Parking Hogs Spur Curb Cut Changes

The Times documents the case of the Upper East Side brownstone owners whose suit against the city to install a driveway earlier this year precipitated a rapid change in the city’s zoning code in order to stop an avalanche of copy-cat lawsuits. The owners, a waste management consultant and his portfolio manager wife, argued that since their house was over a hundred years old it could not be considered a “development” under the city code and therefore was not bound by the code that limited driveways to residential buildings with a width of at least 40 feet. The state supreme court bought their argument, which sent DOB and City Planning officials into a panic. The new code gives officials the ability to deny a curb cut application if they deem it to be “inconsistent with the character of the existing streetscape.” Too bad this wasn’t on the books when the owner of 174 Clinton Avenue, above, ripped open the facade of the 19th-century house in Clinton Hill because he thought it would bring a higher price on the market. As far as we can tell, despite numerous price cuts, the house failed to sell.
Yikes! It’s a Garage [NY Times]