Anger over stalled suit vs. garden-adjacent hi-rise

A “David-and-Goliath” lawsuit filed by Crown Heights activists was stalled Friday in its push to stop a high rise near the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, a development they contend will cast a long shadow on the treasured 52-acre retreat and open the floodgates for other towering projects.

At a hearing Friday in Brooklyn Supreme Court, Judge Reginald Boddie put off until Sept. 9 his decision on whether the lawsuit by activist Alicia Boyd and two others can proceed against City Council member Laurie Cumbo, the Department of City Planning and Cornell Realty Management.

Boyd and her fellow activists, who are acting as their own lawyers, argue the city failed to conduct an environmental impact study; the city and realty company assert the suit was illegally served, and want the case tossed. [Boddie] to not move forward with this case … but we know this is a way the judges stall,” Boyd said outside the courtroom. “If they are allowed to sit there and develop these [high-rise] buildings, then that is the end of our garden. If we can’t protect a public green space, then nothing is sacred.”

But lawyer Bruce Newborough, who isn’t involved in the lawsuit, told the activists “the problem is you’re David going against Goliath

y gg use every trick in the book.”

Last December, Cumbo championed an upzone at the site for two 16-story rental towers in exchange for affordable housing being included. “This is nothing short of a miracle to announce I have secured commitments to increase affordable housing,” the Crown Heights councilwoman reportedly said at the time.

Boyd countered that “this first development cannot go through because the big one is behind it, the monster is behind it, and that monster will devastate us.”

Crown Heights resident Jeanine Nichols, 66, said the glut of new developments around the city “is profoundly disturbing to me,” likening it to “rolling over neighborhoods of color for development.”

Esteban Giron, 41, lamented the Botanic Garden “got themselves into this.”

“Not only did they not oppose it, they specifically said they were OK with this,” he charged.

The garden’s website, however, touts its “Fight For Sunlight” opposition to another proposed building complex that includes two 39-story towers on Franklin Ave. “just 150 feet from the Garden… Towers of this size would block hours of sunlight to the Garden’s 23 conservatories, greenhouses, and nurseries.”

Requests for comment from Cumbo and the Brooklyn Botanic Garden were not immediately returned.