Court finds City discriminated in housing project

Judge enjoined City’s redevelopment proposal for area straddling Williamsburg and Bedford-Stuyvesant. In December 2009, the City Council approved the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s redevelopment proposal for the Broadway Triangle Urban Renewal Area in South Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The seventeen-block urban renewal area was created in 1989 and is primarily located within Community District 1, with a six-block portion within Community District 3. CD 1 is predominately white with a large Hasidic community, and CD … <Read More>


Deed restriction fuels more litigation

Developer sought to extinguish deed restriction on Upper West Side property. The City, through the Department of Housing Preservation and Development’s Asset Sales Program, sold 330 West 86th Street in Manhattan to the building’s tenants. Because the property had been designated as an Urban Development Action Area Project, the deed stated that the tenants could only rehabilitate or conserve the existing dwellings, or construct new dwellings permitted by existing zoning laws. The deed also required … <Read More>


City’s approval ruled not binding on future owners

Five-story row house at 330 West 86th Street to be demolished. Photo: Kevin Schultz.

Restrictions in deed and Council’s approval do not restrict future owners. The City foreclosed on a deteriorated five-story row house at 330 West 86th Street between West End Avenue and Riverside Drive. The City, through HPD, sought to designate the lot as a UDAAP, an Urban Development Action Area Project, to allow for a quick sale without an auction or bidding … <Read More>


Building owner faulted for not clearing vacate order

Rent-stabilized tenant had been forcibly removed from apartment after structural weakness was discovered. After receiving complaints that 223 East 96th Street was shaking, an HPD inspector observed cracks in the rear wall caused by construction taking place on the building next door. In August 2004, the Department of Buildings determined that the building was unsafe and issued a vacate order. Police and firefighters forcibly removed Thelma Farrell, an 81-year old, rent -stabilized tenant from her … <Read More>