A battle between an Inwood community group and the de Blasio administration is officially over. The state Court of Appeals has declined to hear a case that could have overturned the Inwood rezoning.
A state Supreme Court judge had annulled the rezoning in December, but the state Appellate Division reinstated it in July. Inwood Legal Action had vowed to appeal that decision on behalf of the Northern Manhattan Is Not for Sale coalition, but the highest court in the state has declined to hear the case.
“It’s reassuring to see that the highest courts in New York have affirmed that the Inwood rezoning was conducted properly and in accordance with all regulations and statutes,” said Joy Construction’s Eli Weiss, who is working on a major development in the neighborhood.
Inwood Legal Action was optimistic that the state Court of Appeals would hear it out after the Appellate Division ruling. The organization suggested that the project would displace Black, Asian, Dominican and other Latino residents and small-business owners.
"In asking the state’s highest court to rehear our case, we had hopes in their understanding of and sensitivity to the history of the nation’s racist housing and land use policies," Cheryl Pahaham, co-chair of Inwood Legal Action, said in a statement. "With all that has been going on recently—police murders of Black and Brown people, the massive mobilization of Black Lives Matter, and a President who supports and mobilizes White supremacists—we had some expectation that the judges would be thinking about inequality and what it might mean in the context of the Inwood rezoning."
The de Blasio administration had made the plan to rezone the northern Manhattan neighborhood part of its strategy to help resolve the city’s affordable housing crisis. It launched the rezoning process to build 5,000 units of housing in the neighborhood.
Developers including Taconic Partners had been planning to create more than 700 mixed-income apartments. A joint venture of Maddd Equities and Joy Construction planned to add 614 affordable units. The initial ruling against the rezoning had them reconsidering their projects.
“The Appellate Division properly applied long-standing principles of law regarding the environmental review of land-use actions by the city, and there was no need for the Court of Appeals to review that decision,” said Richard Leland, a land-use lawyer at Akerman who represents Maddd and Taconic.
Justice Verna Saunders of state Supreme Court had ruled in December that the city did not take a thorough enough look at the rezoning’s potential socioeconomic impacts. The Appellate Division, however, overturned her ruling in a unanimous verdict July 23, saying that the city had in fact thoroughly examined all required issues throughout its rezoning process.
“This is good news for Inwood and for the entire city,” said James Whelan, president of the Real Estate Board of New York. “The thoughtful, community-driven Inwood rezoning plan will produce or preserve approximately 5,000 below-market rate homes, create thousands of good jobs, strengthen the neighborhood and spark much-needed economic activity as New York City continues to confront unprecedented economic challenges.”
Updated with comment from REBNY President James Whelan and Inwood Legal Action.
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New York Court of Appeals declines to hear Inwood Legal Action's arguments for overturning Inwood rezoning - Crain's New York Business
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