AvalonBay Phase II moves forward
The Board of Zoning Appeals chose itself as the lead agency in the environmental review for AvalonBay II at their Sept. 3 meeting. The BZA also said it would decide if it would give AvalonBay a substantial occupancy permit after it holds a public hearing.
BZA chairman J. Robert Schenone said there would be a meeting in October or November at which residents could speak about non-environmental concerns with AvalonBay’s Phase II development.
Any proposed building that will house at least 50 people needs a substantial occupancy permit, according to the village code. This permit can only be granted after a public hearing, unless the board decides to waive that requirement.
Approximately 20 people were at the Board of Zoning Appeals meeting, which was held in the Recreation Center’s auditorium. About three of those people were residents.
A. Thomas Levin, the village’s attorney, explained the process the board is going through. “This is a little bit of an unusual procedure for the board because this requires some review that is not customary,” Levin said.
AvalonBay has asked for permission from the Zoning Board to build 177 units on 2.2 acres on 80 N. Centre Ave. Under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA, an involved agency must evaluate AvalonBay to see if it would have a significant negative impact on the environment.
Levin said the Zoning Board asked the other agencies involved if it was interested in being the lead agency, but none of the agencies, except for the Planning Board, which said no, responded.
If an agency said it wanted to be the lead agency, and there was a disagreement, the state Department of Environmental Conservation commissioner would have stepped in and picked the lead agency.
“In this case, in my opinion, had there been a dispute, the Zoning Board would have been picked to be the lead agency,” Levin said. “Because the zoning of the site, the density, the height, and all those other issues are going to be more a factor in what this project is eventually going to be than the actual layout of the project on the property, which is what the Planning Board does.”
The lead agency designates the project as one of three types under SEQRA and conducts the environmental review.
SEQRA has Type 1, Type 2, and “Unlisted” classifications for reviews. AvalonBay is in the unlisted classification because, according to Levin, it is smaller than Type 1 regulations and bigger than Type 2.
“The thing to understand about SEQRA is it’s not that there are no environmental impacts,” Levin said. “Hardly any project of any size has no environmental impacts. The issue under SEQRA is whether a project has significant adverse environmental impacts.”
The public was invited to voice its concerns at the meeting about the environmental aspects of the project. Joe Thrapp of Rodney Place was the only resident who spoke.
“I think it’s important that contamination be investigated before anything goes forward as far as saying there’s no environmental issues.” Thrapp said. He said the proposed site is less than 400 feet away from Gem Cleaners, a Superfund site at 84 N. Village Ave.
The board said it would be sure to investigate those environmental issues.
