Act 2

It’s happening again!
While (like most things the government handles) the lawsuit filed by the blog Develop Don’t Destroy Brooklyn’s against the developing entities of the Altaltnic Yards project is still stuck in limbo, another lawsuit has made it’s way out of the woodwork.

Community groups guided by attorney Al Butzel of the Urban Environmental Law Center filed yet another suit on the 18th.

This group is a non-profit organization that exists to help community groups in debacles exactly like this.

And what are his grounds for this suit exactly. It’s very similar to the DDDB’s claim.

Butzel claims that the Empire Sate Development agreed to a reformed timetable for the project that would take decades, but did not update their Environmental Impact Statement to show that the project would cause a massive amount of urban blight for decades to come.

Furthermore, Butzel attacks the ESDC for handing over administrative power in the Project to private developer Bruce Ratner.


"In addition,” he said, “the lawsuit says what I believe to really be the case: this isn't an ESDC project, this is a Ratner project; and ESDC has just handed over the entire keys to the kingdom to Ratner to do what he wants.”

Here's a link to some of Butzel's statements.