New York Real Estate

6 / Venable Zoning and Land Use Zoning and land use are integral parts of Venable’s New York Real Estate Practice. Our land use attorneys are experienced in the legislative, administrative, and regulatory aspects of complex zoning, landmarks, and other land use issues. Typically engaged at the outset of a project, our team develops and implements legal strategies to take a project from the conceptual stage through application to ultimate approval. Our practice is both regulatory and transactional. We counsel clients on zoning and planning, landmarks and historic preservation, building code requirements, coastal zones and other special protection areas, environmental reviews, agency permits, variances and approvals, public review requirements, and other issues. We offer analysis and interpretation of regulations, administrative procedures, and guidelines. We represent clients before local, state, and federal regulatory authorities in connection with special permits, zoning variances, authorizations and certifications, and other approvals and permits. We advise on substantive issues and procedural questions relating to possible challenges by project opponents, including maintaining the administrative record, advising on potential litigation risks, and responding to and negotiating with elected officials, civic organizations, and project opponents throughout the process. We also negotiate the transfer and use of development rights (so-called air rights transactions), government lease and license transactions, easements, restrictive declarations, and community benefit agreements. Our land use team has assisted clients with master planning; approvals for capital projects ranging from historic façade restoration to complex new buildings; projects on City- and State-owned land, including parkland, streets, and land under water; revocable consents; tax lot reapportionments; and zoning and permitting issues and appeals. We help clients obtain approvals from, among other entities, the City Planning Commission, including pursuant to the City’s Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), the Board of Standards and Appeals, City Department of Parks and Recreation, Landmarks Preservation Commission, Public Design Commission, Department of Transportation, and Department of Buildings, as well as State agencies, public authorities, and the State Office of Historic Preservation. We also provide guidance on community and government relations and defend project approvals against administrative and court challenges. Our experience includes representation of the following clients: • The American Museum of Natural History and Planetarium Authority (a State agency) in the renovation and redevelopment of the Museum complex, from the development of the Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000 to the current development of the Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation, including successful outcomes in the litigation of project approvals for both projects. We have guided the museum, a designated landmark, through City and State environmental and historic preservation reviews, NYC Parks review of construction on City parkland, and negotiations with community stakeholders on traffic flow, parking, and other community concerns. • Mount Sinai Health System in connection with campus master planning for hospital, medical school, and life sciences research facilities; zoning analyses; environmental review; obtaining zoning variances, special permits, and revocable consents; tax lot reapportionments; and a subway station easement. Projects have included the new 160,000 square foot Mount Sinai Beth Israel Hospital, expansion of Mount Sinai Hospital Queens, and the 800,000 square foot mixed-use Hess Center for Science and Medicine and residential tower, among others. • The United States Tennis Association in connection with a major renovation and expansion of the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, including the rebuilding of Louis Armstrong Stadium and the Grandstand, and a roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium. This project required a City Uniform Land Use Review Procedure (ULURP), a CEQR environmental impact statement, State legislative alienation of parkland, and renegotiation of a long-term lease with New York City. • A major property owner affected by the reconstruction/ replacement of a highway. Venable’s services include preparation of written comments responding to the draft environmental impact statement relating to substantive and procedural compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and State Environmental Quality Review (SEQRA), including coordination of comments from economic specialists and environmental engineers. • Ørsted Wind Power North America in connection with approvals required to install a power transmission line across New York State-owned property. • A private K-12 school in connection with a New York City Planning waterfront certification and Public Design Commission approval. • Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation in the proposed rezoning and redevelopment of Restoration Plaza, the cultural and commercial “town center” of Central Brooklyn. Currently in the early stages of the approvals process, this project involves extension of the lease for State-owned portions of the Plaza, ULURP and environmental review, and government funding. • The American Fine Arts Society (the parent organization of the Art Students League of New York) in a major sale of transferable development rights, involving a zoning lot development agreement and cantilever transaction, with substantive protections for the League’s midtown Manhattan building – a New York City landmark. • An affordable housing corporation in negotiation of the transfer of development rights from an affordable housing site, subject to a regulatory agreement and requiring consent by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and City Housing Preservation and Development. • A Brooklyn church in the appeal of a Department of Buildings zoning determination required for conversion of a former residence for nuns to multifamily housing use. • The Brooklyn Academy of Music in connection with the renovation and expansion of the BAM Harvey Theater, including zoning analysis, a City license amendment, and City funding. Article 78 and Land Use Litigation/Arbitration Working with Venable litigators, our land use team defends against challenges to land use approvals and advises on litigation or arbitration over zoning and land use matters. Our attorneys defeated a motion for preliminary injunction, later upheld on appeal, and obtained dismissal of an Article 78 proceeding challenging the New York State Housing Finance Agency’s issuance of a “negative declaration” in an environmental review under SEQRA. Petitioners sought to enjoin HFA’s financing of, and the developer’s construction of, a $70 million mixed- income residential development project in Brooklyn, New York. On behalf of the Brooklyn Public Library, we defeated an Article 78 petition, upheld on appeal, involving a challenge to the environmental review and project approvals for the sale and redevelopment of the Library’s Brooklyn Heights branch. After an expedited exchange of papers and a two-day trial in arbitration, we won a dispute involving the interpretation of a zoning lot development agreement (ZLDA) affecting proposed new development on a shared zoning lot. The arbitrator declared that our client had unfettered contractual rights to decide whether to consent to a massive residential development proposed for the adjacent lot.