In a CPLR Article 78 special proceeding, a group of petitioners that includes the South Street Seaport Coalition and local residents sought to invalidate a certificate of appropriateness that respondent the Landmarks Preservation Commission issued permitting an affiliate of the Howard Hughes Corp. to build a 324-foor tower in the South Street Seaport Historic District.

Petitioners argued that respondent violated administrative law by deviating from long established precedent without adequately explaining its reasoning for doing so, and that respondent improperly considered financial benefits to the Seaport Museum and the inclusion of "affordable housing" in finding the tower to be "appropriate" in the Historic District.