The Importance of ULURP (Excuse me)

ULURP is the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.  Here is a short blurb about it:

"Prior to 1976, the City Planning Commission reviewed only applications related to zoning, the city map and urban renewal and housing. In 1976, the list of applications subject to Commission review was enlarged and now includes, pursuant to the City Charter enacted in 1989, those itemsdescribed below. The Charter's intent in requiring ULURP was to establish a standardized procedure whereby applications affecting the land use of the city would be publicly reviewed. The Charter also established mandated time frames within which application review must take place. Key participants in the ULURP process are now the Department of City Planning (DCP) and the City Planning Commission (CPC), Community Boards, the Borough Presidents, the Borough Boards, the City Council and the Mayor."  For more detail see: http://www.nyc.gov/html/dcp/html/luproc/ulpro.shtml#ccr

Right now, the proposed development does not require ULURP. It is important to get the DOE to agree to ULURP because it puts the decision making process in to the hands of other players including the Community Board, the Manhattan Borough Present and the City Council.