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April 9, 2007
Atlantic Yards Hit with Seventh Lawsuit
Opponents Ask Court To Make Project Start Review, Approval Process Over
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
By Sarah Ryley
A follow-up article goes into more detail on the environmental lawsuit filed last week:
Daniel Goldstein, a plaintiff in one of two lawsuits challenging the project’s use of eminent domain, said preparations “to challenge what we knew would be a flawed FEIS” have been three years in the making, “because we knew it would be predetermined who the developer of the project would be.” Goldstein is also the spokesman for Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB), the group leading opposition to the project that is named in this lawsuit and two others.
Central to arguments against the project is the fact that no other developers were seriously considered for redevelopment of the Vanderbilt Yards, situated at the intersection of Atlantic and Fourth avenues, and essential to the 22-acre project.
“For nearly four years, we participated in an exhaustive public review process, involving hundreds of meetings with local leaders and officials, including numerous public hearings, as well as countless meetings with community representatives,” said Bender. “We have also complied with rigorous state and city requirements, resulting in what we believe is a better project.”
...
The lawsuit also seeks a declaration that a privately-leased and operated sports arena does not meet the definition of a “civic project” under the Urban Development Corporation Act, which was established in the 1960s to fast-track urban renewal.Opponents of the project said the Barclays Center — named after Barclays Bank purchased the naming rights for the Nets arena and immediately surrounding high-rises — is not a civic project because community groups would only have use of the arena for 10 events a year, at a prohibitively high price.
Community groups would be charged $100,000 to hold events like high school graduations at the Barclays Center, according to a state-mandated financial analysis of the project. Other nights would be used for Nets basketball games and concerts.
The lawsuit contends that “the home of a professional sports team and commercial venue [is] by no stretch of the imagination a ‘facility for educational, cultural, recreational, community, municipal, public service or other municipal purposes.’”
“Another delay in the Atlantic Yards project means delaying economic opportunity for many in the Brooklyn community,” said Delia Hunley-Adossa, chair of the committee overseeing the project’s Community Benefits Agreement.
The article also runs down the six other lawsuits spawned by the Atlantic Yards project.
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Posted by lumi at April 9, 2007 1:01 PM