WAWARSING – As the date of the second part of the public hearing surrounding Walmart's proposal before the Wawarsing Planning Board draws near, a few members of the community are hoping that their calls for closer scrutiny on the project are heeded.

Catherine Abate and Steve Krulick are two such residents, and their ideas for how the planning board ought to handle the proposed big box store could delay the project in order to ensure that all environmental, economic, and aesthetic considerations are taken into account.

Abate spoke at the last planning board meeting on November 25, and said that, based on her research, Walmart's proposed project qualifies as a SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) Type 1 Action. She said that because the proposed Walmart would be a project of more than 100,000 square feet in a community with less than 150,000 people, the developers ought to be required to fill out an Environmental Impact Statement, or EIS.

Abate also cited other factors which she said crossed the Type 1 action threshold: the demolition of the existing mall and parking lot; the proposed lot line revision, which would change the property's footprint; the cutting and filling to flatten the overall site; and the construction of another 7,000 square foot building on the property.

"There was no SEQR back in 1973 back when the original mall was built, so it never underwent any kind of environmental review," she added in a follow-up interview this week.

Krulick, an organizing member of WERD (Wawarsing-Ellenville for Responsible Development) whose mission is to "study how big box stores such as Walmart can adversely affect communities such as ours," agrees with Abate's sentiments, and believes that Walmart's developers should be required to fill out a different form — an EAF, or a full Environmental Assessment Form. As a part of that form, according to Krulick, there is an economic impact segment which is a crucial component to understanding the full impact that the proposed store will have.

"We can't have a million dollar, two-million dollar store that suddenly appears out of nowhere one day and takes that money out of an existing small local economy without it pretty much siphoning all the dollars out of the room," said Krulick.

"This could take a while, it could cost a lot of money, yet it's essential that something this big be done. That's why many communities have size caps — they know that any project over a certain size automatically causes problems in certain communities."

Krulick hinted at the situation escalating, however, saying that if the planning board "fails to do what they think is required, there will be litigation," a result of "newer, bigger players that may be interested…there are people coming on board now who have the money to pursue this more than some of the local people."

As to just who these people are, however, remains unknown, as Krulick himself has yet to speak to these unnamed people, and has only heard of them through "second-hand hints."

"But if they step up, as I'm told they will, at the planning board and speak, you'll find out like everybody else," he added.

A spokesperson from the regional office of the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the agency which oversees the SEQR process, said that she had yet to see any official documentation or applications for permits regarding the project. However, she noted that because the proposed store would go atop an existing mall — what she called an "already disturbed site" — the EIS and EAF processes may not, in fact, be recommended by the DEC, despite the kind of work listed by Abate. In the end, until the department gets a look at the official plans for the proposed project, she wouldn't be able to weigh in. Furthermore, the Wawarsing Planning Board is the lead agency on the project, and as such, the decision is ultimately at their discretion.

Planning Board Chairman Marty Lonstein said on Tuesday that he had not yet heard from the town's engineers and planners, Lanc and Tully, that a Type 1 SEQR review would be necessary. As to whether or not he and the rest of the planning board were consulting the town's comprehensive plan with regards to the aesthetic look of the community and maintaining the area's natural beauty, Lonstein said that the entire board and the engineers frequently do so.

"We are one of the few planning boards that have a lawyer and a planner at all our meetings who make reports and tell us what we're doing — in other words, that we don't do something wrong," he said.

The continuation of the public hearing will be at the Village Government Center on Elting Court in Ellenville on December 23, at 7 p.m.

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