The would-be builders of reasonably priced housing on the Elizabeth Avenue Backyard are suing the town, claiming that the mayor illegally devoted the positioning as a metropolis park.
Pennrose, Habitat NYC and Riseboro, who had been tapped in 2017 to construct 123 senior housing models on the city-owned web site, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that Mayor Eric Adams illegally designated the positioning as a metropolis park.
The grievance accuses Adams of unilaterally deciding the positioning’s future use with out going via the town’s Uniform Land Use Evaluate Process, or Ulurp, which is required to map land as a metropolis park.
“Nothing in State or native legislation, the Metropolis Constitution, or in any other case empowers the mayor or mayoral businesses to dedicate Metropolis-owned land as parkland,” the lawsuit states.
The grievance names Adams, the Division of Housing Preservation and Growth, the Division of Citywide Administrative Providers, the town Division of Parks & Recreation and First Deputy Mayor Randy Mastro as defendants.
The lawsuit cites stories of a Nov. 6 letter to Parks Commissioner Iris Rodriguez-Rosa from DCAS Commissioner Louis Molia, saying that the “metropolis unequivocally and completely dedicates this property to public use as parkland.”
The transfer got here after the Adams administration reversed its place on the mission, referred to as Haven Inexperienced, saying that it will not evict the longstanding sculpture backyard from the positioning. As an alternative, the administration lower a take care of native Council member Chris Marte, who agreed to assist the rezoning of three different websites that will web 620 reasonably priced models, greater than 400 residences than had been deliberate for the backyard web site.
The reversal drew criticism from Metropolis Council leaders, housing advocates, builders and different elected officers. The choice got here after years of litigation, through which the town finally secured its skill to evict the nonprofit that leases the Nolita backyard.
Within the lawsuit, the event crew factors out that the administration deserted a “shovel-ready” mission for ones which might be removed from sure. It additionally questions the connection between Mastro and lawyer Norman Siegel, who had represented the nonprofit, and Adams’ former chief of workers, Frank Carone, who has supported opponents of Haven Inexperienced. The administration’s reversal got here after Mastro was made first deputy mayor in March and introduced he was “reviewing the mission.”
The swimsuit additionally states that, along with Ulurp, a parkland designation requires the parks division to “conduct a wants evaluation, develop price estimates, and safe a funds allocation.”
The builders are in search of a brief restraining order to halt the administration’s declaration to “protect the incoming administration’s skill to make selections concerning the property’s future,” the event crew stated in a press release.
In the end, the crew desires the court docket to annul the parkland designation, which it argues is pushed by the mayor’s want to stop the subsequent mayor from “implementing the mission and to ship by illegal fiat an unearned victory to the well-heeled non-public pursuits that had fought Haven Inexperienced from the beginning.”
Forward of the November election, Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani indicated that he would transfer ahead with Haven Inexperienced and evict the backyard. After the Adams administration declared the land a park, Mamdani informed reporters that pursuing the mission could be “nearly impossible.” Utilizing metropolis parkland for different makes use of would require motion by the state legislature.
The lawsuit argues that permitting the mayor to declare the positioning parkland exterior the authorized course of can have far-reaching implications.
“If allowed to face, Respondents’ actions would set up harmful precedents: that the Mayor, or any mayoral company, might unilaterally overturn a accomplished ULURP by govt fiat; {that a} land-use determination duly vetted, debated, and authorised by the Metropolis Council could also be silently reversed with out public course of; and that the rule of legislation governing New York Metropolis’s land-use system could be disregarded and displaced by political comfort and desire,” the lawsuit states. “That isn’t what the Metropolis Constitution mandates, and it isn’t how a lawful authorities features.”
Representatives for the mayor didn’t instantly return requests in search of remark.
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