'Save the View' Coalition Will Take Pierhouse Developers Back to Court

The community fight to preserve the view from iconic Brooklyn Bridge Park has been dragging on for three seasons now.

After a judge ruled in June that the view-blocking Pierhouse could continue construction, many considered it a lost cause.

But not the Save the View Now coalition. Steven Guterman, 67, a Brooklyn Heights resident and coalition leader, tells Patch that on Sunday, “We informed our supporters that we will be continuing the legal action.”

No paperwork has been filed yet in court.

According to Guterman, the group’s legal team — funded by a few generous members of Save the View Now — will focus on proving the statute of limitations for halting a development does not apply in this case.

The judge overseeing Save the View Now’s previous lawsuit was relatively sympathetic to their cause. ”The casual passerby walking along Brooklyn’s majestic Promenade,” he wrote, ” is struck with the indelible impression that these buildings, now nearing completion, are simply too large.” However, he ruled that the Pierhouse project was technically legal and that the statute of limitations for protesting it had expired.

Guterman and friends point out, in return, that developers have expanded the Pierhouse into an entirely different beast than they’d originally proposed in 2005-06.

“If you walk along the promenade, you’ll see — it’s just absolutely out of scale with what should have been there,” Guterman says.

Patch has contacted Toll Brothers City Living, the developer, and the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation, the agency overseeing the development, for comment.

Update: The Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation has no comment on these new legal threats. About last month’s court decision, a spokesperson says: “We’re gratified the court agrees that the Pier 1 development underwent an extensive, transparent design review process, maintains all protected views, and complies with all height restrictions imposed on the project.”

If construction on the Pierhouse continues unimpeded, it’s scheduled for completion in early 2016.

Update: A spokesperson for the developer says in an email: “The Company has a policy prohibiting employees or the Company consultants from commenting on pending litigation.”