For a good summary of the status of the Brooklyn Atlantic Yards case, see Ryan Thompson, Atlantic Yards Opponents File Another Motion Alongside Eminent Domain Challenge, Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 4, 2009. For the whole story, click on http://www.brooklyneagle.com/categories/category.php?category_id=26&id=29952 This article reports that the redevelopment area owners have filed a motion in the New York Court of Appeals to review the lower court decision agaianst them.
This case raises an environmental law challenge to the Atlantic Yards redevelopment project. We blogged about that in our posts of May 13, 2009, (click on https://gideonstrumpet.info/?p=230) and more recently on on July 1, 2009 (click on https://gideonstrumpet.info/?p=252). Check it out.
This is not the Goldstein case which challenged the condemnor’s right to take. Rather in this one (Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn), the Atlantic Yards area owners are arguing that New York environmental laws have not been followed. The opinion of the New York Appellate Division (New York’s intermediate appelate court) that we quoted in the original post of May 13th is fascinating because for all practical purposes it concedes that the history of New York’s use of eminent domain for redevelopment has been a history of outrageous abuses, but ruled for the condemnor anyway. Now we shall see whether the New York Court of Appeals cares about such abuses.
Stay tuned.