A homeowners association has reportedly poured close to $1 million into a three-year legal battle against Forest Hills Stadium, a move that has effectively halted the community’s steady income from the venue’s outdoor concerts, The Post has uncovered.

The Forest Hills Gardens Corporation’s board has engaged in this costly legal struggle without seeking the consent of the community’s 4,000 residents. This unilateral decision has sparked concern among a growing group of locals, who claim that the quality of life in the private enclave is deteriorating as a result.

Jeff Mitchell, who has called this neighborhood home for 26 years, expressed his frustration, saying, “There is no accountability.” He further added, “The board gives the impression that all 4,000 residents support their actions, but that’s simply not true. Many neighbors actually enjoy the concerts, don’t find them overly disruptive, and agree that some regulation is necessary. However, if they were aware of the exorbitant amount of money spent over three years with little to show for it, they’d be outraged.”

Mitchell is among seven candidates opposing the lawsuit who are vying for a place on the 15-member board of the Forest Hills Gardens Corporation. Meanwhile, Matt Mandell, the long-serving chair of the neighborhood’s law committee, has accused these candidates of attempting a “hostile takeover.”

Mitchell is one of seven anti-lawsuit candidates running to sit on the FHGC’s 15-person board — a group the nabe’s longstanding law committee chair Matt Mandell claimed are trying to stage a “hostile takeover.”

The slate, which includes former board members, claims the FHGC board has been less than transparent in recent years, especially in regards to how their cash is being spent.

This past year alone, the FHGC board spent $439,425 that ended up in the pockets of lawyers, an explosive total compared to what was once a measly $10,000 annual legal budget three years earlier.

Each year, residents have approved increasing the budget to accommodate the two lawsuits tied to what some say are ear-splitting concerts at Forest Hills Stadium — but the board has consistently exceeded that limit, private documents exclusively obtained by The Post show.

The board once again wants to raise the legal budget for next year to $300,000, telling the neighborhood at a September meeting that the figure was relatively modest because it would be preoccupied with administrative tasks in its battle against the stadium.

“And then 18 days later, they filed a new lawsuit in federal court with a new law firm that they didn’t tell the neighborhood about at the budget meeting when they asked us to vote and actively misled us by saying there wasn’t going to be any litigating happening in 2026,” said Brittany Russell, a trial lawyer and four-year resident.

In October, the FHGC corporation filed a lawsuit against the city, alleging the NYPD had “unconstitutionally” taken control of the neighborhood’s private streets on concert days at a price Mitchell estimates could cost homeowners “close to $1 million.”

“This could be insanely expensive,” said Mitchell, 68.

Residents were not asked permission before the board filed the suit, but Mandell said the board didn’t have to.

“Litigation is never discussed in advance,” Mandell said, adding that $1 million spent across three years and divided among the thousands of residents comes to a “minimal” cost. “The board’s job is to make decisions for the community. The community approved $300,000 to protect itself — it’s the board’s job to use that in the most efficient, effective and high-leverage way. And that’s what we’re doing.”

The FHGC’s overall budget has also soared in those three years by a whopping 28% to accommodate the growing legal fund, with the 2025 budget sitting at more than $2,380,000.

And yet, the board has had to yank funding from other essential categories like lighting maintenance and street patching to keep up with the attorney fees.

The budget to upkeep the neighborhood’s trees in 2025 is 10% smaller than it was in 2022, with the group spending $100,000 less on the greenery than it did three years prior.

The beautification committee, which in 2022 had a $95,000 budget, was noticeably absent from the most recent budget proposal letter obtained by The Post.

According to Russell, homeowners were barred from using the neighborhood’s three private parks for roughly three years so crews could “grow the grass,” a project that Mandell said was necessary but nearing the end.

Additionally, all residents are facing a 5% increase in their maintenance charges and 5% jump in parking fees going into the new fiscal year — two revenue streams that generate millions for the FHGC.

Mandell, however, said the budget is meant to be an estimation and allows for “constant fluctuations.”

“The budget is an approximation, but things go up and down … it’s very fluid and the board is very good at managing the flow of money,” said Mandell.

The real gutpunch for anti-lawsuit residents like Russell and Mitchell is how the lawsuits have burned bridges with the stadium and resulted in extreme revenue loss for the FHGC, they said.

In 2022, Tiebreaker Productions paid the FHGC a staggering $179,000 after the pair struck a deal that allowed the venue to up their shows to 27 for the summer season.

But then the relationship between the stadium and the gardens took a turn for the worse — FHGC sent a demand letter that spring demanding a minimum of $100,000 per concert, with an additional $200,000 due if it extended past 10 p.m. Tiebreaker would also owe $10,000 in sanitation fees per event.

Tiebreaker declined and continued their shows without the profitable deal the pair had previously struck — a move that inspired the FHGC to respond with its first lawsuit, Mandell said.

However, that means the FHGC has received no compensation for any concerts that took place in 2023, 2024 or 2025. The group lost out on at least $247,000 during the 2024 season alone after Tiebreaker put on 38 events — its highest ever.

The monetary loss is necessary in the meantime as the FHGC seeks to improve its residents’ quality of life, Mandell said, stating the group is able to profit in other ways, like the ongoing LIRR project.

Russell and Mitchell are pushing a “fabricated outrage over the legal budget” to protect their own interests as West Side Tennis Club members, he claimed — a statement they both adamantly denied.

“This is a hostile takeover. This book is not running for the benefit of the entire community. They’re wanting to settle this lawsuit for the benefit of the West Side Cast Club,” he said.

“That’s the headline. They’re making a big deal about the money. Nobody else is making a big deal about the money.”