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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20210757 Myrtle Street Site Plan Correspondance Asoric BRAYMER LAW PLLC AN. 111 November 17, 2021 Mark Torpey, Chairman City of Saratoga Springs Planning Board 474 Broadway Saratoga Springs,NY 12866 Re: Saratoga Hospital Expansion Project— Site Plan 2021-0757 Dear Chairman Torpey and Members of the Saratoga Springs Planning Board: We represent a group of neighbors who are citizens residing in the Birch Run Community, as well as in the Morgan Street and Myrtle Street neighborhoods. Our clients live in close proximity to Saratoga Hospital's (the "applicant")proposed expansion project (the "project") and have serious concerns regarding the Project. Initially, as the Board may be aware: the property that is the site of the project was rezoned by the City Council in 2019, for the sole benefit of the applicant. That improper and arbitrary rezoning of the project property is being challenged in Court, and the issue is currently fully submitted to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court, Third Department (App. Div. Case No. 532529). Arguments in the matter are scheduled for January of 2022. We believe there is a likelihood we will succeed in that appeal. If we do succeed, the rezoning that occurred in 2019 would be annulled, and the proposed project would be prohibited at the property. It is a waste of public resources to consider the project further until the legal issues surrounding the underlying rezoning are decided by the Courts. If the Board insists on continuing its review of this project while the legal challenge to the rezoning is pending, we urge the Board to issue a positive declaration under the NYS Environmental Quality Review Act("SEQRA") and require the applicant to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement("EIS"). An EIS will allow the Board and the public to fully understand the adverse environmental of the entire proposed project, and ensure that the negative impacts are eliminated or reduced to the maximum extent possible through mitigation measures and/or alternatives. A positive declaration is required if"the action may include the potential for at least one significant adverse environmental impact". 6 NYCRR § 617.7(a)(2). Moreover, PO Box 2369 Glens Falls NY 12801 1 ben@braymerlaw.com I (518) 502-1213 as a Type I action under SEQRA, this project"carries with it the presumption that it is likely to have a significant adverse impact on the environment". 6 NYCRR § 617.4. Since the proposed project, a three-phase project consisting of over 100,000 square feet of buildings, clearly has "the potential for at least one significant adverse environmental impact", the Planning Board must issue a positive declaration and require the preparation of an EIS for this Type I action. 6 NYCRR § 617.7(a)(2). As shown below,there is potential for several significant adverse impacts if this project is approved, which require the board to issue a positive declaration. First,the project property is surrounded by residential neighborhoods that will be severely impacted by the dense commercial development proposed, which will contain over 100,000 square feet of commercial buildings. Residents of the surrounding neighborhoods would experience increased traffic (there are a total of 392 parking spaces proposed in the first phase of the project alone), noise, and light impacts, including but not limited to severe adverse noise impacts from construction of the project due to rock blasting and grading with heavy machinery. There will also be a significant loss of open space and adverse impacts on plants and wildlife. Second, the project is completely inconsistent with the community character. As this Board recognized when it recommended to the City Council that the subject property be zoned OMB-1 instead of OMB-2,the type of development being proposed does not ensure the retention of community character or limit adverse impacts to the surrounding neighborhoods. Third, the project currently before the Board is phase one of a three-phase project that will span almost ten years of construction according to the applicant's environmental assessment form ("EAF") (see Section d.1.e of the applicant's EAF, stating that the final phase of the project will be completed in 2031). SEQRA regulations require the lead agency to consider the whole action, including "reasonably related long-term, short-term, direct, indirect and cumulative impacts, including simultaneous or subsequent actions." 6 NYCRR § 617.7(b)(2). The agency must not engage in segmentation or the "division of the environmental review of an action such that various activities...are addressed...as though they were independent, unrelated activities"; "[c]considering only a part of segment of an action is contrary to the intent of SEQR[A]." NYCRR § 617.2(ah); 6 NYCRR § 617.3(g). The Board cannot review only the first phase of this massive project, but must address the potential impacts from the remaining phases planned by the applicant, which can only done through the preparation of an environmental impact statement. Fourth,the project will create over 4 acres of new impervious surfaces, which will have a significant impact on the environment, including but not limited to impacts relating to stormwater runoff(in an area that is already impacted by flooding problems) and localized heat island effects from the conversion of open green space to vast swaths of blacktop. 2 The foregoing are just some of the major impacts this project will have on the surrounding community. Enclosed are copies of numerous letters submitted by residents who share our clients' concerns regarding the project, and photos of the current open space that Saratoga Hospital plans to eliminate for its project. We thank the Board for its consideration of our comments and for your deliberation in this matter. Sincerely, in - ho enc. 3