2422 West 1st Street, Brooklyn

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 tools; wood, bricks, and plastic containers; and a commercial vehicle advertising N.B. Construction. The property’s certificate of occupancy permits only a two-family dwelling, and no commercial or manufacturing uses are permitted on the property as of right. Buildings sought an order to seal the lots under the padlock law to halt an alleged public nuisance.

Prior to a hearing at OATH, one of the property’s co-owners agreed to discontinue the illegal use. Another co-owner, Mohammed Ghuman, and BNY Mortgage Co. LLC, failed to appear at the hearing. ALJ Astrid B. Gloade credited Buildings’ evidence that the owner and occupants had used the lot to store commercial vehicles, an impermissible commercial use, and as a contractor’s yard and salvage storage yard, both impermissible manufacturing uses. The uses violated both the zoning resolution and the property’s certificate of occupancy. ALJ Gloade recommended that Buildings seal the property in a way that would not impede on the residential portion of the premises.

DOB v. 2422 West 1 Street, Brooklyn, OATH Index No. 1909/12 (July 24, 2012).

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, including a damaged vehicle with its front end removed, and two cars under repair with one elevated on a jack and one without a license plate. The inspectors also observed in the property’s rear yard automobile parts, garbage, additional unlicensed vehicles, tires, junk storage, and automobile parts. Buildings sought an order to seal the premises under the padlock law to halt an alleged public nuisance.

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Office space on E. 63rd Street once used by adjacent Barbizon Hotel. Responding to neighbors’ complaints, the Department of Buildings sent an inspector to 148 East 63rd Street, who found that the offices of Relais & Chateaux, hotel and restaurant owners, occupied four floors in the residentially-zoned building. Buildings issued an order to close the offices under the Padlock Law, which OATH ALJ Kara J. Miller upheld after a hearing requested by the owners, Jeanette and Elba Bozzo.

The Bozzos appealed to BSA, arguing that the original 1940 certificate of occupancy authorized office use as of right and that Relais & Chateaux used some of the space residentially when its “out-of-state” employees from New Jersey needed to stay in the city overnight. Buildings countered that the 1940’s zoning prohibited office space, and the C of O indicated that the office space was accessory to the Barbizon Hotel. Buildings added that the accessory use became illegal in 1961 when the City adopted its comprehensive zoning code, but it could remain if the Bozzos could show it operated continually as office space over the years. (more…)