« FCE executives say Atlantic Yards is on schedule, bond details, sale next week | Main | Atlantic Yards YES! Brooklyn's 237 stalled building projects NO!! »
December 10, 2009
Plaintiffs in Atlantic Yards eminent domain lawsuit ask Court of Appeals to reopen case given appeal in similar Columbia case
Atlantic Yards Report
Like a kindly teacher who gives a failing student an opportunity to re-take a test, the plaintiffs in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain case are willing to give the New York State Court of Appeals a second chance to get things right.
In an unusual, long-shot effort to reopen a case seemingly closed, attorneys for the plaintiffs--nine residential and commercial property owners and tenants--in the Atlantic Yards eminent domain litigation are asking the Court of Appeals to take a second look.
Why? A lower court's ruling against the use of eminent domain case for the Columbia University expansion will force the Court of Appeals to revisit the Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) application of allegedly arbitrary blight standards.
"We do not bring this motion for reargument lightly," said attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff in a press release from Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, which has organized and funded the lawsuit. "But this is an extraordinary situation. It's not every day that a court rules that the ESDC has conspired with an influential private party to violate the constitutional right to property."
"Given the Columbia and Atlantic Yards rulings, no one knows whether their property is now vulnerable to the ESDC engaging in the same pattern," he said. "We need clarity concerning the ESDC's fraudulent abuse of the ‘blight' issue. The ESDC has been unmasked as a serial eminent domain abuser. We've reached a tipping point where that agency's actions regarding condemnation have lost all legitimacy."
...Potential results
1) The motion could simply be rejected.
2) It could be accepted, and the 3-2 decision in the Columbia case--known as Kaur--could be overturned, based on the decision in the Atlantic Yards case, which gave seemingly unlimited authority to the ESDC to decide on blight. (That's what Greg David of Crain's thinks.)
3) It could be accepted, and the Columbia case could be upheld, but on narrow grounds, such as bad faith--the ESDC's use of three separate blight studies--not available on the AY case. That would leave the ESDC to proceed with condemnation.
4) Or it could be accepted, and the Court of Appeals could uphold the Columbia case on broad grounds, declaring the blight standard to be vague and its application improper. That's what the Atlantic Yards plaintiffs are hoping for.
article
Additional coverage...
NY Observer, After Columbia Decision, An Atlantic Yards Appeal to Top Court, Again
As promised, opponents of Bruce Ratner's planned $4.9 billion Atlantic Yards project are litigating once again.
Following a surprise court decision last week that ruled as unconstitutional the use of eminent domain for Columbia University's West Harlem expansion, opponents of the giant Brooklyn development today appealed again to the state's top court.
Click through to see the motion.
Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Eminent Domain Issue Not Dead?
Posted by eric at December 10, 2009 9:09 PM