DOB revokes Breezy Point resident’s building permit, thereby eliminating BSA appeal. On May 15, 2007, BSA dismissed a contentious case involving the construction of a new year-round home in Breezy Point, Queens, following the Department of Buildings’ revocation of the original permit.

In 2006, Thomas Carroll, a Breezy Point resident for over 50 years, received a permit to construct a new year-round home to replace his deteriorated bungalow. Carroll’s neighbor, Supreme Court Judge James Golia, succeeded in delaying construction several times by complaining to Buildings, obtaining a restraining order and finally filing an appeal to BSA alleging, among other things, that the size of the house violated zoning restrictions for rear and front yards, distance between buildings and parking requirements. Golia’s appeal centered on a claim that Carroll’s plot could not qualify as a separate zoning lot since Carroll did not own it “separately and individually” as required by the zoning resolution. Since the Breezy Point Cooperative owns all the plots in Breezy, BSA’s final decision could have impacted all plots and future building permit applications in the Far Rockaway community. (more…)

Adjacent neighbor challenges legality of new home construction on cooperative’s land. On March 20, 2007, BSA held a contentious public hearing on an appeal of demolition and new building permits to construct a single-family home in Breezy Point, Queens, located at the western end of the Rockaway Peninsula.

In the early 1900s, New Yorkers started building small, summer bungalows in Breezy Point on land owned by the state. In 1960, Breezy’s predominantly summer residents formed a cooperative to purchase the land from the Atlantic Improvement State Corporation. At the time, the Breezy Point Cooperative surveyed the land and its summer bungalows, leasing “plots” back to residents who paid yearly maintenance, security and other costs. Breezy now contains over 3,500 homes, and each year more residents convert their summer bungalows to year-round homes. (more…)

Tenant’s reliance on past front yard requirements tops Buildings’ new policy. Thomas E. Carroll applied to Buildings for demolition and construction permits to build a single-family home on his designated plot at 607 Bayside Drive in Breezy Point, Queens, a 403-acre private community owned by Breezy Point Cooperative. Carroll leased his plot from the Cooperative in 1960, the same year the Cooperative incorporated. Carroll’s plot, like other individual plots in the Cooperative, had been historically treated as a separate zoning lot by Buildings.

Buildings’ practice in Breezy Point was to measure a zoning lot’s front yard footage starting at the center line of an adjacent service road. Carroll’s front lot line was located on the center line of a service road adjacent to the plot. Though the service road was unmapped, it was open, used by residents and emergency vehicles, and accepted by Buildings as a functioning street. (more…)

Sparklers are prohibited in NYC. Image credit: Maxpixel.

All types of fireworks are illegal throughout New York City and any person who violates the law could be subject to fines and/or jail time. There is something special when a firework is lit and sent into the sky, exploding with a beautiful array of colors. Each firework is unpredictable. The noise can be too much to bear for some, but for others it is like you are a kid again when you see fireworks light up the sky in unimaginable ways. (more…)

Every month CityLand creates a comprehensive set of charts to track land use applications undergoing public review. This includes new applications filed with the Department of City Planning and the Board of Standards & Appeals, applications certified into the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, and applications before the Landmarks Preservation Commission.

We track these applications throughout the review process and until a final decision has been made by the competent City Agency. The majority of these decisions are available on the Center for New York City Law’s CityAdmin database (found at www.CityAdmin.org). When possible, we have provided a link within our Filings and Decisions chart to provide easy access to the relevant documents (i.e. application materials or a final decision).

New Filings and Decisions chart May 2012