Fisher v. Giuliani
Supreme Court of New York, Appellate Division, First Department
720 N.Y.S.2d 50 (2001)
New York City amended zoning regulations for the Manhattan Theater District, permitting 'as-of-right' transfers of development rights to preserve theaters (subject to space limits) and separately allowing developers to apply for discretionary permits granting additional usable space. The Department of City Planning (DCP) conducted an environmental assessment concluding the as-of-right amendments would have no significant environmental impact, so no environmental impact statement was prepared; DCP declined to conduct any environmental assessment of the discretionary transfers at all, reasoning that could wait until an actual application was filed. A group of citizens (plaintiffs) sued challenging the adequacy of the assessment; the trial court annulled the regulations and ordered an environmental impact statement, and the city appealed.
Whether an agency's environmental assessment was so methodologically flawed as to require preparation of a full environmental impact statement.