City's Appeal To Reinstate Inwood Rezoning Heads To Court

INWOOD, MANHATTAN — The city's controversial plan to rezone Uptown Manhattan's Inwood neighborhood will head back to court this week, months after it was shot down by a lower court last year.

The city's appeal on the New York State Supreme Court's decision to annul the rezoning plan is slated for oral arguments in the state's appellate courts at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, according to court documents.

The hearing is the first court appearance since the city appealed the decision in February.

In the decision, Justice Verna Saunders sided with a group of rezoning opponents under the banner Inwood Legal Action, who had brought an Article 78 lawsuit against the city in December 2018.

The rezoning plan proposes upzoning large swaths of Inwood east of 10th Avenue to facilitate large-scale residential developments while rezoning areas west of 10th Avenue in an attempt to preserve the existing neighborhood's character.

Saunders' ruling sent the rezoning plan back to the city Economic Development Corporation and the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development, which are required to study issues raised in Inwood Legal Action's Article 78 lawsuit.

Inwood Legal Action's arguments contended that the city's environmental review process for the upzoning failed to analyze several effects of the plan on neighborhood residents.

In its appeal, the city argues that Saunders' "incorrect" understanding of the environmental review process "would allow objectors to stifle and delay public projects in New York City, essentially at will."

"Allowing objectors to force do-overs because public commenters might have made different judgments would provide a blueprint for obstructing most, if not all, planning efforts and public projects,” the Law Department wrote in its written brief.

They contend the rezoning will bring Inwood "new affordable housing, publicly accessible open space along the waterfront, a new public library and other benefits."

Read their full written appeal here. Find a link to listen to the oral arguments on Wednesday at the Appellate Court's website here.