In April 2019, a lawsuit was filed in opposition to a decision passed by City Council to rezone land near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. The lawsuit is an Article 78 Petition called Boyd vs. Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo index #1518/19. Councilwoman Laurie was named in this lawsuit because it was her deciding vote that allowed it to be passed into law. She had stated it was based upon a “Miracle Deal” where an additional 100 apartments were going to be created targeting residents who make $100,000 a year, in a community who’s medium income is $40,000 a year. This means that all the apartments would be severe rent burden to the existing population. Also the deal was never realized or part of the rezoning. It was fake!
The lawsuit includes three Petitioners: Alicia Boyd, Lashaun Ellis and Michael Hollingsworth, and seven Respondents: Councilwoman Laurie Cumbo, Department of City Planning (DCP), NYC Planning Commission (CPC), Brooklyn Director of DCP Winston Von Engle, Chairperson of CPC Marisa Lago, NYC Department of Building (DOB) and Cornell Realty [Management] LLC (Cornell).
Details
A rezoning change was passed by the City Council in December 2018, granting a private developer, Cornell, the right to break the Community Plan of 1991, by building up to 230 ft. in Community Board 9’s only height limited zone of 60/70 ft., along the Brooklyn Botanic Garden.
The main argument against the rezoning is that the lead agency, DCP, did not conduct an Environmental Impact Statement “EIS”, because Cornell misrepresented their numbers and didn’t conduct their Environmental Assessment Statement “EAS” according to the Law.
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