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October 14, 2009
NY top court begins key hearing on Brooklyn project
Reuters honed in on the question of "blight" from today's oral arguments in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case:
The judges pressed for answers on Wednesday on whether New York can seize homes that are not blighted or not in areas that are economically depressed, and whether the state was subsidizing market-rate housing and misusing powers reserved for replacing slums with low-income apartments.
Developer Bruce Ratner's project would be built over the state-owned Long Island Rail Road's rail yards, and the lawyer for the landowners, Matthew Brinckerhoff, argued that the state wanted to seize the land simply because it had not been developed to the maximum allowed under zoning laws.
"What they're saying is the below-grade rail yard is unsightly, the property is underutilized," he said.
A lawyer representing the state agency using eminent domain to take the land, the Empire State Development Corporation, said the agency made a "rational determination" in concluding that the entire 22-acre site was blighted.
The lawyer, Philip Karmel, was repeatedly questioned about whether only the southern part of the site was blighted, with one judge asking whether the site was "gerry-mandered" to fit the developer's objectives.
Karmel cited as a precedent the condemnation of 13 city blocks, where small businesses were located, to build the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
Asked why the term "blight" was not used for the project until 2005 -- a few years after it was proposed -- Karmel replied that it previously was targeted for urban renewal.
NoLandGrab: To be clear, the "southern part" of the project to which Justice Smith referred was not part of the previous urban renewal scheme. This was already reported by Atlantic Yards Report: "Behind the 'empty railyards': 40 years of ATURA, Baruch's plan, and the city's diffidence."
Posted by lumi at October 14, 2009 8:21 PM