AHRI et al. v. City of Albuquerque

You may recall that, back in December, the East Hampton Town Architectural Review Board approved Bates Masi Architects' controversial design for a modern two-story green office building at 132 North Main Street in East Hampton that would seek an unspecified level of LEED certification from USGBC. In a last ditch effort to stop the project from proceeding, a group of local residents have filed a lawsuit against the Board in Supreme Court for Suffolk County, alleging that it was negligent in approving the design and requesting that the court review and overturn the Board's determination. The court will hear oral argument in the coming weeks and either affirm or overturn the decision, or send the matter back to the Board for further review. The thrust of the plaintiffs' argument is that the Board "consistently ignored the evidence completely" with respect to the historic characteristics of neighboring buildings when considering the 132 North Main Street application. Under the controlling East Hampton zoning ordinance, the Board is required to deny designs that are "excessively dissimilar" to the character of the town.