Metro

Appellate panel confirms state review of Atlantic Yards was illegal

The Nets’ new Brooklyn arena is opening in September, but an appellate panel ruling today puts much of the rest of the embattled $5 billion Atlantic Yards project in further jeopardy.

The panel found that Supreme Court Justice Marcy Friedman ruled corrected in July that the Empire State Development Corp. illegally approved changes to the Prospect Heights project in 2009 by relying on an out-of-date, pie-in-the-sky 10-year timeline for the plan, which also includes 16 residential and office towers.

Instead, the effects of a project that could take 25 years to build should have been considered, she said.

Both rulings don’t affect construction on the Barclays Center or the rest of his project’s long-delayed first phase. But conducting a new environmental review for the project’s larger second phase — 11 residential towers – could set back the already long-delayed project many more years.

“The fact is that the project should never have been approved at all—it is entirely illegitimate,” said Candace Carponter, legal director for project opponent Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn. “The tragedy here is, but for the blatant misrepresentations to the court by Forest City Ratner and ESDC, it would been determined in 2010 that a [supplemental environmental review] was required and that would have stopped construction of Barclays [Center]. ESDC’s dishonesty has allowed that to go forward and the community is already feeling the adverse impacts that have long been forecast. We hope that ESDC will abandon its servile devotion to Forest City Ratner and start representing the citizens of this area.”

A spokeswoman for developer Forest City Ratner said the firm remains “deeply committed to moving forward” with Atlantic Yards but didn’t address the project’s second phase.

The EDSC did not respond to messages.