Crossroads pDEIS Deemed Incomplete by Southeast Town Board
The Southeast Town Board unanimously voted that the preliminary draft environmental impact statement (pDEIS) submitted for the proposed Crossroads 312 project was incomplete during its board meeting held on Thursday, Feb. 7. This is the second time that Lepler has submitted a pDEIS that has been declared incomplete. It was initially submitted in April 2012.
The developer, Harold Lepler, submitted the current pDEIS on Jan. 10. The plan proposed putting a seven-story, 200-room hotel and conference center and a 300,000-squarefoot, mixed-use regional retail center on the 51-acre property.
The property is currently zoned as rural commercial (RC) zoning, which is primarily intended for office, restaurant or recreation use permits other uses such as a hotel and conference center through a special permit.
However, the RC zoning requires a smaller footprint on the property. Lepler has requested a zoning change to have the property declared a highway commercial (HC-1) district, which would allow the project to span the proposed 500,000 sq. ft.
Concerns were raised over the projects traffic implications and the lack of specific data in the pDEIS.
“There were volumes of information missing,” said Supervisor Tony Hay. “Our town consultants brought up twelve pages of questions that we still want answers to.”
According to Hay, the board was looking for a “red-lined” version on the first draft that was submitted.
“We had previously requested that you submit a “redlined” version of the pDEIS to highlight the changes from the initial version,” said Hay. “Unfortunately, the applicant did not comply with our request which made a comprehensive review of the resubmitted pDEIS necessary.”
Councilwoman Lynne Eckardt agreed with Hay.
“Because our consultants found numerous inconsistencies, opinions and unanswered and/or undocumented back-up it was not difficult for me to conclude that the ‘Crossroads 312’ pDEIS was incomplete,” she said.
Eckart cited the anticipated water use as an example of the inconsistencies found throughout the document.
“The first pDEIS suggested that the applicant’s average hotel room would use only 25 gallons of water per day,” she said. “The accepted rule of thumb is actually closer to 100 GPD. Now, I don’t have to agree with the 25 GPD estimate but that estimate does have to be documented. It was not. In the latest pDEIS the estimate jumped to 70 GPD and, there again, I don’t have to agree with this estimate but it must be documented. It was not.”
At the town board meeting Samantha Jacobs of Southeast Residents for Responsible Development and Ann Fanizzi of the Coalition to Preserve Open Space spoke out against the pDEIS and supported the Town’s decision.
“This proposal is too big and it should fail as proposed,” said Fanizzi.
The developer has already arranged meeting with the town consultants to go over the areas of concern. It is not known when the third version of the pDEIS will be submitted to the town clerk.
The current pDEIS is available to be seen online at crossroads312.com.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.