State court rejects Atlantic Yards appeal

The New York State Appellate Division has denied an appeal against the state’s use of eminent domain for Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project.

On Friday, a state judge dismissed another lawsuit, filed last year by opponents who were challenging the project’s environmental impact statement and hoped the court would reject it, forcing Gov. Eliot Spitzer to re-examine the $4 billion development.

“This is the second time in less than a week that the courts have decided in favor of the Atlantic Yards project,” Bruce Bender, Ratner’s executive vice president of government and public affairs, said in a statement. “This latest court victory is not a surprise because for the last four years we have made every effort to work closely with community organizations and leaders, and with state and city agencies.”

Atlantic Yards’ opponents last big case is a federal eminent domain appeal. Yesterday, Brooklyn Federal Judge Edward R. Korman recused himself from the appeal, which was filed last July by 13 property owners and tenants in the Atlantic Yards’ footprint. According to a press release from Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn, Korman had already acknowledged that he responded positively to an Atlantic Yards promotional pamphlet that developer Forest City Ratner sent to about 300,000 people. TRD