NYC Council passes bills to improve parking garage safety. Here's why the DOB objects.
NEW YORK -- The City Council on Thursday passed several bills to make parking garages safer, more than a year after the deadly collapse in the Financial District.
The main city agency affected by the bills is the Department of Buildings and it objected to all three of them, but that didn't stop the City Council from voting overwhelmingly in favor.
CBS New York Investigates reported within hours of the deadly Financial District collapse that there were open violations that noted missing or loose concrete at the garage years ago.
What the bills entail
One of the bills requires a study on the weight capacity of garages and one would double the penalties for some DOB violations at garages.
The DOB said it doesn't have the ability to conduct that study, adding it already has some methods of increasing penalties. It also opposes a bill that would require parking garage owners to have their garages inspected more often.
Council members explain why they passed the bills
The members said the changes are needed to fix a damaged system, as the owners of more than 200 garages have not complied with the city's inspection rules.
"Building violation penalties should not be an operating cost where companies can just pay and move on," Majority Leader Amanda Farias said.
"New Yorkers need to feel safe and what we're doing in passing these laws is creating more confidence in the infrastructure we have in this city, and if that's something the administration wants to push back on, then that's on them but not on the council," Council member Crystal Hudson said.
"We went through extensive communication with the administration to get the bill to where it needed to be, including changing the date of the study being needed to be read. The council members say they worked with the Department of Buildings and even adjusted the bills based on a testimony from the buildings commissioner," Majority Whip Selvena N. Brooks-Powers added.
However, the DOB said the changes did not address the concerns he raised in that testimony last month, adding he also testified last month that the garage inspection requirements are new so he asked council members to hold off on considering changes.
The bills are now headed to Mayor Eric Adams' desk.
CBS New York asked his office if he plans to sign or veto them and a spokesperson simply referred us to what the DOB has said on the matter.
