Little Island: Its big journey through legal battles

Abstract

Little Island, also known as Pier 55, is a futuristic-looking 2.4-acre public park with performance venues out to the Hudson River in New York City. The project is primarily funded by the media mogul Barry Diller through the Diller–von Furstenberg Family Foundation. The project is part of the Hudson River Park but operates as a tax-exempt non-profit private entity on which the Foundation holds a 20-year lease. During its development process, the project was criticised by many for its controversies; this led to a lawsuit City Club of New York v. Hudson River Park Trust (2015) in the hope of prohibiting the construction of the island. The petition states that the Trust violated the public trust doctrine, State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and City Environmental Quality Review (CEQR), and the park violates the Hudson River Park Act and its accompanying regulations. The Supreme Court of New York State denied the petition and dismissed the proceeding. In 2017, the project faced another lawsuit, City Club of New York v. United States Army Corps of Engineers (2017), concerning the unlawful construction permit issuance. The New York Southern District Court ruled that the Corps violated the Clean Water Act and the Administrative Procedure Act as it failed to consider the environmental impact of the construction in the estuarine sanctuary, but the issues were resolved subsequently. Despite the victory, the project was terminated but revived again with a pledging deal made by the then New York state governor Andrew Cuomo in 2018. The project is now completed and opened to the public in 2021. Little Island epitomises a compelling private-made-public development in New York City during modern times; its challenges and drawbacks from the legal, community and environmental perspective, including the environmental concerns, regulation violations and the fear of capitalisation on public property, are widely applicable to other developments in New York City and beyond.