On April 18, 2019, Manhattan Borough President Gale A. Brewer filed an action to ensure that New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) complies with state and local law requiring full community input into its plans to redevelop the Holmes Towers public housing project on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. NYCHA plans to allow a private developer to construct a mixed-income 50-story tower in the middle of the Holmes Towers, obliterating a central playground and large areas of open space that currently occupy the land (shown below) and violating the neighborhood zoning requirements that protect access to light and air. The suit alleges that the NYCHA and the Respondents have acted unlawfully by circumventing the important role of the Borough President and the community in reviewing land use proposals in Manhattan. Through this lawsuit, Borough President Brewer seeks to ensure that the important goal of generating much-needed capital for public housing revitalization does not trump the public and City elected leaders’ roles in decision-making about significant development projects in their community.

The Borough President is represented by ECBAWM attorneys Katie Rosenfeld and Ashok Chandran.
Verified Article 78 & Declaratory Judgment Petition-Complaint and Memorandum of Law in Support of
Petitioner-Plaintiff’s Verified Article 78 Petition

“New Snag in City’s Plan for Private Towers in Public Housing Complexes,” The City
“Gale Brewer sues De Blasio, NYCHA to block UES high-rise,” New York Post