ZAP: ZAP Roadmap

[damonmcc]

PDF of project description in SharePoint. This document is the result of the "intake form" DCP's Planning Support team used to request this project.

Goals

• To create a solution for the need of a ZAP notification system to inform any public member about changes to applications submitted within selected community districts
• ...

Current Stage: User Research and Ideation

• defining minimum requirements and scope that must be accomplish for an MVP by communicating with City Planning
• researching costs of email services to understand the pros and cons of subscription services
• creating low fidelity wireframes and user flows to illustrate the general proof of concept on how to approach implementing notification system
• ZAP Notification Brainstorm FigJam
• ZAP User Flow Diagram
• ZAP Proposal Slides

For more info on user research stage, refer to Goals for Design - Research & Ideation comment and ZAP Proposal git issue

[jessicashanshanhuang]

ZAP

notes:

• ZAP's main features: project brief, project status, project type (i.e. ULURP or Non-ULURP), actions (i.e. documents/measures), and milestones (not started, in progress, completed)
• other features: CEQR type, borough, community district, addresses, bbls

[jessicashanshanhuang]

Requirements

go to page 52

62. PROVIDE NOTICE OF LAND USE APPLICATIONS TO PUBLIC LISTSERVS Owner Agency: Department of City Planning (DCP); Implementation Mechanism: City agency operational change – Internal Processes / New Initiatives / Staffing Description: DCP will add a feature to the Zoning Application Portal to allow anyone to subscribe to automatic notices for relevant alerts in a particular area. DCP will investigate the use of including SMS notifications as well as email notifications. Notifications will be sent when an application is filed within the subscribed Community District.

[jessicashanshanhuang]

notes from intake:

The tool's design should be lightweight and quickly deployable ... there are no specific expectations for the design of the feature

Currently, updates are available on ZAP Search for the public. However, users must go to the website and search for specific projects. Updates may be confusing to find and are not automatically sent to interested members of the public.

• Purpose of this project is to provide clarity of public facing documents and improve public participation in the land use process

Objectives to Consider

• Users should have the ability to choose one or more community districts to receive notifications about all public facing milestones on all projects within the selected geography
• Email subscriptions should be available to anyone regardless of their geographical area or interested affiliation
  • They should also have the ability to unsubscribe

• Updates should have the minimum of the following info:

  • Filed land use and environmental review applications
  • Certification, hearing, and approval milestones

Success Criteria

• Any user has the ability to subscribe up to 59 Community Districts

• Notifications should automatically sent to users' subscribed Community Districts:

  • If CD has a filed application
  • If a CD's filed application has an updated status

[jessicashanshanhuang]

Timeline to note:

· On 07/01/24, which is the start of sprint N, AE will start development

· By 09/01/24 AE will have a LISTERV available for user testing

· By 09/30/24 AE will deploy the LISTERV with the functionality described above to the public

deadlines are subject to change

[jessicashanshanhuang]

Current Stage: Working on proposal check-in due Tuesday July 9th

Goals for Design (Research and Ideation Phase):

• [x] Look through resources related to ZAP

  • [x] BLAST
  • [x] DCP Application Process
  • [x] DCP Process Map

• [x] Review notes and come up with questions for Anvy

• [x] Organize observations from interview

• [ ] Brainstorm ideas and define (Brainstorm FigJam)

• [ ] Develop components for proof of concept

• [ ] send components to Anvy or CP team for feedback

Proposal deadline is Tuesday July 9th.

[damonmcc]

figma files with ZAP-related user research

• ITD Project Portfolio / Synthesis & Affinity Mapping
• ...

[jessicashanshanhuang]

Goal for the notes: just taking anything related to ZAP into here

notes dump from ITD Project Portfolio / Synthesis & Affinity Mapping:

• complaints about zap search being slow
• ZAP "extraordinarily frustrating": slow search, low confidence in accuracy
• ZAP can be clunky and buggy, more wayfinding and clarity of functionality in ZAP would be very helpful
• ZAP search should link directly to the project info more easily
• Integrated streets map into ZoLA as an additional tab or 'state'
• ZAP Search should link directly to the project info more easily
• ZAP radius and filters are unintuitive and don't work often
• ZAP Search public documents are not always chronological and the sub menus seem overly complicated and unclear in their logic
• ZAP search integration would be helpful - want to find relevant data within radius of a given active project
• ZAP Site: the map is not intuitive but data itself is very helpful
• ZAP Search Map: would expect the list on the right to filter down to show the dots
• Feels like an uphill battle
• ZAP search issues, doesn't work project documents are hard to understand
• low confidence in accuracy

thoughts:

• are these frustrations and pain points a motivator for the approval to create a ZAP notification system?

[jessicashanshanhuang]

notes from BLAST

• overall goal is for these improvements to reduce delays by 50%: speeding up critical projects, saving money, improving public participation

• the law related to this project most likely stems from CEQR (City Environmental Review Process)

  As mandated by the State Environmental Quality Review Act, CEQR is the process by which New York City agencies determine what effect, if any, a discretionary action they approve may have upon the environment. CEQR is a disclosure process and not an approval process in and of itself.

  page 15-16 on report: CEQR is New York City’s process for implementing the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). If federal funding or approvals are needed, a project must also comply with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

Key Improvements from CEQR to highlight:

Streamline and update the present CEQR process to produce information that’s more useful to the public and decision-makers, as well as reduce the time and cost of CEQR review.

Maintain and improve the public’s opportunity for meaningful participation in land use processes by providing better notice to the public

Potential Stakeholders: DCP - City Planning Commission , Community Boards, the Borough Presidents, the Borough Boards, the City Council and the Mayor

other places to look into: City of Yes initiative, the Zoning Resolution, ULURP, NEPA

TLDR: Point 62 stems from one of CEQR's goals to improve public's access to meaningful participation.

• Notification for filed application could stem from ULURP

[jessicashanshanhuang]

DCP Application Process notes:

What is the DCP Application Process?

The DCP app process is to propose changes such as:

• requests (i.e. change existing zoning, things related to zoning resolution)
• actions (building affordable housing or public facilities, changes to official NYC map)

Overall three stages: Pre-certification, Preparation and Filing, ULURP

Pre-certification

Applicants schedule an Informational Meeting with DCP and submit a PAS before the reviews (Pre-Application Statement).

• if DCP has not schedule an IM in 30 days, applicants may request project ID and submit PAS without participating in an IM,
  • possible notification here

After PAS, a Lead Planner will contact receipt of PAS. An Interdivisional Meeting may be schedule if necessary otherwise approved.

• possible notification here

Two parallel reviews happen concurrently here:

• land use review ensures the app is complete and technically accurate
• environmental review: disclose and analyze potential impact that the development proposal may trigger
  • notification when env reviews applications

Preparation and Filing

DCP will only review draft for land use once and feedback or schedule a meeting will commence, after applicant is guided to file when ready.

• notification when land use is filed

Once in filing, it is under DCP review, it must be determined that the pre-certification process is complete and correct.

• there is no mandated time for this process to be completed by
• can appeal City Planning Commission (CPC) for certification after 6 months from date of application submission
• possible notification here

ULURP

Certification CPC has filed and certified application -> certified apps are sent within 9 days to affect Community Board (CB), Borough President (BP), and if appropriate, Borough Board (BB).

• certification milestone notification

CB Review CB has 60 days to:

• review app
• host a public hearing
• adopt and submit recommendation to CPC
• notification of hearing
• notification of outcome

If CB fails or waives its right to act, app proceeds to next step

• moving on to BP review notification

BP Review Within 30 days of CB recommendation or if CB fails to act, within 30 days of expiration of the CB review period, BP should submit a written recommendation to CPC. If BP fails to act within time limit, app proceeds to CPC.

• BP review approved, moving to CPC notification
• BP review failed notification

CPC Review CPC is pretty much final step of approval unless CC or Mayor review is prompted. Within 60 days of BP's review period, CPC must hold a public hearing and make a decision. CPC hearing are held twice a month on Wednesdays.

• notification on CPC's decision and whether it has been forward for CC or Mayor review

[wndyli]

questions:

• it stated that everyone should have the ability to subscribe to get notified, is our core audience majority applicants or does it also include the parties involved in the reviews process?
• at what stages of the application process should users be notified of the updates for an mvp? (giving us a baseline of what is an absolute necessary)
• on the get stuff built pdf, the proposal asks for both sms notifications and email notifications, but on the project intake form, only email is mentioned. are we sticking to only email or both?
• are we just designing what the request for email notifs will look like on the website itself, or also imagining how the email updates will look like?
• adding on to the previous question, how familiar are users with current application statuses used on ZAP Search? Is it something individuals or yourself using often to be informed of where you are currently?
• How often does an application include more than one CD? (usually if a project includes more than one CD, all parties involved affected CDs must review as well)

Questions answered with during our meeting with Anvy and Stephen

[wndyli]

thoughts about zap in general (not related to listserv):

• milestones is confusing; it's listed as completed, in progress, and not started and sorted by different tasks, but for a new user, this might mean the overall status of the project. most important things should be in progress, recently completed, and upcoming tasks, so perhaps a timeline that's sorted by date would be better
• its hard at a quick glance what milestones are dependent on the other, some milestones also can happen simultaneously
• possible suggestion could be using a overall progress bar/timeline to indicate how much has been completed and kanban boards to indicate individually the status of each milestone

[wndyli]

06/26 meeting notes: slide deck

• main goals: improve transparency, enhance customer service, and implement tech solutions
• can either be on the zap website itself or dcp website
• email and sms both are nice to have but sms is optional if too complicated
• major statuses: filed, noticed, in public review (certified), completed
• really interested in best amount of service for the least amount of effort (main priority is having an option for transparent notification system)

questions & answers:

q: do you have prefs for the time of milestone changing to notification going out? a: ideally in real time but they're flexible. in zap search, what's edited on back end is automatically updated in front end. but the backend is built by a diff team so ae is not too familiar

q: are milestones linear? a: mostly yes. there's no undoing something that's been filed

q: can you clarify the language? a: listserv is a software for sending emails

q: it stated that everyone should have the ability to subscribe to get notified, is our core audience majority applicants or does it also include the parties involved in the reviews process? a: anyone, a member of public, someone who is the applicant, etc.

q: at what stages of the application process should users be notified of the updates for an mvp? (giving us a baseline of what is an absolute necessary) a: all of them, at least when it was filed is mvp

q: should the email notif look like what it appears on zap status? a: zap status itself isn't that clear, but we don't know how much general public understands about a status. we should assume that ppl who sign up don't know what the statuses are. fully jargon-free, public-facing, so people in neighbors understand what's happening

q: can you define filed more specifically? a: refers to land use application, the point at which they submit an application in zap determine to be public facing, pay a fee

q: how often does an application include more than one cd? a: not always, but most of the time. depends on who's applying for it, but by volume, vast majority are one

[jessicashanshanhuang]

other things to note from our meeting with anvy and stephen:

• since the current zap statuses on zap search language wise is not to public friendly, we could make new definitions for it to be easy to digest, especially for a notification format
• wendy and i had the idea we could make a page that lists all the different statuses that users could click on that would be attached to notifications to read more about what each status means (i.e. a glossary)
• i think its possible to expand the mvp beyond just when its filed though it does start to get more complex as we enter different stages where key milestones happen simultaneously but have different time constraints
• wendy brought up since dcp does do community outreach often, what methods are they currently using (i.e. sending out forms)
• how would designing the sign up portion would look like? As well as the email notification template?

[TylerMatteo]

q: can you define filed more specifically? a: refers to land use application, the point at which they submit an application in zap determine to be public facing, pay a fee

It's a great start to get descriptions of words like "filed" as PS understand them, but something we'll have to get at is what specific changes to the underlying data in ZAP should trigger a change. That is to say, which entities and fields of those entities in the database should trigger notifications when there is a change or new row. I can definitely help with that, and there are folks on PS and other teams we can tap who are familiar with the underlying data structure.

[TylerMatteo]

I made a more detailed project plan in figjam here. This is more detailed than the "project plan" I'm planning to present at the kick off - it's really just to help me brainstorm breaking down the work and mapping out dependencies.