What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? new york
I live adjacent to a construction site that is building a 6 story Community Center next to my (& neighbors) 2 story homes. This Community Center even before they started construction that did not even notify us as adjacent property owners. After they started any type of work they were parking in my driveway, leaving a mess near my house and took away any quality of life we had. We have no privacy which will get worse once this building and there underground garage is completed. People hang out in front of my driveway or even sit on our bench to eat food or just talk on their cell phone, then they throw their garbage in front of my house or inside my fence. Unfortunately once this construction is completed their underground garage will be approx. 25 inches away from my driveway. In fact I don't even think that anyone, inclucing us, will be able to park in the street in front of my driveway because this narrow one -way street and the ability of motorists trying to turn into this underground garage will cause a problem if a car is parked there as well as to pedistrian traffic walking pass there.
I live in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, new york and our house is the corner house. On our block we have about 5 houses which have a garage the rest (about 30 houses that do not have a garage, plus 2 (72 family each)apartment bldgs. The apartment building has a garage but most people do not park there because they have to pay for it so their parking space so instead they park on the street. There are 2 one way streets that cross and one of the streets has a stop sign, unfortunately, most of the time no one rally stops at the sign, especially if the traffic light around the corner is in their favor they rush to make the light. On the other street there is no traffic sign, or bump in order to slow the motorists down, people are constantly speeding to make the light Drivers don't even have the courteousy to allow pedistrians to cross this street, I have seen people with baby carriages trying to unsuccessful get accross the street.
In a 2 block radius of our home there is a Post Office, 4 churches, multiple car repair shops(1 repair shop leaves an average of 10 cars parked on the street, because he doesn't have enough room in his garage) groceries, motorcycle store and repair shop, Residence & school for special needs children, social club, multiple resterants, 2 dept. stores, supermarket, fire station, learning center, psychiatric clinic, medical center, shipping company, etc (i have left out some things, lol). People who work in these places, people who live here and many people who come from other neighborhoods so shop, eat, visit, etc.
. The only time we were contacted by the construction site was because they needed our approval to allow them to demolish our (and neighors) retaining walls. During a conversation with the construction manager regarding our retaining was was when he told me that his company wanted to demolish our wall and replace it after they finished their excavation and foundation work and they would reconstruct our retaining wall exacly like it was at No Charge to us. To make a very long story short we told him no because we have homeless cats that live on our property and I take care of them. If they took our retaining wall down it would mean that we would not have our carport as well and this protects our cats from the element as well as it gives us alitlle privacy although now that the construction is moving along they can see inside our home. For several weeks after this discussion there was no construction and then one day we received a letter from the Chairman of the Board for this organization that is having this building constructed in this letter he says " as per our meeting, we have agreed to allow them to demolish our retaining wall and after their excavation and foundation work is completed they will construct a new retaining wall for us at N/C to us" "please sign below that you agree" We never ever spoke to this man (chairman of the Board) regarding this. We finally got the construction manager on the phone and told him we never agreed to this and the answer is NO.
We (and neighbors) after briefly seeing damages to our properties we called 311 and complained. One of our complaints was regarding our (and neighbors) 9 foot retaining wall having cracks in it, ours also seemed to be somewhat slanting (our wall has been up since the early 1960s and we never had a problems with it prior to this construction). The construction company was issued a violation (for which they got fine for 1200 dollars, for not protecting our and neighbors property. There were a number of damages on all our proprieties. Then the construction company called 311 on all of us and said that my retaining wall was illegal and looked like it was going to fall as well as making a complain against our neighbors. Then we (and neighbors) got a violation for not maintaining our property.
We recently went to a hearing and we were fined for our retaining wall, etc. This is the same wall that the construction company wanted to demolish from the start and then rebuild after their excavation and foundation work at no charge to us. After our hearing with the ECB, we were informed that we must cut down our retaining wall to7 feet which would not allow us to keep the carport and would leave our homeless cats with no protection from the elements. Our neighbor also has a 9 foot retaining wall which they recently cemented the crack. (their violation was resolved) plus they were not asked to cut their 9 foot retaining wall to 7 feet. We feel that this construction company and the owners of this Community Center has taken away all of our civil rights, etc and this is very sad. My husband had to be admitted to the hospital 2 times in the past month we though he was having a heart attach, stress is terrible.
I must say when we first found out they were planning to build a Community Center here we asked our local Community Board how we could challenge this building, we were told by the Board we could not challenge this because it was a private organization. Some people who do speak English think they are building condos here. In the past we had many problems some which are mentioned here and we spoke to the Community Board, also, the Police Community Team, the Public Advocate and some local politicians, DEP, DOT, DOB (com. of Bldgs), etc., sadly, none of our issues from the past to present have been resolved. In fact most recently we had gone to a Community Board Meeting where I spoke during the time they allow the public to discuss issues, I did mention to those who were in the audience about this organization that is constructed their Community Center next to my house which has caused us (and neighbors) grief. I also mentioned that this organization is friends with and has members on their Board who are also on our local Community Board, the Police Community Board, the local Church, and they even have someone who works in the Buildings Dept. After speaking briefly the admistrator for the Community Board asked that I wait to the end of the meeting and she would discuss these problems with me. I reminded her that I had spoken to her several times about all of these things and she again asked me to discuss it with her after the meeting. I then sat down. After the meeting I was approached by a liason for one of the politicians who asked me to give him more details about our situation.
Our retaining wall has been on this property since the early 1960s. My husbands grandfather had it built because it was next to a parking lot and there was no privacy If we cut this wall down this Community Center will be able to see in our driveway and backyard. We will not even be able to sit in our own backyard because of this. Why would anyone want to live here? We pay taxes here but we have no rights!
We hope and pray someone can tell us something to do and maybe even a miracle on how to stop them, lol. Any assistance of any sort would be so very much appreciated. We feel so helpless and have asked so many people for help but no one helped us.
Thank you
I live adjacent to a construction site that is building a 6 story Community Center next to my (& neighbors) 2 story homes. This Community Center even before they started construction that did not even notify us as adjacent property owners. After they started any type of work they were parking in my driveway, leaving a mess near my house and took away any quality of life we had. We have no privacy which will get worse once this building and there underground garage is completed. People hang out in front of my driveway or even sit on our bench to eat food or just talk on their cell phone, then they throw their garbage in front of my house or inside my fence. Unfortunately once this construction is completed their underground garage will be approx. 25 inches away from my driveway. In fact I don't even think that anyone, inclucing us, will be able to park in the street in front of my driveway because this narrow one -way street and the ability of motorists trying to turn into this underground garage will cause a problem if a car is parked there as well as to pedistrian traffic walking pass there.
I live in Bath Beach, Brooklyn, new york and our house is the corner house. On our block we have about 5 houses which have a garage the rest (about 30 houses that do not have a garage, plus 2 (72 family each)apartment bldgs. The apartment building has a garage but most people do not park there because they have to pay for it so their parking space so instead they park on the street. There are 2 one way streets that cross and one of the streets has a stop sign, unfortunately, most of the time no one rally stops at the sign, especially if the traffic light around the corner is in their favor they rush to make the light. On the other street there is no traffic sign, or bump in order to slow the motorists down, people are constantly speeding to make the light Drivers don't even have the courteousy to allow pedistrians to cross this street, I have seen people with baby carriages trying to unsuccessful get accross the street.
In a 2 block radius of our home there is a Post Office, 4 churches, multiple car repair shops(1 repair shop leaves an average of 10 cars parked on the street, because he doesn't have enough room in his garage) groceries, motorcycle store and repair shop, Residence & school for special needs children, social club, multiple resterants, 2 dept. stores, supermarket, fire station, learning center, psychiatric clinic, medical center, shipping company, etc (i have left out some things, lol). People who work in these places, people who live here and many people who come from other neighborhoods so shop, eat, visit, etc.
. The only time we were contacted by the construction site was because they needed our approval to allow them to demolish our (and neighors) retaining walls. During a conversation with the construction manager regarding our retaining was was when he told me that his company wanted to demolish our wall and replace it after they finished their excavation and foundation work and they would reconstruct our retaining wall exacly like it was at No Charge to us. To make a very long story short we told him no because we have homeless cats that live on our property and I take care of them. If they took our retaining wall down it would mean that we would not have our carport as well and this protects our cats from the element as well as it gives us alitlle privacy although now that the construction is moving along they can see inside our home. For several weeks after this discussion there was no construction and then one day we received a letter from the Chairman of the Board for this organization that is having this building constructed in this letter he says " as per our meeting, we have agreed to allow them to demolish our retaining wall and after their excavation and foundation work is completed they will construct a new retaining wall for us at N/C to us" "please sign below that you agree" We never ever spoke to this man (chairman of the Board) regarding this. We finally got the construction manager on the phone and told him we never agreed to this and the answer is NO.
We (and neighbors) after briefly seeing damages to our properties we called 311 and complained. One of our complaints was regarding our (and neighbors) 9 foot retaining wall having cracks in it, ours also seemed to be somewhat slanting (our wall has been up since the early 1960s and we never had a problems with it prior to this construction). The construction company was issued a violation (for which they got fine for 1200 dollars, for not protecting our and neighbors property. There were a number of damages on all our proprieties. Then the construction company called 311 on all of us and said that my retaining wall was illegal and looked like it was going to fall as well as making a complain against our neighbors. Then we (and neighbors) got a violation for not maintaining our property.
We recently went to a hearing and we were fined for our retaining wall, etc. This is the same wall that the construction company wanted to demolish from the start and then rebuild after their excavation and foundation work at no charge to us. After our hearing with the ECB, we were informed that we must cut down our retaining wall to7 feet which would not allow us to keep the carport and would leave our homeless cats with no protection from the elements. Our neighbor also has a 9 foot retaining wall which they recently cemented the crack. (their violation was resolved) plus they were not asked to cut their 9 foot retaining wall to 7 feet. We feel that this construction company and the owners of this Community Center has taken away all of our civil rights, etc and this is very sad. My husband had to be admitted to the hospital 2 times in the past month we though he was having a heart attach, stress is terrible.
I must say when we first found out they were planning to build a Community Center here we asked our local Community Board how we could challenge this building, we were told by the Board we could not challenge this because it was a private organization. Some people who do speak English think they are building condos here. In the past we had many problems some which are mentioned here and we spoke to the Community Board, also, the Police Community Team, the Public Advocate and some local politicians, DEP, DOT, DOB (com. of Bldgs), etc., sadly, none of our issues from the past to present have been resolved. In fact most recently we had gone to a Community Board Meeting where I spoke during the time they allow the public to discuss issues, I did mention to those who were in the audience about this organization that is constructed their Community Center next to my house which has caused us (and neighbors) grief. I also mentioned that this organization is friends with and has members on their Board who are also on our local Community Board, the Police Community Board, the local Church, and they even have someone who works in the Buildings Dept. After speaking briefly the admistrator for the Community Board asked that I wait to the end of the meeting and she would discuss these problems with me. I reminded her that I had spoken to her several times about all of these things and she again asked me to discuss it with her after the meeting. I then sat down. After the meeting I was approached by a liason for one of the politicians who asked me to give him more details about our situation.
Our retaining wall has been on this property since the early 1960s. My husbands grandfather had it built because it was next to a parking lot and there was no privacy If we cut this wall down this Community Center will be able to see in our driveway and backyard. We will not even be able to sit in our own backyard because of this. Why would anyone want to live here? We pay taxes here but we have no rights!
We hope and pray someone can tell us something to do and maybe even a miracle on how to stop them, lol. Any assistance of any sort would be so very much appreciated. We feel so helpless and have asked so many people for help but no one helped us.
Thank you
