The draft environmental impact statement for the controversial Heritage at Cutchogue project was deemed inadequate for public review at today’s Southold Town planning board work session.
At the meeting, principal planner Mark Terry distributed a handout outlining the main issues with the DEIS.
The proposed residential site plan is for the development of 124 detached and attached dwellings, a 6,188 foot community center with an outdoor swimming pool and one tennis court, 284 parking spaces — of which 256 are associated with the residential units and 28, with the community center, on a vacant 46.17 foot parcel in the hamlet density zoning district.
The property is located at 75 Schoolhouse Road, on the northwest corner of Griffing Street and Schoolhouse Road, approximately 1,079 feet north of Main Road in Cutchogue.
In a memo to Hauppauge attorney John Wagner, planning board Chairman Donald Wilcenski outlined the omissions and deficiencies that led to the DEIS being deemed inadequate for public review. Terry gave an overview of the memorandum and discussed key concerns.
Issues, according to the memo, include questions with the soil management plan, with a need for the plan to identify how to “handle potentially contaminated soils” and to address specific measures that would be taken to minimize exposure to soil contaminants by workers and the community during construction.
Terry said deficiencies were found mainly in the contaminated soil section on how to handle and cap stockpiles.
In terms of groundwater, previous soil testing results indicated arsenic “may be present” in the soil; the DEIS should assess whether arsenic presents a contamination issue for groundwater at the site, Terry said; he added that the memo was created with the input of consultants, who made recommendations and suggested additions and amendments.
A remediation plan would include grading the top 12 inches of soil that contains arsenic and mercury and placing the soil in a capped berm, Terry said; the DEIS should assess whether irrigating the mounds would create a scenario where infiltrating irrigation water could mobilize existing contaminants.
Other concerns, Terry said, involve transportation, with questions about traffic counts; since no 24-hour automatic traffic recorder counts were provided, the question remained of how the peak hours of the traffic network would be determined, and how Sunday was determined as the most conservative weekend day.
Other questions include why two intersections to be analyzed were changed, and whether or not seasonal adjustment factors were utilized in the traffic impact analysis report.
The DEIS should also specify whether other comparable Long Island specific senior citizen housing project data was examined in reviewing trip generation data sources, the memorandum stated.
In addition, Terry said, no traffic signal timing data was provided for the signalized intersection of Route 25 and New Suffolk Road.
Terry said the southbound approach of the intersection of Route 25 and Depot Lane was found to have the highest number of accidents based on New York State Department of Transportation accident data, and in addition to potential improvement measures identified in the DEIS for the intersection, a traffic signal warrant study should be considered and safety measures recommended for the intersection.
The DEIS, Terry said, should also discuss potential impacts on parking in the hamlet center, as well as on the emergency and police response time as a result of the expected increase in traffic from the proposed project. Southold Town Police Chief Martin Flatley said there is projected four-minute response time to the site; the question was raised of how that would be impacted by potential traffic congestion.
The document also does not address ambulance and fire access and is deficient in input from the Cutchogue Fire Department and district, Terry said.
Also needed will be a look at the visual impacts of the project, Terry said. He added that the discussion on cumulative impacts of the project is deficient; there is an active subdivision application on Baxter at Griffing Street that’s still in the town’s system, he said.
Last month, the public spoke out on both sides of the controversial proposal at a public hearing.
