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December 18, 2006
Missing in ESDC presentation to PACB: housing subsidies
Atlantic Yards Report
For the past week, questions have been raised about the adequacy of the Atlantic Yards fiscal impact analysis conducted by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC). First, the ESDC, without comment or explanation, revealed a drop of nearly a half-billion dollars in net fiscal impact.
Then the authority released a memo purporting to explain its new fiscal calculations, but the document raised more questions than it answered. (In fact, the inhouse memo is hardly the same thing as the "independent economic analysis" that the ESDC "has performed" but not released.)
Now questions have emerged about exactly how the ESDC accounts for affordable housing subsidies, which are necessary to the project but unspecified in available project documents.
...
A project summary in the Atlantic Yards Affirmation Document--an overview presented by the ESDC to the PACB--describes "anticipated funding sources" and "funding uses," which both add up neatly to nearly $4 billion.But there's nothing in there about affordable housing
AYR reporter Norman Oder has been trying to pry those numbers loose from the Dept. of Housing Preservation and Development, but his Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request was foiled again. The reason?
ESDC has already determined that release of data not otherwise available on their website would impair the process of their negotiations with the potential developer...
NoLandGrab: Yes, you read it right, a city agency, HPD, has justified the witholding of documents because the ESDC, a state agency, has said that it would impair their negotiations with Ratner. This hardly passes the smell test, much less the democracy test.
Posted by lumi at December 18, 2006 9:06 AM