City Must Release Fort Greene Park Report, Court Rules

FORT GREENE, NY — A second state court has said the city Parks Department must release all of a report on Fort Greene Park as the agency pursues a large renovation there.

A panel of Appellate Division judges on Tuesday upheld a lower court's October ruling ordering the Parks Department to release an un-redacted version of the 2015 landscape architect's report on the park.

The ruling marked a victory for Friends of Fort Greene Park, which is fighting the city's planned overhaul of part of the park's north side along Myrtle Avenue. The group brought the lawsuit after the department gave it a heavily redacted version of the report in response to a Freedom of Information request.

"They appear to have some reason for not wanting us to see what they’ve blacked out in the report," said Michael Gruen, the attorney who represented the group in the case. "They have not offered any good reason, either in the trial court or on appeal, for the way they’ve handled it."

The Parks Department is reviewing the decision, agency spokeswoman Maeri Ferguson said in an email.

The 2015 report was created by landscape architecture firm Nancy Owens Studio. At about 150 pages, it appears to include the park's history and conditions along with cost estimates for revamping sections of it, Gruen said. But its full contents are unknown because about a third of it was initially redacted, he said.

The Parks Department failed to show that the report constituted an "intra-agency" material that's exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Law, according to the Appellate Division ruling.

The report was among several documents Friends of Fort Greene Park requested in their fight against the $10 million renovation, which includes an overhaul of the plaza in the park's northwest corner.

The Parks Department says the project will make the park more accessible and allow for more usable space. But advocates have condemned the planned removal of more than 50 trees in connection with the project, only 14 of which are being taken out because they're bad condition, according to the Parks Department.

Tuesday's ruling came as Friends of Fort Greene Park pursues another lawsuit demanding an environmental review of the renovation. Gruen said the Owens Studio report was the basis for the Parks Department's conclusion that it did not need to do an environmental review for the project.

The renovation includes elements requested by elected officials and park neighbors and has already been approved by the Landmarks Preservation Commission, according to the Parks Department.