The City was forced to halt construction on the pavilion at Union Square Park in 2008. Photo: Jonathan Reingold.

See below for update.

Neighborhood coalition sued Parks over proposed plan to open restaurant in Union Square. Union Square is comprised of 3.6 acres of dedicated municipal parkland, stretching three blocks in length and one block in width. Union Square Park’s pavilion has hosted a myriad of political events and recreational activities for over a century. In 2004, the City announced its plans to open a restaurant in the pavilion. In April 2008, the Union Square Community Coalition (Coalition) obtained a temporary restraining order proscribing the City from undertaking any construction activity associated with its pavilion proposal. (See CityLand’s past coverage here). In March 2009, the New York Supreme Court dismissed the Coalition’s lawsuit. The pavilion was subsequently renovated and is currently being used by the City’s Department of Parks and Recreation as office and storage space.

In March 2012, the City signed a licensing agreement with Chef Driven Market, LLC, (Chef) authorizing Chef to open a 200-seat seasonal restaurant in the pavilion. The restaurant would operate from April 15 through October 15 and boast entrée prices topping over $30. The agreement required Chef to pay the City an annual fee of $300,000 for the first year, increasing to the greater of either $457,777 or 10 percent of its annual gross revenues in the 15th year.

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Sunset Park Rezoning used with permission of NYC DCP. All rights reserved.

This article was originally published on 10/15/2011 (see below for update).

Dissent argued that City only belatedly added consideration of rezoning’s impact on low-income residents. In April 2009, the Department of City Planning proposed a 128-block contextual rezoning of Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Planning sought to preserve the residential neighborhood’s built character while allowing new construction at a height and scale consistent with existing development. The proposal called for establishing height limits, mapping new commercial overlays to allow a wider range of uses, and applying the inclusionary housing program along certain corridors to encourage the creation of affordable housing and allow increased residential development. After conducting an environmental assessment, Planning determined the rezoning would have no significant adverse impacts and issued a negative declaration. Residents and community groups opposed to the plan claimed that Planning had not adequately considered the rezoning’s socio-economic impact, and argued that it would lead to the displacement of low-income residents. The City Council approved the plan in September 2009.

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Development site in Williamsburg

City approved developer’s request to rezone 15 tax lots to facilitate the development of two, six-story buildings near site of Domino Sugar project. Bruce Terzano (through JBJ, LLC) sought City approval to build a two-building mixed-use project at the corner of Wythe Avenue and South 3rd Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. To facilitate his proposal, Terzano asked the City to expand a nearby MX-8 special mixed-use district to include 15 tax lots on the eastern portion of the block bounded by South 2nd and South 3rd Streets between Wythe and Kent Avenues, and rezone the blocks from M3-1 to MX8:M1-4/R6A. Terzano needed the rezoning in order to replace a parking lot and low-rise plumbing supply store with two, six-story buildings, providing 18 affordable apartments, 61 market-rate apartments, and ground floor commercial space.

The proposal was met with opposition from the local community during the ULURP review process. Brooklyn Community Board 1 opposed the proposal, recommending that the area be rezoned to M1-4/R6B, and that Terzano record a deed restriction excluding bars and restaurants from the development’s commercial space. At the City Planning Commission’s public hearing, Brandon Cole, president of the Williamsburg Community Preservation Committee, asked the City to postpone the “spot” rezoning and perform a comprehensive study of the neighborhood similar to the study carried out prior to the 2005 Greenpoint-Williamsburg Rezoning plan.

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Neighbors win claim of express easement to access beach along Long Island Sound. In 1928, Locust Point Estate subdivided a large parcel of land on the Throgs Neck peninsula in the Bronx into six residential parcels, and recorded a declaration granting to the new owners easements over six private roads including Casler Place, a dead-end street leading to a patch of beach on the shore of the Long Island Sound. Casler Place remained a private road until 1986 when the City dedicated all but the eastern end of the block as a public street.  (more…)

The Department of Buildings failed to appeal both relevant ALJ decisions. In 2006, the owner of 882 Sixth Avenue entered into a licensing agreement with Troystar Inc., a registered outdoor advertising company. The agreement allowed Troystar to install a sign on the facade of the owner’s building. Two years later, the Department of Buildings issued the owner eight NOVs, one for failing to register as an “outdoor advertising company” and seven for failing to comply with various advertising sign regulations. The owner challenged the NOVs before an ALJ, who issued two separate decisions that addressed four violations each. In the first decision, dated July 6, 2009, the ALJ found that the owner was not an outdoor advertising company. In the second decision, dated July 10, 2009, the ALJ sustained all four NOVs and ordered the owner to pay $800 per violation.

Buildings appealed the second decision to the Environmental Control Board, arguing that the owner was acting as an OAC and that, as such, the Board should impose the statutory penalty of $10,000 per NOV. The Board agreed with Buildings, reversed the ALJ, and imposed a $40,000 penalty on the owner.

On appeal, Justice Eileen A. Rakower granted the owner’s article 78 petition, finding the Board’s decision arbitrary and capricious. The Board should not have revisited the issue of whether the owner was an OAC; the first ALJ decision, which decided that the owner was not an OAC, was never appealed by Buildings. And because the time to appeal that first decision had passed, the decision was final and binding on the Board.

Rosen v. City of New York, 2011 N.Y. Slip Op. 31683U (N.Y. Cty. Sup. Ct. June 21, 2011) (Rakower, J.) (Attorneys: Phillip L. Billet, for owner; Michael A. Cardozo, for NYC).