The Press Release below was sent by the petitoners in the lawsuits to all Ithaca media on Friday, 2/23/01. Channel 7 led its report that evening with news that the Widewaters Group had withdrawn its legally troubled plans for developing Ithaca's Southwest flood plain across from Buttermilk Falls State Park. Channel 7 also reported that citizens' lawsuits against the City have been withdrawn as a result of the plan's collapse.
Ithacans looking for news in Saturday's Ithaca Journal were disappointed, though not surprised, when the Journal buried this important story with an obscure reference on page 2, reporting that there would be no Planning Board hearing this Tuesday, 2/27, "because (Widewaters) wants to submit new plans to the city, Ithaca Mayor Alan Cohen said Friday." This is bunk.
There will be no hearing on Tuesday because the Planning Board is not the lead agency and such a hearing would be premature. But the City doesn't want people to know the depth of their incompetence. The Journal persistently refuses to report that the City was forced to back down rather than face a loss in court. This follows the abysmal reporting and editorial silence of Ithaca's "paper of record" for 15 months concerning the political sleaze and corporate ruthlessness at the core of this sordid story.
At this point, the lawsuit challenging the site plan approval has been settled, with the City agreeing to go back and redo the whole approval process, starting from designation of lead agency.
The lawsuit challenging the legality of the GEIS has been postponed until April 20th in Owego. Widewaters has agreed not to do any construction or apply for permits until that time. So we have a couple more months delay. In the meantime, the legal costs are mounting.
The lawsuits have been successful in slowing down the process. Every delay is a victory. Please send whatever donation you can to:
Protect Our Parks and Neighborhoods
101 East State St, #134
Ithaca, NY 14850
Friday's Press Release Follows:
Citizens Prevail in Lawsuit against City Challenging Widewaters Site Plan Approval
The City of Ithaca acknowledged today that the site plan review for the Widewaters project was conducted improperly and has agreed to do it over again. This concession is part of a legal stipulation that settles the Article 78 lawsuit brought by 5 residents who live in the vicinity of the proposed shopping center.
"The City's Planning and Development Board made several important mistakes in its rush to approve this project. Now the City must go back and do the process over, which is going to take more time and cost more money," said Patrick Snyder, attorney for the 5 citizens.
"The only way we could get the City to pay attention and follow the law was by bringing this suit," said John Kadar, one of the 5 citizens. The other four citizens are John Powers, Martha Fischer, Sue Seely and John Humphries. As a result of the lawsuit, the City was forced to rescind the site plan approval for the project and to declare the environmental review null and void. The City failed to give the notice required by law to the County Planning Department, before approving the project.
The City also admitted that the Planning Board did not follow required procedure when it designated itself as lead agency for environmental review; that designation will have to be made as required under City and State Environmental Quality Review law. Once the lead agency has been properly selected, the environmental review must be redone before the Planning Board can act on the proposed site plan.
The petitioners contend that there were numerous flaws in the first environmental review, conducted last Fall. The proposed project involves construction of a shopping center with almost 200,000 square feet of retail space and parking for over 1,100 cars, all to be built within sight of Buttermilk Falls State Park and adjacent to a newly-designated City "natural area." This is the site where a much smaller development proposed by Wal-Mart was found to have unmitigatable impacts.
Nevertheless, after approximately 15 minutes of discussion, the Planning Board approved a "negative declaration," determining that the project would not have a significant impact and that therefore no environmental impact statement was required. Last-minute changes in Widewaters' proposed drainage plan, and their impact on the natural area, were not even addressed in this determination.
"For a project of this scale and in such a sensitive location, the Planning Board should have required the developer to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement," Snyder said. "Now that they have a second chance, we hope they will do it right. If they don't, another legal challenge is certainly possible."
"This whole fiasco could have been avoided if the City had listened to what the public was saying," said John Kadar "How much is this going to cost taxpayers before they say 'enough is enough!'" Kadar went on to observe that the City has been more focused on making life easy for Widewaters than on following the law.
"The irony here is that even after the City did everything it could to push this project through, despite the public outcry, Widewaters has sued the City to avoid paying its fair share of the costs associated with the impact of this huge development," John Kadar said. "With friends like that, who needs enemies," Kadar quipped.
Kadar is also calling upon the City to make public the complete record for the next site plan review. "The City has required citizens to file a Freedom of Information Law request for each and every piece of the public record. This wastes everyone's time, costs more money and defeats the public's right to know what the government is doing," said Kadar.
According to Snyder, all public agencies have a legal obligation to make all parts of applications for environmental permits readily available for public inspection.
"In the past it was possible to examine documents at City Hall without waiting days or weeks. But legal requirements don't seem to have any effect on this administration," Kadar said.
