By Serena Solomon
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MIDTOWN —Developers would have disclose how many extra children would enrol in local schools if their building went ahead under a new bill proposed by a state assemblywoman.
New York State Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal, who represents the Upper West Side, said she introduced the bill because she believes new residential developments that have attracted thousands of families with children have pushed the city's education system to its limits.
The bill would affect all new residences, no matter what the size, she said.
"We are now facing such a huge crisis in overcrowding in the public schools, on the West Side, the East Side, in other boroughs," Rosenthal told DNAinfo. "The problem is only going to get bigger."
Parents were outraged last month when more than 2,000 students, many of them from the Upper West Side, were put on waitlists for kindergarten. P.S. 87, on West 78th Street and Amsterdam, had 111 kindergarten students waiting for a spot when figures were released in March, according to the New York Times.
The new bill would require developers to include projected figures of families and children early in the development process.
These early figures would assist the Department of Education when it comes to long term planning for schools, Rosenthal said.
"It would add another dimension to the tools they (the DOE) use, which are obviously a little faulty now," Rosenthal said.
Early figures indicating the impact on schools would also assist in the public approval process for larger developments, such as Riverside South, a proposed multi-billion dollar development on the Upper West Side. Its developers are preparing for a series of public hearings at the City Planning Commission and City Council before it gains full approval to be built.
Riverside South is slated to include a school, but there is concern from community members over whether or not the proposed 1,300 seat elementary and middle school is large enough for the number of school age students the development will bring into the neighborhood.
Rosenthal hopes the bill will be voted in by the New York State Assembly in about nine months.
