CSSC TO APPEAL RULING OF JUDGE TO IMPOSE 3 SANITATION (GARBAGE) GARAGES DOWNTOWN

A press release from the Community Sanitation Steering Committee:

 

Downtown community residents, business and property owners have filed a Notice Of Appeal today in the Appellate Division First Department of the NYS Supreme Court. They are represented on the appeal by Kenneth F. McCallion of the law firm of McCallion & Associates LLP. 

 

According to Community Sanitation Steering Committee (“CSSC”) member, Richard Barrett: “We are confident that the appellate court will reverse the lower court’s decision dismissing our petition to halt the planned Consolidated Three District Sanitation Garage at Spring Street in the heart of the Hudson Square/North Tribeca neighborhood.”  

 

According to CSSC spokesperson, Phillip Mouquinho, the long-term owner of PJ

Charlton’s restaurant, “over the past 14 months we have been trying to work in good faith with the City who asked us to do their work in trying to find an alternative site for a sanitation garage that serves midtown." By announcing an RFP to bid out a construction contract, the city rejected CSSC's award winning American Institute of Architects (AIA) Hudson Rise plan by Z-H Architects which would have put a two district sanitation garage under a rooftop park; one day after an uptown community board indicated their interest in a stand-alone garage. He added that this “turns out to be a serious case of ‘smoke and mirrors’ as the City had no intention of listening to the community”.

 

Carole DeSaram, president of the Tribeca Association added that, “we certainly had standing to create the Hudson River Park, but now the Judge has explicitly denied us the opportunity to uphold the rules of the Hudson River Park Act which safeguards the Park and its surrounding community”.

 

Issues under Appeal will include the requirement that moving sanitation garages out of Gansevoort and into the neighborhood constitute a “Significant Action” which should have triggered a Public Hearing. She expressed hope that the appeals process would help to restore a sense of balance to allow the City and the community to work through the proper “consensus-building” channels to find a better solution.