Manhattan State Supreme Court Justice Irving H. Saypol today ordered that construction of the controversial public housing project in Forest Hills, Queens, be halted. Saypol described the project’s design as “a defective plan” which does not resemble the original to sign for the project. He said the changes in the plan were made without a duly-called public hearing.
City Corporation Counsel J. Lee Rankin said the city will appeal the decision to the Appellate division of the state’s highest court “at the earliest possible date.” A spokesman for the Housing Authority expressed optimism that a stay would be granted to forestall execution of Saypol’s order pending the appeal’s outcome.
The Housing Authority spokesman asserted that there is “no major variance” between the current plans for the 840-unit low-income project and those formally adopted in 1966. Only the number and size of the proposed buildings were altered, he said, noting that three 24-story structures are now planned instead of one 22-story, three 12-story and three 10-story buildings.
CIVIL RIGHTS, JEWISH LEADERS TO MEET
But, the HA spokesman explained, all other aspects of the project–including the total number of unites, the number to be allocated to low-income and elderly tenants, and the project’s density–are “all virtually the same” as in the original plans, “Federal cost limitations” dictated the changes that were made, he said, and he added that the “original language (of the designs) is general enough to permit” such variance. He said the changes were “normal procedure.”
Meanwhile, it was learned that leaders of civil rights organizations and local Jewish groups will meet for the first time Friday at Gracie Mansion to discuss the Forest Hills controversy. Those attending the session will include Roy Wilkins, executive director of the NAACP, Vernon E. Jordan, Jr., director of the National Urban League, and a delegation of four or five rabbis and Jewish lay leaders from the Forest Hills area.
Reacting to the court order calling a halt to the project’s construction, Edward D. Moldover, president of the New York Chapter of the American Jewish Committee, said Saypol’s decision “could provide a golden opportunity for our city to compose differences, to restore communication and rebuild harmonious relationships between our citizens, Certainly,” he continued, “it is far better for the court to resolve the current issues than for them to be argued in the streets.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
