Demand a pos dec on Widewaters' mall in Greenport
Sign Now
By doing so, the Planning Board would acknowledge the obvious: that this project -- the largest development ever in Columbia County -- would have considerable environmental impacts on our area.
Under New Yorks State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA), "the environment" is broadly defined as "the physical conditions which will be affected by a proposed action, including land, air, water, minerals, flora, fauna, noise, objects of historic or aesthetic significance, existing patterns of population concentration, distribution, or growth, and existing community or neighborhood character." In other words, it encompasses: 1/physical impacts, 2/ impacts on population patterns, and 3/ impacts on community character.
With a positive declaration of environmental impact, the developer would be required to complete a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) as provided for by SEQRA. An EIS would allow the Board to hire independent experts at Widewaters expense to verify or refute the developers findings on a number of critical issues (including traffic, economic impacts, lighting, noise) for which insufficient information has been provided by an interested party -- Widewaters, itself.
Please understand that this is not about being anti-development. It is about making sure that this enormous project gets the further study it so clearly requires. Therefore, we respectfully request that the Board does its best to assure we get the best by issuing a positive declaration on the Widewaters megamall plan.
If you already have an account please sign in, otherwise register an account for free then sign the petition filling the fields below.
Email and password will be your account data, you will be able to sign other petitions after logging in.
Continue with Google