Not one city-backed land-use app was rejected in 19 years. What’s that mean for the jail plan? | Brooklyn Daily Eagle

The next stop on the mayor’s effort to close Rikers Island, which requires opening or expanding four jails in each of the city’s largest boroughs, is a relatively obscure panel called the City Planning Commission. The panel’s 13 members, appointed by the mayor, the borough presidents and the public advocate, have the ability to stop, change or greenlight any plan in New York City that seeks to bend, even slightly, any rules about land use within the five boroughs — as most large development plans do. Continue reading.