SEQR and the Dock

Toward the end of a Planning Board meeting last Tuesday, which went on for more than four and a half hours, Victoria Polidoro, who is now serving as counsel to the Planning Board, addressed the issue of classifying the conditional use permit sought by Colarusso for its dock operations. Classifying an action is the first step in the SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) process. As Gossips has already reported, Polidoro told the Planning Board that she and Ryan Weitz, the engineer from Barton & Loguidice retained by the Planning Board, were recommending that the action by classified as Unlisted action instead of a Type I action because it does not meet the thresholds of Type I. Not knowing what the thresholds for Type I were, I decided to find out. They are listed here. A passage of interest is Section (b) Paragraph (9) which defines one of the thresholds for a Type I action:

(9) any Unlisted action (unless the action is designed for the preservation of the facility or site), that exceeds 25 percent of any threshold established in this section, occurring wholly or partially within, or substantially contiguous to, any historic building, structure, facility, site or district or prehistoric site that is list on the National Register of Historic Places . . . or that is listed on the State Register of Historic Places or that has been determined by the Commissioner of the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation to be eligible for listing on the State Register of Historic Places pursuant to sections 14.07 or 14.09 of the Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law; . . .

The Colarusso dock and its dock-related operations are surrounded by historic sites. There's the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse in the river, which has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places since 1979. There's the train station, which is listed in the National Register of Historic Places as a contributing structure in the Front Street-Parade Hill-Lower Warren Street Historic District created in 1985. The train station is also a locally designated historic landmark. There's the Dunn warehouse, which was determined to eligible for listing in the State Register of Historic Places in 1985. There's Basilica Hudson, which is pursuing National Register listing and has been issued a preliminary determination of eligibility by the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO). 

A bit farther afield, there is the building where The Wick Hotel is located, which was determined to be eligible for listing in the National Register a few years ago, and the Robert Taylor House, which has been listed in the National Register of Historic Places, as a contributing structure in the Hudson Historic District, since 1985. The Robert Taylor House is also a locally designated historic landmark. 

One wonders why the existence of these historic structures--four of which are "substantially contiguous to" the Colarusso dock operation--is not sufficient reason to make the review a Type I action.
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