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. 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