In a surprisingly frank comment, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn acknowledged at the Brooklyn Heights Association's Annual Meeting last week that the city had "abdicated its role" during the approval process for Atlantic Yards. Click here to read the Courier-Life's account of her remarks.

Quinn was referring to the city's acquiesance to the state land-use approval process, which culminated last year in the vote by the Public Authorities Control Board. Unlike the city's land-use approval process, known as ULURP, which requires votes by the local community boards, the borough president and ultimately the City Council, the state's approval process simply requires a vote by the ESDC board, which is appointed by the Governor, and a final vote by the PACB, Albany's "three men in a room". No local elected official has the opportunity to vote in the state process.

While the state has the authority to override the city's land-use approval process, in practice they can only do so with the acquiesance of the city.

Had the project been required to go through ULURP, there is little question that the project would not have been approved in the same form that the state approved it. The City Council review of the project would undoubtedly have been much more rigorous, given the presence of Atlantic Yards critics Letitia James and David Yassky on the Council.

To read a great piece on Speaker Quinn and the Atlantic Yards project from last June, click here.