New construction temporarily blocking balconies?

A new building is going up adjacent to ours, and the development company informed us that they would like to temporary block our balconies. The construction may be several years in length, so temporary is a vague definition. That said, what recourse do we have? If we do agree to let them do this, how should we be compensated?

All in the details. You're going to need some consultants (experienced attorney and possibly an architect or developer-type expert). The value to the developer is in whatever cost it saves on construction (typically by speeding up the project, which is a benefit to you too), so if you can assess that value and claim a portion for yourselves, that's a win all around. Depends on what "temporarily block" means, too -- how much worse is it vs having limited-value but usable balcony overlooking a construction site.

Duration and what-if's are obviously a concern; you may want to insert provisions for additional compensation if the job takes longer, or bonds to pay the cost of restoring your building to normal should the developer stop construction or exceed a time limit. Remember that projects sometimes stall for years if the construction financing stops, and the project will be walled-off financially from the rest of the developer's holdings.

Internally you might have some awkward dynamics where the occupants on other faces of the building want to take the cash, if there is cash, whereas occupants facing the construction don't feel it's worth it since they have to live with it.

Here's a decision where the neighbors couldn't reach agreement, so went to court: https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/fbem/DocumentDisplayServlet?documentId=FOFPe5i/yYlLbHgWV4_PLUS_JoQ==&system=prod