I was only able to stay for part of the press conference announcing the new Atlantic Yards lawsuit. Around when they started announcing the details, a tantrum was brewing in my son, so we left before he upstaged the main event.
But, in the age of the internet, you can usually find the details online. And now that the tantrum is over, we are home and Jacob is having lunch.
The press conference was held at Brooklyn Bear’s Community Garden, one of those nice little community gardens that help make a city as giant as NYC feel like a community. I was told that the garden used to be bigger...until Ratner took part of it over and bulldozed it in a typical example of how sensitive Ratner really is to the community.
Everytime I am up by Flatbush near Atlantic I am reminded of how insane traffic is there and how unsafe I feel crossing those streets. And I inevitably wonder how much worse it will get once Ratner begins building his monstrosity. Speaking of monstrosities, I also wonder everytime I look across at the ugly megamall Ratner built how ANYONE would hire him to build ANYTHING ever again. He bulldozes community gardens and he builds really some of the ugliest projects I have ever seen...and I used to live in the San Fernando Valley, the spiritual home of Malls, Galerias and Valley Girls. Ratner's stuff is worse.
The previous lawsuit, still in its early phases, focued on Eminent Domain abuse. That lawsuit has the potential for being a major, precedent setting lawsuit given the new interpretations of eminent domain used by Pataki and the state government to benefit Pataki's lawschool buddy, Ratner. These new interpretations of eminent domain are being tested in that earlier lawsuit.
The lawsuit announced today challenges the process itself, seeking to annul the highly flawed environmental review (Final Environmental Impact Statement, FEIS) and approval of Forest City Ratner’s by the Empire State Development Corporation. There are so many flaws in the process that I am amazed the plaintiffs knew where to start. The lawsuit calls for the following actions:
* Annulment of the ESDC, MTA, and PACB determinations to approve the Project.
* Declaration that a privately leased and operated sports arena does not meet the definition of a civic project under the UDC Act.
* Enjoining Respondents (ESDC, MTA, PACB, Forest City Ratner) from proceeding in any manner with any demolition, construction, disposition of public property or commitment and expenditure of public funds until there is a reconsideration of the Project in compliance with SEQRA and the UDC Act.
The plaintiffs cite 11 causes for their actions. These causes are as follows:
1. Failure to Make Findings
The PACB Violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) by Approving the Project Without Considering its Environmental Impacts and Did Not Adopt SEQRA Findings
2. Violation of UDC Act's Procedural Requirements
Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) Violated the Important Procedural Elements of the Urban Development Corporation Act (UDC) Rendering Its Determinations Null and Void
3. The Court Should Make a Declaratory Judgment that a Sports Facility for a Professional Sports Team Leased to a Private Entity Is Not a “Civic Project†Under the UDC Act
4. ESDC Was Without Sufficient Basis to Determine the Area is Blighted; That Determination Should be Annulled [Editor's note...the only blight I see is Ratner's previous development monstrosity! Before he wanted to build the area was called "up and coming."]
5. Failure to Consider Threat of Terrorist Attack
ESDC Violated SEQRA by Failing to Consider the Potential Security Issues and Impacts From a Terrorist Attack
6. Failure to Prepare Supplemental EIS
ESDC Failed to Properly Identify and Consider Relevant Issues in the DEIS and Could Not Cure that Failure Through a Cursory Consideration in the FEIS. Newly discovered information must be considered in a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) to allow the public to comment.
7. Failure to Take a Hard Look
MTA and ESDC Each Failed to Take the Required “Hard Look†at the Environmental Impacts of the Atlantic Yards Project
8. Failure to Consider Reasonable Alternatives
ESDC Failed to Adequately Consider Alternatives, Including the “No Action†Option, the Extell Plan, Coney Island as a Site for the Arena, and a Development Limited to the Rail Yards.
9. Failure to Adequately Respond to Public Comments
FEIS Fails to Adequately Address Substantive Comments Submitted by Affected Members of the Public With Respect to the DEIS, Rendering SEQRA Findings and Determinations Null and Void
10. Violation of SEQRA's Procedural Requirements
11. The MTA Failed to Fulfill Its Obligations Under SEQRA
My personal list of reasons would be that it is one of the most boneheaded, corrupt and underhanded projects I have ever heard of, but I guess that isn't good legal talk.
The co-plaintiffs on the lawsuit include the following:
Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Inc.
Council of Brooklyn Neighborhoods, Inc.
NY Public Interest Research Group, Inc.
Central Brooklyn Independent Democrats (CBID)
Sierra Club, Inc.
Atlantic Avenue Betterment Association, Inc.
The Brooklyn Bear’s Gardens, Inc.
Bergen Street-Prospect Heights Block Association, Inc.
Boerum Hill Association, Inc.
Brooklyn Vision Foundation, Inc.
Carlton Avenue Association, Inc.
Carroll Street Block Association (5th and 6th Ave), Inc.
Crown Heights North Association, Inc.
Dean Street Block Association, Inc. (4th to 5th Ave)
East Pacific Block Association, Inc.
Fort Greene Association, Inc.
Fort Greene Park Conservancy, Inc.
Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus
Park Slope Neighbors, Inc.
Park Place-Underhill Avenue Block Association
Prospect Heights Action Coalition
Prospect Place of Brooklyn Block Association, Inc.
Society for Clinton Hill, Inc.
South Oxford Street Block Association
South Portland Avenue Block Association, Inc.
Zen Environmental Studies Institute, Ltd.
A formidable host of neighborhood organizations. To read a summary of the complaint, click here. All legal papers can be found here.
