While the Manlius Town Board will accept a state decision that the village board is the lead agency for construction of the proposed new fire station, town councilors last week unanimously voted to reject the village’s asserted jurisdictional authority over the zoning review aspects of the project and to assert instead the town’s own jurisdiction over zoning.
Town Supervisor Ed Theobald said the board’s action was just a “procedural process that gets us involved in the zoning review,” however, and that the town will work cooperatively with the village on the entire project.
“This process is not a fire station issue, it’s a building issue on a parcel of town land with environmental concerns to some of our constituents,” said Councilor Nicholas Marzola.
The town board’s action came one week after, and in consequence of, a state Department of Environmental Conservation determination that the village of Manlius should be the lead agency for the new fire station project at the corner of Enders Road and Route 92.
Both town and village officials have been waiting for the DEC decision to come down since the village asked the state environmental agency to make a ruling on the issue in early August. The fire station project, which has been in the works for years but has been stalled throughout 2014 as the two municipalities argued, could not move forward until a municipal agency was declared to be the “lead agency” — or in charge — in terms of the state-mandated environmental impact review process of the project (State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQR).
Town Attorney Steve Primo said the DEC’s Oct. 14 decision left the town board “sort of boxed in.”
“If you accept the DEC decision then the town board has no involved agency status, no oversight over the project,” Primo told the board during its Oct. 22 meeting. “As a protective measure this asserts our jurisdictional authority.”
On the village side, the village’s fire station committee had a meeting on Tuesday evening, Oct. 21, to discuss its next actions after the DEC’s lead agency decision from the week before. Mayor Paul Whorrall said the committee decided to “move forward” with the SEQR process, follow all the DEC procedures and set times and dates for public information meetings on the project.
Whorrall was at the town board’s Oct. 22 meeting, but did not speak.
“I’m really upset the town delayed this project so long and sent all this paper to Albany for a decision in their favor [from the DEC], and when it didn’t come back in their favor now they’re trying something else,” Whorral said after the meeting. “They requested this go to Albany, but they didn’t get the answer they wanted and now they’ll fight some more. It bothers me that they’re so hell-bent on being the lead agency. I guess it’s about them and not about the health and well-being of the community and the safety of the firefighters.”
Whorrall said the village plans to move forward with the project, follow all the DEC procedures outlined in its Oct. 14 decision about lead agency and continue working with the town to get the project done. He said the village intends to work with both the village and town planning boards during the zoning review process to make sure both municipalities have input. At least one member of the village fire station committee will also be a representative of the town, he said.
“We’re willing to work with them, we’re going to work with them [but] they have to stop us if they want to stop us — we’re moving forward,” Whorrall said.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Eagle Bulletin. He can be reached at [email protected] or 434-8889 ext. 335.
