New York State Department of Economic Development Policy Planning and Development Unit Public Comments on World Trade Center…

In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 destruction of the World Trade Center, Congress authorized the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to allocate $700 million to New York to assist in the economic recovery and revitalization of not-for-profits and businesses in Lower Manhattan. The State designated the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) as the lead agency for using these funds to promote business recovery. The ESDC (the former Urban Development Corporation) worked with New York City's Economic Development Corporation to develop an action plan to use those funds for indicated purposes.

On December 26, 2001, ESDC published a draft action plan for public comment. As required by HUD, the public had fifteen days, from December 26, 2001 to January 11, 2002, to comment on the draft plan. To encourage public comment, ESDC mailed a summary of the draft plan to approximately 16,500 businesses in Lower Manhattan and made the full document available in several languages through the Internet. ESDC also published invitations for public comment in various New York metropolitan area newspapers. ESDC reviewed the public comments and developed a final plan which it submitted to HUD on January 30, 2002.

During the latter stages of developing this action plan, New York State received a new federal appropriation of $2 billion of assistance. This appropriation provided additional support to not-for-profits and businesses who were already covered by the initial $700 million as well as assistance to individuals impacted by the September 11th events, who were not covered by the original funding. The Empire State Development Corporation, working though a recently formed subsidiary, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation, was again the lead agency for this new appropriation. The ESDC, working though a recently formed subsidiary (the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation) was again the lead agency for this new appropriation. As of mid-March 2002, ESDC was preparing a new action plan to encompass not only the new $2 billion but also the original $700 million.

This series consists of the Policy Planning and Development Unit's records concerning its part in developing the Action Plan for New York Business Recovery and Economic Revitalization.

Records include a paper copy of the December 26, 2001 draft plan; a Microsoft Access database summarizing approximately 400 comments received; a paper copy of the January 30, 2002 final plan submitted by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) to the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD); and a paper copy of the January 14, 2002 summary of the public comments, which ESDC used to help complete the final action plan. The action plan comments, summarized in the database, provide documentation of public concerns and cover a range of issues, and are categorized under the major headings of small business assistance, retention and attraction assistance, economic revitalization, infrastructure rebuilding, administration, and general comments. Researchers should note that the comments themselves, which were submitted via email and US Mail, are not part of this series.

The Empire State Development Corporation, which is separate from though affiliated with the Department of Economic Development, maintains additional records on the development of the action plan for the $700 million appropriation as well as for the subsequent $2 billion of assistance.

There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this material.