Score One For Xanadu

A New Jersey appeals court has rejected a lawsuit against the delayed Xanadu retail and entertainment development at the Meadowlands sports complex in East Rutherford scheduled to open next year.

The suit, filed by the Sierra Club and Hartz Mountain Industries, a developer that lost in a bid for the project, alleged local and state officials failed to fully review Xanadu’s environmental impact before approving it in 2004.

The plaintiffs claimed the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority hadn’t considered all traffic, air and stormwater issues that could arise from the development. Also, the state and developer didn’t allow the public a chance to comment on the project, the suit said.

However, an appeals panel found that the NJDEP and the NJSEA conducted a “lengthy and detailed” environmental impact study, according to court documents obtained by the Star-Ledger.

The approval “is open to debate, but it is not arbitrary or capricious and, therefore, given our standard of review, it is not in error,” Judge Thomas Lyon wrote.

Jeff Tittel, head of the state’s Sierra Club chapter, told the paper the group plans to keep working to push the Xanadu developers to limit the project’s environmental and traffic impact, per a 2004 report issued by the NJDEP.

The project “is the biggest global warming producer in the state, and this is going to be the biggest energy and water hog in the state,” Tittel said.

Xanadu is expected to sport a domed ski slope – the first in the U.S.– a bowling alley, hotel, restaurants, shopping and a 2,200-seat concert hall to be operated by AEG Live.