UPDATE ON THE CITY OF SARATOGA SPRINGS |
| Update on City Water
Project SLA and SLPID and the Towns around the Lake
won a major decision from the Supreme Court of the State
of New York. In a Decision and Order dated September 14,
2006, Saratoga County Supreme Court (Hon. Thomas D.
Nolan, Jr.), annulled the City of Saratoga Springs'
October 18, 2005, resolution accepting the Final
Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and adopting a
SEQRA Findings Statement relative to the City’s plan
to develop Saratoga Lake as the source of drinking water.
Judge Nolan’s decision establishes that the City
failed to take the required "hard look" at the
watershed management impacts of the City’s proposed
plan The City appealed the decision and in December 2007, the Appellate Division overturned Justice Nolan’s decision saying the City took a hard enough look at the watershed and did not have to look into every possibility. The justices also determined that although SLPID and SLA have standing to bring suit, the Towns of Saratoga, Stillwater and Malta do not. It is the opinion of SLA and SLPID that Judge Nolan’s decision was well reasoned, and we have filed a petition with the state’s highest court The Court of Appeals, the have our arguments heard again. The City has yet to answer our petition. The City is now in the process of completing its application for a water supply permit. In order to do so, they were required to do further wetlands and archaeological investigation on the Spencer property. To date the city has not filed an application that has been deemed complete by the DEC. Once an application is considered complete, we will have to ask for a public legislative hearing from the DEC in order to have our side of the evidence presented. NOTE: There is a new administration in Saratoga Springs. Thomas McTygue, the driving force behind the project to develop Saratoga Lake as a water source has been voted out of office and replaced by Anthony “Skip” Scirocco who has promised to look at all the other alternatives in greater depth before doing anything with the application. |
| Updated: 01/22/2008 |
| Filename: updates\UpdateCity.htm |