Latest news with #PlanningDepartment
India Gazette
a day ago
- Politics
- India Gazette
CM Devendra Fadnavis directs all departments to prepare vision document for 'Viksit Maharashtra 2047'
Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 3 (ANI): Maharashtra Government's Planning Department has issued a resolution for all its departments, directing them to prepare a vision document for the subject 'Viksit Maharashtra 2047 vision document.' This will be on the lines of the Union Government's scheme of Viksit Bharat 2047 as outlined by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has set a 150-day time period from May 6 to October 2, to prepare the document, which will primarily focus on a phase-wise vision. The first phase includes a long-term vision or plan for developed Maharashtra by 2047. The midterm phase includes vision or plans to prepare a plan for Maharashtra 2035, when state will complete its 75 years of its foundation. The third phase includes short term plan to prepare a vision document for October 2029, when the present government will complete its five years term. Earlier in May, Prime Minister Narendra Modi chaired the 10th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog at Bharat Mandapam where he said that all the states should work together to make India a developed country and achieve the vision of a 'Viksit Bharat' by 2047. Prime Minister Modi said that we should commit to developing every state, every city, and every village, and only then would we be able to make the country a Viksit Bharat. The meeting was attended by Chief Ministers and Lieutenant Governors, representing 24 states and seven Union Territories. This year, the theme for the meeting was 'Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat@2047'. The meeting commenced with a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of the Pahalgam terrorist attack. The Prime Minister also asked NITI Aayog to study the suggestions of States and UTs made during the meeting. He said the 10th Governing Council Meeting of NITI Aayog is a milestone of its 10 years of journey which defines and outlines the vision for 2047. PM Modi observed that the Governing Council Meetings have helped in nation building and it has emerged as a platform for joint action and shared aspirations. He expressed confidence that India is progressing on the path to fulfil the vision of Viksit Rajya for Viksit Bharat @2047 through the power of cooperative federalism. (ANI)
Saba Yemen
2 days ago
- Business
- Saba Yemen
Hodeidah: Workshop on Preparing Development Plan, prioritizing economic empowerment projects
Hodeidah – Saba: A workshop was held today in Hodeidah Governorate to prepare the integrated development plan for the year 1447 AH and determine the priorities for economic empowerment projects. The event involved the participation of heads of agricultural cooperative associations and district planning directors. Organized by the Planning Department in coordination with the General Administration for Development Research and Training, the Tihama Development Authority, the Agricultural Cooperative Union, and Bonyan Foundation—with support from the Agricultural and Fisheries Projects and Initiatives Funding Unit—the workshop aimed to develop a comprehensive plan based on the actual needs of rural communities. Governor Abdullah Atifi emphasized the importance of participatory planning to draft a development map aligned with district needs. He highlighted that the success of such plans depends on community engagement and the effective role of agricultural cooperatives in setting realistic priorities. First Deputy Governor Ahmed Al-Bishri stressed the shift from traditional to need-based planning, calling for accurate data and genuine cooperation among all stakeholders. He pointed out Hodeidah's strong agricultural potential, which, if utilized effectively, could significantly transform rural livelihoods. Assistant Deputy Governor Mutahar Al-Hadi underlined that successful planning depends on a clear understanding of the local environment and the efficient use of resources. He stressed the importance of community engagement and institutional support for cooperatives. Key contributions came from the Head of the Tihama Development Authority, Ali Haza'a, Zakat Office Director Mohammed Haza'a, Agricultural Union Branch Head Ahmed Al-Haij, and Statistics Office Director Tamim Al-Absi. They discussed the importance of role integration and information sharing. The workshop reviewed successful past initiatives by cooperative associations, including desert land cultivation and dairy production. It also addressed challenges such as limited funding, access to inputs, and the need for administrative and technical capacity building. Facebook Whatsapp Telegram Email Print more of (Local)
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Downtown Boston zoning changes could allow buildings up to 700 feet tall
The skyline of downtown Boston could soon be getting a lot taller. Zoning changes proposed for downtown, stretching from the Boston Common to the Rose Kennedy Greenway, would allow developers to construct new buildings up to 700 feet tall, or about 70 stories, in some areas. Closer to the Common, heights will be capped at 100 to 155 feet. Currently, the tallest building in that area is Winthrop Center at 691 feet and 52 stories tall, which was completed last year. The next-tallest is the Millennium Tower, at 684 feet and 60 stories; the South Station tower, currently under construction, will eventually reach 677 feet and 51 stories. Almost immediately after the final draft zoning was released Thursday, downtown residents began airing their concerns about what it could lead to. 'This is not thoughtful, comprehensive planning - it is a high-rise tower gamble devoid of sound analysis and valid proof of concept,' a group of neighborhood organizations wrote in a shared statement Thursday evening. 'Furthermore, it will not yield meaningful on-site, truly affordable housing and stands to threaten the character of the neighborhood.' The changes are part of Boston's PLAN: Downtown initiative, part of the larger overhaul of the convoluted zoning code. The city has said the changes will allow for higher housing density, creating more homes to address the housing crisis. Any residential development will have to set aside 20% of the units created as affordable housing under the existing inclusionary zoning rules. The original draft of the new zoning was released in January, and from the beginning, it received fierce opposition. During the initial public comment period, hundreds of residents sent in letters, the vast majority railing against the proposal. 'To me, this plan represents the 'Manhattanization' of Boston, and (I) am strongly opposed to that happening in a city with a totally different history, character, and size from that of New York,' one downtown resident, Esther Messing, wrote in an email to the Planning Department, according to a compilation of public comment letters released by the city. 'We did not buy in a high-rise tower in the Seaport, we chose to be in a neighborhood that we committed to making more of a community,' wrote Anne Peacher, another downtown resident. 'This plan does the EXACT OPPOSITE of what we hoped.' Under the newest version, the area will be broken up into two zoning districts, 'SKY' and 'SKY-LOW-D.' The latter, consisting of the corridor closest to the Boston Common and another section closer to the waterfront, has lower maximum building heights to prioritize 'preservation of existing structures and scale' in areas with many historic buildings. Since the initial January proposal, the map has been changed to include more areas in this district, including Park Plaza, the areas around Reader's Plaza and the Old South Meeting House and the Ladder Blocks along Washington Street. In the newest draft, the SKY-LOW-D district also allows for planned development areas, a type of development project that introduces specialty zoning, usually more permissive than the existing zoning. Planned Development Areas will only be possible on lots of at least 1 acre that include a city landmark, and must be predominantly residential. In the remaining SKY district, building heights will be restricted by laws governing shadows on the Common and Federal Aviation Administration airspace rules, whichever is lower. This means that in the area farthest from the Common, buildings can reach 700 feet, but as they get closer, the maximum height will decrease. The Back Bay, Bay Village and Downtown Boston Neighborhood Associations, Beacon Hill Civic Association, Boston Preservation Alliance, Freedom Trail Foundation, Friends of the Public Garden, Revolutionary Spaces and other residents of the area, who released the statement Thursday, said they would be happy with a compromise that extended the lower height restrictions further but still allowed tall buildings further into the Financial District. 'Boston still bears the scars of misguided, top-down planning efforts that led to the destruction of the West End and portions of Roxbury and the South End,' they wrote. 'We cannot afford to repeat those mistakes.' Boston cornhole competition to raise money for performing arts scholarship Feds put Boston and other cities 'on notice' over sanctuary laws WATCH: Baseball team congrats Mass. teen for completing cancer treatment Beloved New England gourmet grilled cheese brand opens new Boston spot Man who rented apartments for Mass. high-end brothel network sentenced to prison Read the original article on MassLive.
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
New S.F. data is most detailed yet on how long it takes to move through city's notorious permit process
The time it takes to get approval to build something in San Francisco has fallen since a number of streamlining measures were implemented last year — but some departments still struggle to meet the city's new target times. That's according to new data compiled by the Planning Department and the Department of Building Inspection, which is published in a new dashboard tracking the processes as part of Mayor Daniel Lurie's PermitSF initiative. The effort aims to simplify the city's notoriously long and often convoluted permitting process. The dashboard includes two main components: one tracks the median number of days it takes to get through the entire planning or building process, and the other breaks down how long the planning and building departments each take to complete their steps in the process. Together, the dashboard and underlying data provide more transparency into San Francisco's permitting process than previously existed. Using the data, a Chronicle analysis found that the time it takes to approve a project or issue a permit has sped up in recent years. Michelle Reynolds, a spokesperson for PermitSF, noted that the city made 'significant changes' to the planning and building review processes starting in January 2024, in response to state law as well as local changes under former Mayor London Breed. The time spent in both planning and building dropped after those changes were implemented, the data show. Planning approval plummeted from a median of 222 to 133 days, and building went from a median of 258 to 209. So far this year, the median times are on track to be even faster. Within the process, each step now has its own target for how long it's supposed to take — a metric dubbed the 'shot clock' in a press release from Lurie's administration. Such goals 'make the process more predictable for homeowners and businesses' and hold departments accountable for any delays, the release said. The target times went into effect this month. So far, according to the dashboard, the city seems to be faring well: Over the last year, though the targets had not yet been set, the building department completed tasks within the target window most of the time, and the planning department only missed its target for resubmission reviews. Still, that doesn't mean that all projects and permits are suddenly sailing through: In both the planning and the building departments, nearly 30% of permits took longer than the target 30 days to get through a first review. Missed target times will be incorporated into staff performance plans, according to Lurie's office. The metrics don't measure any time spent on required pre-application neighborhood outreach, which can add significant delays to projects. Michelle Reynolds, a spokesperson for PermitSF, noted that in July 2023, the city removed the pre-application requirement for most projects, although some bigger projects, like new construction or additions over a certain size still need it. Additionally, the total time metric for planning approval does not include checking whether the application is complete, a process that can take multiple rounds of submittals to the city. That metric is measured, however, in the planning department's 'shot clock' dashboard, with a target time of 21 days. The new data also reveal how long permits spend at each 'review station,' or city departments that need to check various permits for safety and code compliance. While the complexity of what each department must review varies with each project, some hit the city's new targets more often than others. A number of stations fell behind in the first review stage, which is when a plan is first checked for compliance (the city sets a 30-day target for these), but most hit the target for rechecks, or reviews of plans that have been revised, over the last year (a 14-day target). Of departments that completed at least 200 reviews from May 2024 and through April 2025, only one missed the target on most projects for both first reviews and rechecks: the Bureau of Urban Forestry, which handles permits on street trees and foliage. (Because the targets are new, the Bureau of Urban Forestry was not technically held to these targets over the 12 months ending in April, but has been starting this month.) In an email, Chris Heredia, a spokesperson for the Bureau, said that slower response times are due to a 'staffing issue,' as inspectors, who are also tasked both with upkeep of existing city trees, can only allocate about 20% of their time to permits. 'San Franciscans want trees with new construction,' he wrote, noting that construction, and the load on inspectors, had seen an uptick. 'We don't have an adequate number of urban forestry inspectors to meet the demand.' Still, he said that review times had improved in recent months.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Anchorage leaders move to change 'site access' rules they say hamper new housing development
May 29—The Anchorage mayor's office and members of the Assembly are pushing for a package of changes to zoning rules that they say are impeding development and stalling new housing construction the city desperately needs. "Anchorage needs to build more housing, but some of our tools are broken. To build the future we want, first we need to fix our tools," Mayor Suzanne LaFrance said in a statement released alongside two influential members of the Assembly, a signal the administration is aligned with legislators on the measure. The ordinance from the administration, Assembly Vice Chair Anna Brawley and member Daniel Volland is 51 pages of technical adjustments to a set of policies loosely labeled "site access." Those are the rules scattered throughout Title 21, the building code, that cover requirements for various access routes people use to get into their homes and other buildings. "The proposal is complex but could be summarized as a simplification of standards for driveways, parking areas, and building frontages, with an emphasis on flexibility while providing for better physical definitions of private property and the street," according to a staff report from the municipality's Planning Department. The proposed reforms, which are up for public testimony in June, came out of a monthslong working group that brought together developers, planners, community advocates, elected officials and others to address building rules that were hindering new projects. "I would characterize this one less as 'unlocking a bunch of new housing.' This is fixing something that isn't working in the code now," Brawley said in an interview. Over the last several years, elected officials from all different political backgrounds have been trying to change planning and zoning rules in ways that make it easier to build new residential units. But not all those adjustments have worked. Brawley said there are big sections of the building code that are so technical, cumbersome, and hard to understand that simply parsing it has become a delay for builders. "If the code is too complicated to read, then it's not working," Brawley said. The new proposal simplifies code around site access development. It also grants more administrative discretion for the many instances where projects, especially in-fill development and new multifamily structures, involve nuances and variables that are hard to completely square with written regulations. "What problem were we trying to solve here?" asked Daniel Mckenna-Foster from the city's Long-Range Planning Division during a February meeting hosted by the Federation of Community Councils. "It's really about the interaction between private properties and the how people get from one to the other." Many of the requirements addressed in the new ordinance have been on pause since the Assembly passed a moratorium on implementing them several months ago. That pause is set to expire this November. The working group proposal, which was endorsed by the Planning and Zoning Commission in March before it went along to the Assembly, would replace the previous site access rules. "It is more expensive and challenging than ever to build housing in Anchorage," said Tyler Robinson, Vice President of Cook Inlet Housing Authority, in a statement released after the working group made it's recommendations. "The changes to code introduced by the Site Access ordinance fundamentally broke our ability to provide more housing to the community — from single-family homes to large apartment buildings." LaFrance has made housing a policy priority for her administration, emphasizing that the municipality and Assembly need a multi-prong approach to add 10,000 new housing units in the coming decade. The administration, along with allies on the Assembly who are pushing for better development strategies, say one piece of that is promptly scrapping policies that aren't working. "This is fixing problems we already know about, this isn't new policy," Brawley said of the new proposal. "I think it's both the product and the process we wanted to highlight." The Assembly will hear public testimony on the ordinance at its June 10 meeting.
