If you live in the Towns of Wawarsing, Esopus, Gardiner, Cornwall, Saugerties, Olive, or Marbletown; the Village of Nyack; or the Cities of Peekskill, Hudson, or White Plains, your local executive signed onto the City of Kingston Mayor Steve Noble’s letter to the state supporting proposed changes to the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR). This letter was submitted just days before Mayor Noble participated in a Governor-hosted roundtable on the proposed regulation changes with a select group of officials.
Please READ the Daily Freeman Article, “Kingston Mayor, Town Supervisors Call on State to Exempt Some Housing Projects from Environmental Review.
THE LETTER is posted in the article on scribd.
The timeframe for public response is short. At a minimum, community members should consider asking their local executive why they signed onto the letter, whether they read the regulations, and if other members of their governing body—such as boards, trustees, or council—were informed beforehand. For example, the Kingston Common Council reportedly was not informed, which is why it later submitted its own letter expressing concerns.
It is important to note that environmental review decisions are not controlled by the executive branch. They involve local planning departments, planning boards, and legislative bodies, which may sometimes serve as the lead agency. In cities, the executive branch is separate and does not oversee SEQR reviews, while towns and villages often consolidate leadership, making it essential to know whether boards or trustees were aware of or involved in actions regarding the proposed SEQR changes, which are being handled without transparency through the state budget.
Legislative bodies also shape zoning laws that determine what projects are allowed and where. Municipalities can also improve local processes to identify “unlisted” projects and potentially classify them as Type II actions under SEQR.