Hudson Valley Developer Sued By U.S. for Violating Disability Laws

VALHALLA, NY — A civil rights lawsuit has been filed against a Westchester County developer over requiring housing to be fully accessible to people with disabilities.

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, announced Wednesday the suit requiring that Valhalla-based Ginsburg Development Companies brings two Rockland County existing properties into compliance with the Fair Housing Act.

Bharara also obtained a court-ordered preliminary injunction, to which Ginsburg consented, to make four Westchester County rental complexes currently under development fully accessible for people with disabilities.

“With today’s lawsuit and injunction, we seek to ensure that properties constructed by Ginsburg Development are accessible to those with disabilities, as the law requires,” Bharara said.

“Developers in this district should know that this office will use all available tools to enforce the FHA’s basic mandate the developers construct residential buildings accessible to people with disabilities,” he said.

The lawsuit affects The Riverside, a 106-unit residential apartment complex at 4100 Southernly Pointe Drive in Haverstraw, and The Parkside, a 110-unit residential apartment complex at 2100 Round Pointe Drive in Haverstraw.

The injunction applies to Harbor Square Crossings in Ossining, Saw Mill Lofts in Hastings-on-Hudson and River Tides and 1177 Warburton Avenue, both in Yonkers.

The lawsuit requires Ginsburg to make retrofits at The Riverside to correct such things as inaccessibility to the on-site ferry launch for people who use wheelchairs, mailboxes too high for wheelchair users, kitchens lacking sufficient width to accommodate people who use wheelchairs and inaccessible locations of environmental controls in individual units.

Fixes at The Parkside include the main entrance not being accessible to someone in a wheelchair, insufficient maneuvering space in bathrooms, inaccessible thermostats and the doorway to the private cinema not being wide enough.

The lawsuit also seeks to have Ginsburg pay a civil penalty, modify its procedures and policies and provide compensation to people who are victims of the inaccessibility issues at the two complexes.

The injunction on the four properties under development requires Ginsburg to retain an experienced accessibility consultant as the FHA reviewer, who will analyze all the designs for accessibility and conduct site visits to identify inaccessible conditions resulting from construction.

Ginsburg issued the following statement, through a spokesman:

GDC recognizes the role of the Department of Justice in ensuring that buildings and public spaces are accessible to all disabled persons and compliant with FHA requirements. We work with our architects and other professionals and we design our buildings to ensure that those requirements and the needs of any disabled person who resides or visits our buildings are met. We have always been sensitive to the needs of disabled persons and we go well beyond the requirements of the FHA in making even further accommodations to their apartments. That is why we have voluntarily entered into a consent order with the Department of Justice, pursuant to which we have retained an FHA reviewer to determine if, and correct if necessary, any FHA requirements that may have been inadvertently left unmet.

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