Appeals Court Dismisses Natural History Museum Expansion Lawsuit

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A New York State appeals court sided with the American Museum of Natural History and the city in a lawsuit filed by parks advocates seeking to block the museum's planned $383 million expansion into Theodore Roosevelt Park on the Upper West Side, according to court records.

Seven justices with the New York State Supreme Court First Appellate Division ruled Thursday that the museum's planned Gilder Center for Science, Education, and Innovation did not require approval through the city's Uniform Land Use Review Procedure. The ruling likely ends the years-long effort by preservation group Community United to Protect Theodore Roosevelt Park to block the expansion.

"The disposition of the city property to the Museum of Natural History for the original building and future buildings to be erected in the area now known as Theodore Roosevelt Park, and the selection of the site for the Museum's expansions occurred more than 100 years ago," the appellate court decision reads.

Community United filed its lawsuit seeking to block the expansion in April 2018, but had been lobbying against the project since it was being debated at the community board level in 2016. Lawyers representing the preservation group claimed that the Parks Department incorrectly interpreted a 142-year-old law when it approved the American Museum of Natural History's plan without public review and that the department failed to take a "hard look" at potential environmental hazards caused by construction.

The group's attorney Michael Hiller told the West Side Rag, which first reported on Thursday's court ruling, that he is "dissapointed" in the court's decision but does not regret representing Community United in their fight.

"We continue to believe that the privatization of public assets by large institutions and developers poses an existential threat to the soul of the City," Hiller told the West Side Rag.

The American Museum of Natural History filed building plans for the Gilder Center in August 2017 after receiving approvals for the project from Community Board 7 and the city Landmarks Preservation Commission in 2016.

The $383 Gilder Center will expand the American Museum of Natural History's footprint into Theodore Roosevelt Park by a quarter-acre, according to museum plans. The new five-story facility will add a total of 230,000 square feet of space to the American Museum of Natural History, according to plans filed with the Department of Buildings. The American Museum of Natural History plans to complete the Gilder Center by 2021.