Brooklyn developer seeks variance after several years

From Courier-Life:

A half-built house on a quaint Sheepshead Bay street has become a lightning rod of discontent for keeping the neighborhood character intact.

Community Board 15 voted 27-2 with four abstentions to recommend rejecting Dr. Joseph Durzieh’s request that he be given a two-year extension to complete the house he is building at 1882 East 12th Street.

Durzieh came to the board as part of the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals process to try to complete a large 53-foot home that has been under construction for four years.

The brouhaha over the construction began in Feb. 2006, when the Homecrest/Sheepshead Bay neighborhood was downzoned from allowing roughly a six-story building to requirements that mandate a maximum height of about 35 feet.

Durzieh raced to put in the foundation footings before the new law took effect, which also gave him a two-year extension to build the larger building he planned for the site.

From 2006 through 2008, Durzieh did some work on the building, and reportedly just recently began work again on the project.