Community Group Slaps Domino With Lawsuit
The Domino development encountered its share of opposition during the (five-year!) planning process, especially in the areas of transportation and the density, but it ultimately got the approval it needed from the city in July to proceed. Now, however, a community group is suing to block the megaproject. As first The Real Deal and then…
The Domino development encountered its share of opposition during the (five-year!) planning process, especially in the areas of transportation and the density, but it ultimately got the approval it needed from the city in July to proceed. Now, however, a community group is suing to block the megaproject. As first The Real Deal and then The Brooklyn Paper reported, the Williamsburg Community Preservation Coalition is arguing that City Council, City Planning, and the developer failed to conduct an adequate environmental review of the site. (Maybe they were inspired by the Atlantic Yards opponents recent victory?) The concerns still concentrate on the development’s size, surrounding transportation, traffic, schools, and publicly accessible open space.
so right, dibs and benson. And then people wonder why housing costs are so high in NYC.
“single-handedly blighted the Southside waterfront?”
??? – please elaborate, g_man.
Stephanie Eisenberg? The woman who, before finally redeveloping her property, was the owner of the building with the most violations in the entire city? Who single-handedly blighted the Southside waterfront? Talk about the pot and the kettle….
“Six plaintiffs, which include Domino opponents Stephanie Eisenberg, a metal working factory owner and real estate developer; and Brandon Cole, a screenwriter, signed onto the lawsuit, which was filed last Wednesday.
In his testimony to the City Planning Commission in April, Cole argued that the developer should consider 50 percent below-market rate units while calling the architectural design of the project “mediocre.â€
Thank god we have such talented people like screenwriters telling us how to do city planning.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170462/
I’ll say it again: NYC needs a latter-day Robert Moses as a counter-weight to these out-of-control NIMBY’s/community groups/preserve-everything groups.
Only 5 years in the planning? The way things go in this town, I’d give it a couple more years before any ground is broken.
I thought a 5-year planning process was par for the course…
The plaintiffs are right – the project is too dense and the environmental review was a joke. But, the environmental review was almost certainly done in accordance with land-use regs.
So, BK_realestate_veteran is right too – the project will go ahead. Probably with a modified (or completely different) development team, and hopefully keeping to the promises that were vaguely agreed to.
Sorry, Dave – no eminent domain here. CPC/Katan bought the property outright for a song.
For god’s sake, it’s industrial Williambsburg. It’s not like they are encroaching on some historic sites or anything.
An “environmental review???” It’s moving from an industril site to housing. This is why China is moving ahead of the US at breakneck speed and we are falling further and further behind
total waste of time, project going ahead
courts won’t stop, might order more study, so what
hundreds of units of affordable housing, what is wrong with these people?