Brooklyn, NY - Developers Solution For Condos Meets Skepticism

Brooklyn, NY - Nearly a year has passed since the city ruled that a group of developers had violated zoning guidelines when they built five oversize buildings in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, and the owners of the 72 completed condominiums remain in an uncomfortable limbo, unable to sell or refinance their apartments.

The city said it was close to an agreement with the developers, but several condo owners said they were pessimistic, since any solution relies on the very people — the developers, their architect and Buildings Department officials — who created the mess to begin with.
To address the zoning violation, the developers, a group that includes Mendel Brach, Moshe Okin and Moses Roth, have agreed to transfer 26,025 square feet of air rights from other properties on the block to the five nine-story buildings, which are on Spencer Street between Willoughby and DeKalb Avenues.

But that would clear up only part of the problem.
After discovering the zoning violations last August, the Buildings Department inspected the buildings and encountered design flaws that it says must be remedied before they can be considered legal. These include a failure to meet standards for access by people with disabilities and a fire-safety problem: the apartment doors open directly onto the buildings' stairwells.