City Moves To Dismiss Lawsuit Against Gowanus Rezoning

GOWANUS, BROOKLYN — The city is asking a judge to dismiss an ongoing lawsuit against its Gowanus rezoning plan thanks to a new executive order from Mayor Bill de Blasio.

The city filed court documents Wednesday requesting that Judge Katherine Levine drop a lawsuit that has held up their Gowanus rezoning application for two months, based on claims from rezoning opponents that remote hearings needed to review the plans are illegal.

The request comes after an executive order from the mayor explicitly allowing hearings in the public review process, known as ULURP, to be held virtually.

The order clears up any questions about the legality of remote hearings, which the city has always maintained are allowed, according to their Law Department.

"Virtual meetings held during the pandemic make sense, have increased participation among the public in the land use process, and are 100 percent justified under the Mayor’s Executive Order," spokesperson Nick Paolucci said. "This litigation is preventing community voices from being heard and is delaying the creation of jobs, housing, open spaces, and a number of other community amenities.”

The City Planning department's proposal to rezone 80 blocks in Gowanus to make way for a mix of development and housing has been in limbo since opponents of the plans filed their lawsuit days before it was scheduled to start the review process in January.

The groups, Voice of Gowanus and Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, contend that the use of virtual hearings during the coronavirus pandemic stifle public participation.

Their lawyers have rested their claims on specific language in the ULURP rules requiring a "convenient place of public assembly" for hearings.

The city has claimed those rules don't make remote hearings unlawful. With de Blasio's executive order, the rules are now suspended.

Jason Zakai, who represents the Gowanus group, called the order an "an obvious and desperate attempt to bypass the judicial process" on Wednesday.

"The Mayor's action reflects his own awareness that the City’s plans for virtual public hearings are unlawful under New York City law," Zakai said. "And the sheer absurdity of first attempting to impose new laws for the ULURP process via 'Emergency' Executive Order this far into the pandemic should not be lost on anyone. We will respond to the City’s motion as appropriate.”

The mayor's office did not immediately respond to a question from Patch about whether the executive order was motivated by the lawsuit, but the order does point to avoiding "continued disputes regarding whether such hearings and meetings may be held remotely" in its text.

Should the judge agree with the city's argument to throw out the Gowanus lawsuit it would likely have consequences for another suit surrounding a controversial project near the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Activists in that case were able to temporarily delay the private development based on a similar argument against virtual hearings.

So far, Levine has seemed skeptical of the argument that virtual hearings are against the law, but has pushed the city to come up with "creative" ways to increase public access.

Over two hearings in late January and February, she partially lifted a restraining order on the plans so the city could release its proposal to the public and indicated that she disagreed with a second part of the lawsuit that claims the city didn't give proper notification before the start of ULURP.

The city claims that those results, along with the recent executive order, should invalidate the entire lawsuit.

“We’re urging the Court to dismiss this case because there is no legal basis to support these claims," Paolucci said.

Voice of Gowanus did not immediately respond to a request for comment.