CRDA granted permission to join Atlantic City road diet lawsuit by judge
ATLANTIC CITY — The Casino Reinvestment Development Authority is now officially a party in a lawsuit over the city’s proposed “road diet” for Atlantic Avenue, after the agency asserted its right to review plans and decide whether the project will move forward.
Superior Court Assignment Judge Michael Blee allowed the CRDA to enter the case after a hearing Monday, and after all parties to the case had consented to the CRDA entering the case.
The road diet is reducing vehicle travel lanes on Atlantic Avenue from four to two in places, with a turning lane in the center. It also is improving traffic light synchronization, which the city has argued will help traffic flow, and repaving the length of the avenue.
Phase 1 from Maine Avenue in the Inlet to Tennessee Avenue in midtown is complete, while the details of Phase 2 from Tennessee to Albany avenues are still being worked out, according to Mark Moon, an attorney for the city.
“As far as Phase 2 goes … it’s still a moving process,” Moon said when asked whether the city can provide all the documentation needed to start an application process with the CRDA. “The city is still working on planning and drawings for Phase 2.”
That surprised both Blee and CRDA attorney Stuart M. Lederman, who had previously been told the city planned to start Phase 2 in September and were trying to move the lawsuit along to allow for that should the CRDA approve it.
“This is the first I’ve heard … Phase 2 is a ‘moving target,'” Lederman said. “CRDA would like to review this matter once. It’s in the best interest of all parties — tourists, citizens, and the city.”
“If (Phase 2) is a moving target, how do you award a contract?” Blee asked Moon, who acknowledged no contract had been awarded for Phase 2.
Moon said the September date was actually the goal for having plans complete, not for starting the work.
Several Boardwalk casinos and AtlantiCare filed suit in December seeking to stop the project until the CRDA could review it. The suit also alleges the road diet would create gridlock for visitors and prevent emergency vehicles from traveling the city as quickly as they do now.
The CRDA takes no position yet on the city’s plan to reduce vehicle travel lanes on Atlantic Avenue from Maine to Albany avenues, Lederman has said.
“Rather, CRDA seeks only to: 1) assert CRDA’s jurisdiction; and 2) demand that the project be enjoined until such time as the City has sought and obtained the necessary approvals from CRDA,” a CRDA brief seeking to enter the case stated.
Lederman said he will file CRDA’s verified complaint within three days and file paperwork seeking a preliminary injunction on Phase 2 within 30 days.
The city would like to understand what criteria the CRDA will use in determining whether to support the road diet, Moon said.
Keith Davis, the attorney for the casinos and AtlantiCare, said he would meet with Lederman and Moon immediately after the hearing to try to resolve that issue and to help determine when the city will submit a project application to the CRDA.