NYC Low-Income Housing Project Runs Up Against Green Space Rules

Judges on New York’s highest court grappled Wednesday with how to resolve a dispute over New York City’s environmental impact reviews for projects that encroach on open green space.

The nonprofit operating a Manhattan sculpture garden, which has leased the land from the city since 1991, claims the city’s Department of Housing Preservation and Development violated the State Environmental Quality Review Act by failing to complete a full environmental impact statement when it proposed building a seven-story mixed-use building for low-income senior housing on part of the garden’s land. The project, the garden says, will remove critical green space that ...