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December 1, 2007

Ratner Answers Pols, Public With Affidavit

Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn

So, they want to discuss affidavits? The affidavit Ratner's spokesman refers to, in the [Daily News article quoted below], is inconsequential when it comes to legal charges and public criticism regarding Atlantic Yards and security planning.
Forest City Ratner spokesman Joe DePlasco declined to comment on security, citing the sensitive nature of the issue - even as opponents called on officials to fully explain how the arena would be protected from terrorism.

DePlasco, however, directed the Daily News to an affidavit by security expert Jeffrey Venter, the president of Ducibella Venter & Santore, the firm tapped by Forest City Ratner to consult on security matters at the project site.

The plan "considers in detail the ability of the structures to resist progressive collapse or to otherwise fail in a manner that could compromise life or interrupt facility operations," Venter said in the affidavit.

Well, that's fine if Joe DePlasco wants to discuss affidavits filed in the pending DDDB et al v. ESDC et al lawsuit over the lack of a security/terrorism study in the Atlantic Yards Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), amongst other things. (Venter's affidavit is here.)

Neither the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) nor any other state agency was a party to Venter's supposed study and never requested or saw his supposed study and were not part of any alleged discussions with NYPD. Venter's affidavit is of interest, but it doesn't respond to the lawsuit's charge that the EIS failed to follow state environmental laws by not analyzing the impacts of terrorism security planning.

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Posted by amy at December 1, 2007 10:34 AM