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May 14, 2012
ESDC files request to appeal decision ordering new environmental review, says “shadow of uncertainty" shrouds project's Phase 2
Atlantic Yards Report
Some people monoliths don't know when to quit.
Yes, Empire State Development (ESD), the state agency overseeing Atlantic Yards, is not accepting defeat. It is seeking to appeal a unanimous loss last month in the Appellate Division, which upheld a lower court's requirement that a Supplementary Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) be conducted to examine the impacts of a 25-year project buildout.
The effort may seem like a long shot, but state Court of Appeals has proven friendly to Atlantic Yards before--remember the November 2009 eminent domain decision. It must first agree to accept the appeal. The key part of the ESD's motion:
The Appellate Division's order requiring that a SEIS be prepared to study the impacts of a delay in the Project's construction schedule is an unprecedented expansion of SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] that would interfere not only with progress being made on the Atlantic Yards Project, but with the progress of other large-scale projects that are subject to delays due to adverse economic conditions or other circumstances.
"Shadow of uncertainty"
I'll have more once I see Forest City Ratner's expected companion motion, and the petitioners' response. But the ESD contends that the court decision "casts a shadow of uncertainty on Phase II of the Project," a shadow elongated by the preparation of the SEIS and the inevitable legal challenges it will prompt.
NoLandGrab: Any "shadow of uncertainty" has much more to do with the giant overreach of the Atlantic Yards project, and the shakiness of its developer's financial wherewithal, than with the state's court-ordered requirement to produce another sham environmental impact statement.
Posted by eric at May 14, 2012 11:32 AM