N.Y. settles lawsuit that limited Central Park use

A woman takes a stroll through New York City's Central Park in a file photo.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York City agreed on Tuesday to settle a lawsuit that challenged controversial limits imposed on the public use of Central Park and a cap on the size of crowds at 50,000.

The lawsuit was brought in 2004 by the National Council of Arab Americans and the ANSWER Coalition, a group that opposes the war in Iraq, after the city rejected the groups' application to hold a rally on the Great Lawn in the center of the park during the 2004 Republican National Convention.

The city said the 250,000 people expected at the rally would have damaged the grass, which was restored at a cost of $18.2 million in 1997. But demonstrators said the ban on large gatherings violated their First Amendment rights to free speech and free assembly.

"It's a huge free speech victory," Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer for the Partnership for Civil Justice and a lead attorney on the case.

Under the terms of the settlement, the city has agreed to fund a feasibility study by a committee of independent experts that will advise the Parks Department on the "optimal and sustainable use" of the Great Lawn for large events, the city's law department said in a statement.

The city has also agreed to make a cash payment of $25,000 to each organization, and to reimburse legal fees and costs.

"We believe that the settlement of this matter is in the City's best interests," said Michael Cardozo, the city's lead attorney.

The Great Lawn has been the site of many of the city's largest gatherings. The late Pope John Paul II held mass for some 125,000 people there in 1995, the late tenor Luciano Pavarotti sang before a crowd of half a million in 1993 and a concert given by Simon & Garfunkel in 1981 attracted more than 500,000.

A 1982 anti-nuclear rally at Central Park drew 700,000 people.

(Reporting by Edith Honan; editing by Michelle Nichols and Mohammad Zargham)