Saturday, October 20, 2007

DOB: "Whoops, we goofed."

This is a story about a zoning battle...a zoning battle featuring bluntly worded threats; an obvious construction flaw unremarked upon by building inspectors on 18 site visits; and, ultimately, a red-faced city agency, confronted with inconvenient facts, reversing itself after a year and a half of insisting on the legality of a widely opposed condominium project.

City Overlooked Building Flaws in Brooklyn Condo Project

Such fights have become common across the city during this decade-long real estate boom, as residents trying to preserve the feel of their neighborhoods face off against developers seeking to cram as many square feet and stories into a building site as possible. Occasionally, the residents win.

But while the understaffed Buildings Department, outmatched by aggressive developers, has often been shown to fumble inspection and enforcement, rarely has the department so repeatedly rebuffed complaints about a project that it now admits it should never have approved.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

But while the understaffed Buildings Department, outmatched by aggressive developers, has often been shown to fumble inspection and enforcement, rarely has the department so repeatedly rebuffed complaints about a project that it now admits it should never have approved.
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Yea, our 'heros' fighting an uneven battle for our communities.

Anonymous said...

I would suggest that Dr. Heyman
contact the FBI immediately.
DOI shouldn't be the last stop.
Now there's the threat of physical harm involved .

We had a similar experience and contacted the feds.

It resulted in a major DOB corruption investigation
and about two dozen DOB inspectors were
fined, fired or jailed!

The DOB needs to be flushed out once again
and the self certification process rescinded immediately!

Then DOB should be totally reorganized
with proper checks and balances put into place
otherwise there will be a repeat performance
of many such screw-ups in the future.

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