Water filtration plant survives two lawsuits. In a 1997 settlement agreement with the federal government, the Department of Environmental Protection agreed to build a filtration plant for the Croton Reservoir. DEP selected 23 acres in Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx to build the plant. In 200 1 , the Court of Appeals ruled that extended construction on park land required State approval. 7 CityLaw 41 (200 1 ). I n 2003, the state legislature gave the required authorization to construct the plant in the park. In July 2004, DEP completed a supplemental environmental impact statement, and on September 28, 2004, the City Council approved the plant location and construction.

The Friends of Van Cortlandt Park claimed that the approval violated a zoning resolution requirement that no building permit be issued on former public park land without the Planning Commission’s creation of a new zoning district. The City argued that it had made a determination to override the zoning resolution requirements because the benefits of siting the plant at that location were important, the project was approved for water filtration use only and, designating a zoning district would serve no purpose. (read more…)

West siders sought to prevent public hearing on Hudson Yards Project. Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association filed an article 78 petition to prevent the September 23, 2004 public hearing on the West Side’s No. 7 Subway extension and Hudson Yards rezoning and development project. The Association claimed that the Metropolitan Transit Authority and the Planning Commission, lead agencies for the required environmental review, had submitted an incomplete draft environmental impact statement and, as a result, prevented the Association from meaningful participation at the public hearing. According to the Association, the draft environmental impact statement offers the only opportunity for public comment on the environmental impacts of the project and, since it lacked important information, it could not form the basis for public review.

Justice Herman Cahn denied the petition, ruling that the Association had not yet suffered an injury or exhausted its administrative remedies. Final approval had not yet occurred and the Association could voice its concerns and objections at the scheduled hearing. The court found that if after the hearings the Planning Commission did not issue a sufficiently detailed final environmental impact statement, the Association could then petition the court. (read more…)

Owner of 599 Broadway applied to Landmarks for permission to remove three-dimensional structure on wall. In 1973, a three-dimensional structure created by artist Forrest Myers was bolted to outside support braces on the northern wall of 599 Broadway at the intersection of Houston and Broadway, within the newly designated SoHo-Cast Iron Historical District, at the intersection of Houston and Broadway. In 1997, after an engineer recommended that the northern wall’s braces, upon which the artwork was bolted, be internalized, the owner applied to the Landmarks Preservation Commission for a certificate of appropriateness to remove the artwork permanently.

In October 2000, following public testimony from the owner, the owner’s engineer, Forrest Myers, the Director of the Museum of Modern Art PS1, and the art critic Eleanor Hartley, Landmarks unanimously denied the application. Landmarks found that the structure was a highly acclaimed work of art regarded as the gateway to SoHo, and that its removal would adversely change the District’s historic character. The decision noted that Forrest Myers was one of the pioneer artists that had transformed SoHo into a recognized center of contemporary art. (read more…)