NEWS: BSA Holds off final decision on South Slope Condo Towers
Not a landmark district, but an area we’ve been watching closely…
From The Park Slope Courier
http://www.courierlife.net/site/tab7.cfm?newsid=16556733&BRD=2384&PAG=461&dept_id=552853&rfi=6
BSA Holds Off Final Decision On Park Slope Condos
By Charles Hack
Attorneys for developers appeared before the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) for a second time, to try to persuade the commissioners that their clients should be allowed to finish building high-rise condominiums that were stopped when 50 blocks of South Park Slope and Greenwood Heights area were downzoned in November last year. This is despite strong community opposition, building code violations, and being judged by the Department of Buildings (DOB) to have failed to get their foundations in before the new zoning laws came into effect. By the end of the meeting the BSA was still not satisfied and requested more evidence from the attorneys and the DOB and deferred their final decision until June.
The testimony was heard at their April hearings at 40 Rector Street in Manhattan. Howard Hornstein, an attorney of Cozen O’Conner, who represents the developers of 614 7th Ave. and 182 15th St., argued that the violations were relatively minor and par for the course for developers. But representatives for opposition groups — including the Concerned Citizens of Greenwood-Heights, the South Park 15, as well as Councilmember Sara Gonzalez and State Assemblymember Jim Brennan — argued that developers cut corners in their rush to complete foundations in time for a November deadline. “They have acted in a manner that fails to protect the health and safety of the community, the on-site workers and their own prospective tenants,” said Michael Schweinsburg reading a statement from Gonzalez. “I still believe there was a pattern of working without proper permits; working after hours without the proper variances; violating stop work orders; ignoring complaints and violations issued by the Department of Buildings and the Environmental Control Board; and making untrue statements about the completion of their foundations – all in an effort to ‘beat the clock’ and slip in under the wire of the new zoning regulations.”