Monday, July 13, 2009

Court fight promised over new building rules

From The Wonkster:

New rules at the Department of Buildings will go into effect Monday that require all zoning diagrams for approved buildings be put online.

But as part of that rule, the public will be limited to comment on those approvals for only 45 days. Public comment is now unlimited.

What the buildings department says is streamlining the development process and will encourage public comment, advocates and elected officials charge that the public’s voice is being silenced.

At a rally this afternoon, mayoral candidate Tony Avella, comptroller candidate John Liu and public advocate candidate Norman Siegel, as well as the Queens Civic Congress and the Historic Districts Council, blasted the administration for the rule change. They urged the department to rescind its plan or to prepare for an arduous court battle.

...advocates say the new rule is obstructionist and could, Siegel hypothesizes, lead to more structurally unsound buildings. They argue a community should be able to raise an unlimited amount of complaints regarding a neighborhood development. The community, they say, are the watchdogs and limiting their comment period is putting developers first.

5 comments:

Taxpayer said...

For anyone who believes that this Commissar deserves an illegal third term, this rule change should cement your understanding of just who he favors - you or his extremely wealthy developer friends.

You will never know until after the disaster whether or not the building where you live or work is fatally dangerous.

Let's give the Commissar our new rule: get out of town. Go live in Bermuda with all your stolen tax money you hid in secret accounts. Go live with the Uighars. They are just your type.

But, let's just boot him in his tiny ass on September 15.

Anonymous said...

I love Norman Siegel but by now he's become a joke.

The court battle will be lost because the developers own the judges!

Anonymous said...

There should be NO public comment, not 45 days! The public has no zoning expertise! Why should they meddle in city permitting?

The public has the choice to vote for elected officials. They should not have the choice to meddle in day-to-day bureaucratic affairs. It's a waste of everyone's time and money.

Anonymous said...

Do you need to be a genius or an engineer to know that people who have already had a history of building unsafe crap should be looked at more closely?

In my case, the landlord who brought the ceiling down on my head, was also involved in excavating a giant pit that was not properly fenced and secured for the longest time (it might cave in too).

Another of the sites that he is involved with destroyed the roofs of two adjacent buildings and caused tenants to move out when their windows were bricked in.

If neighbors who have personal knowledge of such a person's track record start screaming when they see that he is building something else, they should be listened to.

Queens Crapper said...

Case in point: Tommy Huang.