Develop-
don't destroy
BROOKLYN Press
Release Main Page
For Immediate
Release: August 4, 2008
Goldstein et al. v. Empire State
Development Corporation
Nine Property Owners and Tenants File Atlantic Yards
Eminent Domain Challenge in New York State Court
Petitioners Seek to Prevent New York State’s Seizure of
Their Homes and Businesses by Eminent Domain
BROOKLYN, NY— Late Friday nine property owners and tenants—with homes and businesses New York State wants to seize for developer Forest City Ratner’s Atlantic Yards project—filed a petition with the Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court seeking an order rejecting the Empire State Development Corporation's (ESDC) findings and determination to seize their homes and businesses by eminent domain.
The court argument will likely be in January 2009.
"New York Courts have a proud history of interpreting the New York
Constitution as providing greater protections for individual rights than
the federal constitution. This case presents an opportunity to continue
that tradition by declaring that the New York Constitution prohibits the
government from seizing private homes simply to turn them over to a developer
who covets them for a massive luxury condominium project," said lead
attorney Matthew Brinckerhoff of Emery Celli Brinckerhoff & Abady LLP.
"We are confident that the court will see this for what it is: government
officials bending to the will of Bruce Ratner, allowing him to wield the
power of eminent domain for his personal financial benefit."
Facing the seizure of their homes and businesses, the petitioners have alleged
five claims against the ESDC— the condemning authority utilized by Forest
City Ratner to take the petitioners’ properties and give them to Forest
City Ratner. The five claims are that the ESDC’s determination to forcibly
seize the properties should be rejected because:
1. It violates the public use clause contained in the Bill of Rights
of the New York Constitution.
ESDC’s claims of public benefit are a pretext to justify a private taking.
2. It violates the due process clause contained in the Bill of Rights
of the New York Constitution.
The public process was a sham. The outcome was predetermined in a back room
deal between Ratner, Pataki and Bloomberg.
3. It violates the equal protection clause contained in the Bill
of Rights of the New York Constitution.
By singling out the petitioners, for unequal, adverse, treatment, and selecting Ratner as the recipient of irrational largess, the ESDC violated the petitioners’ right to equal protection under the law.
4. It violates the low-income and current resident requirements
of the New York Constitution.
The New York State Constitution provides that no loan or subsidy shall be made to aid any project unless the project contains a plan for the remediation of blight and the “occupancy of any such project shall be restricted to persons of low income as defined by law and preference shall be given to persons who live or shall have lived in such area or areas.”
The Atlantic Yards project is not “restricted to persons of low income” and no preference has been given to “persons who live or shall have lived in such area.”
5. It violates the “public use, benefit or purpose” requirement
contained in New York’s Eminent Domain Procedure Law (EDPL).
ESDC’s determination that petitioners’ homes and businesses will serve a “public use, benefit or purpose” has no basis in fact or law.
The petition to the Court for the case, Goldstein et al. v. Empire State
Development Corporation, can be downloaded at: www.dddb.net/eminentdomain.
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Develop Don't Destroy Brooklyn—in its effort to defend the homes and
businesses of community members and advocate for their rights—organized
the eminent domain lawsuit, and raises the funds for the lawsuit.
DEVELOP DON'T DESTROY BROOKLYN leads a broad-based community
coalition
fighting for development that will unite our communities instead of dividing
and destroying them
DDDB is 501c3 non-profit corporation supported by over 4,000 individual
donors from the community.
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