Just when you thought it was safe to tune out the never-ending legal saga surrounding the controversial Atlantic Yards development, along comes a Supreme Court judge to bring it all bubbling back to the surface. Today New York State Supreme Court Judge Marcy Friedman ruled against the Empire State Development Corporation, the governor-controlled entity that shepherded the project through very choppy waters. The crux of the ruling is that the ESDC's environmental review of the project only examined its impact over a decade. Now, of course, the build-out is estimated to take a quarter century.
Judge Friedman ruled that the "ESDC's use of the 10 year build date in approving the 2009 Modified General Project Plan (MGPP) lacked a rational basis and was arbitrary and capricious," and that the ESDC failed to evaluate the impact of extensive delays for Phase II of the project. Phase I is already underway and involves the construction of a big basketball arena and beautiful sprawling parking lots. Phase II consists of the mixed-use residential and retail buildings with the low-income housing developer Bruce Ratner used to sugarcoat the project. The ruling does nothing to stop Phase I, but the ESDC is now being forced to do a new environmental impact study on Phase II.
Longtime Atlantic Yards opponent Daniel Goldstein, who took a $3 million buyout from Ratner to move from his home, is calling on Governor Cuomo to step in and "fix the big Atlantic Yards mess." Goldstein and other Atlantic Yards opponents are calling for the non-arena portion of the site to be divided into "multiple parcels so that multiple developers can build a project that responds to the community’s needs and concerns and brings true benefits." As it stands now, the biggest winners are the rats, and their tsunami.
