Court rules against Randall’s Island land use

Plaintiff Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, and a Randall’s Island sports field

The New York Supreme Court has ruled that the city acted inappropriately when it entered into an arrangement that would allow 20 private schools to pay for exclusive use of newly constructed sports fields on Randall’s Island off the coast of East Harlem. As a result, the city will have to undergo a Uniform Land Use Review Procedure before it can pursue any concession with private schools. Plaintiff Geoffrey Croft, president of NYC Park Advocates, said that the exclusive-use agreement between the city and the private schools would have denied public schoolchildren the same opportunities. “Our public parks must be protected from these pay-to-play schemes,” Croft said in a written statement released by his organization today. “Major land use decisions must go through the proper environmental reviews and clearly this massive project did not.” TRD