August 1: The Mayor Shall Submit the Traffic Mitigation Plan

A couple of weeks ago Mayor Bloomberg, Governor Spitzer, Senate Leader Bruno and Assembly Speaker Silver agreed to a process that would lead to the formation of a 17-member commission that would evaluate and decide on New York City’s congestion pricing proposal.

The deal laid out a very specific timeline by which the process would move forward. One of the first big milestones on that timeline was today’s date, August 1. That is date on which the Mayor shall "submit the traffic mitigation plan." Here is how it was laid out in the deal summary:

NYC is authorized
to present and implement a detailed congestion pricing plan to address
traffic congestion within a zone of severe traffic congestion in
Manhattan.
Such plan shall include (a) the geographic area to be
covered; (b) the proposed dollar amount of any congestion pricing fee;
(c) the technology to be used to implement such pricing plan; and (d)
the number and scope of exemptions granted from such fee requirements.
The Mayor shall submit the traffic mitigation plan by August 1, 2007.

Is the Mayor supposed to submit his plan to the 17-member commission? If so, where is the commission? Or does he just have to submit it to the State Legislature and City Council for now? Is the City still on track to meet the August 1 milestone? I’ve got some phone calls in to various sources. If you know what’s going on, drop a line to tips@streetsblog.org or the comments section.

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