History records numerous opposing camps: Athens vs. Troy, Rome vs. the Goths and closer to home, environmentalists vs. developers. But those last belligerents have reached a truce of sorts, at least regionally, where a consortium of groups has issued draft recommendations for improving the state”™s infamous environmental laws known as SEQRA ”“ the State Environmental Quality Review Act.
The recommendations are compiled within a draft report from a working group formed in September 2009 co-hosted by Pattern for Progress, Scenic Hudson and the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which has led discussions among a working group of some 16 interested developers, environmentalists, attorneys and state and municipal officials connected with implementing SEQRA regulations.
The draft report focuses on nine recommendations that can be accomplished in the Hudson Valley Catskill Region 3, within a short time frame, without legislative or regulatory changes.
The recommendations call for better incentives for regional and local planning; expanded SEQRA education and training; regional SEQRA guidance; more help from the DEC; improved adherence to timelines; more dialog among applicants and stakeholders earlier in the process; greater use of mediation to resolve disputes; designation of a point person for large regional priority project reviews; and establishment of a diverse, voluntary group to assist with implementation of recommendations.
Participants acknowledged that funding to implement the recommendations is not available, but they said some of the key ideas can be implemented with little or no additional funding.
“I don”™t think there is a single silver bullet here that says, ah yes, we solved the problem; instead, we achieved consensus on the nine broadly defined recommendations and felt that we ought to go about implementing them,” said Jonathan Drapkin  president of Pattern for Progress. “We will continue to refine them and considering other good ideas as they come up.”
The group will take additional written public comments on the draft ideas until March 12 at the DEC website and until March 17 at the Pattern website.
“The idea was to find a way we can make SEQRA work better, improve the process in timeliness and predictability while maintaining environmental protection and public input,” said Willie Janeway, director of DEC Region 3. He said the focus was to avoid regulatory or legal changes and instead “focus on things we could do differently” within the current law.
Education of local planning and zoning officials emerged as a key common theme. The law is complex and glitches are frequent.
Drapkin noted that under SEQRA, local planning officials who are often unpaid volunteers are the so-called “lead agencies” most often responsible for guiding the environmental review and making key decisions and they have less experience, less knowledge of the law and fewer resources than state DEC officials and developers often have. He suggested that merely schooling local officials in the correct way to apply the law would noticeably improve matters.
Â
Janeway agreed and, acknowledging there is no state funding to pay for such training, at least in the short term, noted that an array of involved groups have already begun preliminary discussions on setting up such trainings using volunteers and donated funding
Â
“These recommendations acknowledge that the implementation of SEQRA by local officials can be made more efficient.” said Jeff Anzevino, assistant director of land use advocacy for Scenic Hudson. He said such training, more regional guidance and “earlier dialogue” between would be developers and stakeholders could result in a shorter less costly process with a better outcome for all concerned.
Anzenvino said that environmental groups are not interested in disrupting development, because without economic activity to provide jobs and wages the area will become unaffordable for all but the wealthiest citizens. And he said the process of meeting in the working group since September “Opened my eyes a little bit to the level of frustration in the development community,”
And though the lack of funds is a real concern, Anzevino said providing a better planning process through SEQRA would be a wise investment, perhaps especially in difficult economic times.
“I think we need to show that an investment in these types of training programs will pay off in better quality developments that can happen faster and still protect the environment,” said Anzevino.
Janeway said that the findings and solutions being attempted through the working group are likely to serve as a pilot program of sorts. He said Region 3 and the Hudson Valley have a diverse array of concerns that encompass the whole state, from urban economic justice issues to rural concerns about viewsheds and water supply protection.
“If we can make this work here, and that is very plausible, there could be some very important  lessons learned and exported to the rest of the state,” said Janeway.
