Empire State Development meets Thursday. Despite upcoming foreclosure sale, Atlantic Yards is not on the agenda. Public comment due Wednesday at noon.

It's not surprising, but it is... dismaying.

According to the Board Materials (link) for the upcoming monthly meeting this Thursday of Empire State Development (ESD), the state authority that oversees/shepherds Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park, the project's not on the agenda

It's possible that the project will be discussed under the "President's Report," an oral report, but that's hardly clear.

This is the only monthly ESD meeting before the announced foreclosure sale Jan. 11 of the development rights to six Atlantic Yards/Pacific Park sites (B5-B10) over the Vanderbilt Yard.

However, as I've written, there are big questions as to what conditions are attached to the sale.

Would the buyer be required to complete 876 more affordable units by May 2025? Build a platform? 

It deserves public discussion.

Belated transparency

As I wrote last month, posting the documents by the previous weekend (if not earlier) represents an improvement over past practices in which the Agenda and Materials was posted only a day or two before the meeting. 

That left limited opportunity to comment, given the requirement to submit public comment before the meeting.

In its critical "Open ESD" report in July, Reinvent Albany noted that ESD often posted meeting materials and agendas less than 24 hours before comments are due, typically noon the day before a Board of Directors Meeting.

It recommended that ESD provide all materials for Board meetings at least three days in advance.

But the improvement is only partial. After all, the latest media advisory states:

Members of the public may submit comments on the Agenda items in writing to ESD@esd.ny.gov by Noon on Wednesday, December 20, 2023. All comments received by the deadline will be distributed to the Directors prior to the meeting and will posted online.

In other words, that requires clairvoyance regarding what the Directors say about the announced Agenda items.

And if the issue is in the President's Report, well, that requires more clairvoyance.