Woodmere Club DEIS decision tabled

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The Nassau County Planning Commission tabled its scheduled Sept. 5 vote on whether to accept the draft environmental impact statement for the Woodmere Club to the Sept. 26 meeting.

“We felt that there were a few issues with scope that need to be addressed before we move forward,” Planning Commission Deputy Commissioner Sean Sallie said. “The NCPC guided the staff to further revise the scope to include a required analysis and evaluation of the proposed use of energy as it relates to impacts on climate change.” 

The State Environmental Quality Review Act, that became law in 1975, now requires that a DEIS must evaluate the impacts of the proposed development on climate change. That requirement was added last year.

Planning Commission Third Vice-Chair Neal Lewis said the current draft is “deficient.” “Under the current SEQRA guidelines, there is a requirement to study the climate impact of a proposed action,” Lewis said. “I don’t see that in this scope.”

A scoping session was held by the Planning Commission on June 25 to hear public comment on the proposal. The majority of the roughly 35 speakers were residents and local representatives who expressed their opposition to the potential Willow View Estates development.

Developers Efrem Gerszberg, of 2020 Acquisitions, and Robert Weiss, of Weiss Properties, bought the Woodmere Club for roughly $9 million in 2017. The plan is to build 285 single-family homes on 114.25 acres of the 111-year-old club’s 118 acres starting in 2021. All but 37 of the homes are to be built in Woodmere; 24 would be in Woodsburgh, and 13 in Lawrence.

“We are pleased to accommodate the commissioners request to delay the adoption of the scoping by one meeting,” Weiss said. “We are doing this in order to include an analysis in our report on the use of environmentally friendly energy alternatives such as solar ready homes and other alternatives.”

Planning Commission Chairman Marty Glennon said at the meeting that adjourning the vote will allow the commissioners more time to review public comments for the DEIS. “The three weeks in between meetings will allow the developers to revise their DEIS,” he said. “It also allows to fully incorporate the public comments.” Sallie previously stated that more than 100 residents submitted public comments to the planning commission. The extended deadline was Aug. 14. 

When the draft environmental impact is approved, the developers will then submit a final EIS. “After we vote on it, the ball will be in the hands of the developers,” Sallie said. “There is no timetable for them to submit a final EIS, they can take one week to do it or they can take three months to do it.” 

The Sept. 26 Planning Commission meeting is scheduled for 10 a.m. in the County Legislative Chamber, at 1550 Franklin Ave. in Mineola. The meeting is open to the public.