BSA breaks out the old rubber stamp

From Brooklyn Daily via Curbed:

Homecrest residents and local leaders are crying foul over a decision by an obscure city board allowing construction to move forward on an absurd tower on E. 12th Street — a ruling many see as proof that the agency is more concerned with politics than justice.

The bizarre building — which observers have described as “grotesque,” “hideous,” a “blemish,” and a “monstrosity” — looms 43 feet over nearby homes that average merely 21–30 feet tall. The structure is supported on steel beams over the crumbling ruins of the one-family bungalow it’s supposedly altering, and worse, the mammoth addition overhangs halfway across a shared driveway.

Neighbors sued the owner of the unfinished building, Joseph Druzie, claiming that the building permits were fraudulent and the towering structure violates local zoning laws. But the city’s Board of Standards and Appeals ruled last week that the permits were valid and Druzie could go ahead with the project — despite acknowledging that if not for an “administrative error,” the permits would probably never have been issued in the first place.

After neighbors Betty Travitsky and Bella Center filed suit against Druzie, Brooklyn Supreme Court judge Yvonne Lewis reprimanded the Board of Standards and Appeals — which is supposed to provide independent oversight of the Department of Buildings— and ordered the agency to reconsider whether Druzie’s building permits were validly issued.

“The [Board of Standards and Appeals] abandoned its obligation to review and, if necessary, correct the mistakes of the DOB,” Lewis wrote in her decision. She also said this time the city agency ought to look at the permits before rubber stamping them.

However, in a resolution published on July 26, the Board of Standards and Appeals declared that Druzie does have vested rights and, while admitting that Wygoda should have filed for a new building permit, the agency called the error “administrative” and ruled the permits valid.

Tony Avella, a state senator from Queens who crusades against unscrupulous developers, visited the tower on E. 12th Street earlier this year and cited the agency’s decision as further evidence of why the mayor should get rid of it.

“This is one more example of why the Board of Standards and Appeals should be abolished,” said Avella. “It’s just incomprehensible that this developer got away with this huge building. It’s a monstrosity, and not only that, but its a dangerous accident waiting to happen.”

In fact, the board appears to have performed no additional investigation or review beyond the consulting the buildings department, and based its decision largely on the testimony of the department it is supposed to police.

“The DOB testified during the most recent public hearings and submitted evidence on the validity of the permit, and the BSA reaffirmed its decision to grant vested rights,” said Jeff Mulligan, executive director of the Board of Standards and Appeals.

Klein called the decision proof that the Board of Standards and Appeals exists only to overrule common sense in favor of the Department of Building’s whims.

“This decision says that the BSA is going to rubber stamp anything the DOB does,” he said.

YUP.