Otsego Opposes Springfield’s Bid to be ‘Lead Agency’ on Manocherian Development

By DEBRA MOFFITT
FLY CREEK

The Town of Otsego says the Town of Springfield jumped the gun by seeking to be the “lead agency” on the environmental review of a Manhattan developer’s plan to build 126 homes—50 in Otsego and 76 in Springfield.

The move came too soon, before the Manocherian Brothers/Pan Am Equities have provided complete information about engineering, grading, stormwater and architectural plans, Town of Otsego’s Planning Board Chairman Tom Huntsman said in a letter to Springfield’s Planning Board.

“Without a complete Site Plan application, any determination regarding which community may sustain the greatest environmental impacts, and which agency has the broadest governmental powers to investigate such impacts, is premature,” Huntsman wrote.

Otsego’s Planning Board “reserves all rights” to serve as lead agency “once and if a formal application is submitted,” he said in the letter.

Huntsman asked Springfield to cease all action to become lead agency in conducting the subdivision review required by the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The state requires a coordinated environmental review and only one entity can serve as lead agency. That lead agency decides if an environmental impact statement is required. If so, the ensuing process would identify potential harms and spell out how to avoid or reduce them.

Environmental impacts have been top of mind with the proposed Manocherian development, a 1,525-acre site west of Otsego Lake. Town officials and area residents say they want more information about how the development will affect the water supply, local roads, and the health of the lake. Engineers and a lawyer for Manocherian have stressed the project’s low density and the large amount of open space, though they have declined to offer specific details about the nature of the open space and how it would be protected.

The Town of Springfield posted the letter from Huntsman, along with a commentary from its own lawyer, on the Springfield website. Attorney Charles J. Gottlieb countered that Springfield followed the rules for expressing its intent to serve as lead agency and that no entity other than the Town of Otsego had opposed it.

Springfield could reach out to the Town of Otsego to try and resolve the dispute or seek a determination from the commissioner of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Gottlieb wrote.

The NYSDEC commissioner uses established criteria to resolve disputes between competing entities for lead agency status. They include:

Which agency has the broadest governmental powers for investigation of the impacts?

Which agency has the greatest capability for providing the most thorough environmental assessment?

On its website, NYSDEC also provides details on how other lead agency disputes were resolved. Last year, the Town of Ulster and the Town of Woodstock both wanted lead agency status for a 30-acre subdivision. All but the access road was contained within the Town of Ulster, which won the lead agency designation. The commissioner ruled that Ulster had broader governmental powers than Woodstock to assess impacts and impose conditions to protect the environment.

The question will be more challenging if Otsego and Springfield ask the commissioner to make the call. In the Manocherian development, the acreage split is nearly equal, with 776 acres in Springfield and 749 acres in Otsego town limits.