PLATTSBURGH | The City of Plattsburgh is planning to complete its Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) projects as lead agency. Back in August, the city of Plattsburgh Common Council approved the outline of the GEIS regarding the upcoming DRI projects, funded by $10 million in state grants. The council voted to take extra precautions to move forward with the projects with a scoping document, crafted by the council and public. The GEIS statement covers all the projects as a whole, rather than individually, to see how they would affect one another and surrounding businesses.
One of the main projects that the GEIS covers is the Durkee Street parking lot reconstruction, where Prime Companies LLC plans to build a commercial and residential building, taking up half the lot for the building and private parking. The apartment building is planned to have 114 upscale residential units and stores/office space on the first floor.
Back in September, the city was facing a possible lawsuit for the DRI project. A group against the new apartments hired Lake George Attorney Matthew Fuller, who advised the city council that the project was breaking the law by blocking off waterfront property and building on a parking lot.
“You can’t alienate that property that is essentially the property of a district without any legislative approval,” Fuller told the council a few months ago. “I understand you’re about to take an action on the SEQR scoping document. From a legal standpoint, you can’t even get that far until these two legal hurdles are dealt with.”
The official groundbreaking will most likely happen early summer rather than in the spring as originally planned due to the possibility of legal action taken against the council. Since then, the city has moved forward with the GEIS and taken legal precautions against the anti-DRI group.
“It’s not at all required, but the council felt that given the threats from a group of people from elsewhere that they would sue the city for the development, the council felt strongly that they needed to do a very complete analysis for the record,” city of Plattsburgh Mayor Colin Read said. “The council is already beginning some initial drafts and we’ll probably be in a position to accept the draft prepared for them … then we can go onto the next step of the planning board and zoning board.”
The council did review the GEIS at the common council meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21 and agreed to hold a public hearing on the document.
“This is just the acceptance of the document in order to push it forward for public review,” Councilor Rachelle Armstrong said. “We can be confident that this is a good document for the public to review.”
The city council is holding a public hearing on the GEIS on Monday, Dec. 7, at 5 p.m. at Plattsburgh City Hall and written comments will be accepted until Dec. 23. The GEIS is on the City of Plattsburgh website for the public. To view the scoping document and past documentation on the DRI projects, visit cityofplattsburgh-ny.gov. ■
