Court: procedural, substantive challenges to town’s SEQRA review meritless
GLENMONT—By court decision issued October 23 dismissing their March 2023 petition, four local residents lost another court bid to stop the construction of a wind turbine manufacturing facility on Beacon Island.
Sylvia Rowlands, Philip Rowlands, Joanne Maier, and Daniel Maier filed their Article 78 petition with Albany’s Supreme Court claiming that the Town of Bethlehem had failed to comply with the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act by issuing its SEQRA Findings and determination without having received and reviewed findings statements from other involved agencies, failed to address the project’s environmental impacts and improperly segmented its SEQRA determination based on the DEC’s findings.
State Supreme Court Judge James Ferreira said petitioners misunderstood the SEQRA process. In rejecting the petitioners’ SEQRA argument, Judge Ferreira said “the Planning Board complied both procedurally and substantively with the requirements of SEQRA in that it identified the relevant environmental concerns, took a ‘hard look’ at them, and considered a reasonable range of corresponding mitigation measurers and alternatives.”
Judge Ferreira went on to find that petitioners had failed to state a legally sustainable claim that the respondents improperly failed to issue findings statements prior to the final SEQRA determination and dismissed the petition in its entirety.
Deputy Town Attorney Mark Sweeney, who represented the Town’s Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals and Department of Public Works in the case, called the Judge’s decision “well written”.
Sweeney believes the petitioners will file a notice of appeal within the 30 day deadline, if only to preserve their rights to evaluate what they want to do. “As pro se litigants, they may or may not appeal,” Sweeney said. He predicted that an appeal “has no chance of success. I am very confident Judge Ferreira’s decision in the case will be upheld.”
Rowlands, who has been outspoken on the subject and one of the four petitioners, did not respond to a request for comment. In this action, the petitioners are appearing pro se and representing themselves.
Members of Beacon Island Environmental Justice, a local citizen action group, already tried to stop the Port project with two other court challenges. One Article 78 proceeding against the Town of Bethlehem’s Zoning Board of Appeals and Planning Board, currently on appeal, was dismissed – also by Judge Ferreira – in a 49-page decision in July 2023.
