NY Appellate Court Upholds City Planning Commission’s Approval for Construction of Large Towers

This post was authored by Da Hyung Sun, Touro Law Center

In 2016, developers submitted applications to modify an existing site plan to allow the construction of four towers. The City Planning Commission chair determined that the proposed modification did not require a waiver or a special permit. Therefore, the applications were also not subject to ULURP. They also claimed that the State Environmental Quality reviews Act (SEQRA), the City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR), and the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) review suggested that the proposed application would have “significant adverse impacts.” As a result, the FEIS recommended mitigation measures including the establishment of two new public open spaces, improvement to existing parks, implementation of traffic signal timing and other traffic adjustment measures, and payments for additional public elementary school and child care seats. The City Planning Council then voted seven to three to adopt the FEIS and to approve the developers’ applications.

The Borough President and the City Council appealed the decision of the Planning Commission. The lower court granted the petition and required the applications to be subject to the ULURP. The appellate court reversed.

The Appellate Court held that 1) the developers were not required to seek a special permit for the project, and 2) the city rule requiring the determination of whether the project would alter “conditions or major elements of a site plan” did not apply. The court held that since the applications did not conflict with the zoning requirements, the CPC’s approval of the application is rational, was not contrary to any laws, and was not subject to the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP).  

In re Council of the City of New York, et al., v. Department of City Planning of the City of New York, et al., Two Bridges Associates, LP, et al.188 A.D.3d 18 (NYAD 8/27/2020)