No Halloween Prank: Half-built ‘Horror House’ finally dead
While many of those who look at 1882 East 12th St. in Sheepshead Bay may just see neglected land and real estate blight, the property — now an empty lot surrounded by a chain-link fence — represents something very different to Assemblymember Steven Cymbrowitz (D-Brooklyn). Cymbrowitz and neighbors on the block waged an eight-year battle with the city and the Board of Standards and Appeals to have a monstrous construction project cancelled and ultimately demolished.
“When an out-of-scale home crops up, it is almost unheard of for the city to order it torn down,” Cymbrowitz said. “East 12th Street was an unusual case because of the safety issues. Even then it took eight years and cost neighbors many thousands of dollars for the city to take the appropriate action,” he said.
Extensively reported on previously by local neighborhood blog Sheepshead Bites, the home had been condemned for its gaudy, outsize display and unsafe conditions since its inception. To the lawmaker and neighbors, the now-empty lot, located on a quiet block between Avenues R and S, represents a hard-fought victory to remove the half-built, unsafe monster of a home that sat precariously atop a bungalow and towered over the structures around it.