Develop Don’t Destroy, Inc. and Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council (Brooklyn), Inc. v Empire State Development Corporation and Forest City Ratner Companies, LLC

In these Article 78 proceedings, petitioners are challenging a modified general project plan for the Atlantic Yards Project in Brooklyn, a massive, publicly subsidized, mixed-use development project which will include an 18,000 seat sports arena for the New Jersey Nets and 16 high rise buildings for commercial and residential use. Petitioners argue that Empire State Development Corporation (ESDC) violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) by not preparing a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) based on the proposed changes to the project and that ESDC violated the New York Urban Development Corporation Act (UDCA) by not assuring that a plan is in place to alleviate the issue that ESDC previously found at the site.

Courts should not second-guess agency decision making unless it is arbitrary, capricious, or unsupported by the evidence. Since the lead agency ESDC felt that an SEIS was not necessary to address the changes made after filing the SEQRA findings statement, the Court must deny petitioners’ challenge. ESDC’s elaboration of its reasons for using a 10 year build-out and for not requiring an SEIS was not irrational as a matter of law and therefore should not be disturbed.

Accordingly, the Supreme Court denied the petitions of Develop Don’t Destroy (Brooklyn), Inc. and Prospect Heights Neighborhood Development Council, Inc. and denied the motion for preliminary injunction.

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