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September 18, 2009
At ESDC board meeting, new revelations of ESDC's concessions to Ratner and forceful criticisms from opponents (with video)
Atlantic Yards Report
The Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) approval yesterday of the revised Atlantic Yards plan was predictable, which is probably why a number of news outlets--including even the Brooklyn Paper and the Courier-Life, both on deadline--didn't bother to send a reporter.
But there was news, both in the statements made at the ESDC board meeting and in the board documents distributed later, which indicated a significant effort to advance government funding to Forest City Ratner, a hedging defense of the official ten-year project timetable, an acknowledgement that Forest City Ratner would only be required to build a project at 65% of announced square footage, and an "economic benefit analysis" that, even by the ESDC's lax standards, fails to come clean about the net tax revenues.
Moreover, as I'll detail below, the Response to Comments issued to the board evaded or disregarded some important questions.
And while there were renderings of the arena, in contrast to absence of images at the ESDC's board meeting in June, there were no renderings of the rest of the project, giving credence to project opponents' criticism that the project timetable was bogus and that a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) was needed to assess the impact of the project over a much longer period of time.
...The decision by the board was a crucial step toward the use of eminent domain to acquire property for the project, and to have the state issue tax-exempt bonds for the arena. The latter is likely on schedule, though condemnation would have to wait until the results of the eminent domain lawsuit, to be heard October 14 by the Court of Appeals, is learned in November.
ESDC attorneys expressed confidence they would win that lawsuit, and that any other challenges--such as a suit charging the ESDC with failing to issue a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement--would not deter the project.
There's lots more where this came from, including video and a rundown of comments from the likes of Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn's Daniel Goldstein — all well worth clicking thru for.
Posted by eric at September 18, 2009 9:58 AM