Karsten Moran for The New York TimesA model for the proposed LG Electronics USA’s new headquarters in Englewood Cliffs, N.J.

In the battle over an LG Electronics office tower that would rise above the Palisades tree line in Englewood Cliffs, N.J., New York State’s attorney general, Eric T. Schneiderman, on Monday asked an appellate court to reverse a decision allowing the building to proceed. He also directed local officials to address the project’s impact.

“The planned office tower will despoil vistas protected for decades,” Mr. Schneiderman said in the amicus brief, submitted to the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division.

In permitting LG to construct an eight-story office building — four times higher than pre-existing height restrictions — the zoning board of the borough of Englewood Cliffs “failed even to consider — let alone weigh — the negative impact of the planned building on the Palisades Interstate Park,” the brief says, “and the majestic views of the Palisades cliffs.”

A trial court backed the board’s grant of a height variance to the tower.

John Taylor, an LG spokesman, pointed out that Kathleen A. Donovan, the Bergen County executive, and the borough of Englewood Cliffs have filed amicus briefs in support of the project. “It’s not feasible at this late stage to redesign the building,” Mr. Taylor said. “We’re moving ahead, as approved by the state of New Jersey, Bergen County and the borough of Englewood Cliffs, and reaffirmed by the courts.”

“We firmly believe that the trial court ruled properly,” he added.

Mr. Schneiderman’s brief joins a number of plaintiffs, including the New Jersey State Federation of Women’ Clubs, seeking to require LG to redesign the project.

Other amicus briefs have been filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the National Trust for Historic Preservation, the Preservation League of New York State and others.

Last week, the New York state parks commissioner, Rose Harvey, on Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s behalf, also urged LG officials in a letter to reconsider their plans, saying the tower would be “incompatible with the surrounding natural landscape.”

> via NYT