Second Lawsuit Against Fort Greene Park Project Heads To Court

FORT GREENE, BROOKLYN — After winning their first lawsuit against the city's plans for Fort Greene Park — and an appeal — a local group fighting the $10.5 million renovation will head to court again this week.

Lawyers for the National Sierra Club, which filed the second lawsuit with Friends of Fort Greene Park, and an attorney for the city's Parks Department will make their arguments in front of a New York State Supreme Court judge during a hearing on Thursday.

The hearing will be the first oral arguments in the case since the Sierra Club, Friends of Fort Greene Park and several local residents filed the suit back in April. The lawsuit argues that the Parks Department violated a state law by not including a full environmental study in their plans to reconstruct a portion of Fort Greene Park.

Thursday's hearing also comes after a legal victory for Friends of Fort Greene Park in July forced the city to release the architect's report it used as the reasoning to not do an environmental study.

That report showed that the architect never recommended the most controversial part of the city's plan — removing 58 trees to create a promenade in Fort Greene Park's northwest corner.

"Throughout her Report, the respected landscape architect...(recommended) that a tree management program be instituted to maintain tree canopy, rather than a vast number of tree removals," Friends of Fort Greene Park say. "She celebrates Olmsted's meandering paths, not a wide cement plaza that cuts through the corner, leading to the monument steps."

The activists say that this discrepancy underscores their arguments in the second lawsuit.

The Parks Department deemed the renovation a "Type II" project, or a project that is exempt from performing an environmental study since it is "routine agency work." But the activists say the designation, especially with the architect's report as a reasoning, doesn't make sense since the city's plan is vastly different from what the architect suggested.

The Fort Greene Park project instead should have been deemed a "Type I" project under the New York State Environmental Conservation Law, the determination that "include the potential for at least one significant adverse environmental impact," the lawsuit claims.

The city's Parks Department has told Patch that it cannot answer any questions about the Fort Greene Park project, even routine details like a construction timeline, while the lawsuit is ongoing.

The department's website, though, shows that the timeline for the project has been postponed for the second time this year. The "procurement" period, which is done before construction can start, is now scheduled to be completed in December.

Thursday's hearing on the lawsuit will be held at 9:30 a.m. at 80 Centre Street, Part 62, Room 122.

Update: This hearing was postponed until Sep. 10.