It's About Time

Robert M. Scarano, the opportunistic, scofflaw, robber baron who likes to masquerade under the lofty title architect, the bane of many New Yorker's existence, has finally been charged with something.

Reports City Room:

Administrative charges have been filed against Robert M. Scarano Jr., an architect who built his career during Brooklyn’s construction boom, saying that he made false or misleading statements on applications submitted to the Department of Buildings in connection with two projects in Greenpoint, the authorities announced on Thursday.

The administrative charges, which could result in the suspension or revocation of Mr. Scarano’s ability to file documents with the buildings department, involve documents for two Brooklyn apartment houses that Mr. Scarano filed with the department in 2000 and 2002. The building department and the city’s Investigation Department said in a joint statement:

Scarano is alleged to have improperly divided a zoning lot into two smaller lots for the two new buildings, 158 Freeman Street and 1037 Manhattan Avenue, resulting in the construction of two noncompliant buildings. With the two independent zoning lots, 158 Freeman Street could not have been legally built at all as a residential building and 1037 Manhattan Avenue as designed would have been smaller by approximately 2,000 square feet.

Scarano is being charged under a new state law which allows the buildings commissioner "to exclude licensed architects from filing applications for permits if they are found to have knowingly or negligently submitted false documents. Mr. Scarano may respond to the charges and present a defense to an administrative law judge at the Office of Administrative Tribunals and Hearings."