Plaintiffs moved for an injunction under the federal Fair Housing Act (FHA), alleging discrimination by the defendants, the mayor, the City of New York and the Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), in the rezoning and development of the Brooklyn area known as the Broadway Triangle. The city’s “chosen developers,” non-party United Jewish Organizations of Williamsburg Inc. (“A”), and non-party Ridgewood Bushwick Senior Citizens Council Inc. (“B”), plan to construct “affordable” housing within the predominately white Community District 1 (Community 1), the Williamsburg-Greenpoint neighborhood, even though the Broadway Triangle includes the land in the “overwhelmingly non-white, …Community District 3 (Community 3), Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood.” The City Council had rezoned the subject industrial area “to a residential area, with limited building heights between 70-80 feet.”
The plaintiffs alleged that the rezoning and the designation of “A” and “B” in a no-bid process, to build and design low rise buildings “containing numerous large apartments, despite the general demand for smaller apartments, perpetuates segregation and disproportionately impacts a minority group or groups.” The plaintiffs asserted that the defendants failed to consider, as required by law, “whether other alternatives exist,” and had “not demonstrated that their policies and actions are furthered by legitimate interests which cannot be satisfied by lesser or non-discriminatory alternatives.” The court agreed with the plaintiffs.
