City Park Friends and Neighbors

Plaintiff’s attorney Aaron Goldhamer said there’s a silver lining to the legal defeat. “The judge in the federal court may very well read [Goldberg’s ruling] as a guiding statement as to what the evidence in this case did show,” Goldhamer said. “I’m much more optimistic about the federal case. I think there are some very strong claims there and this ruling may only bolster those claims.”

Goldhamer pointed to the judge’s acknowledgment of “subterfuge” and evidence that the flood project will have adverse environmental impacts. The City Park Golf Course project will remove 263 trees and change the grading of the land. Goldberg wrote that “the loss of a mature [tree] canopy is materially detrimental to the habitat and the neighborhood” an could “take decades to redevelop.”