ESDC Certifies Atlantic Yards -- Again
Some 148 comments from the public, 60 of them "substantive," had been left out of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for Atlantic Yards when it was certified Nov. 15, Charles Gargano, the chairman of the Empire State Development Corporation, told the press on Monday.
Pataki may yet get Atlantic Yards.
Pataki may yet get Atlantic Yards.
That prompted ESDC staff to work overtime -- including over Thanksgiving weekend -- to put out a revised FEIS, including the new comments and responses to them, all of which were certified unanimously by the ESDC board on Monday morning. The new comments did not change the conclusions of the FEIS, Gargano said.
The upshot for the project: The Pataki administration lost almost two valuable weeks, but there is still enough time to keep Atlantic Yards from slipping into Governor-elect Eliot Spitzer's hands.
Gargano said the missing comments were "inadvertently left out.... There were a lot of comments. Some were sent to the wrong person, some were sent by e-mail."
- Matthew Schuerman
Some comments were sent by EMAIL? I thought all public comments had to be submitted in triplicate with a notary stamping each page.
According to some news sources, the FEIS was delayed because the ESDC did not properly document my public input, though it seems clear that the public testimony of many other people was also excluded.
I submitted my testimony as an individual, though I am a member of many civic organizations. The ESDC incorrectly categorized my testimony as part of the organizational response of DDDB. I pointed out this mistake at least three times by phone and twice by email.
The ESDC has not corrected this mistake. I have not had time to find out if there are other problems with their handling of my participation of the public process, but this suggests to me that there are still substantial problems with the recertified FEIS.