(QUEENS, NY) — The Forest Hills Gardens Corporation (FHGC), representing homeowners in the historic Queens community, has filed a federal lawsuit against the City of New York in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York. The federal suit, filed with representation from Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, alleges that the City and the New York City Police Department (NYPD) unlawfully seized the community’s private streets and sidewalks to funnel tens of thousands of concertgoers through the Gardens to Forest Hills Stadium — despite the absence of any permission or license from FHGC, and without consent or compensation. 

“For several years, the City has illegally seized FHGC’s private streets, even after acknowledging that they are privately owned and off-limits,” said Katherine Rosenfeld, Partner at Emery Celli Brinckerhoff Abady Ward & Maazel LLP, the firm representing FHGC. “The Constitution guarantees every property owner the right to decide who enters their property and to access their own property. By shutting down FHGC’s streets and funneling thousands of concertgoers through the community without its consent, the City has carried out a long-running unlawful taking — siding with a billion-dollar concert enterprise over the rights of local residents. This lawsuit is about finally holding the City to account.”

FHGC terminated all licenses for concert-related use of its private streets in 2022, citing overwhelming disruption. Since then, the private concert promoter leasing Forest Hills Stadium has continued each year to stage an aggressive slate of concerts, expanding the Stadium’s use from an occasional concert venue into a high-volume commercial business that surged to 32 concerts in 2023, 38 in 2024, and 31 in 2025.

Forest Hills Stadium is now publicly listed as among the venues operated by AEG Presents, a subsidiary of AEG Worldwide, which is one of the world’s leading venue and live-event companies and generates billions of dollars in annual revenue. This growing corporate ownership underscores how a billion-dollar entertainment empire is profiting from concerts that upend daily life for a small residential community.

These concerts bring large crowds and are frequently accompanied by quality-of-life harms, including: public intoxication and substance use; public urination; littering and dumping; late-night noise; and crowds that flood FHGC’s narrow residential streets, making them impassable to vehicles and hazardous for residents — including families with children and seniors. On concert days, barricades have prevented residents, staff, and contractors from accessing parts of FHGC property for hours at a time, including the FHGC maintenance sheds on Burns Street.

The lawsuit asserts that the City’s actions violate the Takings and Due Process Clauses of the U.S. Constitution and details a multi-year pattern in which the NYPD barricaded FHGC’s streets, blocked resident access, and directed the public onto FHGC property — despite FHGC’s repeated written objections and its decision beginning in 2023 not to license concert-related use of its streets, and despite the fact that Forest Hills Stadium can be accessed entirely via public streets and nearby transit.

In March 2025, the NYPD itself acknowledged it had no authority to close FHGC’s streets without permission — yet weeks later reversed course, authorizing a promoter-funded private security force to carry out the same street-closure program on FHGC property. Between March 1 and April 30, 2025 — the same period during which the NYPD was evaluating whether to issue sound permits for the 2025 Concert Series — the concert promoter company paid nearly $50,000 to five firms that lobbied the Office of the Mayor and various City Council members on its behalf to allow the concerts to proceed.

This legal action seeks compensation from the City for its unlawful use of FHGC’s private property.

ECBAWM attorneys Katie Rosenfeld and Hafsa S. Mansoor represent Forest Hills Gardens Corporation.

Press: