After judicial remand, special permit granted for residence

Second Department ordered BSA to determine whether special permit findings were met. In 2005, Alexis Lyublinskiy obtained an alteration permit to enlarge his one-story home at 136 Norfolk Street in Manhattan Beach. Initial demolition and construction work did not match building plans, and Lyublinskiy eventually demolished all but one of the original building’s walls and built a two-story house.

Buildings issued a stop-workorder after discovering that the house did not conform to the approved plans. <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>


Michael B. Gerrard Discusses His Career and the Future of Climate Change Regulation

Michael B. Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School’s Center for Climate Change Law, traces his passion for environmental protection back to growing up in Charleston, West Virginia, a city dominated by major chemical manufacturing companies like Union Carbide and DuPont. As a child, he lived on the banks of the Kanawha River, where large amounts of toxic chemicals had polluted the water and air.

After graduating from Columbia University, Gerrard worked for a local environmental … <Read More>


Engineer overturns ban

Engineer filed falsified documents for two addresses. The Department of Buildings filed charges against engineer Leon St. Clair Nation after discovering that he submitted a false application to alter the second floor of a building that did not have a second floor, and that he also submitted plans with altered photographs for two separate properties. Buildings specifically charged St. Clair with violating the City rules by knowingly or negligently submitting false or misleading documents to … <Read More>


Suit challenges Randall’s Island concession

Claim alleges that the City improperly skipped land use approvals in Randall’s Island agreement on private school use. Parents of public school students and community residents from East Harlem filed an article 78 petition in Supreme Court on June 14, 2007, seeking to void the City’s approval of a concession agreement between 20 private schools and the Randall’s Island Sports Foundation. The petition asks the court to invalidate the agreement and force the City to … <Read More>


Challenge to Javits Center expansion rebuffed

Court finds environmental review for the Hudson Yards sufficient to cover changes to Javits plan. The plan to expand the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center underwent changes since the approval of the final environmental impact statement for the Hudson Yards rezoning plan in 2004. When in July 2006 the Empire State Development Corporation approved the changes without a supplemental EIS, four Hell’s Kitchen residents, the Municipal Art Society and the Hell’s Kitchen Neighborhood Association challenged … <Read More>