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July 13, 2011
Breaking: Judge rules for community groups, says state failed to study impact of 25-year buildout, requires ESDC to prepare a Supplemental EIS, but refuses to stay current construction
Atlantic Yards Report
#Winning!
This will be updated.
In the second in a series of decisions finding for community petitioners who challenged the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC), state Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman has criticized the agency for failing to study the impacts of an extended Atlantic Yards buildout, and ordered the ESDC to conduct a new phase of environmental review, including a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS).
While it is typical for judges to defer to agencies, as long as they have a "rational basis" for their decisions, Friedman, who slammed the agency last November for "what appears to be another failure of transparency," today found the "ESDC’s use of the 10 year build date in approving the 2009 MGPP lacked a rational basis and was arbitrary and capricious."
No stay, but perhaps a hearing
The decision will require additional bureaucratic hurdles and may require additional mitigation measures regarding an extended interim surface parking lot, or construction procedures. And it should help shape public perception that the ESDC has been too gentle with developer Forest City Ratner (FCR).
However, Friedman gave the ESDC and FCR significant breathing room. She refused to issue a stay on Phase I construction or other work on the project, and said it was premature to issue a stay regarding Phase II.
The judge remanded the issue to ESDC for further environmental review, including an SEIS assessing the environmental impacts of delay in Phase II construction; the conduct of further environmental review proceedings, including a public hearing if required by SEQRA; and further findings on whether to approve the Modified General Project Plan for Phase II of the Project.
She heard oral arguments in the latest phase of the case on 3/15/11. The petitioners included civic groups organized by BrooklynSpeaks and Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn, as well as several individuals and local elected officials.
The case, however, began more than a year earlier, and had Friedman considered the contradiction between the Development Agreement, kept under wraps until after the first oral argument, and the ten-year buildout, she might have ruled differently in March 2010.
NoLandGrab: This is a clear case of justice delayed being justice denied.
But there is a remedy — we have a team of volunteers standing by to begin dismantling the arena, and we've asked BUILD to recruit a demolition crew from the neighborhood.
Posted by eric at July 13, 2011 1:58 PM