul Goldberger, Architecture Critic, The New Yorker; Toni Griffin, professor and director, J. Max Bond Center for Architecture at the Spitzer School of Architecture, CUNY; Rosanne Haggerty, president, Community Solutions (CS); Errol Louis, Host, "Inside City Hall," NY1; Thom Mayne, founder, Morphosis; Jack Nyman, director, Steven L. Newman Real Estate Institute, Baruch College, CUNY; Peter Park, Loeb Fellow, Harvard University Graduate School of Design; John Rahaim, director of Planning, City and County of San Francisco; Jonathan F. P. Rose, president, Jonathan Rose Companies; Kairos Shen, chief planner, Boston Redevelopment Authority; Robert A. M. Stern, Dean, Yale School of Architecture, founder and senior partner, Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP; Mary Ann Tighe, CEO, New York Tri-State Region, CB Richard Ellis, chair, Real Estate Board of New York; Harriet Tregoning, director, Office of Planning, Government of the District of Columbia; Carol Willis, founder, director, curator, The Skyscraper Museum, New York, adjunct associate professor of Urban Studies, Columbia University. The conference will take place from 8:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m., Tuesday, November 15 at the McGraw-Hill Conference Center, 1221 Avenue of the Americas, 2nd Floor, New York City. Visit www.zoningthecity.com to view the full conference agenda and reserve a spot for this important meeting. The Department of City Planning (DCP) promotes strategic growth, transit-oriented development, and sustainable communities in the City, in part by initiating comprehensive, consensus-based planning and zoning changes for individual neighborhoods and business districts, as well as establishing policies and zoning regulations applicable citywide. It supports the City Planning Commission and each year reviews more than 500 land use applications for actions such as zoning changes and disposition of City property. The Department assists both government agencies and the public by providing policy analysis and technical assistance relating to housing, transportation, community facilities, demography, waterfront and public.