1716 Pacific Street in Brooklyn. Image: Google Maps.
Department of Sanitation parked trucks on lot for more than ten years. In 1948, Vertley Clanton and her husband acquired a lot located at 1716 Pacific Street in the Utica area of Brooklyn, between Schenectady and Utica Avenues. Clanton’s property was across the street from a garage owned by New York City Department of Sanitation and surrounded by City-owned lots. Clanton lived in Manhattan for some time before eventually moving out of state. Clayton did not frequently visit the empty lot, but continued to pay taxes to the City throughout her life. Over time, Sanitation paved Clanton’s property, fenced it in, installed lighting and used the property as a parking lot for garbage trucks. (more…)
Image credit: CityLaw
The Court of Appeals, after 22 years of litigation, upheld the City’s adult use zoning rules and dismissed the complaint challenging the rules. In 1994 the City’s Department of City Planning completed a study of sexually focused businesses: adult video and bookstores, adult live or movie theaters, and topless or nude bars. The study led to the passage in 1995 of a zoning amendment barring adult establishments from residential and most commercial and manufacturing zones, and mandating that, where permitted, adult businesses had to be located at least 500 feet from houses of worship, schools, day care centers, and other adult businesses. The City defined an adult establishment as one in which a substantial portion of the business was devoted to adult uses. This was further refined under the so-called 60/40 test which defined substantial use as equating to 40 percent or more of the space devoted to adult use. This definition did not prove practical and the City amended the definition again in 2001 by removing the mandatory nature of the 60/40 rule, deleting the substantial use language, and adding qualitative criteria. (more…)
96 Wythe Street in Brooklyn, Image Credit: CityLand.
Court found that application was not filed within the statutory time period of one year. On January 27, 2016, the New York State Supreme Court denied a Brooklyn developer’s petition to reverse a Department of Finance decision to not grant a tax abatement. The Developer, 96 Wythe Acquisitions, filed the petition after the Department of Finance denied the application for the tax abatement because it was not filed within the mandatory one-year requirement. 96 Wythe Acquisition LLC filed plans with the NYC Department of Buildings back in April 2013 to construct a hotel in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. (more…)
Architect rendering of the Pierhouse development. Image credit: Toll Brothers
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.
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NYU superblock development as originally proposed. Image credit: NYU.
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 community groups challenged the approval in court arguing the Council’s approval improperly granted four community parks to NYU for the expansion in violation of the public trust doctrine.
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