Public Testimony

• Public Design Commission meetings are being held via videoconferencing on Zoom and in-person at the Public Design Commission Board Room on the 3rd floor of City Hall. 
• Members of the public can attend and give testimony either in-person or remotely. Masks are encouraged for in-person attendance.
• For public hearings, members of the public can:
  • sign up to give testimony using this form or by sending an email to designcommission@cityhall.nyc.gov.
  • participate in public hearings using either the Zoom app on a smartphone or computer, by telephone using a dial-in number, or in-person at the Public Design Commission Board Room
• Read the instructions for participating in Design Commission meetings remotely.

Members of the public are welcome to testify at public hearings (see procedures for testimony below). Testimony should be limited to issues of design and aesthetic merit, as that is the Public Design Commission's purview.

Testimony is not heard for projects on the consent agenda. If you wish to testify regarding a design-related issue of a project on the consent agenda, please notify staff as soon as possible.

When there have been no substantive changes beyond those required by the Commission and the project is submitted for final approval within one year of preliminary approval, a second hearing may not be required. In such cases, the Commission may vote to give final approval without affording an additional opportunity for public comment.

Written Testimony Procedures

Meeting Agendas are posted on the Commission's website at least three business days in advance of the public hearing date.

People are encouraged to submit written testimony in advance of the meeting date, so that it can be distributed to the Commission members before the meeting. If you submit testimony for a project that has not yet been submitted to the Commission or scheduled for review, your comments will be kept on file and distributed to the Commission when the project is calendared for review. For more information on when a project will be submitted to the Commission for review, please contact the appropriate City agency liaison.

Testimony can be sent to the Public Design Commission via mail, fax or email

Public Design Commission of the City of New York
City Hall
Third Floor
New York, NY 10007

Fax: 212-312-0836
Email: designcommission@cityhall.nyc.gov

Spoken Testimony Procedures

Spoken testimony should be limited to three minutes in duration. Please assign one representative from each group, organization, or institution to speak on behalf of the entire group. If there are a significant number of people who wish to testify, the Commission, at its discretion, may further limit the allotted time.

Public Design Commission meetings are held in the conference room on the third floor of City Hall, unless otherwise indicated. Members of the public who plan to attend are encouraged to arrive at least 45 minutes in advance of the estimated time, as all times are approximate and subject to change. Members of the public will be called to testify in the order in which they signed in with staff.