Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Land Use Rezoning topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Utica council schedules public hearing, begins SEQRA review for former city dump rezoning
Summary
The Common Council set a public hearing for June 18 and adopted a SEQRA resolution after city and state agencies sought rezoning of a former city dump to industrial to allow remediation work.
The Utica Common Council on Wednesday scheduled a public hearing and adopted a State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) resolution for a proposal to rezone the former city dump back to industrial to allow remediation work requested by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation.
Council members voted to hold the public hearing on June 18 at 7 p.m. in the Common Council chambers and approved a resolution declaring the council’s intent to act as lead agency for purposes of SEQRA review. An ordinance to enact the rezoning will be placed in committee for further review and cannot be adopted until required reviews are complete.
City staff said the corporation counsel and mayor’s office have been working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) on a settlement and remediation plan that requires the site to be rezoned from its current conservation designation back to industrial. The planning board has not yet held a hearing on the rezoning; the planning board and other required boards will review site-specific materials before the council considers the ordinance.
Council members clarified that two of the related resolutions could be acted on that night — scheduling the public hearing and taking the SEQRA steps — while the ordinance itself would be referred to committee and then to the planning board for site-plan review. One council member asked whether the planning board had met on the matter; the response was that the planning board had not yet considered the rezoning and that the council would receive the planning board’s input after referral.
What the council approved Wednesday were procedural steps: scheduling the public hearing and advancing SEQRA coordination to allow the required environmental review to proceed. The transcript shows the council adopting the public-hearing resolution and the SEQRA-related resolution by recorded voice votes.
The council chair and staff said any additional zoning changes affecting the parcel will still need to return to the Common Council for consideration once planning-board review and SEQRA are complete.
