NEW YORK, NY — In a just-released interview with the New York Observer's Matthew Schuerman, outgoing Deputy Mayor for Economic Development Dan Doctoroff makes a breathtaking admission, saying, "I am a huge believer in the ULURP process. If it happened again, and the state were to ask if I would encourage them to take Atlantic Yards through the ULURP process, I would say yes."

Forest City Ratner's Atlantic Yards project bypassed ULURP with the active consent and support of Doctoroff and Mayor Bloomberg. ULURP, the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure, is the city's public review process for real estate development and rezoning which includes hearings and votes held by community boards, the borough president , the city planning commission, city council subcommittees, and the full city council, ending in a vote by the council. The Atlantic Yards project received a zoning override by the state and bypassed the charter-mandated ULURP in favor of oversight by the unaccountable and unelected Empire State Development Corporation and the three men in a room--Pataki, Silver and Bruno.

"Of course Mr. Doctoroff is right. As we and so many other have been saying for so long now, Atlantic Yards should have gone through the democratic process known as ULURP; nearly all of the project's myriad problems stem from the bypass of ULURP," said Develop Don't Destroy Brookyn (DDDB) spokesman Daniel Goldstein.

"It's notable that Doctoroff says ‘if it happened again…I would encourage them to take Atlantic Yards through the ULURP process,' because it can happened again. As the project has not begun construction--and can't while it faces two court challenges--Mayor Bloomberg can get it right and send the development of the Vanderbilt Yards through ULURP; it's what his soon-to-be former, highly praised and trusted right hand man thinks is appropriate."

It was Deputy Doctoroff himself who signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the city, state and Forest City Ratner which assured the ULURP bypass and zoning override. That MOU is here: www.dddb.net/documents/mou/MOU1.pdf

The Observer story can be found here:
www.observer.com/2007/doctoroff-looks-back-atlantic-yards-0