« Lawsuit targets Ratner’s ‘domain’ | Main | Lawsuit looks to block Nets’ shot »
October 27, 2006
DDDB Makes a Federal Case out of it
The Real Estate Observer
By Matthew Schuerman
REO takes note of two things in Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's legal strategy:
For one, far from trying to battle last year's Kelo v. New London all the way up to a U.S. Supreme Court re-hearing... the plaintiffs will use the 5-4 decision to its advantage. In the Kelo case, New London, Justice Stevens wrote, "has carefully formulated an economic development plan that it believes will provide appreciable benefits to the community."
NoLandGrab: The Atlantic Yards process has been developer-driven, not a product of a city-planning process.
Two, the plaintiffs are first filing in federal, rather than state, court, and before eminent domain procedures actually have begun ("because otherwise it would be too late," Brinckerhoff said), which also suggests they feel Kelo will work for them, while New York state's notoriously developer-friendly laws will not.
NLG: The decision to file in Federal and not State court is an interesting one.
Theoretically, State courts would also have to acknowledge some of the guidance provided by the Kelo decision when applying the smell test to a case like this one.
The decision to file in Federal court could also be influenced by the general impression that Federal courts are not as politically influenced as courts on the State level.
Posted by lumi at October 27, 2006 12:18 AM