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August 7, 2008

It’s unconstitutional! Yards foes pull out new ace in the hole

AceintheHole.jpg The Brooklyn Paper
By Gersh Kuntzman

Lawyers for a declining number of holdout residents of the Atlantic Yards footprint may have found the silver bullet in their ongoing battle against state plans to condemn the remaining few properties still not owned by developer Bruce Ratner: the state Constitution.

Though the United States Supreme Court opted last month not to hear the tenants’ and property owners’ challenge to the state’s use of eminent domain power to facilitate the Ratner mega-project, lawyers filed suit last week in New York State Supreme Court citing a clause in the state’s bylaws that bars public money from underwriting any urban renewal project unless “the occupancy of any such project shall be restricted to persons of low income.”

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Posted by lumi at August 7, 2008 6:19 AM