« Lightning Keeps Striking: It Couldn’t Happen To Some More Deserving People . . Over and Over, Again- Ratner, Illegal Bribes and Jay-Z and Beyoncé | Main | Albany's snooze button and business »
March 14, 2011
Battle over AY timetable goes to court tomorrow, led by BrooklynSpeaks: "benefits should not be conferred as the result of a ruse..."
Atlantic Yards Report
Coming tomorrow is a hearing in the last Atlantic Yards court case, a challenge to the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) that was initially filed in 2009, dismissed in March 2010, resurrected a few months later, partly upheld by a judge, and then waved away by the ESDC.
The details:
Tuesday, March 15, 2:30 PM
New York County Supreme Court
60 Centre Street
Room 335
ManhattanWhile a victory would, at best, delay arena construction slightly and require further study of the overall project timetable, the case aims to right the balance between the public interest and a government agency arguably willing to do a developer's bidding.
The case challenges the legitimacy of the ten-year project timetable that the ESDC board assumed when it approved the revised project in September 2009, and the failure of the ESDC to conduct a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement to study to adverse impacts of a project that could last 25 years.
And, though the Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman in December refrained from issuing a stay on construction--a request that's been renewed--the dispute continues, as groups in the coalition BrooklynSpeaks forcefully questioned the ESDC's findings that a 25-year buildout would have no adverse impacts beyond those already studied.
The lead plaintiff in the BrooklynSpeaks coalition is the Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (PHNDC). Among the plaintiffs are several neighborhood groups, residents, and local officials: City Council Member Letititia James, state Senator Velmanette Montgomery, and Assemblyman Jim Brennan.
DDDB steps back
The case consolidates two cases brought by groupings led by BrooklynSpeaks and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, but the latter has submitted only one set of papers since December, as well as joining in the reply papers submitted by BrooklynSpeaks and letting the latter take the lead.
"After five years of litigation, we have become disillusioned with the judiciary, and doubt that any judge will stand up to Ratner and right the countless wrongs he has imposed and continues to impose on our community," commented Candace Carponter, DDDB legal director, in response to my query about DDDB's posture.
"On the other hand, this is BrooklynSpeaks' first lawsuit, and they are more optimistic than we that the court will do the right thing," she added. "Still, we believe in the challenge raised in our joint lawsuit, and don't want anyone to mistake our letting BrooklynSpeaks take the lead as acquiescence in any form. We remain vigilant for opportunities to expose this Project for what it really is."
Indeed, DDDB attorney Jeff Baker will be in court tomorrow arguing to require the ESDC and Forest City Ratner, and their lawyers, to pay DDDB for the costs of the additional legal work "DDDB's lawyers had to perform because ESDC and FCR improperly withheld a key contract from the court last year." (I should have more on this case tomorrow morning.)
Click through for Norman Oder's very detailed recap of what these cases are all about.
Posted by eric at March 14, 2011 5:02 PM