news & events / 12.06.24 /Margaret D. Baisley
Court Declares Soho/Noho Arts Fund Contributions Unconstitutional
On December 5, 2024, the Appellate Division declared unconstitutional the portion of the recently amended Zoning Regulations that required payments to the SoHo-NoHo Arts Fund of $100 per square foot of loft area (with annual increases) to the City as a condition of allowing the conversion of lofts to legal residential occupancy. This decision reversed the 2023 decision of the Supreme Court, New York County upholding the regulations. The City of New York is now enjoined from enforcing this provision. See decision here.
The decision is welcome news to many residents of lofts in SoHo and NoHo, as the payment was a pre-condition to the issuance of any building permit allowing conversion of a dwelling loft from a Joint Live/Work Quarters for Artists use to legal residential occupancy.
The City Council’s enactment of the legislation creating the Special SoHo-NoHo Mixed Use District (SNX District) in 2021 provided a pathway to convert lofts in the area to legal residential occupancy, but imposed an onerous requirement for substantial payments in order to do so. This decision declares such payments unconstitutional on grounds that they had no ”essential nexus “ to the government’s land use interests, did not ensure that the government acted to further its stated purpose, and that there was no “rough proportionality” between the impact of the fee and the land use interests it was supposed to protect.
We are fairly confident that there will be a further appeal by the City of New York to the New York State Court of Appeals and we will keep our clients and colleagues informed of any new developments.
For further information, please contact Margaret D. Baisley, Esq. in our SoHo office at 561 Broadway, 212 966 0066 Ext. 4136, MBaisley@sbjlaw.com