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>


Court Orders DOB to Revoke Permit and Compel Owner to Remove Floors in Upper West Side Condominium Development

Advocates applaud decision while developers find decision deeply flawed. On February 15, 2020, the Committee for Environmentally Sound Development and the Municipal Art Society of New York,  won an Article 78 case regarding the construction of a 668 foot, 52-story condominium building located at 200 Amsterdam Avenue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. New York County Supreme Court Justice W. Franc Perry’s ruling requires the Department of Buildings to revoke the building permit … <Read More>


Residents Prevent Development in Fight Over Open Space

Appellate Division finds that Buildings improperly issued construction permit for nursing home after misinterpreting the zoning resolution. Park West Village is a complex located on a superblock bounded by West 100th Street to the north, West 97th Street to the south, Columbus Avenue to the east, and Amsterdam Avenue to the west on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. The complex was built in the 1950s and 1960s as part of a federally … <Read More>


REBNY Allowed To Sue City Over Hotel Conversion Law

New law would hinder hotel conversions to residential use. On June 2, 2015, New York City adopted Local Law 50, placing a prohibition on owners of hotels with 150 or more sleeping units from converting more than 20 percent of their hotel space to full-time residential uses. The law is based on City findings that such conversions were adversely impacting the City’s multi-billion-dollar tourism industry, as well as hotel employment. The purpose of the prohibition … <Read More>


Sign Use Lost Following Demolition

Property owner relied on permit improperly issued by Buildings to claim that advertising sign was a legal grandfathered use. Perlbinder Holdings, LLC owned a building located at 663-669 Second Avenue in Manhattan. Perlbinder for many years maintained a large, single-sided, illuminated advertising sign on the side of the building and had received a permit from the Department of Buildings to operate the sign in 1980. Subsequently, the Council amended the New York City Zoning … <Read More>


Appellate Division Overturns BSA Denial of Sign Registration

The Board of Standards and Appeals had denied the application based on its finding that the signage was an art installation rather than an “advertising sign,” as defined in the Zoning Resolution. Local Law 31 of 2005 amends the regulations governing the usage of outdoor advertising signs by requiring companies engaged in outdoor advertising to submit to the Department of Buildings an exhaustive list of all of the companies’ “signs, sign structures and sign locations” … <Read More>