On Nov. 9, the New York State Supreme Court ruled against the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) in its use of an unrealistic and possibly unlawful environmental analysis for Atlantic Yards. Building on that a major victory against the massive development, the community coalition BrooklynSpeaks has filed a petition with the court to have all construction activities at Atlantic Yards cease prior to ESDC’s response to that ruling.
The original environmental analysis for Atlantic Yards covered only 10 years of construction. ESDC documents that were not revealed to the public at the time of the analysis allowed for the project to last 25 years. In her ruling, Justice Marcy Friedman ordered ESDC either to explain its use of a 10-year build-out schedule for the project or to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement.
The longer construction period “makes ESDC’s approval of the 2009 modified general project plan [for the project] in violation of New York State environmental law,” said Gib Veconi, representing the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, a member group of BrooklynSpeaks. “So construction being done now is now being done illegally.”
Oral arguments for the stay on construction are scheduled for Dec. 22.
To help these efforts continue, the Civic Council — also a BrooklynSpeaks member — approved a $1,000 allocation toward legal fees at its Dec. 2 trustees meeting. The coalition also recently organized a special fundraiser performance of the play In the Footprint: The Battle Over Atlantic Yards by The Civilians theater group.
Veconi doubted ESDC could show that the project would be finished in a decade. Per Friedman’s ruling, the agency and Atlantic Yards developer Forest City Ratner would thus have to explain that the longer construction schedule would result in a lesser impact to surrounding neighborhoods. “In our view,” Veconi said, that option “means they’re changing the project schedule, so they would have to file a new project plan.”
With a 25-year plan, many of the claimed benefits to the public, such as affordable housing and open space, are being pushed into the very distant future. “It doesn’t seem right for a project getting hundreds of millions of dollars in public aid to force the public to wait decades to see those benefits,” he said. “One important thing to accomplish is to get those benefits built in at an earlier stage. Forest City Ratner has removed 400 units of affordable housing, so we’ve already lost some benefits.”
“The lawsuit is important because state lawyers lied to a judge about the information that was available for her to make her decision,” said Civic Council treasurer Eric McClure at the December meeting. “It’s incumbent upon us to support this effort in order to shine a light on this case.”
The motion for the Civic Council to help fund growing legal costs passed unanimously at the meeting.
Visit BrooklynSpeaks for more information on the lawsuit.
from the December 2010 Civic News