Kiryas Joel draft environmental review raises more questions than it answers
By Bob Quinn
MONROE — The Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement develop by the Village of Kiryas Joel for the proposed annexations does not adequately assess the impact of future growth, according to the assessment of the planning group hired by the Town of Monroe to review the village’s draft statement.
Two annexation proposals are at hand: One for 507 acres in the unincorporated portion of the Town of Monroe and a second, smaller one for 164 acres.
The assessment by the Armonk-based firm of JMC Planning Engineering Landscape Architecture & Land Surveying reviewed water, sewer and transportation issues, the school system, municipal finances as well as population density.
The validity of the draft generic environmental impact statement rest on the need for better and more specific numbers, the JMC planners indicated throughout their report to the town.
The Kiryas Joel draft, authored by Tim Miller Associates, projects population growth through the year 2025.
But the JMC planners noted: “The 10 year analysis included in the DGEIS considers only a portion of the potential future impacts. ... In order to properly evaluate the full environmental impacts associated with the proposed annexation ... (a) time frame for when such build outs would occur beyond 2025 should be included.”
Elsewhere in the document, JMC planners wrote: “For the subject Kiryas Joel annexation DGEIS, build out analyses need to be conducted in order to evaluate longer-term (greater than 10 year) impacts from the associated population growth to critical infrastructure, including but not limited to water and sanitary sewer demands and evaluating capacities to accommodate such demands.”
JMC said “a supplemental DGEIS needs to be prepared to properly address the build out potential.”
NumbersEarlier this week, County Executive Steven M. Neuhaus said the Kiryas Joel draft environment review was flawed, and release a report that raised 70 different points. (See a separate story on this on page XX.)
The Town of Monroe’s review covers much of the same ground, but with more specifics regarding population and development. The report includes three build out scenarios that would see an increase in the Hasidic population anywhere from 22,377 people to as many as 81,361 people. (See related sidebar.)
The planners also note elsewhere in their report that “the analysis which the Village submitted to the State Environmental Facilities Corporation in connection with the bonding of the Aqueduct Connection project, relies on demographic growth projections through the year 2045, with 8,550 new residential connections and 1,500 new commercial connections. The related projection subsequently thus exceed the year 2025 population analyzed in the DGEIS. This further supports our contention that the DGEIS time frame ending at the year 2025 is not adequate for analyzing the proposed impacts of the annexation resulting from the build out of the annexation properties.”
The planners conclusion is that as supplemental DGEIS is required to analyze the additional population.
Development densityThe JMC report noted the village does not have a regulated maximum number of units per acre and “the development is limited on a practical basis by the buildings not having elevators.”
The report also noted the following:
“The rate of 30 units per acre accounts for mixed residential development types and commercial uses. The current village construction activity includes redevelopment, resulting in higher density buildings. A 10 unit development was recently razed and a 30 unit development is being constructed on the same property.”
Then in a footnote to one chart, JMC noted that “Recently Kiryas Joel developments have up to 38 units per developable acre.”
FiscalIn addition to a discussion of what the impact would mean for Town of Monroe finances, the JMC report included the following regarding the school district:
“The DGEIS states that it is unlikely, without annexation taking place, there would be any motivation to revise the current Kiryas Joel School District boundary lines into the Town of Monroe. The DEIS then goes on to state at the bottom of the same page that the school tax rate in Kiryas Joel is lower than the school tax rate for the Monroe-Woodbury School District. This would be an approximately 44% savings on the school tax rate per $1,000 of assessed value as described in the DGEIS.
“That would seem to be a potentially significant motivation for revising the Kiryas Joel school boundaries even without the annexation, especially since the vast majority of the students in the annexation lands attend parochial school.”
Emergency servicesThe DGEIS does not address the fiscal impacts associated with mutual aid requests to the Monroe Fire Department should the Kiryas Joel Fire Protection District be expanded to include the annexation territories. The annexation territories would no longer pay taxes to the Monroe department, and thus the impact of these tax reductions on the Monroe department, which will respond to mutual aid calls in the annexed territories post-development when the building densities and sizes are larger, should be analyzed.
Transportation“The entire Traffic and Transportation section needs to be revised to reflect conditions associated with the build out of the annexed territories beyond year 2025 as well as continued development within Kiryas Joel as previously described in this memorandum,” the JMC report said.
The planners also recommended that “intersection capacity analyses should be computed for the four intersections described in the DGEIS as well as for the triangular intersections of Route 208 and Route 17M. The analyses should be provided for peak weekday AM and PM hours based on existing traffic volumes as well as future volumes without and with the annexation and build out of the annexed territories.”
QuestionsThe planners raised the following questions:
When will the NYSDEC draft consolidated water supply permit (WSA No. 11,069) be approved as final?
What is the impact on the Village of Kiryas Joel (either with or without the annexation) should an upgrade to the County’s wastewater treatment plant not be completed prior to reaching maximum capacity for the existing plant, and a moratorium on new sanitary connections is enacted?
CommentAlthough contacted Monday, the public relations firm hired by the Village of Kiryas Joel for the annexation did not respond for comment.
In his email distributing the report, Monroe Town Supervisor Harley E. Doles III wrote: “As we have promised the public, John Meyers Consulting’s DGEIS comments were not critiqued, or edited by any members of the Town Board. We have in fact NO involvement in the comments prepared other than to assist in the required resolutions, documented meetings by board member(s) and a tour of the property which the public was made fully aware of.”