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July 18, 2006
Nothing like a 15-inch stack of documents to cure a rally hangover
Atlantic Yards opponents had one day to get over their rally hangover before Forest City Ratner and the State of NY made their next move.
The Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC, web site http://www.empire.state.ny.us) met today, voted to make Atlantic Yards an official project and released the Draft Environmental Impact Statement.
The ESDC's press release was posted online. The General Project Plan — the document which describes the project and whose release makes the plan "official" — can be found here.
Everyone knew the the ESDC could release the Draft Environmental Impact Statment during the dog days of summer, but who knew that they would really do it, especially since it seemed like a major middle-finger gesture to surrounding neighborhoods.
We're hearing that the document is nearly 15-inches high (double-spaced, we hope), and is available for downloading a chapter at a time at http://www.empire.state.ny.us/AtlanticYards/DEIS.asp.
What's more, "the community" has a whopping 36 days to digest this sucker (summer reading anyone?) and show up for the public hearing on August 23. There's also an "additional community forum scheduled for September 12." If anyone has a clue what role a "community forum" serves in the State Environmental Quality Review Act, please let us know.
Since Atlantic Yards Report blogger Norman Oder writes faster than most people read, and he reads faster than that, we'll expect his complete analysis by the morning.
Seriously, the NLG In Box is filling up, so we'll post commentary from the Grand Army of Bloggers, press releases, articles, letters and anything else that turns up, as they come in.
Posted by lumi at July 18, 2006 6:41 PM