Judge: Opponents of Atlantic Yards project entitled to legal fees
Prior to the erection of the Barclays Center—home of the Brooklyn Nets, the first major professional sports team in Brooklyn in over 50 years—community groups throughout Brooklyn, and in particular Prospect Heights, fought hard against the development of the Atlantic Yards Project. While the Barclays Center was completed despite the many challenges against it, a New York judge has ruled that the opponents of the Atlantic Yards Project are entitled fees and expenses incurred during their fight against the development project.
Develop Don’t Destroy (Brooklyn), Inc. (DDDB) and Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, Inc. (PHNDC), fought many aspects of the Atlantic Yards Project, primarily New York State’s use of eminent domain to remove Brooklyn residents and business owners in favor of Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) and the private developmer of the Atlantic Yards Project, Forest City Ratner. Unable to succeed on that front, the DDDB and PHNDC argued that ESDC had affirmed and then failed to comply with a series of state environmental rules and regulations as related to the project.
In 2011, New York City Acting Supreme Court Justice Marcy S. Friedman ordered ESDC to prepare a statement considering the environmental impact of the project, whose second phase is slated to run from 2019-2035. The ESDC appealed the requirement for an environmental statement and was denied appeal by the Appellate Division, First Department.