Billboard lessee claimed the Board denied its permit arbitrarily. OTR Media Group leased a billboard on the south wall of an eight-story building at the northeast corner of Tenth Avenue and West 40th Street in the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood of Manhattan. In 2012 the Department of Buildings refused OTR’s request for a permit to operate the billboard because it was within view of an arterial highway, the Lincoln Tunnel, in violation of the Zoning Resolution. … <Read More>
Search Results for: Appeal
Court Upholds Zoning Restriction On Peace Sign
Zoning resolution prohibited apartment dweller from placing illuminated “Peace” sign in 17th floor window. In 2010 Brigitte Vosse placed an illuminated “Peace” sign in the window of her seventeenth-floor condo in The Ansonia at 2109 Broadway in the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The Department of Buildings fined her $800 for violating a zoning ordinance restricting illuminated signs in her neighborhood at heights above forty feet. Vosse argued that the City placed a content-based … <Read More>
New York’s Constitutional Convention Vote: Hit or Stand?
In 2017, along with voting for mayor, council members, and other elected officials, the voters of New York will be asked to answer “Yes “or “No” to this question: “Shall there be a convention to revise the constitution and amend the same?” Every twenty years, the New York State constitution requires that the voters of the State be given the option to call a constitutional convention for revising and amending the New York State constitution … <Read More>
Appellate Court Reinstates Action Over Mitchell-Lama Apartment
The court found issues of fact and reversed previous summary judgment for the tenant. In 2000, John G. and Yunia C. Rwambuya permanently vacated their apartment at 10 Waterside Plaza in the Kips Bay area of Manhattan. The apartment complex was regulated under the Mitchell-Lama program and later converted to market-rate housing. A settlement agreement signed by the Rwambuyas granted them a limited right to transfer their apartment to their son, Joseph Rwambuya as a … <Read More>
Appellate Division Upholds Homeless Shelter Siting
Court agreed DHS met their burden under the Fair Share Criteria. In 2012 the Department of Homeless Services opened Freedom House, a 200-family homeless shelter at 316-330 West 95th Street in Manhattan’s Upper West Side on an emergency contract. When the emergency contract expired, then-Comptroller John C. Liu declined to register the permanent contract. A community group, Neighborhood In The Nineties, filed an Article 78 petition to enjoin the Comptroller from registering the … <Read More>
Court Vacates BSA Denial of Advertising Sign Registration
Court ruled the signs were not under City jurisdiction. On March 26, 2012 the Department of Buildings issued Notice of Sign Registration Rejection letters denying registration for twenty-one advertising signs owned by CBS Outdoor Inc. The Department based its rejection on the signs being too close to an arterial highway, in violation of the City Zoning Resolution. On January 29, 2013 the Board of Standards and Appeals upheld the rejection. CBS Outdoor, joined by the … <Read More>