Springfield Asks the State for ‘Lead Agency’ Authority Over the Manocherian Project

By DEBRA MOFFITT
SPRINGFIELD

Town of Springfield officials have asked the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to settle a dispute with the Town of Otsego over which municipality should be the “lead agency” and key decisionmaker about a controversial plan to build 126 homes west of Otsego Lake.

Manhattan developer Fraydun Manocherian/Pamela Equities Corp. wants to build the homes in pockets of undeveloped land totaling 1,525 acres split between the two towns. In acreage, Springfield has the edge with 776 acres versus 749 acres in the Town of Otsego—one of multiple points Springfield’s attorney underlined in a 16-page letter to NYSDEC Commissioner Amanda Lefton.

“The Springfield Planning Board will have the authority to impose substantive subdivision requirements on a majority of the Proposed Action site,” including design requirements that relate to environmental impacts, Charles Gottlieb, the attorney representing Springfield’s Planning Board, wrote in the August 26 letter to Lefton.

In total acreage, the difference amounts to 27 acres, 51 percent of the project acreage compared to Otsego’s 49 percent. Springfield also has more of the project’s total dwelling units—76, including 30 single-family homes and a 46-unit multifamily complex that will require a special use permit. In Otsego, 50 single-family homes are planned. Springfield will have more of the project’s open space, too—451 acres or 58 percent, Gottlieb wrote.

Members of the public filled meeting rooms last summer and a few months ago when the Manocherian plan was on the agenda at Otsego and Springfield town meetings. They’re concerned about the impact the large development will have on roads, the natural environment, Lake Otsego and whether new wells will put too much demand on the aquifer that serves existing residents.

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.

Gottlieb included 316 pages of supporting documentation—Exhibit A through Exhibit N—explaining why Springfield has more at stake and is better situated to decide on environmental matters related to the project. Springfield has arguments to meet all three criteria that Lefton will use to decide the matter, according to the letter.

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.

The Town of Otsego’s Planning Board objected to Springfield’s bid to be lead agency on environmental matters, saying that Springfield acted too soon before enough was known about the project to make a determination.

“However, the exact opposite is true,” Gottlieb wrote in his letter to Lefton.

Springfield followed the rules precisely by indicating its interest in serving as lead agency after holding public meetings and giving the project a classification under the State Environmental Quality Review Act.

Neither the Springfield Planning Board nor Otsego town officials wanted to comment further on the matter, or say if they had tried to resolve the dispute on their own.

Springfield’s Planning Board “has the broadest government power for investigation of potential impacts” and the “greatest capability for providing the most thorough environmental assessment of the proposed action,” Gottlieb’s letter said. Otsego objected to Springfield’s bid to serve as lead agency without proposing an alternate lead agency, he wrote.

Springfield is more equipped than Otsego because it already has a process in place for getting independent legal and engineering consultants to assess the complex development, according to the letter.

The town hired engineering firm C.T. Male Associates, which has already reported back to the planning board with a list of additional information it should request from Manocherian. Otsego just recently put legislation in place that would allow it to charge Manocherian for this kind of independent review.

While the Otsego Planning Board has expressed concern about how it would assess the intricacies of the Manocherian plans, these demands “are well within the expertise of the Springfield Planning Board and its consultant, C.T. Male,” Gottlieb wrote.