Ratner releases scaled-back proposals for Atlantic Yards.

A revised plan for developer Bruce Ratner's Atlantic Yards project was released last week, presenting a scaled back version of the multimillion square foot mixed use development that had drawn the ire of community activists.

The new plan, which was outlined in a document that analyzed the project's environmental impact, formalizes concessions made by Ratner in recent weeks to lower the height and size of a number of the development's residential and commercial office buildings.

It also includes an increase in the amount of publicly accessible open space and a commitment from the developer that all of the site's 16 buildings, along with the new Nets Arena, will qualify for a LEED certification of energy efficiency. The developers as well as state officials overseeing the Atlantic Yards' revitalization hope the changes will ameliorate some of the criticism the project has generated among opponents who took issue with its size and density and the way it would remake the area's skyline and potentially disrupt the character and environment of surrounding neighborhoods.

The Empire State Development Corporation will now approve the project in the coming weeks and it could come before the Public Authorities Control Board, whose approval is necessary for a critical portion of the project's state funding, by the end of the year. Fresh from having the ESDC's plan to convert the Farley Post Office into Moynihan Station swatted down by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver in the PACB last month, ESDC Chairman Charles Gargano seemed to indicate that a repeat rejection at the hands of Silver was chief among his concerns for the project. Speaking after the updated environmental impact statement for the Atlantic Yards project was released, Gargano alleged that Silver's action against Moynihan Station was essentially a proxy vote by Madison Square Garden.

Speculation has swirled that MSG opposed the Moynihan Station plan in favor of a more sweeping redevelopment envisioned by the developers that would also include the renovation of Penn Station, relocation of MSG to the western annex of the Farley Post Office, and the development of office towers on its current site. Having their new arena plan as part of such a large development project--rather than a single step in a multi-phased plan like the ESDC had proposed--may allow MSG more power to insert its presence in the Farley building's eastern annex and also allow it to leverage the transfer of its current tax breaks to its new home.

Gargano said that MSG sees the new Nets arena as competition and may try to take action against it. MSG was influential in helping along the rejection of the Jets stadium plan for the far West Side, which also was crushed by Silver and the PACB.

"MSG was concerned with the competition with the Jets, I said worry about competition with the Nets," Gargano said. "Now we see that project moving forward, that would open up 2009, and MSG is very nervous in my opinion. I wouldn't put it past them to try and sabotage this project as well."

Gargano indicated that the state approval process for major economic development projects was flawed and should be overhauled. "The whole idea of the PACB structure is something that has to be changed in future," Gargano said.

"Millions of dollars of taxpayer money are invested to plan a project and put it together. You have everything done, the design, the funding has to be in place, the engineering, all of this is a process we go through, then we go in front of the PACB, in front of three individuals.

"One of them can reject it and we lose all the money that was invested. Something is wrong there."