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March 15, 2011
Also in court today: DDDB seeks attorneys' fees for reopening timetable case after Development Agreement withheld & "deceptive, obstreperous conduct"
Atlantic Yards Report
What if the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and developer Forest City Ratner (FCR) had made sure that the Development Agreement--which gives a 25-year deadline to build Atlantic Yards--was available before a January 2010 court argument, or allowed into the court record shortly thereafter?
The dispute over the timetable is the subject of a court hearing today in the last Atlantic Yards court case, as the case was reopened after it was initially dismissed, only to have the ESDC say it didn't need to have issued a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to study to impacts of a 25-year buildout.
And it's also fodder for a companion case before Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman, in which lawyers for Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn (DDDB) seek attorneys fees and sanctions from the opposing lawyers and their clients for withholding the agreement, which the ESDC and FCR saw as key to guaranteeing the professed ten-year timetable.
The details:
Tuesday, March 15, 2:30 PM
New York County Supreme Court
60 Centre Street
Room 335Was the withholding of the agreement a legitimate disagreement about tactics, or was it frivolous and improper conduct?
Charges about the latter have lead to an unusual and bitter dispute.
Had the document been available, there would have been no need to file a motion to reargue the case--a motion that was partly successful, given that the case was reopened, and continues--argue DDDB lawyers.
In response, the ESDC and FCR, and their attorneys, have vigorously opposed such a request for sanctions, calling it unprecedented.
Posted by eric at March 15, 2011 1:14 PM