Gothamist: A group of homeowners near the Forest Hills Stadium in Queens is suing the city, alleging it illegally takes over their private streets to facilitate concerts at the venue.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court Monday, the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation said the NYPD erects barricades, closes the streets to vehicles and directs thousands of people to “physically invade” the homeowners association’s property on their way to the concerts without approval to do so.
The suit argues the NYPD’s actions violate the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits state seizure of public property without due process and just compensation. But the NYPD told Gothamist Tuesday it doesn’t use the association’s private streets at all, unless there’s an emergency — instead, patrolling the public streets around the stadium and doing crowd control around events. The suit comes after years of noise complaints against the open-air 13,000 capacity stadium, which was a marquee tennis arena before it was a concert stage. Until 2022, the homeowners’ association had granted the stadium operator licenses to conduct operations on its streets to hold some concerts. But in 2023, the association stopped issuing those permits, citing the loud, disruptive concerts.
The concerts continued, without the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation’s approval to use its streets. Then, in March of this year, the NYPD said it wouldn’t issue noise permits for 2025 unless it could secure a safety plan with the association’s cooperation.
