When is an attic not an attic?

What's this underdeveloped property with an older home and - gasp - a side yard doing taking up space in Queens? We need a hero to come and take care of this problem.

Not to worry, Middle Village has its own local overdevelopment superstars known as the Fabians. Small one family to be replaced with two 3-familys. I'll admit, these don't look quite as hideous as what I am used to from this development firm. However, the permits are for a 4-story building and this rendering doesn't seem to show that.

The 4th floor says "UPPER PORTION OF CLASS "A" DWELLING UNIT 276.5 SQ. FT. OPEN TO BELOW UNFLOORED AREA TO REMAIN PERMANENTLY"

What?

Might want to post the renewed permits, there, Bobby.

This looks legit. Naturally this was all self-certified and there were issues, including a stop work order.

HPD turning to self-certification for affordable housing units

From Capital New York:

New York City plans to significantly scale back regulatory requirements imposed on some affordable housing developers, all but eliminating a cumbersome design and architecture review that can take months to complete and add significant costs to buildings, a top city official said on Wednesday.

While its staff will still conduct a short review, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development will largely rely on a system of self-certifications and random audits to ensure projects under its inclusionary housing program meet city standards, Vicki Been, the agency’s commissioner, said at an event held by the Citizens Budget Commission. Those standards, she said, will also be less burdensome.

Been described the changes as “a completely new approach” and said it would replace “what has often been a long, iterative and, frankly, painful process.” The details will be announced soon, she said.

Reducing the requirements alone would be significant and could be seen as a prerequisite to a self-certification process, some experts said.

“It makes the architects' lives harder, because some of these rules are really challenging and I think sometimes they almost like having somebody else review them because they miss things,” Carol E. Rosenthal, a partner at law firm Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson, said after Been’s remarks.

The revisions are part of much broader changes that are happening at H.P.D. as Mayor Bill de Blasio’s administration embarks on its massive affordable housing effort; the mayor has promised build and preserve 200,000 units of low-cost housing over the next decade.

From Brownstoner:

So expect affordable housing to start looking like the cheapest schlock imaginable — probably not even as good as the dreck that usually gets built in Williamsburg, probably more like cement-block Fedders buildings.

Also, we’ve seen a lot of abuses of the self-certification process for much smaller scale, private developments. If they are flagrant enough, they are eventually punished (architect Robert Scarano and the overbuilt monstrosity at 1882 East 12th Street in Homecrest by architect Shlomo Wygoda are two examples), but we suspect that’s just the tip of the iceberg. So we’re skeptical this is a good approach to take with affordable housing, where the pressure to cut costs is likely to be even greater and the beneficiaries less able to defend their interests.

We think it’s going to be a great loss for these neighborhoods, not to mention the residents.

Sad day in Harlem

From the Daily News:

In the months before a gas leak leveled two E. Harlem buildings, there were telltale signs of potential trouble.

Tenants say they complained repeatedly about strong gas odor in the buildings, making calls to 311 as recently as Wednesday morning.

And as of Wednesday, the city had yet to check to see if the owner of one of the doomed buildings had ever repaired a dangerous wall crack discovered in 2008.

Nine months ago a contractor installed a new gas line from the basement to the 5th floor in one of the buildings, and was allowed to sign off on his own work under a common practice known as “self-certification.”

At the time, the installation was “audited” by the city to ensure there were no leaks and as of Wednesday officials said there was no suggestion the new pipe caused the leak.

Judge slaps down self-certification

From the Daily News:

A state judge has ordered the city to re-examine the flawed process that allowed a developer to build an allegedly illegal — and notorious — building in Homecrest.

Judge Yvonne Lewis sided with neighbors who have argued for seven years that building owner Joseph Druzieh and his architect lied to the city when they said his 53-foot house — built over an existing bungalow — was merely an “alteration” rather than a new structure.

The Department of Buildings and the Board of Standards and Appeals had rubberstamped the permits for 1882 E. 12th St. because the architect, Shlomo Wygoda, had “self-certification” rights — a professional courtesy given to, and sometimes abused by, prolific builders.

Lewis did not have the power to order Druzieh to tear down his unfinished tower at 1882 E. 12th St., but she told him to prepare to do so, according to a lawyer who was there when the ruling was handed down.

150-year old Flushing street tree endangered by construction

LOCATION: 149-17 Sanford Ave, Flushing NY

"Developers are at it again.

DOT and DOB permits approving and authorizing new building construction that irreversibly damages one the largest street trees remaining in Flushing, estimated at 150 years and with a canopy. Forestry Permit apparently absent. Perhaps the tree is not on the building design plan of the Self Certified Architect (and intentionally left off).

Months ago, Queens Forestry was alerted before damages occurred.

Current Parks policy is that Forestry has jurisdiction within 50-ft from the tree base, that covers the tree root zone now largely removed by the excavator." - anonymous

I wanted to see what was there previously. Bing supplied this:


Another example of what bad zoning can do to a nice neighborhood. The small blue house was previously on the lot.

Avella wants to end self-certification

From Bayside Patch:

State Sen. Tony Avella, D-Bayside, joined northeast Queens civic leaders in Bayside Friday to announce legislation that would discontinue the process of self-certification for developers.

The senator said the process, in which developers certify their own properties rather have them inspected by the city’s Department of Buildings, has long plagued communities in his district.

“I have been a long standing proponent of abolishing the self certification procedure, which creates huge loopholes for shady developers,” Avella said. “A great majority of the illegal construction that goes on in my district and beyond is due to the fact that the building plans were self-certified.”

The senator and civic leaders said the city’s Department of Buildings did not have the resources to inspect complaints for all of the problem sites throughout the five boroughs.

Therefore, the DOB should hire more plan examiners to inspect plans during the review phase, rather than allow self certification, they said.

DOB can't handle 2 roles

From the Huffington Post:

Today, the DOB is responsible for both approving and policing building construction and maintenance. These conflicting roles under one roof do not serve the public's safety. An independent office of inspections would address the consistent need for stronger enforcement and bolster the city's capacity to inspect buildings, cranes and, yes, elevators -- all pieces of our urban super-structure that have failed in recent years, with tragic results. As it is, there is an enormous backlog of violations that remain unfixed, many of them serious.

The needless death last week of ad executive Suzanne Hart in a Madison Avenue office is just one example of how flawed our current system is. Since 1995, the city DOB has allowed privately hired companies to inspect a range of routine building components -- from roofs and boilers to sidewalk sheds and elevators. These private inspectors then "self-certify" their findings, meaning that the city takes their word that the inspection results are faithful and accurate.

That is the regulatory equivalent of the fox guarding the hen-house, and it needs to end. The FDNY's own data offers more proof that something is wrong: In FY 11, more than 36,000 people have been rescued from New York City elevators, a number that has more than doubled over the last two years. Clearly, something is not right.

Hideous monstrosity ruins environment

From SI Live:

The immediate issue of concern is the massive, partially built residence at 64 Annfield Ct. on Todt Hill, located in a Special Natural Area District, with its 280- by 130-foot property bordering city-owned Chapin Woods.

Runoff from the excavated hillside, with its uprooted trees and stripped vegetation, has caused a nearby natural creek in the woods to erode and widen. This, in turn, has dramatically lowered the level of one of the three ponds in Reed’s Basket Willow Swamp Park over the past three or four years.

The Buildings Department had the Annfield Court site on its radar last year, but only after the damage to the hillside was a done deal.

“In August 2010, we audited the professionally certified new building plans for the two-story, one-family home under construction, and found that the plans failed to comply with the Special Natural Area District’s requirements,” spokesperson Ryan Fitzgibbon told the Advance last Friday.

“As a result, the Department revoked the new building application’s approval and the new building permit, and issued a full stop-work order to the site,” she added.

The stop-work order remains in effect until the building plans for 64 Annfield Ct. are revised and brought into compliance with Special Natural Area District regulations.

Scarano decision upheld by court

From The Real Deal:

A state appeals court today has rejected architect Robert Scarano's appeal of a decision forbidding him from filing any building documents, including permit applications and construction plans, with the Department of Buildings.

"New Yorkers depend on licensed professionals to follow the law and ensure the quality of life of our neighborhoods is protected. Mr. Scarano betrayed that trust, and this decision sends a clear message that there are serious consequences for filing false documents in New York City," DOB Commissioner Robert LiMandri said in a statement.

The initial decision, made in March 2010, followed accusations that Scarano knowingly made false and misleading statements to the DOB on documents relating to buildings at 145 Snediker Avenue, 158 Freeman Street and 1037 Manhattan Avenue in Williamsburg, Brooklyn in order to have illegal or oversized buildings approved.

"While we find no support for some of the findings of the [Administrative Law Judge,]" the decision says, "we agree that the petitioner's actions in submitting misleading photographs, falsely certifying that all objections had been resolved, and claiming entitlement to extra floor area resulting from a nonexistent community facility are supported by substantial evidence and warrant the finding that DOB can no longer rely on him to submit honest paperwork."

Robert Scarano profiled by the Times

From the NY Times:

Some wonder, if what he was doing was so blatantly illegal, why Scarano met with approval for so long. Robert LiMandri, the commissioner of the buildings department, said he had “no information that indicates that there was any sort of corruption” and that no employees were disciplined. Rather, he contended, the department was overwhelmed by a “frenzy” of building activity, and it relied on Scarano’s representations, which were often voluminous and confusing. At the time, the department had no way to punish him for lying. In 2007, though, state legislators, inspired by complaints about scofflaw architects, passed a law that allowed tough sanctions. “We really needed this stick to be able to say to people, look, there are no more cat-and-mouse games,” LiMandri said. The department created a new Special Enforcement Unit, focusing on Scarano as an initial target.

The city brought a new prosecution, a complicated case involving adjoining properties and supposed double counting of zoning rights, but then, in late 2008, a seemingly unambiguous bit of trickery dropped into investigators’ laps. Scarano was seeking a routine approval for a commercial building, which could not be occupied as long as an electrical pole was sitting in the middle of a new driveway. The architect submitted a curious photo of the building: shot from an off-center angle, it gave the appearance that the driveway was no longer obstructed. When the city sent an inspector to the site, he saw the pole hadn’t actually been moved.

Sign at Bayside High a public nuisance

From the Queens Chronicle:

The controversial Bayside High School LED electronic display sign remains turned off as officials continue to work with the city on having it comply with zoning.

The sign, which cost around $33,000 with funds raised by students more than three years ago, was erected in the fall. A few neighbors living near the school on Corporal Kennedy Street complained that the light generated from the sign was beaming into their homes and was particularly offensive late at night.

Community Board 11 got involved in the issue and one of its members, Frank Skala, who is also president of the East Bayside Homeowners Association, met with the principal, Michael Athy. Athy later turned the sign off at night.

But the Queens Chronicle discovered that the sign is illegal in a residential neighborhood and the Department of Buildings referred the case to its sign enforcement unit.

The display was turned off completely on Dec. 18. Marge Feinberg, spokeswoman for the Department of Education, said on Monday that the principal has not heard the sign is illegal, but that it would remain off.

Carly Sullivan, spokeswoman for the Department of Buildings, said Wednesday her agency’s audit of an application by Mahatab Siddique, an engineer, to remove the illumination is still open. “They will have to change the existing sign to comply,” Sullivan said.

She added that it’s up to the engineer to either remove it or fix the existing one. According to her, it was the engineer who installed the sign and also self-certified it, indicating that it met city requirements. Calls to Siddique were not returned.

CB11 previously voted to have the sign removed.

Photo from Times Ledger

Scarano owners shitting bricks

From NY Magazine:

New Yorkers who’ve bought Scarano apartments—particularly those angling to sell—are grappling with his downfall.

One East Williamsburger who has had her ceiling replastered is fatalistic. “Until the leaks are fixed, I can’t worry about selling this place,” she says. (She and others interviewed for this story requested anonymity for fear of scaring off buyers.) Another North Brooklyn owner says the ductwork in her apartment’s HVAC system doesn’t meet code and adds that the six-story building has no wheelchair access. Others single out “sweaty” windows—possibly a sign of poor insulation—and misrouted cables. Attorney Adam Leitman Bailey, who represents disgruntled owners at eight Scarano projects, says some clients had bedrooms that didn’t meet city specifications and therefore were called closets. When your two-bedroom abruptly becomes reclassified as a one-bedroom, the resale value will likely be downsized as well.

Scarano banned by DOB!

From the NY Times:

Robert M. Scarano Jr., a Brooklyn architect who has long been criticized by community groups for flouting zoning laws, was barred by the Department of Buildings on Wednesday from filing construction plans — threatening, at least temporarily, his ability to work as an architect in the city.

Two other Scarano buildings, at 63 and 69 Stagg Street in Brooklyn, also raised the mezzanine issue.

The order, which applies both to pending applications that Mr. Scarano has before the Buildings Department and to any new ones he might want to file, came after a scathing recommendation by an administrative law judge, who found that he had made numerous false statements about three properties in Brooklyn.

The judge, Joan R. Salzman, accused Mr. Scarano of “deliberately overbuilding” and said some of his filings were “so deceptive that they call to mind out-and-out fraud.”

“False filings lead to chaos,” she wrote. Mr. Scarano, the fourth architect to be barred from submitting documents under a 2007 state law, did not return calls seeking comment. A spokeswoman, Linda Alexander, said in a statement that his company, Scarano Architect PLLC, “is pursing all avenues available to reverse the erroneous rulings that were issued today.”

Mr. Scarano’s lawyer, Raymond T. Mellon, said he would most likely challenge the constitutionality of the 2007 law, which authorizes the city to bar licensed architects.

In the building boom of the last decade, Mr. Scarano emerged as one of Brooklyn’s more prolific and controversial architects, a favored choice of developers looking to capitalize on rising real estate values but the scourge of many community groups, who complained that his buildings dwarfed the structures around them, blocking views and sunlight. Now, city officials have found that they also often dwarfed the plans Mr. Scarano filed to get them built.

Crap on the bluff

Now this makes for a lovely sight when you are strolling along Little Neck Bay in Bayside. Decided to delve further into why it looks like this. Address is 31-09 218th Street. Here's what it used to look like:

Something went wrong with the plans self-certified by a Main Street architect, and the site became abandoned, as noted in this Google Maps photo from circa 2008:

Last Summer, the DOB issued a stop work order - on this abandoned construction site - for a defective fence. It's amazing how effective they are in stopping work on already stalled sites. [Great job, Ira and Bobby!]
The City could condemn it in order to create an extension of Golden Park (after all, it is blighting the neighborhood), but then that would negatively affect a developer and positively affect the community, and under Mayor Bloomberg, we can't have that.

Liquor license self-certification coming

From the Times Newsweekly:

The State Liquor Authority (SLA) has instituted a pilot self-certification program intended to help the agency sort through a backlog of applications. According to Community Board 6 District Manager Frank Gulluscio, who heard about the initiative in an information session held last week with new SLA Chairman Dennis Rosen, the program was initiated in September in response to a reduction in staffing, from 700 employees to about 150, that has caused the 3,000- application backlog.

As part of the new process, applicants and their attorneys are required to fill out a three-page form. The application does “not require full board determination,” meaning that it would not require a public hearing.

The form asks for assurances that the applicant’s paperwork is in order, that the location complies with state regulations, that the applicant is the owner of the business, that the local municipality (or in New York City’s case, the local community board) has endorsed the license, and that the applicant does not have a criminal record.

According to documentation on the SLA website, the program will be in effect until February 2010, at which point it will be re-evaluated.

A sad story from Brooklyn

From Pardon Me For Asking:

No building in Carroll Gardens illustrated the need for a neighborhood down-zoning better than the condo conversion at 333-335 Carroll Street, between Hoyt and Bond Streets. Back in 2005, owner Issac Fischman hired bad boy architect Robert "Mezzanine" Scarano to convert an old brick manufacturing building into a 31 unit condo. As part of the plans, a two story, 40 foot steel addition was erected on top of the old structure.

Alarmed residents asked the NYC Department of Buildings to review the plans, which revealed that Robert Scarano had been more than creative with the floor-air-ratio calculations. The Building's Department confirmed in March 2008, that the architect has lied on the application, claiming that the cellar was a basement. Scarano intended to use the "habitable" basement for parking and had transferred the square footage onto the roof.

The building's owner fired Scarano and the site was slapped with a full stop work order on March 4th 2008. Since that time, the empty building has been dormant. In the meantime, the neighborhood got organized and with the help of the Department of City Planning, was able to down-zone Carroll Gardens, in order to protect this historical neighborhood from out-of-scale developments such as 333-335 Carroll Street.

Unlike the original R6 zoning, the new R6B zoning has a 50 foot height limit. The City Council voted unanimously for the re-zoning on October 28, 2009. It went into effect immediately.

Unbeknown to local residents, the building's owner hired another controversial architect, Karl Fischer, to resolve his building's woes. Fischer, the architect behind the 11 story 'finger' at 100 Luquer street, filed for an amendement, which he self-certified. The record show an audit was accepted on October 16, just days before the new R6B zoning went into effect.

Since this was first reported, the site was hit with a stop work order.

Illegal addition to abolitionist's abode

From HDC:

...at the very moment the Historic Districts Council is honoring the Friends of the Hopper-Gibbons Underground Railroad Site and Lamartine Place Historic District for their grassroots preservation campaign (tonight at 6 p.m.),*the current owners of the Hopper-Gibbons house at no. 339 W. 29th St. Street have been granted a new (apparently self-certified) building permit by the Department of Buildings to vertically and horizontally enlarge this 4 story row house and to construct a penthouse. For two days there was a cement mixer in their front yard and, today, I woke up to the reality that the owners have begun to enclose the illegal, fifth story.