Mayor Adams’ CBC Proposal Part II – Unlawful to File Lawsuits Against City and Developers

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Mayor Eric Adams Blasting
His Way Into Your Community!
Part II

This is Part II in our series on Mayor Eric Adams’ CBC’s proposals to “improve” rezonings for developers.

Proposal: Unlawful to File Lawsuits Against the City and Developers 
As we stated in the first post on this topic, Mayor Eric Adams’ commission made recommendations for changes in both the law and City and State administrative policies regarding rezoning applications for development. 

Their thinking is the 100,000 homeless population is a result of not enough housing, completely ignoring the fact that most new development projects have an average of 30-50 percent vacancy rate and the rise in the homeless population is correlated to the rise in development projects. 

Sidebar: There is a new study out which shows that development actually exacerbates unaffordability in urban housing markets. “Upzoning is far from the progressive policy tool it has been sold to be. It mainly leads to building high-end housing in desirable locations.” “…the ultimate beneficiaries from zoning and building deregulation are landlords and developers.” “A recent study by Yonah Freemark found that upzoning in Chicago led to higher, not lower, housing prices, while having no discernible impact on local housing supply.  https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-05-09/-build-more-housing-is-no-match-for-inequality.
They Used Faulty Data
CPC used time periods between 2014-2107 (five to eight years old) for data analysis purposely ignoring the more recent projects which showed substantial growth of real estate development. In fact, the more recent data, shows the boom in housing development has no positive correlation with how NYC is able to house its people or address the needs of the average New Yorker to obtain housing that is one third or less of their income.
 
Other Entities Involved in these Proposals
Before it was finalized, a draft of this report was reviewed by the Department of City Planning, HR&A Advisors, NYS Home and Community Renewal, The NYU Furman Center, the Deputy Mayor for Economic and Workforce Development and the Office of the Governor. The Commission claimed that these entities made contributions to their final recommendations again showing that they are taking these proposals seriously.
 
First Recommendation  

Doing Away with the Right to Go to Court!

Their Rationale:
Despite the fact that the City and Developers win 95% of the court cases against development projects and rezonings, the remaining 5% they lose they say, “chills” developers from applying for rezoning applications. In addition, most challenges come from wealthy communities, so they are not equitable and fair.
 
Our Response:
It might be clear to most people how outrageous and dangerous this proposition is and its violation of our fundamental rights to ensure our government obeys the law, but in this climate where women are not allowed to decide what happens to their bodies, this may not seem so outrageous after all.
 
The Reality:
No one would be allowed to challenge any of the City’s land use decisions. If the public’s right to file lawsuits is gone, so will the incentive to obey the law. Anarchy will follow especially in poorer communities which hold less political power than more well to do neighborhoods. Remember it is both the political and legal consequences that stop projects or makes them conform to the law.

Second Recommendation
If someone wishes to challenge a rezoning project, the case would be reviewed by the City Planning Commission.

Their Rationale:  
This would help to encourage more developers to propose development projects because cases brought to court (which are costly and time consuming) actually “chills” developers from applying for rezoning applications.  

Our Response:
I know this seems insane to think that the entity that helped a developer create a rezoning application, (in some cases the developer lobbied them for it), that certified it and then voted for it during the ULURP process, would null and void it, just because someone did not like how the City conducted itself.  And you would be right!  How can you possibly complain to the very entity that you are complaining about?

The Threat of Lawsuits:
The irony of this proposal is that all through the CPC’s report they stated that the “threat” of lawsuits keeps the City and developers adhering to the law.  Image if that threat is removed? There would be no incentives for the City or developers to follow the law, for what is a law without teeth to enforce it or consequences when you don’t?

Violation of Our Constitutional Rights:
It would also be a violation of our constitutional rights not to be able to sue the City when it engages in arbitrary and capricious conduct; which normally occurs when it comes to developers and rezoning applications.

What is rare is wins in favor of the people and community.  Some are due to a judge’s political positions and some are due to the weakness of the existing laws.  But whatever the reasons a five percent loss to the City and the Developers clearly does not justify the elimination of our rights for Judicial intervention.

Categories: Community UpdatesFight Against RezoningKnowledge Is Power

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