In a procedural, but consequential, step, the Sag Harbor Village Board issued a “positive declaration” Tuesday on the mixed retail and housing development proposed by Adam Potter and Conifer Realty.
When a positive declaration is made, it means a project could have a significant environmental impact and must undergo a lengthy public review.
Planners from Cameron Engineering, hired by the village to assess the project, read through part of the assessment form, a part of the State Environmental Quality Review Act designed to help the lead agency, in this case the Sag Harbor Village Board, study all potential resources that could be affected by a proposed project.
“Our role in this is relatively narrow,” said David Tepper, a planner with Cameron. “We’re not here to assess the merits of the project. We’re just assessing potential impacts and the magnitude, duration, and likelihood that any would occur.”
The assessment form is basically an exploded laundry list of 18 potential areas of impact. For example, under “impact on transportation” the engineers had to assess whether the project would create more traffic than the existing road network could hold, whether parking lots would need to be constructed, if existing walkways would be negatively affected, and if the completed construction would alter the traffic pattern in the area.
Of the 18 criteria studied, the engineers decided that the Potter project would have a “moderate to large impact” on 13.
“That’s a pretty significant list of impacts to digest,” said Mr. Tepper.
The $70 million project, listed on the agenda as the “Conifer Affordable Housing Development,” but derided by critics as a “mall” with housing attached, would add more than 100,000 square feet of building to a historic part of the village. The largest of the 79 housing units would be a 950-square-foot two-bedroom, two-bathroom apartment. Retail spaces would dominate the lower story, with 34,000 square feet proposed.
As a comparison, the K-Mart in Bridgehampton Commons is 89,935 square feet.
Highlighting the passion some feel toward the project, as Aidan Corish, a trustee, questioned the engineers about their assessments, Douglas Newby, a village resident, yelled out from the back of the room, “This is a sham!”
Mr. Newby, his wife, Kathryn Levy, and Maziar Behrooz, an architect, were all in attendance. The three village residents joined a recent Save Sag Harbor lawsuit challenging the zoning changes that allowed the project to be proposed in the first place.
“If you could please stop yelling out, thank you,” said Liz Vail, the village attorney.
“Ladies and gentlemen, we are often accused of not being transparent,” said Mayor Larocca, pounding the table for emphasis. “You’re here to watch your board working on this matter. If you cannot observe politely, I would ask you to leave. This is not a public hearing. Yelling, laughing, and snide commentary, are not helpful.”
“We can laugh. You cannot restrict me,” said Mr. Behrooz, who would be a close neighbor of the development.
“I’m just asking you to be polite,” said Mayor Larocca.
Sean McLean of Mpact Collective, hired by the board as a liaison and consultant, tried to ease the mood. “As I’m listening, and hearing confusion, I wanted to back up and discuss where we are now in the process.”
He explained that what the engineers were reading through was a draft document. If the board issued a positive declaration, the draft would be scrapped and a scoping process, with public input, would begin, which would add important local knowledge to the document.
“This is only a gate to pass through, to say it should be a positive or negative declaration. After that, it restarts a very public process,” he said.
“In that process, we will learn about other issues, other matters not yet apparent,” said Mayor Larocca. “The way this process starts, we’re looking only at the applicant’s view.”
“Right. It can’t possibly contain the local knowledge,” said Mr. McLean. “Part of the reason you brought me into this is to make me available to residents, to get their concerns on paper.”
Mr. McLean then recited his email and cellphone number.
Michael Keane, another planner with Cameron Engineering, said that regardless of the board’s decision, he didn’t feel they had enough information to make either a positive or negative declaration.
Thomas Gardella, the deputy mayor, acknowledged he was no engineer, but said that, “if 13 of 18 show moderate or large impact,” then they had enough information.
“There’s a low threshold for issuing a positive declaration,” said Ms. Vail. “I’d like them to read through the 13 large-to-moderate impacts for the record, and then the board can make a determination.” She reiterated that the documents hadn’t been released to the public to review because they were in draft form.
After that, the board voted unanimously to issue the positive declaration.
“I never thought there was any question here, that I would favor moving us toward a positive declaration tonight,” said Mayor Larocca.
The next step is for the Potter team to draft a scope of the environmental impact statement. A public hearing on that draft will be held, comments collected, and it will be revised. Any public meeting would be “duly noticed” in local media, said Ms. Vail.
Mr. Corish suggested the village set up a portal on its website leading to all the documents and information on the Potter project.
“I’m grateful that you made a positive declaration” said Ms. Levy, speaking at the public comment period after Cameron’s presentation. She was disappointed however, that more people did not attend the meeting. “People who live immediately around the project . . . some of their lives will be destroyed,” she said.
“We follow every single requirement in the law,” said Mayor Larocca, about placing notices of board meetings in the papers. “I’m sorry it doesn’t please you. We’re not writing a separate process for you.”
