David
Paget
Principal
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David
Paget
Principal
David Paget has been long and widely recognized as one of this country’s leading practitioners of environmental law and litigation. He has been principally responsible for overseeing the preparation of environmental impact statements and assessment for an imposing number of major public and private development and infrastructure projects. In that capacity he has also had the responsibility for securing approvals and permits for those projects under a myriad of federal and state laws and regulations, including the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the National Historic Preservation Act, the Endangered Species Act and their state counterparts. As an accomplished litigator, he has been responsible for defending lawsuits contesting those projects. The clearest measure of his success in that regard is that he has never had a project blocked by litigation.
David began litigating and managing environmental cases in the early 1970s following his service as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York and as associate at Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler. Among his current engagements, David is serving as the legal consultant to an international and national array of experts, retained by the City of New York to assess and advise it of measures to address climate change adaptation and coastal flood protection.
Queens West Development Corporation
SPR represents Queens West Development Corporation (QWDC), a subsidiary of New York State's Empire State Development (ESD), in connection with New York's largest mixed use public-private development. During the early planning stages of this major initiative to redevelop a 74-acre area of the Long Island City waterfront, the firm provided environmental and land use counsel to the Urban Development Corporation (now d/b/a ESD) in connection with development of the General Project Plan and the environmental impact statement (EIS) process. It subsequently represented ESD in successfully defeating litigation challenging the adequacy of the EIS. The firm has handled all waterfront permitting issues for the development of parks and the waterfront esplanade, which involved obtaining permits from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and other agencies.
The firm represented QWDC over CERCLA action for response costs and settled. The firm assists in connection with all aspects of remediation of legacy contamination from the area's long and varied industrial uses, including remedies under auspices of either the State's Voluntary Cleanup Program or the Brownfield Cleanup Program, recently representing QWDC in a case over response costs. The litigation recently settled.Battery Park City
The New York State Urban Development Corporation (now the Empire State Development Corporation) retained SPR to provide legal advice in connection with the environmental review that led to the development of Battery Park City. Built on landfill, Battery Park City is a massive residential and commercial property with 36 acres of parks and gardens.
Atlantic Yards – Barclays Center
East River Realty – First Avenue Project
SPR represents East River Realty Co., LLC, as lead environmental counsel associated with the redevelopment of four parcels of property located along the First Avenue on the east side of Midtown Manhattan, which were the former location of Consolidated Edison's Waterside Generating Station. East River Realty intends to construct a significant, high-rise development on the site. As counsel to the project, SPR prepared the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) required for the sale of the property from Consolidated Edison, and is presently steering the proposed development through the New York City urban land use review procedure and the concomitant EIS process for the development plan. Moreover, SPR has overseen the challenging clean-up of the major former industrial site, including obtaining a Brownfield designation for the site.
East River Waterfront
SPR serves as environmental and regulatory counsel to the New York City Economic Development Corporation in connection with its East River Waterfront Development Study, which is focused on redeveloping and increasing waterfront access along the East River between Battery Park and the East River Park.
Hudson River Park
From its inception, SPR has served as environmental and litigation counsel to the Hudson River Park Trust on major proposed projects in Hudson River Park, most recently Pier 54 and Pier 57. Pier 54 will be reconstructed as “Pier 55,” a distinctive pier offering world-class recreation and performing arts events, with the support of a $200 million donation from the Diller/von Furstenberg Family Foundation – the largest gift to a public park in the history of New York State. Pier 55 was the subject of litigation in state and federal court for over two years, during which SPR successfully overcame a challenge to the Trust’s environmental review and a challenge to the permit issued by the DEC (as co-counsel with the State). SPR also helped the Trust obtain new permits after the donor terminated and then restarted the Project. Pier 55 is now in construction, as is Pier 57.
Javits Center
Sive, Paget & Riesel reprised its role as environmental counsel in connection with the environmental review of the original Javits Convention Center, representing the Javits Center again in connection with its proposed expansion.
Lincoln Center
Sive, Paget & Riesel assisted Lincoln Center by serving as environmental counsel in connection with its expansion
The Governor Mario Cuomo Bridge
Sive, Paget & Riesel represented the New York State Thruway Authority, which together with the Metro North Railroad, a subsidiary of the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, undertook the Tappan Zee Bridge/I287 Corridor environmental review. This process addressed the possible replacement of the Tappan Zee Bridge. The Firm advised the Project Sponsors with regard to the environmental review of the proposal pursuant to both NEPA and SEQRA, as well as to environmental permitting and related requirements.
New York Times Color Printing Plant
Sive, Paget & Riesel served as environmental counsel in connection with the Environmental Impact Statement prepared for the New York Times color printing plant in College Point, Queens.
New York Yankees
Sive, Paget & Reisel represented the New York Yankees in connection with the development of the new Yankee stadium in the Bronx. The project also included the construction of additional parking facilities, and the creation of new parkland and recreational facilities at and in the immediate vicinity of the existing stadium, as well as along the Harlem River waterfront. The firm successfully defended the New York Yankees in the lawsuit that challenged the environmental review and parkland aspect of this project.
Northern Westchester Hospital
Sive, Paget & Riesel represented Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco, New York, in obtaining rezoning and site plan approvals for its proposed expansion of the hospital and construction of a 57,000 square foot medical office building. The firm is coordinating the preparation of the scope and other supporting documents for the project's SEQRA review, and working with the involved agencies to obtain other required approvals. This includes the acceptance of a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan by the New York City Department of Environmental Protection, which has oversight authority because of the project's location in the City's Croton Water Supply System watershed.
Riverside South
SPR was lead environmental counsel for the preparation of the Environmental Impact Statement for the Riverside South project, a General Large-Scale Development located along Manhattan's West Side between West 59th Street and West 72nd Street. This project, developed by Donald Trump, was approved by the City of New York in 1992. Since that time, SPR has continued to represent the developer, successfully defending a number of legal challenges to the project brought in both New York State and federal courts.
Traditional Links Golf Course
Hudson Yards
Pier 57 Redevelopment
“Lecturer on Trial Advocacy and Environmental Law”
For: Columbia Law School, New York University School of Law, Fordham Law School, Pace University School of Law and seminars sponsored by the American Planning Association
Appellate Division Dismisses SEQRA Challenge to Capital Region Multi-Use Development, Unanimously Reversing Lower Court
Appellate Division Confirms That Brooklyn Heights Library Redevelopment May Proceed
Appellate Division Affirms Dismissal of Challenge to the American Museum of Natural History’s Gilder Center Project
New York University School of Law, L.L.B., 1964, Order of the Coif and Law Review Editor
City College of New York , A.B., 1961
New York, 1964
Southern and Eastern District of New York, 1966
United States Supreme Court, 1969
Long-standing co-chairman of the annual ABA/ELI program on the National Environmental Policy Act and State Environmental Review Acts
Has served on the faculty for the ABA/ELI Environmental Litigation program and for the Practicing Law Institute’s program on Historic Preservation
Has co-chaired programs on Resource Recovery Facilities for the United States Conference of Mayors
Co-chairman of the Practicing Law Institute’s program on Retail Property Development and a participant in its program on Negotiating the Sophisticated Real Estate Sale Transaction
