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tel/fax:
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About DDDB
Our coalition consists of 21 community organizations and
there are 51 community organizations formally
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DDDB is a volunteer-run organization. We have over 5,000
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and we have over 150 block captains. We have a 20 person
volunteer legal team of local lawyers supplementing our
retained attorneys.
We are funded entirely by individual donations from the community at large
and through various fundraising events we and supporters have organized.
We have the financial support of well over 3,500 individual
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ESDC Likely to Be Sued Over Atlantic Yards Re-Approval
For Immediate Release: September 17, 2009
ESDC Re-rubberstamps Ratner’s Atlantic Yards Project
Action is Likely to Lead to Community Lawsuit
NEW YORK, NY— Today the Empire State Development Corporation, the lead agency for Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards development proposal, gave its rubberstamp re-approval to the Modified General Project Plan.
The Brooklyn community’s comments to the ESDC were not given adequate response.
Today’s actions will likely lead to new litigation against the ESDC and the Atlantic
Yards plan because the agency is required by law to undertake a Supplemental Environmental
Impact Statement (SEIS), but did not. (Some of the community’s
comments are here.)
“It is unfortunate for the ESDC and Forest City Ratner. Had they done things by
the book, by the letter of the law, the project wouldn’t be in such substantial
trouble. But they haven’t. And with today’s actions, and no Supplemental EIS,
the ESDC is taking irreversible steps that will send Atlantic Yards further into
community litigation," said Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn spokesman Daniel Goldstein.
"The likely outcome of today’s actions by the Empire State Development
Corporation is that they will be sued."
The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) requires an SEIS if there is newly discovered information; changes proposed for the project or a change in circumstances related to the project.
The newly discovered information, in part, is the clear realization that the project,
will, at best take decades to complete. Forest City Ratner’s agreement
with the MTA guarantees a 22 year project at minimum.
The decline in the developer's significant capital investment represents a change. Among the changed circumstances are changes in the financial markets and the demand for housing, as noted in an expert real estate analysis submitted to the ESDC.
Most outrageous is the absence of any renderings or design information concerning any part of the project other than the arena. The arena is only 8% of the proposed square footage.
The ESDC’s conclusory Technical Memorandum is not a substitute for an SEIS, which allows full public comment and forces the lead agency to respond to comments.
Despite the ESDC's vote today, there is a legal showdown looming over
the agency's use of eminent domain to take private properties for Ratner's project.
That case will be argued in New York's high court, the Court of Appeals, on October
14.
If the homeowners and tenants who filed that suit win, the Atlantic Yards
project will be dead.
Posted: 9.17.09
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