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May 5, 2009
No redevelopment without AY? The ESDC should be pressed to explain
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder continues his series on questions the Empire State Development Corporation should be made to answer for a possible State Senate Committee hearing on Atlantic Yards:
The first part here mostly reprises what I wrote 12/4/06, but the issue shouldn't be ignored.
It was one of the least credible statements in the Atlantic Yards Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) issued in July by the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC):
The project site is not anticipated to experience substantial change in the future without the proposed project by 2016 due to the existence of the open rail yard and the low-density industrial zoning regulations.
The Park Slope Civic Council and Park Slope Neighbors challenged that, commenting that a city rezoning could do just that, though it would "involve professional planners whose job is to advance the public interest, rather than a reliance on private interests to establish de facto zoning."
NoLandGrab: Without getting too far off topic, it's worth mentioning that while every neighborhood close to the footprint of Atlantic Yards experienced some measure of "substantial change" during the past five-plus years since Bruce Ratner's megaproject was announced, most of the 22-acre footprint has been in decline, blighted by Ratner's demolitions and complete lack of social or economic vitality.
Posted by lumi at May 5, 2009 6:24 AM