YIMBY Density Housing Development Switcheroo

 

 

Impunity City 

 While Southside Queens in the 1141 zip code areas is notorious for it’s McMansions and other ostentatiously tack developments, I never would have thought that one of these things would be coming to South Richmond Hill, an aesthetically ugly and density based apartment building that’s out of scale with the rest of the area. What was normal to see built in officially gentrified enclaves in Brooklyn under the guise (and the cudgel) of affordable housing has now reached all the way on the east side of town. (Not counting the luxury public housing building in Ozone Park and the three mammoth towers at nearby Sutphin Blvd in Jamaica).

The "affordable housing" development of death

Documented 

On April 6, Holger Molina, a 46-year-old immigrant from Ecuador, was removing plywood as part of his job in the construction of a 17 story tower. It is slated to become the tallest building in the area bordering Ridgewood, Queens and Bushwick, Brooklyn. It was raining when, at 3 p.m., Molina slipped and fell from the first-floor stairwell approximately 20 feet through a hole into the basement. He was rushed to Wyckoff Hospital and the next day was declared dead from the injuries sustained in his fall, according to the safety incident report filed by his employer.

After the accident, a Department of Buildings inspector visited the construction site and “observed no safety measures to safeguard workers,” according to the violation report, which considered the incident an aggravated offense level two, the most serious violation from the agency. The judge of the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings in New York upheld the violation and slapped the contractor, AB Capstone Builders Corp, with the maximum penalty — a $25,000 fine. For that single incident, the Department of Buildings would issue additional violations for penalties worth $55,000 in total. 

The penalties were imposed after the project, slated to be called Myrtle Point — a mixed-use complex with four floors of commercial space and 133 residential units, of which 30 percent would be an “affordable component” — had been fully suspended on three instances since 2021. As of today, the Department of Buildings has issued five full-stop work orders after considering that the work on any of the 90,000-square-foot property was unsafe for workers. 

That’s an inordinate number of stop-work orders for a construction project. For example, the 47-story office tower at 425 Park Avenue scheduled to be completed next year — a complex renovation project that added 75% new construction to the old building’s structure, costing more than $900 million — has over 90 safety violations, according to Department of Buildings records. However, this agency has never issued a stop-work order for that renovation project, which started in 2016.

Roof pool uncool with DOB

Marine Park development stopped because of multiple violations and residents complaints.

 

Brooklyn Paper

City regulators shut down a Marine Park development site after the builders flagrantly ignored city-approved construction blueprints — and put workers’ lives at risk in the process, according to a Department of Buildings spokeswoman.

“We issued a stop work order for the site…and issued violations to the contractor for disregarding the approved plans and putting workers in jeopardy by skirting safety regulations,” said Abigail Kunitz.

Neighbors filed 11 official complaints to the department since June 2018, claiming that the project at the intersection of Avenue T and Hendrickson Street was not conforming to the permitted plans by exceeding height limits and creating an unapproved elevator shaft, among other violations. 

The department eventually conducted an inspection on the site on Feb. 5 and found the outlaw elevator shaft — including a bulkhead that rises well above the two-story building — as well as missing guardrails and netting meant to protect construction workers, according to Kunitz.

On an otherwise sleepy street stocked with one-family homes, the sizable height of the rising building alarmed neighbors, who claimed the structure did not match the plans posted outside of the site. 

“It is two completely different structures than were presented to people on my block,” said David Fitzgerald. “It now has a massive steel frame with a four-story tall elevator shaft. We don’t even know what this building is.” 

The building also entirely eclipses its next-door neighbor, blocking all the sunlight to the adjoining backyard, according to Fitzgerald

“The whole building blocks out all the light from that man’s backyard,” he said. “It may not bother everybody, but the ones that think like me — that’s just not right.”