On May 13, we reported that Thomas Fariello, the Deputy Brooklyn Borough Commissioner for the Department of Buildings, had told us that the permission to build the duplex penthouses, a.k.a. the cabanas, at Atlantic & Court had come from City Planning. Both Brooklyn DOB and Brooklyn City Planning have been helpful, informative, and frank when we have reached out to them this month. The proof of their help is that the site is still under a partial stop work order that prevents Two Trees from working on the dubious rooftop structures.

We are going to follow up with DOB next week. In the meanwhile, I ran into Purnima Kapur, the Director of City Planning’s Brooklyn Office, at last night’s CB6 committee meeting and asked her about City Planning’s responsibility for the permit. She said in no uncertain terms that the responsibility was wholly DOB’s and that she would accompany me to DOB’s Brooklyn office if necessary to tell them in person. We may just take her up on that.

In case you’re keeping track at home, the ball has now been passed from LPC to DOB to City Planning and back to DOB. We’ll let you know where the ball gets passed next. I think the only place left to go is to order the demolition of the penthouses.