94 N 13th Street, as it was in August 2007. Image Credit: Google Maps.

Property owner sought tax benefits for remediating contaminated sites already under voluntary State remediation consent order. In 2007, National Grid signed a consent order with the New York City Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to remediate hazardous wastes from National Grid’s closed manufactured gas plant sites. National Grid removed some of the hazardous waste from two adjacent sites located at 94 N. 13th Street and 121 N. 12th Street, Brooklyn. (read more…)

Professor Annette Gordon-Reed, speaking at the 169th CityLaw Breakfast. Image Credit: CityLand

Annette Gordon-Reed, our friend and colleague for 17 years at New York Law School, has just published On Juneteenth (Liveright 2021), a personal and readable story of her growing up in Texas in the 1970’s.  Gordon-Reed grew up in Conroe, Texas where her family regularly celebrated Juneteenth. Gordon-Reed was the first Black child to integrate a White elementary school in her city. Through her personal story Gordon-Reed annotates and re-calibrates the conventional story of slavery in the United States, and the history of Texas as taught in her public school and as portrayed in novels and movies. (read more…)

On October 8, 2020, the Conflicts of Interest Board adopted new and important changes to its post-employment rules that restrict former City employees from contacting their former City agencies. The Board, in addition, on May 21, 2021, adopted rules relating to the acceptance of gifts by City employees in certain recurring situations. This article examines these new rules. (read more…)

13-15 Christopher Street. Image Credit: Google Maps

Tenant used property as an illegal short-term rental. On April 12, 2019, the owner purchased a single-family dwelling with a rear building at 13-15 Christopher Street in the West Village in Manhattan.  The tenant had been advertising the property on Homeaway.com, a vacation rental website owned by the Expedia Group. At the time of the purchase, the owner claimed not to have knowledge of the illegal transient use. On May 10, 2019, Buildings issued a transient use summons against the owner for the front building—a different building at the same address. Subsequently on July 3, 2019, a Department of Buildings officer observed that the owner’s rear building was occupied by six short-term guests. The officer issued four summonses to the owner charging an Aggravated I penalty for a recurring condition. (read more…)

119 Ramapo Avenue, the damaged property. Image Credit: Google Maps

Property owner blocked neighbor’s contractors from completing agreed repairs. In 2005, Mauro Palladino, without permits from the Department of Buildings, installed a pool, a fence, and a wall in the backyard of his Staten Island home. Palladino’s construction caused stormwater to flood the neighboring backyard of a home owned by Nicola Mezzacappa.  In 2008, Mezzacappa, sued Palladino for the damage to Mezzacappa’s property. The neighbors settled the lawsuit in 2011.  As part of the settlement, Palladino agreed to undertake the necessary remedial work and Mezzacappa agreed to provide Palladino and his contractors reasonable access to his property. Palladino had four to six months from the settlement to get Buildings Department approvals, and four to six months to complete the work. (read more…)

Center building at 338 Atlantic Avenue. Image Credit: Google Maps

Adjacent owner demanded that next-door neighbor remove fire escape that overhung the adjacent owner’s property. Clover M. Barrett owned a five-story mixed-use building, constructed in 1902, located at 338 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. Barrett’s property had a fire escape dating from the original 1902 construction that hung three feet and five inches over a neighbor’s property located at 319-325 Pacific Street. The fire escape gave Barrett’s second through fifth floor tenants and building occupants the ability to escape or seek refuge on Pacific Street in the event of a fire. The neighboring property was originally a parking lot, but had recently been developed into townhouses. On October 15, 2014, the neighbor wrote Barrett a letter demanding that Barrett remove the fire escape. (read more…)