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October 19, 2009
AY doomed? New lawsuit targets ESDC over unrealistic project timetable, failure to issue SEIS, and failure to address renegotiated MTA deal
Atlantic Yards Report
Norman Oder runs through the key claims in the lawsuit filed today against Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project.
Twenty community groups, led by Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) and the Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods (CBN), today filed suit in state court against the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and Forest City Ratner (FCR), aiming to annul the ESDC's 9/17/09 approval of the 2009 Modified General Project Plan (MGPP) for what is formally called the Atlantic Yards Land Use Improvement and Civic Project.
In essence, the lawsuit charges that the state agency, rather than take a "hard look"--as required by state law--and delay its approval process, instead bowed to the developer's timetable to move the project forward so tax-exempt arena bonds could be issued by a crucial end-of-year deadline.
While I and others have suggested that the pending eminent domain lawsuit is the only case that could formally stop the project, DDDB asserts this lawsuit could doom the project, given that it would reverse the ESDC's approval of the project--and, presumably, that the ESDC could not, in light of the charges, revise its approval in a timely and legitimate fashion.
Posted by eric at October 19, 2009 11:41 AM