AY opponents finally score a court victory

Atlantic Yards

Opponents of the Atlantic Yards won a rare court victory yesterday when a judge ruled that the state agency charged with the project’s oversight had failed to properly review developer Bruce Ratner’s construction timetable and had done so intentionally, according to the Brooklyn Paper. While the Empire State Development Corporation will now have to prepare a new environmental impact statement — the agency was called out during the hearing for analyzing the impacts of a 10-year construction timetable rather than the 25-year plan Ratner is actually carrying out — the paper said the ruling serves more as a slap on the wrist for the state and is unlikely to further delay construction on the 22-acre mega-complex, which is already partially underway. The judge called the agency’s actions “yet another failure of transparency on the ESDC’s part.” According to a spokesperson for the ESDC, the ruling “does not enjoin construction taking place on the Atlantic Yards project.” The Barclays Center at the site broke ground earlier this year and is slated to be finished by the start of the 2012-2013 basketball season. [Brooklyn Paper]

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