Community boards of New York City

The community boards of the New York City government are the appointed advisory groups of the community districts of the five boroughs. There are currently 59 community districts, including twelve in Manhattan, twelve in the Bronx, eighteen in Brooklyn, fourteen in Queens, and three in Staten Island:

Community boards are each composed of up to 50 volunteer members appointed by the local borough president, half from nominations by City Council members representing the community district (i.e., whose council districts cover part of the community district). They advise on land use and zoning, participate in the city budget process, and address service delivery in their district. Regarding land use they are only advisory and mostly serve as mobilizing institutions for communities opposed to specific projects, but have little substantive impact on tailoring service delivery and only serve in an outreach and complaint-handling capacity, and their impact on capital budgeting has been minimal. The City Charter also allows boards to submit their own plans for the development, growth, and improvement of their communities, however, few boards have taken advantage of this ability.

Each community board is led by a district manager, with an office and staff, whose primary purpose is to coordinate the delivery of services to the community. Each community board also has committees that do most of the planning and work on the issues that are brought to action at board meetings; non-board members may apply to join or work on board committees, which helps provide additional expertise and manpower. Each community district also has a district service cabinet (DSC) that coordinates city services and programs, considers interagency problems and impediments, and plans multi-agency projects, within the district.

Each borough also has a borough board. They are composed of the borough president, council members from the borough, and the chairperson of each community board in the borough.

Community boards act in an advisory capacity, wielding no official authority to make or enforce laws.

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