That also means we wouldn't be able to get permission to build a stadium there until next year, right?So when the Court of Appeals, the state's highest court*, ruled on the mall project a few weeks ago they reaffirmed the general principle that parkland can't just be used for non-park use without the state legislature approving whatever non-park use is being proposed. That meant that the mall plan wasn't technically dead, but that the state legislature could have retroactively blessed the development and let it move forward. The legislature usually only meets for the first six months of the year, however, so if nothing was approved by the end of the day yesterday the plan is 100% dead (until next year at the least). And what's more, the legislature approved other park alienations over the last week but didn't get around to this one, despite the fact that the Willet's West developer has plenty of lobbyists on retainer for this sort of thing.
Basically, the city's big plan to build a fancy new neighborhood on the old chop shops and pay for it with a snazzy mall is dead in the water, and CFG has a golden opportunity to swoop in and help save the bigger picture goal of affordable housing at Willet's Point (and get a stadium out of it). That's, of course, if they're actually up for being that ambitious. Are they? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
*Not the New York State Supreme Court, just to make it extra annoying and confusing