Village states its opposition to new DEC wetland maps
WARWICK The Warwick Village Board unanimously approved a resolution this week opposing the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) new wetlands maps and urged the state to assume a permit program from the Army Corps of Engineers.
The move was based on a letter dated April 23 from the Alliance for Balanced Growth.
The uproar stems from the fact that the maps are generated using aerial surveying with little actual field verification despite the documented inaccuracies in this method of wetlands mapping.
And no projects either planned or not yet built would be grandfathered into the new maps.
DEC has stated that the new maps will have at least a 50-percent increase in wetlands under the DECs jurisdiction, reads the sample resolution provided with the letter from the Alliance for Balanced Growth.
The new maps would place 16,000 additional acres of Orange County under DEC jurisdiction. Moreover, that acreage amount does not include the 100-foot wetlands buffer that would constrain even more land.
It remains unclear how much farmland the new maps might affect; when the DEC will choose to hold the mandatory public hearings on the new maps also remains uncertain.
Alliance in league with OC Partnership
The Alliance estimates that as many as 10,000 landowners in Orange County could be affected.
A decline in property values could very well prompt requests for property tax reassessments, the Alliance states in its letter to municipalities.
The board agreed with the Alliance that the Army Corps of Engineers already regulates the wetlands and regulation by the DEC would be duplicative, time-consuming and possibly even conflicting in terms of regulations.
The trustees want Gov. Andrew Cuomo to suspend the process of issuing these maps and making them official. They also advocated for the governor to assume the Army Corps of Engineers 404 Permit Program that allows the DEC to regulate wetlands based on actual field conditions.
The 404 program is active in states like Massachusetts and New Jersey.
In addition to protecting the wetlands, the 404 Permit Program would obviate the need for maps altogether because wetlands would be subject to real time regulation unlike maps that become outdated quickly.
Joining the Army Corps of Engineer program would also save as much as $60,000 that the Alliance claims it would cost the DEC to properly notify each affected landowner.
The Alliance is a standing committee of the Orange County Partnership whose members are actively involved in creating industrial and office development, states the mission statement atop the letter signed by co-chairmen Dominic Cordisco and John Lavelle.
According to the groups Web site, 21 other entities have adopted the resolution including the Town of Chester, Village of Goshen and Town of Warwick.
Although village attorney Michael Meth could not vet the Alliance or its claims, the board agreed that the potential threat to Warwick and its wetlands through the expansion of DEC jurisdiction was real and required action immediately.
Mayor Michael Newhard was absent and deputy mayor Barry Cheney presided over the meeting.
In other news The board authorized payment of bills totaling $105,917.63
The board voted unanimously to transfer all of the villages inventoried historical records to the Town of Warwick Historical Society for safekeeping and archival purposes.
The next regular meeting of the board will be held on July 2 at 7:30 p.m. in the Warwick Village Hall, 77 Main St.
By Birgit Bogler