The would-be developers of the affordable senior housing project atop Elizabeth Street Garden sued the Adams administration on Wednesday, calling the outgoing mayor's move to officially designate the land as parkland—and thus making it extremely difficult for Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani to carry out his promise to build the housing during his first year in office—"unlawful."
"This proclamation, issued without authority, without process, without public input, and without any supporting administrative record, was designed to accomplish by fiat what a small cohort of ESG supporters had repeatedly failed to achieve through law: the destruction of a duly approved and urgently needed affordable housing development," the lawsuit states.
Can the mayor of New York City turn land that is meant for housing into parkland with the stroke of a pen? As you might imagine, the answer to this question is: It's complicated! Mind-numbing land use laws; a centuries-old concept that the government has a special duty to protect public, undeveloped land; and the myriad scenarios of why a city might want to use parkland for other reasons combine for a heady cocktail of municipal intrigue—and a mountain of case law.