קריטיק אויף bsa וועגן זאניג אין ווילי
some fire
Woodbury Country Club
Giovanni Rosso
American A.M.S.
Granite Countertops
Grover Home Headquarters
Suffolk Mattress Company
BY DAN JANISON
Staff Writer
August 11, 2004
The legacy of a little-known city board with a controversial role in altering neighborhoods is drawing fire from a surprise source: the highest levels of the Bloomberg administration.
The Board of Standards and Appeals has roiled activists for years with unilateral zoning and building variances that critics say nullified manufacturing and residential street zoning.
"This is a commission that I gather has been somewhat arbitrary," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a forum in Greenwich Village on Monday.
In recent months Bloomberg has put the board under a new chairwoman, Meenakshi Srinivasan, formerly of the City Planning Department, who replaced James Chin, a Giuliani administration appointee.
Some elected officials say that move isn't enough and that the panel needs to be more responsive to community boards and local needs.
Tension surfaced at Monday's forum when Buildings Commissioner Pat Lancaster addressed a civic activist who appealed to the mayor to rein in the Board of Standards and Appeals.
"There's someone new in charge at the BSA for the past couple of months," replied Lancaster. "... Part of what you're saying is that they shouldn't make the decisions that they've been making ... I think Mayor Bloomberg has at least in part taken care of that."
Further, Bloomberg vowed to discuss proposed changes in the makeup of the board with key Council members Anthony Avella and Melinda Katz, both Queens Democrats.
Citing past "arbitrary" judgments, Bloomberg said, "We have new management, and let's see how that works. ... I'll take a look at it."
By law the five-member board decides appeals from property owners whose applications to construct or alter buildings or establish new uses have been denied by enforcement agencies.
These agencies include the departments of buildings, fire and small-business services. Under the 1991 charter, the board gained final say over such matters as well as granting special permits and deciding zoning issues.
At a time when the Bloomberg administration is highlighting new zoning protections for neighborhoods, Avella (D-Bayside) has argued that the appeals board is out of control and that the City Council should supercede it.
Avella said yesterday that Srinivasan's appointment marks "a little step in the right direction but it does not give us the oversight that's needed."
"There are situations in the city where the board issued so many variances they have in effect created new zoning," Avella said, citing sections of Williamsburg turned ad-hoc from manufacturing to residential, and a residential avenue in Staten Island converted to commercial without a legal change of zones.
The panel also kept the Buildings Department from barring cellar occupancy in a Manhattan structure, a matter that bears on safety, Lancaster said yesterday.
"Our sense was that BSA is supposed to rule and be used as a last fair, equalizing, level playing field for judgment calls on things that are thorny, sticky and not clear," Lancaster told Newsday. "Instead it's been used as a vehicle for transcending the law."
Srinivasan was chairing a meeting yesterday and not immediately available for comment. Katz (D-Forest Hills), chairwoman of the Council Land Use Committee, said time should be taken to let current reforms work.
Copyright © 2004, Newsday, Inc.
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