{"id":291730,"date":"2026-07-09T20:15:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:15:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291730\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T20:15:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T20:15:11","slug":"judge-tosses-lawsuit-that-aimed-to-block-lower-manhattan-climate-resiliency-project","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/291730\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge tosses lawsuit that aimed to block Lower Manhattan climate resiliency project"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge dismissed<\/a> a lawsuit<\/a> that could have derailed construction on a Lower Manhattan climate resiliency project<\/a>, ruling that the government entity spearheading the project had properly carried out the required environmental and public review processes for the construction to be permitted.\u00a0<\/p>\n

State Supreme Court Judge Phaedra Perry-Bond ruled last week that the north\/west portion of the $2 billion Battery Park City resiliency project<\/a> \u2014 which will establish new flood protection systems like flood walls and drainage infrastructure around the park on over 3 miles of Lower Manhattan\u2019s edge and was developed to protect the area after Hurricane Sandy \u2014 is allowed to move forward without issue.<\/p>\n

Perry-Bond\u2019s decision caps off nearly a year of litigation from community groups Battery Park Alliance and Battery Park City Neighborhood Association. Those groups argued that Battery Park City Authority (BPCA), the state government entity carrying out the resiliency project, should pause and redo the construction\u2019s environmental impact assessment because it was incomplete the first time and the work will negatively impact nearby residents.<\/p>\n

\u201cPetitioners have failed to establish BPCA\u2019s environmental review of the North\/West Project was arbitrary, capricious or affected by an error of law,\u201d the judge wrote. \u201cThe record reflects that BPCA spent years engaging with residents, elected officials, the community board and commercial tenants as part of its design and review of the North\/West Project.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bond-Perry also said the community groups\u2019 claim that the BPCA was wrong to assess the North\/West portion of the project separately from the project\u2019s southern portion was incorrect, as though they were related, they were independent projects with independent benefits, and therefore there\u2019s \u201cno need\u201d for an additional cumulative review.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The northwest portion of Battery Park City Authority\u2019s flood resiliency project.Battery City Park Authority<\/p>\n

Raju Mann, the BPCA\u2019s president and CEO, said the group appreciated the court\u2019s \u201cthoughtful dismissal\u201d of the lawsuit and was ready to continue pushing the project forward.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe North\/West Battery Park City Resiliency Project was informed by years of extensive community engagement and approved in full accordance with the law,\u201d Mann said. \u201cWe remain focused on advancing this critical work to protect Lower Manhattan residents, property, and infrastructure from the escalating threats of climate change.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the legal battle will continue, said Jack Lester, the attorney representing the community groups suing. Lester said his clients disagree with Bond-Perry\u2019s ruling and have already appealed the decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe failure of the environmental review process to account for the consequences of the undisclosed easement is a violation of law that will be reviewed by the Appellate Division,\u201d Lester told amNewYork in a statement.<\/p>\n

The community groups Lester represents have also emphasized that the BPCA\u2019s plans include work on a resident\u2019s property and that the construction will result in the temporary closure of the park and the cutting down of trees, which they claim is a \u201cnon-park use\u201d and therefore not allowed.<\/p>\n

Bond-Perry said those arguments were unconvincing to her.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile parts of the Esplanade will be temporarily closed during construction, it will ultimately be reopened and restored, and the erection of anti-flood systems to protect the park does not constitute alienation of land for a non-park purpose,\u201d the judge wrote, adding that there will be an \u201ceven greater\u201d amount of trees and biodiversity at the construction\u2019s conclusion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The project has faced unsuccessful lawsuits from the community groups in the past. In 2023, the group\u2019s suit against the southern portion of the project was dismissed<\/a>, with State Supreme Court Judge Sabrina Kraus ruling that the public good of climate resiliency outweighed the residents\u2019 concerns over the inconvenience of park construction. That judge also disagreed with the group\u2019s arguments that BPCA had improperly carried out the required environmental review.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"The North\/West and South portions of the Battery Park City climate resiliency project on a map.<\/p>\n

The entire project is expected to be completed in the early 2030s and is intended to keep Lower Manhattan and its residents intact as flooding in the area intensifies.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Manhattan Supreme Court judge dismissed a lawsuit that could have derailed construction on a Lower Manhattan climate…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203709,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[40680,7443,3242,2710,75,84,83,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-291730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manhattan","tag-battery-park-city","tag-climate-change","tag-environment","tag-law","tag-manhattan","tag-manhattan-headlines","tag-manhattan-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291730","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291730"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291730\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291730"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291730"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291730"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}