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News about the Hospital Zone
6/19/09 The Village Board is reviewing a very hastily compiled Full Environment Assessment Form (EAF) it had Canton-Potsdam Hospital perform -- after almost approving in May the 15-acre Health Care Zone "rezoning-and-construction" proposal using its own deeply flawed Short Environmental Assessment Form. We have urged the Village to retain outside experts, to consult with the Commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation, and to have an attorney perform an independent audit of the fiasco of its environmental review process to date, but none of these steps has been taken to our knowledge. Today, Friday 6/19/09, at 9:30 AM the Village will have a "working session" to look over the full EAF and possibly to vote on whether or not any "significant" impacts will occur based on the data. Of couse, it would be absurd to argue otherwise (see "Legal Analysis" below) but many foolish, improper, and/or comical errors have already punctuated Potsdam's Health Care Zone deliberation process.
The Daily Courier-Observer carried a more balanced rendition of the state of the Health Care Zone fiasco in an article 6/16/09, after the last Village Board meeting; The Watertown Times remained largely silent on the subject (see media critiques, below). The National Public Radio ombudsman tardily informed us they do not police their NPR affiliates' journalistic practices, but forwarded our official complaint to WSLU-FM itself. Lacking an ombudsman itself, the station's manager peremptorily dismissed our complaint. We asked that she refer it to the station's Board of Directors (sans any Johnson Newspaper members) but have not heard back.
5/26/09 9 AM News -- but not accountability -- is trickling out of the local print media about the fiasco of the Health Care Zone rezoning-and-construction proposal, given the article in The Watertown Daily Times that finally appeared Friday May 22, 2009, three days late and empty of honesty. This article was a model of factual error, deliberate omission and distortion, and journalistic bad faith of which we will have more to say later. It is emblematic of the deceptive reporting on this issue that has characterized work of the Johnson Newspaper Corporation's local print-media monopoly since the hospital zone was announced. It made our job almost impossible, and may yet guarantee the Zone succeeds despite its horrible costs and the huge lost opportunities its passage as written may represent for Potsdam and the region.
We have adopted the phrase "Rezoning-and-Construction Proposal" to emphasize that under the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) rules contained in Section 617 of Chapter 6 of the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) regulations, which are governing the deliberation process now -- and have provided the only firewall against the haste and incompetence of this village public policy process -- the proposal must be viewed in all its "reasonably expected" consequences, the primary one of which is a huge multi-million dollar construction program in a currently quaint, quiet, partially-pristine and historic residential quarter of Potsdam. We hope this new formulation assists Potsdam citizens and officials in better engaging in the necessary deliberations over the proposal.
5/18/09 10 PM The Potsdam Mayor unexpectedly announced at the start of the scheduled hearing that the Health Care Zone proposal was off the agenda for a vote for at least 28 days until the June 15 meeting. After the meeting Planning Director Fred Hanss told organizer Richard Brummel that the wrong Environmental Assessment Form had been used -- and further surprisingly that the Applicant for the Zone has become Canton-Potsdam Hospital itself -- not the Village as current documents indicate.
Further, Hanss said the hospital is being compelled to use a Long Form Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) instead of the Short Form currently on record. Asked to issue a press release describing all the changes, Mr. Hanss said he woud speak with Mayor Ron Tischler.
The board refused to commit itself to defer a vote beyond June 15th however, although Potsdam Smart Growth organizer Richard Brummel urged them to assure Potsdam citizens they would not hold a sneak vote again by adopting a resolution to put off a vote for six months. No trustee apparently raised the issue under any new business, when the board adjourned unnanounced after being in Executive Session with the public waiting outside the board room.
Brummel also urged the board in the public comment period to launch an investigation concerning the failures and errors that characterized the rezoning process and which were outlined in Brummel's pre-submitted written testimony ( see "Legal Analysis," below). He urged the board to hold close consultations with the office of the state Commissioner of Environmental Conservation to review the errors committed, and urgedt the board to have a land-use attorney audit the process and issue public findings. Again the board adjourned without tabling such a motion.
Brummel further questioned the legality and priopriety of the practice of the Village Clerk to abbreviate reporting of public comments in the official minutes to the extent that extensive criticisms of the Zone raised by citizens before the board during its February 4, 2009 meeting were recorded as "William Beebe...Rose Rivezzi...Charlotte Landon...Tom Whitesell and Richard Brummel all commented on the Hospital Zone creation." (The Minutes noted that written comments were placed on file.) Brummel demanded the board have all the minutes related to the Zone be revised to reflect at a minimum the opposition of those who spoke, since the public record is a part of the state-mandated environmental review process. The board did not act on the issue.
(Both Mayor Tischler and Trustee Steve Yugartis had told Brummel after the May 4th board meeting that a vote on the Zone proposal was a clear possibility after the May 18th hearing. "We'll see what happens at the hearing" Tischler said, and Yugartis echoed the statement. Tonight, though, Tischler referred vaguelly to the need to complete environmental reviews -- an issue that Hanss's comments clarified later (See above)).
About a dozen neighbors appeared at the hearing -- filling almost every seat -- and four (in addition to Brummel) testified, with three expressing grave concerns about the destructive impacts the proposed Zone would have on their community, among other issues. The testimony, which has been preserved on videotape by Potsdam Smart Growth, occupied almost the entire 30 minute period allocated for comments.
5/17/09 -- A canvass of hospital-area neighbors Sunday night, 5/17/09, revealed continued deep concern about the proposed plan. The threat to a pristine, historic, eminently livable yet affordable neighborhood was most impoortant to the residents.
At least a half-dozen neighbors on Waverly, Cottage and Garden Streets with whom we spoke individually indicated they were famiiar with the mailings we sent out last week and hoped to make it to the hearing Monday night. We'll see.
5/14/09 -- We received some welcome media attention the week of 5/11/09 for our legal analysis (above) and announced reaching-out to neighbors for volunteer plaintiffs to challenge any vote that is taken Monday 5/18/09 or otherwise based on the legally-flawed record and process (See: Legal Analysis above). Neighbors on Waverly, Leroy, and Cottage Streets have been invited by letter to contact us. Once one or more plaintiffs step forward we will seek the pro bono services of an attorney.
We also reached out to local business leaders to inform them directly of the stakes in this narrowly conceived yet highly significant Potsdam planning action.
5/1/09 -- Only a few weeks after Earth Day, the village of Potsdam will be on course to create a carbon-monster that undermines future economic as well as ecological sustainability. (See: Questions and Answers for Potsdam citizens, above.) After mere cursory analysis of Canton-Potsdam Hospital's vague and unwritten but expansive 'concepts', lacking any written environmental analysis whatsoever, the machinery is in motion to let loose a tidal wave of development (over many years) on a core Victorian-era neighborhood, while ignoring the far more logical or environmentally progressive alternatives. Unforgivably, the on-the-cheap, bulldoze-the-neighborhood (Phase One: Parking Lot) plan completely ignores the potential of a centralized healthcare-science-educational collaboration with local organizations utilizing the derelict former Clarkson University campus -- which sits at the crossroads of the wider geographical area. At present, advocates of Smart Growth and Environmental Sustainability are in a very precarious position. Despite efforts to motivate the local neighbors, the Zoning Appeals chairwoman who quit in protest, the local media, and local student groups, there has been little energy remaining for the challenge, which has been presented as a fait accompli from the start.
Major local institutions -- the SUNY system with two nearby schools, Clarkson University, Empire State Development, the NY Power Authority, and the Development Authority for the North Country, which could benefit from a collaborative shared development and help finance it, have remained out of the fight, accepting the status quo of a very weak public policy arena.
On May 18th, the Potsdam Village Board has scheduled possibly its only hearing on this tens-of-millions of dollar project, but no environmental documents have yet been prepared, not even the NYS asessment "Short Form". Typically, in a letter dated 4/14/09, the St. Lawrence County Planning Board signed off on the zoning proposal without any announced public hearing or environmental review. Our press release (see link above) addresses this, and was sent to the Watertown Daily Times and Daily Courier-Observer bureaus in Potsdam by email Wednesday 4/15.
Below we have left a narrative of some of the blow-by-blow events of the process before the village planning board. As of today, 4/15/09, there has been no announced hearing on the rezoning by the village of Potsdam; this means the proposal probably will not be ready for a vote at the board's regular meeting 4/20/09, because village rules appear to require a 3-day notice before the requisite public hearing for a rezoning. Of course this process is blatantly in violation of state rules requiring formal environmental reviews via public hearings and an Environmental Impact Statement.
As originally predicted the powers that be are using blitzkrieg tactics to streamroll the hospital rezoning. The planning board scheduled an emergency meeting and approved a zoning plan Thursday night March 19th. The neighbors appear to have lost any coherence as an opposition, and fail to register in the news. The hospital bulldozed the neighbors' arguments in preparation for bulldozing them too, at the planning board meeting 3/5/09. We don't argue the hospital needs to expand. We argue a healthy sustainable community is also a public-policy priority. Furthermore, additional sprawl such as expansion to St. Mary's (as announced at the meeting) means an unhealthier environment -- and unhealthier people. Health is not achieved my machines alone -- but by lifestyle and environment.
The chairman of the planning board has reaffirmed in the press his full-bore support
for the hospital plan. He used ALL the hospital talking-points about its glorious future, despite his focus in meetings on PARKING as the real issue.
(Daily Courier-Observer 2/28/09 P. 1).
All the sincere citizen input and letters to the Editor have so far had minimal to no impact on most
officials who have revealed their positions. Again the 'process' -- still lacking any formal environmental assessments --
appears to be a simple charade, and only a loud media presence has been able to elicit some expressions of
open-mindedness by any officials. The Mayor and Helen Garner have remained publicly committed to the rezoning.
(See below.)
Although the Village Administrator and a trustee recently agreed the State Environmental
Quality Review (SEQR) process must be followed -- after being challenged about it during a public comment period
(Daily Courier-Observer 2/18/09, p. 1) -- neither individual has agreed that the next proper step under SEQR,
an Environmental Impact Statement, will actually be performed.
The loophole in SEQR is that an agency can
declare, however implausibly, that an action lacks ANY significant environmental impact, at which point it
is up tothe public to challenge them in court (see SEQR link below).
It is important that the Village Board hear from the public that it is unacceptable to make a "negative declaration" under SEQR about the Hospital Rezoning proposals (see Citizen's Guide link above or below for information).
See SEQR Citizen's Guide
and our page of SEQR text direct from the state website Click Here
We will post additional documentation
and information here in the coming weeks.
For information contact Richard Brummel rb.1006@yahoo.com
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