Developers Getting Rubber-Stamped City Approvals Despite Public Opposition

In the latest example of rampant developers getting everything they want from the city, 19 parking spaces are removed from West 237^th Street and Blackstone Avenue.

It seems that the Department of Transportation never says no to a developer. Despite a letter from Assemblyman Dinowitz in November 2018, DOT has approved a request from real estate developers to remove every adjacent parking space (19 in total) to their lot at the corner of West 237^th Street and Blackstone Avenue. The parking spaces are already being filled by massive concrete barriers demarcating a pedestrian walkway, raising questions from community residents of why the developer needs to occupy the sidewalk at all.

Over the past several years, the Northwest Bronx has seen a tremendous rise in the number of new developments being proposed and constructed. Typically, these building applications are first processed by the Department of Buildings and, in certain cases, the Department of City Planning. Permits are then requested from the Department of Transportation if the property developer wants to use sidewalk or street space for their construction equipment. Rarely, if ever, are these permits denied by DOT.

Compounding the difficulty for members of the public to figure out what is going on in their own neighborhood, real estate developers frequently mask their identities through a variety of limited liability corporations (LLCs). This makes it more difficult for neighbors to raise concerns as they happen, such as excessive losses of parking or construction noise. Local residents are commonly directed to file complaints with 311 that are forwarded to the same city agencies which approved the permits in the first place, often resulting in a frustrating and circular process that does not resolve concerns.

Department of Transportation has issued numerous permits to Cipco Developers along Blackstone Avenue and West 237^th Street, adjacent to the lot, valid from March 13, 2019 until May 13, 2019 (permits for concrete barriers extend until June 9, 2019). Historically, DOT has readily granted extensions to street permits on behalf of developers. The permits include permission to place jersey barriers and fences on both Blackstone Avenue and West 237^th Street, a construction office trailer on West 237^th Street, and permit occupation of the sidewalk for unspecified stipulated conditions. A request for more information from DOT about the developer’s justification was not responded to at the time this release was issued.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz said: “I am sick and tired of developers running roughshod over our neighborhoods, and city agencies just rubber stamping whatever they want to do. When an agency is quicker to respond to a developer who wants to take away 19 parking spaces than they are to the community who wants to know why this is happening, that is a problem. This goes beyond the parking, even though removing 19 spaces from an area which already lacks sufficient parking to meet demand is a problem. This is about the future of our neighborhoods.

“If a developer doesn’t have enough space to fit their equipment on their own vacant property without infringing on public space, then maybe their building is too large. Maybe we need to be considering construction impacts when we evaluate whether to approve new building construction. People move to our communities – and invest in their homes in our communities – because we have a beautiful balance of density and open space. If we continue to let developers tear into our communities without any kind of government check on their proposals, we will lose the very essence of what makes them a desirable place to live.”

EDITOR'S NOTE:

Last year this same developer built an eight story building at 640 West 238th Street, around the corner from the site Assemblyman Dinowitz writes here. Where was Assemblyman Dinowitz when this same developer wanted to take away the only four parking spaces on that block?

Where was Assemblyman Dinowitz when the same developer wanted to close the whole area in front of 640 West 238th Street, create a fire hazard, and try shortcuts to save time and money?

Where was Assemblyman Dinowitz when this same developer built to the property line on the sidewalk with no place for the construction equipment, not to mention the dozens and dozens of concrete trucks that unloaded into a boom truck parked in the middle of the street to lift concrete to floors two through eight?
Where was Assemblyman Dinowitz when the developer had a contractor undermine the gas line on West 238th Street, and Con Edison had to install a new gas line on the block?

Now that the developer has decided to build an eight story building directly across the street from Assemblyman Dinowitz's low floor coop apartment he is complaining. 

Assemblyman Dinowitz should thank me, the person who led the charge against what the developer was doing at 640 West 238th Street costing the developer valuable time and money to readjust how they were going to build according to the law, not to mention the several thousands of dollars in fines, and almost shutdown of the 640 West 238th Street construction. 

I will do for my neighbor Assemblyman Dinowitz on this Blackstone Avenue building construction exactly what he did for the eight story building on West 238th Street across from where I live, watch. I will tell the developer that he is now building across the street from Assemblyman Dinowitz, and hope he had good practice from me.