Before he was appointed to Community Board 4, Austin Ochoa said more of his peers would be applying to serve if they knew they had a shot at getting on the board.

Ochoa, age 19, was appointed by Borough President Gale Brewer in April. She’s been working for the past four years to pass a bill allowing 16 and 17 year olds to serve on the board, and last week that work paid off with the passage of a state bill allowing it.

“These 16- and 17-year-olds are so intelligent, so grown up, and I don’t know if it’s because they’re in New York, but they can really keep up with the adults,” said Brewer. “Not all, but many. And anybody that says otherwise just doesn’t know this group of 16- and 17-year-olds.”

The bill was sponsored and passed at the state level by Senator Andrew Lanza and Assembly member Nily Rozic. City Council member Ben Kallos joined forces with Brewer to introduce a resolution calling for the measure at the city level, and Brewer credited council member Mark Levine with pushing for teens to be allowed to serve on community board when he was still a district leader.

“We’ve been working on this for about four years,” said Brewer.