It’s been extremely busy since we filed our lawsuit to stop the City of Yes at the end of March for the over 120 plaintiffs, headlined by the Queens Civic Congress and many other civic, homeowner and coop/condo associations, citywide organizations such as the Black Institute and Met Council on Housing, elected officials and individual property owners and tenants.

Our team – comprised of Jack Lester, our attorney and his co-counsel, Lawrence Marks, and our experts, including Walter Mugdan, Karen Argenti, George Janes and yours truly – worked incredibly hard to get the verified petition, memo and expert affidavits submitted to the court in a timely manner within the 120 days allotted under the Article 78 process.

Since then, we have made some minor changes, as we had time to make amendments until May 14.

Our timetable for the next few months is as follows: The Adams administration Must reply by May 28,
We then reply by June 25. ORAL ARGUMENTS ARE SCHEDULED TO BEGIN ON JULY 8.

What does all of this mean for New York City?
If we win the lawsuit at the Supreme Court (the first level of courts in New York State), the Adams administration will most definitely file an appeal if he is still in office at that time. While I don’t want to predict anything, that deadline is most likely December 31 of this year.

Contrary to what might seem logical, Mayor Adams has quadrupled-down on his advocacy for the City of Yes and the continued deregulation of land use in New York City since his real estate industry-related corruption indictments last fall. With those indictments magically removed by President Trump in exchange for “cooperation” on his political agenda, the mayor has amped up the volume on his fealty to big real estate, announcing last week at a forum that he is “here for his developers” rather than the residents of New York City. Indeed, this mayor has made it clear that there are two types of property owners: the regular small property owner, whether a one- or two-family homeowner, coop or condo, or small apartment building (under 10 units), all trying to survive and live their lives in quiet enjoyment; or “clients” which include his donors, developers and big real estate, or anyone trying to “activate” a parcel of land that they own with unbridled new development.

Eliminating Member Deference
Mayor Adams has also convened yet another Charter Revision Commission to get rid of Community Board participation and remove the City Council ENTIRELY from the land use review process by eliminating “member deference” or the ability of a Council member to oppose a proposed development in their district.
While the Community Boards are advisory only, a large part of the public participation takes place at that level. In addition, it is most likely unconstitutional for the Mayor to interfere in the City Council’s decision-making process – but that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try.

Massive Upzonings
And, let’s not forget the “full steam ahead” actions taking place to upzone massive areas of the city before the end of the year, including the Jamaica Neighborhood Plan which will bring the density of downtown Jamaica to the low-density neighborhoods around it, including Addisleigh Park in St. Albans; the One LIC: Long Island City Neighborhood Plan that will drive out the remaining lower and middle-income residents there; the Midtown South rezoning that will destroy what’s left of the Flower District and other nearby areas; and a similar drive in the Atlantic Avenue Mixed-Use rezoning to extend downtown Brooklyn’s density into the neighborhoods to the east of Atlantic Yards.

For those of us living in this fresh hell that we have been subjected to by our Mayor and City Council, the collateral damage that we are dealing with is already noticeable and picking up speed.

Accessory Dwelling Units
The City website recently published an article about ADUs that are already under construction in Staten Island – despite the fact that they are not legal yet! That’s what happens when architects, engineers and developers are allowed to self-certify their plans. Clearly, the development industry is chomping at the bit to build on every square inch of land, as we predicted.

Battery Farms
Even more ominously: over the past few months, NineDot and other companies have been purchasing and leasing
sites all over the city to develop Battery Energy Storage Systems, better known as BESS or lithium-ion
battery farms, particularly in low-density neighborhoods like Marine Park in Brooklyn, Addisleigh Park and South Ozone Park in Queens, and quite literally all of Staten Island. Due to the City of Yes, these locations can now be ANY residential property less than 10,000 square feet and property of ANY SIZE in commercial districts, including neighborhood business strips that are immediately adjacent to residential development. For those unfamiliar, these warehouses filled with TESLA or E-BIKE batteries, set up in arrays, are extremely flammable. Should they catch fire, they must burn themselves out. If their containment systems are breached, they release poison gases and PFAS (or forever) chemicals within a several mile radii, contaminating homes, soil, water and people.

By the way: these BESS locations are supposed to be part of the solution to creating renewable energy in New York City. In reality, not only are they inherently dangerous, but they will be storing energy from fossil fuels as much or more than renewables. This is just another case of “greenwashing” by our government, with full support from many supposedly mainstream environmental groups and our own City Council.

The main reason that they have been approved and allowed to be located as-of-right is the vast amount of lobbyist money behind them. For example, NineDot has received over $300 million from the Carlyle Group, which in turn is invested heavily by the Sovereign Wealth Funds of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. This is all about making huge amounts of money, not protecting our environment.

Legal action and state legislation
By contrast, across New York State, Towns and municipalities – including in Nassau and Suffolk counties – have been declaring moratoriums to prohibit BESS from locating anywhere until their safety protocol has been perfected and are also demanding detailed Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) to that end. In other states – including Massachusetts, regarded as the most liberal state in the country – the locations of these battery farms must be 1,000, 2,000 or a more than a mile away from residential uses.

In response, Jack Lester and I have met with several groups to start discussing litigation to stop BESS from being allowed to proceed at specific locations. This would be achieved by filing a lawsuit to get a Temporary Restraining Order and Preliminary Injunction based on faulty permits and a lack of an Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for these systems and (for some properties) within the City of Yes, which massively expanded the geography of where they can be located without accounting for what the environmental consequences would be.

In addition, some elected officials are taking notice of this dire situation and have introduced legislation in the State Legislature – Senate Bill S7197 (Joseph Addabbo) and Assembly Bill A6955A (Jamie Williams) – to curb the worst excesses of BESS by forcing them to be located at least 250 feet from residences if they are 5Mw (megawatts) or more. (Note: Joseph Addabbo was one of the co-sponsors of the original legislation that enabled these systems in the first place in 2019 under Senate Bill S6599/Assembly Bill A8429) Unfortunately, many of the sites being built are purposely being designed for 4.9Mw and will continue to be allowed as-of-right – unless we are successful in court.

Speaking of the Legislature: there is also a bill in the Senate – S7791A – and Assembly – A8386 – known as the “Faith-Based Affordable Housing Act” that will allow high density development on all religiously
owned parcels throughout the state. This is particularly targeted at New York City and is meant to be a companion to the City of Yes. MANY OF OUR ELECTED OFFICIALS ARE CO-SPONSORS BUT ARE KEEPING A LOW PROFILE ABOUT IT. This bill will give religious organizations more rights and special treatment than other property owners. If you are opposed to unmitigated high-density development in your neighborhood, you should call them up and let them know how you feel.

In short, the City of Yes is doing exactly what we expected: it is turning New York City into a CITY OF MESS.

SO WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?
Once again, it is election time for every City Council seat, all Borough Presidents and all citywide offices. The Primary is on Tuesday June 24 and the General Election is on November 4. In particular, this year’s Mayoral cycle is like nothing we have seen in half a century: a contested General Election with – most likely – five (5) candidates.

While Mayor Adams decided to forgo the Democratic Primary – due to his well-deserved abysmal approval ratings – and run as an independent in the General Election in November, the remainder of candidates in the Democratic Primary are ALL supporters or enablers of the City of Yes (Adrienne Adams, Michael Blake, Andrew Cuomo, Jessica Ramos, Scott Stringer, Whitney Tilson) or believe that it doesn’t go nearly far enough (Brad Lander, Zohran Mamdani, Zellnor Myrie), proposing between 500,000 and 1 million new units of housing in the next decade.

In fact, there is only a single candidate who has consistently opposed the City of Yes since the beginning of this madness: Curtis Sliwa, who has stated that it will be reversed or otherwise ended, should he be elected, and land use decision-making will be brought back to our neighborhoods – the way it should be. And should the lawsuit still be winding its way through the courts, Sliwa will end the City’s defense of an indefensible set of zoning laws that have unleashed chaos in our communities across the city – and it’s only been a few months since adoption, so there’s no question it will get worse.

While the City of Yes is not the only thing under consideration, it is one of three or four major discussion points that continue to come up during the Mayoral race, usually paired with housing. In other words, it is IMPORTANT and continues to be so.

The Mayor of New York controls every agency – Department of City Planning, Department of Transportation, Department of Education, Department of Environmental Protection, Department of Sanitation – the list goes on. Generally speaking, the mayor sets the agenda for the city. While the City Council is important particularly on budget and land use issues (unless the City Charter is revised!), the mayor is critical for the future of the city, for good or ill.
I implore you: Talk to your friends and family. Do your own research if you need to – don’t take my word for it. This is the most important Mayoral election in decades and WILL change the trajectory of the city, without question.

A QUICK REMINDER: the legal action that we have taken to file this massive lawsuit – the largest land use litigation in over 60 years in New York City – is not over. It is critical for continued financial support to bring this action to a successful conclusion. If your organization or association has not donated to the cause yet, please do so; if it has, please consider donating more. Support from individuals is always welcome as well.

To donate:
Visit tinyurl.com/NoToCityOfYes
or mail check to:
Queens Civic Congress
P.O. Box 604957
Bayside, NY 11360

Most importantly,
VOTE.