Save The View community group argues new evidence shows rooftop bulkheads are not mechanical. On July 22, 2015, community group Save The View Now filed to renew their motion for a preliminary injunction against construction of the Pierhouse development in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The group’s initial challenge, arguing the development’s rooftop mechanicals violated an agreed-upon height cap, was dismissed on June 10.
Court Decisions
Nonprofit’s Parking Facilities Ruled Subject to Property Tax
Court of Appeals reversed decision of Appellate Division recognizing a tax exemption. In 2011, the Department of Finance revoked a property tax exemption granted for five public parking facilities owned by the nonprofit Greater Jamaica Development Corporation and its LLC, Jamaica First Parking. The exemption, granted in 2007 pursuant to RPTL §420-a in recognition of Greater Jamaica’s mission to spur development and growth in the downtown Jamaica area, was revoked on the grounds that operating … <Read More>
Development of Willets Point Blocked on Appeal
Appellate panel found the authorization for private construction on parkland did not extend to a shopping mall. On October 9, 2013, the City Council approved Queens Development Group’s planned 10-story, 200-room hotel and 30,000-square foot mall complex on the Willets Point West site, formerly the location of Shea Stadium. The site was once the north end of Flushing Meadows Park until the state legislature authorized the stadium’s construction in 1961. The development would anchor further … <Read More>
New York State Court of Appeals Permits NYU Expansion Plan
Court found no implied dedication of target parcels as parkland. In 2012, the City Council approved a plan by New York University to develop two “superblocks” bounded by West 3rd Street, Houston Street, Mercer Street, and LaGuardia Place in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan as part of an expansion plan for the campus. Assemblymember Deborah Glick, joined by the Greenwich Village Society for Historic Preservation, the Historic Districts Council, and other local … <Read More>
Court dismisses challenge to Pierhouse development
Zoning restrictions were not violated. In 2006, Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation entered into a project plan for developing a hotel and residential complex at Brooklyn Bridge Park. The plan called for the development’s northern building to be limited to “approximately 100 feet”. Following Superstorm Sandy’s flooding of Brooklyn Bridge Park, the development was redesigned to move basement mechanical equipment to the rooftop, in compliance with new zoning changes. This increased the northern building’s height above … <Read More>
BSA Denial of Billboard Permit Upheld on Appeal
Court held Board properly found billboards were prohibited near Holland Tunnel exit. On January 8, 2013 the Board of Standards and Appeals issued two decisions denying an appeal of a Department of Buildings decision to refuse permitting two billboards near the Holland Tunnel exit in Tribeca, Manhattan. Take Two Outdoor Media LLC, the appellant, argued the Holland Tunnel’s exit roadway did not constitute an “approach” to an arterial roadway under §49-16 of the Rules of … <Read More>