Friday, January 21, 2011

You win some...

From the Daily News:

Residents of a northeast Flushing neighborhood who are fighting a plan to build a small apartment building on their block were elated last week when a city panel ruled in their favor.

But the celebration was short-lived.

Lawyers for owner Paul Rifino said they will appeal the Board of Standards and Appeals decision and push ahead with his original plan to construct eight apartments on the site of a one-family Tudor house at 166-43 26th Ave.

When Rifino started his project several years ago, the property was zoned to allow multifamily dwellings, even though the leafy area was dominated by single-family homes. Restrictions were tightened in 2009, when the city rezoned the area.

Local residents rallied with elected officials to ramp up the pressure on Rifino and the Buildings Department.

Even though Rifino's project preceded the zoning change, the city revoked his construction approvals for failing to get a demolition permit before obtaining his alteration permit.

Adam Rothkrug, Rifino's lawyer, said the city's reason for pulling his permits was unfair.

"The entire project was subject to over a dozen Department of Buildings inspections and subject to a Department of Buildings audit before the zoning was changed," Rothkrug said. "For the Department of Buildings, after the fact, to go back there for the fifth or sixth time and claim something was done incorrectly is not really fair."

He said his client plans to appeal the BSA's decision to the state Supreme Court.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

There is nothing stopping him from going ahead, which he will.

Anonymous said...

BSA appeals go to Supreme, not Appelate?

JOE FOR COUNCIL said...

Awww...It's not fair?
Poor guy....I feel so bad for him that the big bad dob, and BSA is picking on him! What a loser. This is obviously an oversight from DOB, probably because the plan examiners that work there are minimally trained. But that's too bad. You cant, nor should you build a small apt building in a neighborhood with over riding characteristics of single family, old world homes.

Anonymous said...

Crappy's photo is not the house in the article. I believe the article refers to the house on corner behind Du-Rite real estate, which has had construction fence for a few years.