Application to Develop 80 Garden Road is "Adjourned" After Planning Board Declares Intention to Mandate an Enviornmental Review

Is the application for a subdivision in a wetlands on Garden Road tabled or dead? That’s the question now that the Village Planning Board declared it’s intention to give the proposed 9-lot subdivision a “Positive Declaration,” meaning that the Planning Board determined that the project as proposed could have significant adverse impacts.

Following years of hearings, beginning in 2013, the applicant has sought permission to subdivide a wet area adjacent to the water tower on Garden Road. Due to the high water table they proposed to truck in 30,000 cubic yards of landfill in1,600 truckloads to raise the ground level and permit the construction of homes with full basements and swimming pools. The project would have required the removal of 437 mature, regulated trees.

After an exhaustive review by many experts retained by both the applicants and the village, on September 19, 2024 the Planning Board expressed its intent to issue a “Positive Declaration” finding the project may result in one or more significant adverse environmental impacts requiring the preparation of an Environmental Impact Statement.

Following this directive, Village Planner Kellan Cantrell drafted a resolution for the Planning Board to approve at their October 23, 2024 meeting.

The Positive Declaration says the following:

The Applicant is proposing a 9-lot subdivision of7.6 acres with eight (8) new single-family dwellings, a new private roadway, and associated improvements. The current conditions reflect 3 separate tax lots with a single-family dwelling on each lot. The proposal seeks to demolish two (2) of the existing single-family residences and subdivide the premises into 9 lots, consisting of eight (8) new lots for the construction of eight (8) proposed single-family dwellings and one (1) reconfigured lot where the existing 90 Garden Road home will remain.

Potential environmental impacts associated with the Proposed Action have been identified by the Planning Board based upon a review of the Full Environmental Assessment Form Parts 1 and 2. These impacts, which may be reasonably expected to result from the Project, have been compared to the criteria for determining significance identified in 6 NYCRR§617.7(c)(1)and in accordance with 6NYCRR§617.7(c)(2)and(3).

The Planning Board finds that the proposed project may have a significant adverse impact on the following resources for the reasons more fully set forth in the EAF Part 3 (the list below is not intended to be all inclusive):

-Impacts to protected wetland
-Impacts related to stormwater runoff in a sensitive drainage area
-Impacts to the Sheldrake watershed
-Impacts to groundwater
-Impacts related to the importation of extensive fill
-Impacts to water supply resulting from on-site wells Impacts resulting from extensive tree removal
-Traffic and roadway impacts during construction

The items resolution was placed on the Planning Board’s agenda for their 10/23/24 meeting.

On October 10, the applicant’s attorney’s Cuddy and Feder sent an additional plea asking the board to refrain from declaring a Positive Declaration. The lengthy letter contends that “that not only will the Proposed Action not have any significant environmental impacts but will result in substantial environmental benefits.”

However, the resolution remained on the agenda until the day of the meeting when the applicants adjourned their application. The letter from Cuddy and Feder says, “The Applicants are considering design updates and as such, respectfully requests that the Planning Board adjourn the above referenced applications from the October 23, 2024 agenda.”

If the developers plans to make a new application --and what they will propose are unknown for now – and at least for the present, neighbors appear to have warded off this risk to their already fragile environment.