Description: Lawsuit alleging that development of three skyscrapers on Lower East Side of Manhattan violated the New York Constitution's Environmental Rights Amendment.
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Marte v. City of New York
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/21/2022 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Lower Manhattan Plaintiffs Said Development Project Violated New Environmental Rights Amendment. A New York City Councilmember and residents of Manhattan’s Lower East Side filed a lawsuit in New York Supreme Court alleging that the development of a project that included three skyscrapers violated the New York Constitution’s new Environmental Rights Amendment and the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The Amendment provides that “each person shall have a right to clean air and water, and a healthful environment.” The plaintiffs alleged that the Amendment required the City to take a hard look at the Amendment’s impact on the project’s implementation and to determine whether it would implicate the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights. They contended that a supplemental environmental impact statement was required to look at this issue. The suit included climate change-related allegations, including that the final environmental impact statement failed to evaluate impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and climate change “as mandated by the Constitutional Amendment.”