Buildings submitted certified reports and photographs from three inspections between 2012 and 2015, which showed a residential building with a commercial exhaust fan, cooking equipment, and food preparation in the cellar, and wooden pallets and fork-lifts in the yard. Buildings also presented zoning resolution excerpts establishing such uses to be commercial and manufacturing uses, only permissible in C8, M1, M2, M3 districts. In addition, petitioner submitted a zoning map confirming the premises was within an R4-1 district, zoned for residential use only.
An OATH administrative law judge found that the premises was located in a residential district and used for commercial and manufacturing in violation of the City’s Zoning Resolution. The court recommended closure of the premises in a manner that would still allow ingress or egress from any portion being used residentially.
Dep’t of Buildings V. 1801 Avenue P, Brooklyn, OATH Index No. 990/16 (2016).
By: Tanya Warnke (Tanya is a student at New York Law School, Class of 2018).