This protest has been cancelled.
Forest City Ratner Agrees Not to Demolish
Court Will Decide on TRO by End of Week
Protest Against Demolitions Cancelled
Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn and co-petitioners on the DDDB
et. al. v. ESDC et. al. lawsuit applied for a temporary restraining order
(TRO) today in Manhattan State Supreme Court to put a stay on imminent demolitions
by developer Forest City Ratner for its "Atlantic Yards" project. After a two
hour hearing Forest City Ratner graciously agreed not to go forward with demolitions
in the "Atlantic Yards" project site–which it had scheduled for commencement tomorrow,
April 18th–so that Justice Joan Madden could take time to render her decision
on the TRO.
Justice Madden announced she would have a decision on the TRO by the end of this
week.
Co-petitioners applied for the TRO after the court scheduled a hearing on the lawsuit (which was filed on April 5th) for May 3rd. On May 3rd the court will hear petitioners' Article 78 and declaratory judgment case, as well as motion for a preliminary injunction enjoining all demolition until the case can be decided. Because the injunction would not be heard until May 3rd–while numerous demolitions have been scheduled prior to May 3rd–in order to prevent the injunction from becoming substantially moot, co-petitioners applied for the TRO today.
Whether or not demolition eventually starts, the project cannot be built as proposed–not the arena, not the superblocks–if plaintiffs on the federal eminent domain lawsuit succeed in keeping their homes and businesses from government seizure. That case claims that the use of eminent domain for the "Atlantic Yards" project violates the U.S. Constitution.
In light of the developer's agreement not to commence demolitions as planned tomorrow, the protest against those demolitions–called for 8am on April 18th–has been cancelled.
A protest against the developer's demolitions will be called pending the court's decision on the TRO.
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Atlantic
Yards Report has the story as well.
