I was surprised to find there is total agreement from everybody that the BSA has gotten out of control.

It is time for this unresponsive, undemocratic bureaucratic body to go!  Councilman Avella.

Several proposals to deal with the BSA problems have been introduced to the NY City Council:  261/2006, 262/2006, 263/2006, and 695/2008.  The City Council has failed to act.

...efforts in the 1980’s to strengthen the board’s staff by hiring financial analysts able to closely challenge developers’

The Board is required to make findings required by Zoning Regulation 72-21 but “Unfortunately, BSA routinely disregards these guidelines.” says Avella.  

“Unfortunately, BSA has been allowed to mushroom into a huge loophole for developers to who want to circumvent the law.” Councilman Avella

According to Chair Meenakshi Srinivasan, the Board:

“strives to exercise its authority in a principled and lawful manner”

and

“balances the needs of developers, individual property owners and communities, and renders decisions that respect the character and context of neighborhoods”

The first is a matter of law, the second is a social goal.  Similarly, it supports the conflicting political goals of :

“Sound growth and development, and preservation of neighborhoods”. 

The Board is a troubled organization hobbled by an impossible mission, driven by real estate developer economics and politics, and a disregard for reality.  The scope of the problems and results of BSA decisions lead to a frequent expression that the process is corrupt. The background described on this page is illustrated by the Congregation Shearith Israel (CSI) application for zoning waivers described on another page of this web site.

Quotes are from:

•Tony Avella, Chairman, Legislation & Committees:Zoning & Franchises, article. “Abolish the Board of Standards and Appeals,  Queens Ledger, August 7, 2008

•Josh Barbanel, “A Zoning Board’s Quiet Work Has Neighbors Making Noise.”  New York Times, April 12, 2004.

•Kent Barwick, President, Municipal Arts  Society,

•Board of Standards and Appeals, Greetings from Chair, BSA web site

•Municipal Arts Society (MAS) Study, “Zoning Variances and the New York City Board of Standards and Appeals”, March 2004.

Bloomberg, “CEO Mayor”, Business Week, June 14, 2007

As Councilman Avella says “It is the implementation of this responsibility that has irked, frustrated, and outright angered elected officials, community boards and residents.” 

Perhaps BSA’s inherent conflict reflects the philosophy of Mayor Bloomberg when he says “Good companies listen to their customers #1.  Then try to satisfy their needs #2 [emphasis added].  But don’t let them drive the internal decsisions of the company.”  In the BSA context, this amounts to ‘Listen to neighborhood opposition to a development but don’t let it affect a decision in favor of a real estate developer.’

...the Board is too deferential to the small number of lawyers and financial consultants who practice regularly before it.  New York Times.

Kent Barwick, President of the Municipal Art Society says There is an active underground rezoning going on in the city for guys who are rich enough or smart enough to know how to manipulate the system 

As the CSI example documented on another page will soon attest, the BSA does not even follow its own hardship guidelines where “programmatic hardships are not suitable bases for variances”, Municipal Art Society (MAS) Study, p 12.

Who’s Driving?

A Mission Impossible

Reforms Stalled on the Streets of New York.

complex financial reports and calculations have long been abandoned. Former BSA Chair as reported in the New York Times.

This often-expressed idea, that developers’ calculations are complex, is demonstrated in the accompanying CSI case study.  It shows that the underlying economics are NOT complex; they appear so only because of a developer’s attempt to ‘put one over on’ a willing Board. 

In 2004 The Municipal Arts Society of New York recommended 5 changes, none of which have been implemented.

Decisions, Decisions

The very high variance approval rate [up to 96%] calls into question the scrutiny that is applied to applications. “ MAS Study

“The entire process is a charade.”  Councilman Avella

The Board is “lax in applying its legal stndards and case law.”  New York Times

What do their sloppy decisions matter?  Times reporter Barbanel provides the answer. “After the variance [for a low-return rental building] was approved and upheld in court, a 14-story tower with river view was marketed as a condominium”