Since this item was posted, the ESDC issued a statement stating that the FEIS was incomplete, and recertified the FEIS on November 27th.

By law, the state must complete an environmental impact statement (EIS) before they can approve the Atlantic Yards project. On November 15th, the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) certified the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the project. The FEIS contains the project sponsor's responses to comments submitted by the public on the Draft EIS and the General Project Plan.

Unfortunately, a preliminary review of the FEIS suggests that the project has only been changed in response to comments submitted by the Department of City Planning, and not those by the general public. The main changes are: reductions in sizes of three buildings; provision of a school in phase 2 of the plan; a commitment to achieving LEEDS certification and an increase in the amount of open space from seven acres to eight. According to press reports, many of these changes may have been agreed to several months ago.

The sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks have released the following statement on the certification of the FEIS by the ESDC:

“While we welcome the improvements in the Atlantic Yards plan announced today by the ESDC, we do not believe the project sponsors have come close to addressing the serious flaws that remain in the project. As currently proposed, the project will still overwhelm the surrounding neighborhoods and create a deadening enclave in the heart of Brooklyn. It will still add several thousand new vehicle trips and transit riders to the area without a real plan to prevent Brooklyn from grinding to a halt. Only 13 percent of its housing units will be affordable to the average Brooklynite. And, while the Department of City Planning’s recommendations were accepted by the developer, it is still a project that has not been shaped in any significant way by the public.

“Until these flaws can be addressed, the sponsors of BrooklynSpeaks.net believe the project should not be approved by the ESDC or the Public Authorities Control Board. The Atlantic Yards site has enormous potential, but a plan for the site should not be approved until it works for Brooklyn.”

The certification of the FEIS means that the ESDC can approve the project after 10 days (ie. after November 25th). This would leave a vote by the Public Authority Control Board as the last approval the project sponsors require.

You can download the FEIS by clicking here. A key chapter is the responses to the comments submitted by the public, which can be downloaded by clicking here.