En garde, scofflaw builders: Your days of terrorizing Brooklyn with illegal construction may be numbered. The DOB now has more power to crack down on architects and engineers who have abused the city’s self-certification system, and the department is putting measures into place to beef up its special ops teams. Governor Spitzer enacted a law (referred to in some circles as the Scarano/Radusky bill”) that empowers the DOB to refuse to accept plans filed by self-certifiers who have previously submitted inaccurate building plans. Assemblyman Jim Brennan, who spearheaded the bill, said in a statement that it gives DOB the tools to get tough with professionals who, frequently in league with developers, take advantage of the system and flout the law. In a separate piece of news, Buildings commish Patricia Lancaster announced that the DOB is going to shell out $6 million as part of a recruitment drive for the department’s new special operations teams. Per the press release sent out yesterday, the two teams will use crack down on builders who flout the law. The department is looking to bring on 67 new employees, including architects, engineers, inspectors, lawyers, analysts and investigators; of the fresh hires, 21 will work exclusively on the special operations teams. DOB spokeswoman Carly Sullivan said the recruitment drive was part and parcel of a larger departmental effort in which “every professionally-certified application for a new building or alteration type-1 permit will be reviewed for common zoning infractions.” All well and good, but what is everyone in the South Slope and Greenwood Heights going to do for recreation if builders and architects actually start obeying the law?
Press Release [nyc.gov]
Brennan Writes “Laundry List” of Building Legislation [Brownstoner]
Photo by blanviper