Judge says city can’t put waste facility in public park

A waste facility in Brooklyn’s Spring Creek Park would require approval from the New York State Legislature to operate in the public space, Supreme Court Justice Bernard Graham ruled late last month, Likening The Place to a “working garbage dump.”

Graham decided a 2001 agreement between the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation and the Department of Sanitation to use 20 acres of the New Lots, Brooklyn park to compost leaves, tree stumps and manure collected from other city parks was not “an acceptable park use,” according to the complaint.

The ruling is a long-awaited victory for clean water advocate group Raritan Baykeeper, which petitioned against the waste facility, citing the smells and noises it would produce, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.

A similar ruling in Manhattan Supreme Court Tuesday shot down the controversial proposed expansion of New York University, which would have used three strips of city parkland. In both cases, parties will need the state legislature to sign off in order to dedicate the spaces to other uses. Fighting over green space is nothing new for NYU, which played tug-of-war for the parkland within two Greenwich Village superblocks since the summer. [Brooklyn Eagle] — Angela Hunt

Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the day of the NYU ruling.