MGPP legal challenge

Contact: Linda Gross, LCG Communications – (917) 767-1141

On March 3, several BrooklynSpeaks sponsors seeking to reverse the Empire State Development Corporation’s (ESDC) 2009 approval of a plan extending construction of the Atlantic Yards project from ten to twenty-five years, filed affidavits with the court from leading authorities in urban planning and sustainable development. The affidavits by Ronald Shiffman of Pratt Institute, James Goldstein of Tellus Institute, and Majora Carter of the Majora Carter Group were submitted in support of BrooklynSpeaks’ supplemental petition challenging ESDC’s response to a November 2010 court decision ordering the agency to explain its rationale for failing to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (SEIS) at the time it approved the modified general project plan (MGPP).

The BrooklynSpeaks sponsors are disappointed that board of the Empire State Development Corporation has voted to adopt findings regarding the delayed Atlantic Yards build out that obfuscate the issues raised by the Master Development Agreement ESDC executed with Forest City Ratner, are dismissive of the greater impacts which will now be sustained by the communities surrounding the project, and totally ignore the time value loss on New Yorkers’ substantial investment in Atlantic Yards given the deferment of its public benefits for decades.

Contact: Jo Anne Simon – 917.685.3747; Gib Veconi – 917.881.0401

BROOKLYN, NY, November 29, 2010: On Wednesday, November 24, several BrooklynSpeaks sponsor organizations filed a motion with New York State Supreme Court seeking to halt construction activities at the Atlantic Yards site. The motion comes after a November 9 decision from Justice Marcy Friedman finding that the Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) lacked a rational basis for assuming that Atlantic Yards project would be completed in ten years when the agency approved the project’s 2009 Modified General Project Plan (MGPP). Justice Friedman ordered the ESDC to reconsider the need for a supplemental environmental impact statement based on the schedule provisions of the Development Agreement between ESDC and Forest City Ratner Companies (FCRC). That Agreement was made public only after a January 2010 court hearing during which the ESDC misrepresented its ability under the Development Agreement to ensure Atlantic Yards would be completed within ten years.