Carvel project rekindles environmental review process

PINE PLAINS — Attorney Jennifer Van Tuyl attended the Pine Plains Town Board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 19, on behalf of the Durst Organization to ask for an informational meeting regarding the proposed Carvel Property Development, a recreation-oriented second-home community that would add 645 residential units on 2,376 acres between Pine Plains and Milan.

“I’m here tonight to ask you only for one possible decision, and that is to follow up on the suggestion that we might have a joint meeting scheduled — hopefully in February — where we would have an opportunity to make a full presentation about the NND,” Van Tuyl said, referring to the New Neighborhood Development section of the Pine Plains zoning law.

The Durst Organization submitted its NND application to the town on Dec. 22, 2011.

“I don’t think any of you curled up with the mistletoe and holly over the holidays with your NND, but we hope that at this point you can start reviewing it. One of the reasons we wanted to have a joint meeting was to be able to make a presentation, which I think will help you understand the NND,” she said.

The Carvel Property Development has been involved in the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process for years. It began as a proposal of more than 900 units, which received intense scrutiny from residents during multiple public hearings. The developer cut back the number of units due to feedback, which was followed by the town of Pine Plains adopting its zoning law in October 2009.

“The question is how does that new law mesh with the SEQRA process that’s been going on for all these years?” Van Tuyl asked. “I think the answer is very clear that the SEQRA process will continue to go on and take into account any potential impacts that are brought about by the project modifications to address, among another things, the NND requirements.”

FEIS vs. SDEIS

Van Tuyl said that  according to the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, the implementation of these new land use rules means the lead agency (in this case, the Pine Plains Planning Board) must decide whether to proceed with a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) or a Supplemental Draft Environmental Impact Statement (SDEIS).

“The SEQRA regulations do not support a concept of starting over when there’s a new law enacted because SEQRA expects projects to change. The whole purpose of SEQRA is to put them under the light of public and agency scrutiny and have them be modified, changed, tweaked and improved,” Van Tuyl said.

Van Tuyl emphasized that the applicant would not object to the requirement of preparing an SDEIS. She said it would require additional work to complete, so it shouldn’t be considered a shortcut.

“It would involve the Planning Board passing a resolution that it wanted a Supplemental DEIS. It would then require the applicant to prepare a draft scope of the Supplemental DEIS, meaning a table of contents of what would be addressed, that would be submitted to the Planning Board,” Van Tuyl said. “The Planning Board would review it and decide what type of public comment it wanted to hear on the table of contents. Then the Planning Board and its consultants would review the comments, and adopt the final scope for this Supplemental DEIS.”

Van Tuyl said this process to adopt the final scope would take months to complete. The applicant would then need to prepare the SDEIS, which would be subject to a public hearing.

Following this explanation, Van Tuyl reiterated that an informational meeting on the NND would allow the Planning Board (with input from the Town Board) to make a decision regarding the next SEQRA document.

“After you have heard our presentation, which I hope can be next month, and after you have reviewed our application, we think that the next decision to be made is what is the next SEQRA document,” Van Tuyl said.

Town Board responds

Councilwoman Sandra David said she’d prefer to wait on the informational meeting to give the town’s new administration time to look over the application.

“It was a bit of a surprise to get the application three days before Christmas and a week before we were just changing into new administration,” David said. “I personally think we need to put off having that big meeting for at least a couple months. We need time to get our ducks in order. You’ve had your pre-application and two years to get your ducks in order, and we need a little time to get through a lot of things in these next couple of months.”

Supervisor Brian Coons said he’s not ready to come up with any dates for the informational meeting.

Attorney to the Town Warren Replansky strongly suggested that the town’s consultants should review the application and provide their thoughts to the board.

“I’m sure the consultants would come to a consensus of opinion on how you might want to deal with the issues of continuing with the SEQRA process, whether it’s an FEIS or an entirely new DEIS, and how we proceed from there. It would be funded by the consultant’s escrow account. We could possibly have recommendations by the next meeting to tell you at least if the application is complete,” Replansky said.

Planning Board Chairman Don Bartles was in the audience, and he agreed that the town’s consultants should be involved.