He didn’t do it with a lawsuit. He didn’t do it with a rally. He didn’t do it by lobbying. In fact, he didn’t do anything at all — but Prospect Heights resident Raul Rothblatt managed to grind Bruce Ratner’s $4.2-billion Atlantic Yards mega-project to a halt this week because the state forgot to include his testimony in its final review of the development.
The project’s final environmental impact statement, which had been accepted by the Empire State Development Corporation last week, was recalled on Monday because Rothblatt’s — and others’ — public comments failed to be included in appendix of the 4,500-page document, as required by law.
Two binders of Rothblatt’s testimony — Binder 1 and Binder 3 — made it into the appendix, but not Binder 2, he said.
“It was a critique of the logic” of the DEIS, said Rothblatt, whose call to the ESDC’s Manhattan headquarters set into motion the bizarre retraction just hours after the agency had crowed about the document’s release.
ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano said the public comments had been “inadvertently excluded” and that the FEIS would be amended.
“It is essential that the public comment process be faithfully followed in letter and spirit,” he said in a statement.
ESDC spokeswoman Jessica Copen added: “We are still working out what happened.”
Copen said the new analysis could force the FEIS to be re-written, though it’s unlikely. But either way, Rothblatt’s keen eye will make it at least somewhat more difficult for state officials to approve Atlantic Yards before Gov. Pataki — a project supporter — leaves office on Dec. 31.
State law requires at least 10 days between the recertification of an FEIS and its approval.
“I feel amazed and a little incredulous that my little submission could stop this whole thing,” Rothblatt crowed, a little delirious after the unexpected success of his opposition to the project.
Meanwhile, incoming Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (D-Prospect Heights) told a Fort Green neighborhood group that he supports delaying the approval of Atlantic Yards until Eliot Spizer can take over as governor and follow up on a promise to reform state authorities, such as the ESDC.
“I couldn’t think of a more dysfunctional agency,” he told the Fort Greene Association on Monday night, referring to the ESDC.
