Brooklyn property with two-family home was being used as contractor yard, junk salvage, and for commercial vehicle storage. Between December 2011 and April 2012, the City Department of Buildings sent inspectors three times to 2422 West 1st Street between Avenues X and Y in Gravesend, Brooklyn. The R4 residentially zoned lot is occupied by a two-story, two-family home. The inspectors, during their visits, observed in the property’s rear and side yards construction equipment and … <Read More>
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ALJ orders closure of Bronx property due to illegal use
Occupants illegally used driveway and yard of residential property for automobile repair, salvage, and dead storage. Between 2009 and 2011 the Department of Buildings sent inspectors six times to 610 Mead Street in the Van Nest section of the Bronx. The R5-zoned property contained a two-story, two-family building with a one-car garage on the first floor. The inspectors observed over the course of their visits automobiles in various states of repair in the driveway, … <Read More>
No rent benefits for loft renters
Tenants in loft law units sought rent regulation protection based on 2010 amendments. 59 Crosby Street in Manhattan was an interim multiple dwelling covered under the 1982 loft law. This law required an owner to convert an interim multiple dwelling building into legal residential premises and obtain a certificate of occupancy. The owners of 59 Crosby in 1984 purchased the rights and improvements to the fifth-floor interim multiple dwelling unit from the then-current tenant. In … <Read More>
Nuisance claim upheld
Owner of vacant residential lots stored vehicles and construction materials. A Department of Buildings inspector visited four R4-zoned residential lots located on 78th Street between Dumont and South Conduit Avenues in Lindenwood, Queens. The inspector, during three visits, observed stored on the site a large excavator and two commercial trucks, and construction tools and equipment, including a drilling machine, a generator, and large quantities of lumber and pipes. Subsequently, Buildings sought an order to … <Read More>
Architect suspended from self-certification program
Architect’s self-certified plans omitted mapped street and did not disclose need for BSA approvals. Between September 2008 and April 2009 architect Jose A. Velasquez self-certified applications to convert two buildings into three-family homes and to build two new three-family homes on a zoning lot at the corner of 103rd Street and Alstyne Avenue in Corona, Queens. The lot was occupied by four unfinished buildings partially within the bed of an unused mapped street.
Buildings audited … <Read More>
Engineer barred for two years
Licensed engineer certified altered photos and submitted misleading application to Buildings. Buildings filed charges against engineer Leon St. Clair Nation after discovering he had certified the accuracy of altered photographs and submitted a false application to alter the second floor of a building which did not have a second floor. Buildings specifically charged St. Clair Nation with violating the City’s rules by knowingly or negligently submitting false or misleading documents.
After a hearing at OATH, … <Read More>