TGE’s dream – denied (again)

TransGas Energy System’s latest legal gambit has fallen flat. In a terse decision [pdf], the New York State Court of Appeals has denied TGE’s motion to appeal a prior appellate court ruling.

This all goes back to TGE’s 2002 acquisition of rights to the Bayside Fuel Oil site at North 12th Street and Kent Avenue. In 2004, the New York State Board on Electric Generating Siting and Environment voted to deny TGE’s application to build an above-ground power plant on the site. In May, 2005, the City rezoned the site for parkland. In March, 2008, the siting board rejected a revised TGE plan for an underground plant on the same site, and in September, 2009, the Appellate Court upheld that siting board decision. And now, the Court of Appeals has refused to hear TGE’s appeal (“motion for leave to appeal denied”).

If you are keeping score at home, that’s community 4, TGE 0. (Actually it’s worse than that – TGE has had a series of smaller rejections over that time.)

Despite the fact that this has gone completely under the radar, this is very big news for Williamsburg and Greenpoint. The City can now move ahead with condemnation proceedings to acquire the property. And the City might be able to afford it too – with no viable power plant use (and massive environmental remediation needed), the value of the property is considerably less.

In other words, we are one step closer to a park on the Bushwick Inlet. (And from what I understand, TGE’s option on the Bayside site expires in a couple of months, so maybe this time TGE’s plan is not only merely dead but really most sincerely dead.)