Residents failed to show that the project offered no public benefit. Brooklyn residents sued in federal court, challenging the state’s plan to use eminent domain to take their property as part of the Atlantic Yards project. The residents claimed that the project failed to meet a public purpose, and that the state was taking private property solely for the private benefit of Forest City Ratner Companies, the project’s developer.

Defendants, including the Empire State Development Corporation and the City, argued that the federal court should abstain from reviewing the case, claiming that federal review of an eminent domain case would be disruptive to state policy.

District Judge Nicholas G. Garaufis rejected the state and City argument, finding that the eminent domain procedure law was a generic statute that dealt with all types of takings, not a specific or complex state law. Judge Garaufis ruled that the court was not required to evaluate whether the Atlantic Yards project was a good idea or whether the project could be achieved without taking the residents’ property; its review was limited to whether the plan was related to a public purpose. (read more…)