NYC’s City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR) Technical Manual provides guidelines, including methodologies, for technical analyses used to identify potential significant adverse impacts. These methodologies are presented in Chapters 4 through 22 of the manual. Key changes introduced in the December 2021 edition of the manual, compared to the 2020 edition, are discussed below.
1. Determining Impact Significance has incorporated a new threshold for significant impact:
2. Determining Impact Significance for High Schools has incorporated new thresholds for significant impact:
1. Determination of whether open space assessment is appropriate has been updated to remove reference to well-served and underserved areas. The threshold for analysis remains as more than 200 residents and 500 non-residents for indirect effects.
2. Preliminary assessment includes a new table for detail assessment thresholds (Table 7-1). It provides general guidelines for ranges of Open Space Ratios and tolerated percentage changes.
3. Preliminary assessment also can incorporate proximity to nearby regional parks or other substantial open space resources located just outside of study area boundaries when determining if a detailed assessment is required.
4. Preliminary assessment also requires analysis of Project Site based on the NYC Parks Walk to a Park Initiative and provides a map identifying Walk to a Park Service Area and “walk gaps.”
5. Determining Impact Significance has incorporated a new table for significant impact thresholds (Table 7-5). Percentage reductions in Open Space Ratios signifying a possible adverse open space impact in the table do not constitute an absolute impact threshold and projects that may result in significant quantitative impact are typically further assessed in the qualitative assessment approach.
1. Trip generation rates (total person-trips per day) and/or temporal distributions (% of daily trips that show up in each peak hour) were updated for 11 of the 19 uses in Table 16-2 of the previous manual. The new manual also adds rates for the following new land uses:
2. For the first time, the manual now also includes recommended modal splits for some land uses.
o The modal splits are provided for hotel, supermarket, local retail, and medical office uses.
o The modal splits are broken down by borough, weekday vs weekend, and “non-transit zone” vs a “transit zone.”
3. The significant impact thresholds for intersections have been modified, with any lane group operating at level of service (LOS) D or better being considered acceptable, compared to mid-LOS D or better in the prior manual. This effectively redefines acceptable traffic conditions to be anything operating better than LOS E. In addition, the significant impacts threshold for LOS E was changed from +4 seconds to +5 seconds of delay, while the significant impact threshold for LOS F was changed from +3 seconds to +4 seconds of delay. These changes provide slightly relaxed significant impact criteria, which could (a) result in fewer traffic impacts and (b) make mitigating impacts easier.
4. The 2021 edition places greater emphasis on the safety assessment, especially in relation to pedestrian/bicyclist safety and NYC’s Vision Zero initiative. Under the prior edition, the safety assessment generally required a safety assessment and associated recommendations for study intersections that met the high-crash location criteria. The new manual now expands the area within which to check for high-crash locations to be any location within ¼ mile of the project site, independent of whether it was identified as a study location per the vehicular traffic analysis threshold (i.e., 50 new trips).
1. National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) table has been updated to include column for New York State Standards. It also now includes Annual Arithmetic Mean and Maximum 24-Hour Concentration for Sulfur Dioxide.
2. Station Source Screen nomographs (Figure 17-3 and in appendices) has been revised to include one curve for all stack heights. Curves for separate stack heights of 30 feet, 100 feet and 165 feet were removed. Nomographs for #6 or #4 oil have been removed from the appendices. New buildings must use #2 oil or natural gas.
3. Air quality modeling for mobile source refers only to CAL3QHC/R for CO and PM, although AERMOD is EPA’s preferred model for PM.
4. Industrial Source Screen (Table 17-3) has been updated with slightly different distances from previous iteration. A column for 3-hour averaging period has also been included. Screening height remains 20 feet and a screening distance of 400 feet. This table has different numbers from the same table in the appendices, which seem to have not been updated. The ones in the chapter are more conservative.
5. Appendices for calculating fuel usage for residential, etc., uses were not updated with the latest data and are the same ones from the mid-1990s.
1. Assessment methods has been updated for Aircraft Noise to include direct links to Final Noise Exposure Map Report for JFK and LaGuardia airports.
2. Assessment methods Section 312 and Figure 19-1, which provided a screening threshold for detailed stationary source noise analysis has been removed.
3. Duration of noise measurement procedure has been updated to allow use of calculated noise data if measured noise data is extremely variable. It has also been updated to include recommended measurement period for train facilities. Typically, 1-hour measurement is recommended but shorter measurements may be allowed for certain train facilities such as, subways.
4. Existing condition vehicular traffic noise analysis has been updated to remove the assumption allowance of 3 dB(A) attenuation per doubling of distance to estimate existing noise levels at receptor locations if noise levels cannot be measured at the receptor locations.
5. Existing condition train noise analysis has been updated to incorporate FTA’s guidance manual for detail analysis methodology. Leq(1) and Ldn values may be calculated as a function of a number of factors, including the distance between the track and receptor; shielding at the receptor; number of trains; average number of cars per train; train speed; track conditions; whether the track is on grade or on structure; etc.
6. Mobile source analysis has been updated to include the use of proprietary models if all data are made available and discussed with the reviewing agencies in advance. Although CadnaA is currently accepted, it is not specifically endorsed.
7. Required attenuation values to achieve acceptable interior noise levels in Table 19-3 was updated to include specific categories for vehicular traffic, aircraft, and train.
8. Regulations and Coordination section has been updated to remove New York City Zoning Resolution performance standards for manufacturing districts and special mixed-use districts.
