NEW YORK — The city didn’t follow proper rules when it approved a new jail facility in lower Manhattan — that’s what a judge ruled on Monday, and the city is preparing to go back to court.

Groups like Neighbors United Below Canal succeeded in their attempt to block the construction of a new jail in Chinatown, one of the four facilities that the city needs in order to fulfill its promise to close Rikers Island by 2026.

“I think the process was very important because we’ve seen time and time again that the city just takes advantage of communities of color, low-income communities, because they don’t have representation when it comes to a land-use process,” said Christopher Marte, co-founder of Neighbors United Below Canal.

The city was set to turn the Manhattan Detention Complex on White Street into a 29-story jail, after its failed attempt to put the new facility on Centre Street.

But it never got impact studies for the new site. That gave residents opposed to the project an opening to sue.

In a statement, the City Council Speaker’s Office said: “We are reviewing the decision but the Council remains as committed as ever to ensuring Rikers Island closes.”

But the timeline to close Rikers by 2026 now seems ambitious.

Back in 2016, former Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito was the first elected official to push for its closure.

“There are those who just don’t want the facilities, the same way they don’t want a homeless shelter, or they don’t want any sort of support services,” Mark-Viverito said. “Obviously, again, if the city didn’t do its due diligence, the city needs to take responsibility for that.”

The cofounders of Neighbors United Below Canal agree with the city’s goal to close Rikers. They doubt, however, the de Blasio administration’s ability to achieve it.

“We are looking at an administration that has failed on so many projects. I believe that this particular administration would along the way never come to what they need to come to to actually finish this job to begin with,” said Jan Lee, co-founder of Neighbors United Below Canal.

The price tag for the whole plan was estimated to be more than $8 billion. It is still unclear when renovations and construction of the new facilities will start.

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