Inwood Rezoning Can Move Forward, State’s Highest Court Rules
Herrick partner and chair of Land Use and Zoning, Mitchell Korbey, was quoted by City Limits in their coverage of how the New York Court of Appeals declined an Inwood community group’s legal appeal to annul the city’s 2018 Inwood rezoning plan in a decision that will allow the city and stakeholders to continue moving forward with the contentious plan in northern Manhattan.
The article states, "Legal experts in the real estate industry say Monday’s decision is a critical win for the city. Mitch Korbey, partner and chair of the Herrick, Feinstein’s Land Use & Zoning Group, says there are existing provisions in the environmental review process to assess and and disclose socioeconomic impacts. Any requirements beyond that, such as the inclusion of a racial impact study in an EIS, are not part of the existing law."
Mitch is quoted as saying, "It’s a very important victory for the city of New York because if it had gone the other way, it would have been a terrible mistake and a misreading of the environmental statutes. And if that happened, it didn’t, but if it had happened, it would’ve, I think, been an unfortunate and largely political decision." Mitch added, "So it would have been a major problem for all city and private rezonings, for that matter, anything else that required an EIS," he said.