Amper: town limiting input on EPCAL
Groups say state should handle review
By Tim Gannon
A coalition of environmental groups that had protested Riverhead Town's being lead agency in the review of projects at Calverton Enterprise Park says that the town has not made documents available to the public in advance of a public hearing on one of the projects there.
The Coalition for Open Space at EPCAL, which comprises 27 civic and environmental organizations, said this week that the town has not issued a draft scoping outline in advance of a Sept. 17 public scoping hearing on REPCAL LLC's proposed 300-acre industrial park at EPCAL.
"This is why we said the town is not capable of being lead agent," said Richard Amper, executive director of the Long Island Pine Barrens Society, which is a member of the coalition.
The coalition's members include The Nature Conservancy, the Group for the East End, the Ridge Civic Association and numerous other groups.
Rechler Equity Partners of Melville is in contract to purchase the 300 acres from the town for $35 million and proposes to subdivide the property, which is just north of the 10,000-foot runway, into six large blocks, and then to further subdivide and develop the blocks.
The company has submitted a site plan to develop a proposed 48.9-acre block with nine light industrial buildings totaling 318,475 square feet. The company ultimately envisions building up to 2.7 million square feet of new industrial space over a 10-year period.
REPCAL is one of two large projects planned at EPCAL, the other being Riverhead Resorts, which is in contract to buy 755 acres from the town for $155 million and to develop eight themed resorts, including one with a proposed indoor ski mountain. Lead agency status on that project has yet to be determined.
Coalition members have protested both the town's involvement in the review of the projects -- which they consider a conflict of interest since the town is selling the land and the contracts are based on the applicants receiving approvals -- as well as the size of the projects, which they feel is too big.
The groups held a press conference at EPCAL last January to protest the town's plans for EPCAL, saying Riverhead is "at war with the environment." They said the state should be the lead agency reviewing the EPCAL projects.
Ultimately, the town was given lead agency on the REPCAL project, with the scoping hearing being the first step in the process. A scoping hearing invites the public to suggest potential impacts that should be considered by a project's environmental impact study.
Mr. Amper said Tuesday that notice of the Sept. 17 hearing was dated Aug. 6 but the draft scoping outline of the project still was not available to the public on Tuesday, Sept. 9.
"We believe that the draft scoping outline should have been available on Aug. 6, the day that the notice was circulated and forwarded for publishing, as is customary with public hearings," he said in a letter to Riverhead Supervisor Phil Cardinale. "However, for the draft scoping outline to still not be available to the public eight days prior to the public hearing is unacceptable."
The coalition is asking that the town reschedule the hearing so the draft scoping outline is available a month in advance of the hearing.
But Riverhead Supervisor Phil Cardinale said that a scoping hearing is not even required under state law but that the town does it in order to give the public a chance to be more involved in applications.
"We're doing it in order to add another step at which the public can add suggestions for issues that should be studied," he said.
The State Environmental Quality Review Act does say that scoping is not required.
However, it also says that if scoping is initiated by the lead agency or the project sponsor, the project sponsor must submit a draft scope of issues to be considered by the environmental impact study, and must provide a copy of the draft to all involved agencies, and must make it available "to any individual or interested agency that has expressed an interest in writing to the lead agency."
Mr. Cardinale said that would be done by today, Thursday. He also said the town would post the draft scoping outline on its Web site, which he said also is not required.
The SEQRA law doesn't indicate a time frame by which this must be done.
"The hearing is not about the draft scoping outline, it is about getting suggestions from the public," Mr. Cardinale said.
But Mr. Amper said that while the scoping hearing isn't required, there's no reason why the town should not want to have it.
"This is why we didn't want Riverhead Town to be lead agency," he said. "All of the groups in our organization are registered as interested parties and we need time to review what is being proposed so we can contribute to the scoping hearing. We think the scoping outline should be available 30 days before the hearing."
Mr. Amper also said that part of the agreement in allowing the town, and not the state, to be lead agent in the review was that the town would conduct an effective hearing on scoping.
"This is an example of the town doing what it needs to do in the slowest possible way in order to limit public participation," Mr. Amper said. "The town is once again demonstrating that it wants to control the process and suggests the town doesn't want the public to be informed."
In another development, Rechler Equity Partners was chosen by Suffolk County this week to construct and manage a 53-acre redevelopment of the industrial park at Gabreski Airport in Westhampton Beach. Officials say it will be a "state-of-the-art business and technology center that will focus on industries compatible to the area, including film, television and digital media."
Mr. Cardinale said Gregg Rechler of Rechler Equity Partners called him prior to the announcement and said he felt the Westhampton site would have "synergy" with the Calverton site. One difference, Mr. Cardinale said, is that the Westhampton site will be entirely rental properties, whereas the Calverton site is owned by Rechler.
The proposed Westhampton site would be 485,000 square feet and could provide up to 700 jobs, according to county officials.
