Chelsea residents file lawsuit to halt “monstrous” condo

A neighborhood community group is suing the developer behind a planned 11-story Residential Building On West 16th Street, claiming its plans may violate city codes and could have been improperly approved.

Einhorn Development Group is planning to build an 14-unit condominium building at 124 West 16th Street, DNAinfo reported. The building is next door the French Evangelical Church, which sold its air rights to the developer in 2014.

But a community group called “Save 16th Street Committee” has been fighting the plans — which they describe as “monstrous” — ever since. Last week, the group filed a petition in Manhattan Supreme Court, asking the Department of Buildings to release documents the group argues could prove Einhorn’s plans violate city statutes and codes, or that the department improperly approved the project.

Einhorn was originally planning to build a six-story building on the site, but filed a “post-approval amendment” with the DOB, according to the publication. The committee and its representatives submitted several Freedom of Information Law requests, which have not yet been resolved, according to the petition.

“The people in the neighborhood have every right to be enraged. It’s just really incomprehensible why we can’t get answers from them,” said an attorney for the committee, Stuart Klein. “We’re not asking for anything that they’re not required to give us.”

A DOB spokesman told the website the department hasn’t yet been served with the committee’s petition, and that the agency is still reviewing the FOIL request. [DNAinfo] — Miriam Hall