Continued beating:’ Two Bridges decision is latest court loss for real estate
Published on Feb 27, 2020 by
Crains New York
Ryan Deffenbaugh
February 27, 2020
Losses in the courts are stacking up for the real estate industry.
First, the Inwood rezoning was put on hold. Then a judge ordered that up to 20 floors might have to be knocked off an Upper West Side condo tower at 200 Amsterdam Avenue .
The latest knock came Tuesday in Two Bridges when Manhattan State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron nullified City Planning Commission for the plans by JDS Development Group, Starrett Development, L+M Development Partners and CIM Group to bring roughly 3,000 luxury and affordable apartments to the Lower Manhattan waterfront.
The judge said the city improperly fast-tracked the project’s review and did not study how the luxury apartments could accelerate gentrification in the neighborhood, as the opponents said the city should have through the environmental review process.
“This is just a continued beating on building and real estate,” said Carlo A. Scissura, president & CEO of the New York Building Congress. “At every step lately, whether government or judiciary, there are constant swipes.”
Roderick Hills, a professor at New York University Law School, said the Two Bridges decision and the one related to 200 Amsterdam show state judges are increasingly willing to undermine as-of-right development.
In an op-ed for City Journal, he called the decision on 200 Amsterdam “not only wrongheaded but also a threat to basic fairness and legal predictability.”
“New York City has a regulatory process that is lengthy and costly,” Hills said. “The one limit on that cost is as-of-right new development. That category is important for maintaining the supply of housing and office space in the city. And Judge Engoron is making war on the concept of as-of-right development.”
Crain’s reported last summer that one of the Two Bridges developers, Michael Stern of JDS Development, is now focusing his company’s efforts in markets in Florida.
Scissura warned the city could lose more investment under current conditions.
“We’re going to see a backlash,” Scissura said. “Less development, less affordable housing construction. The more you beat up this industry, the more likely it is to leave.”
In the case of Two Bridges, city planners grouped the three developments together and declared the project could be built as-of-right, allowing the companies to forgo the city’s lengthy Uniform Land Use Review Procedure.
As designed, the development projects would have little chance of approval through ULURP. The council defers to the local representative on such matters. That representative, Councilwoman Margaret Chin, is part of a separate lawsuit to block the construction.
The developers won the de Blasio administration over by including about 700 rent-restricted apartments, pledging $15 million toward two playgrounds and a park and offering $40 million to upgrade the East Broadway subway station.
But local representatives weren’t convinced. Chin, Council Speaker Corey Johnson and Borough President Gale Brewer want the project to be reviewed by the council and took the fight to the courts. In August, Engoron ruled in favor of the council and said the project must go through ULURP. The city is appealing that decision.
Following this most recent court loss, a spokesman for the developers said the projects comply “with zoning that’s been in place more than 30 years.” The companies will appeal the decision.
One of the lawsuit’s organizers said the decision was “an amazing victory and it comes on the tails of victories across the city.”
“From the [Inwood] rezoning to the tower planned to shadow the Brooklyn Botanical Garden, the people are taking the city to court, and we are winning,” said Tony Quey Lin in a statement, reported by City Limits.
In Inwood, Judge Verna L. Saunders sided with local opponents to a rezoning that would have increased housing density, agreeing that the city failed to take the required “hard look” at the environmental concerns of residents—gentrification in particular.
Last week, Judge W. Franc Perry invalidated the city Board of Standards and Appeals approval for an Upper West Side tower at 200 Amsterdam. The ruling found the developer improperly cobbled together air rights to build beyond what zoning allowed—and could require as many as 20 floors be lopped off the already constructed tower.
https://www.crainsnewyork.com/real-estate/two-bridges-decision-latest-court-loss-real-estate
