Big-box retailer Walmart and the Town of Wawarsing Planning Board are the targets of a lawsuit filed in Ulster County Supreme Court by Shop-Rite and Wawarsing-Ellenville for Responsible Development (WERD). Shop-Rite, a supermarket chain with a local store in Wawarsing on Route 209, is represented in this case by Moss Calhelha of Cornwall's Calhelha & Doyle, LLC, and the suit calls for an order "vacating and nullifying the negative declaration of environmental significance" approved by the planning board back in March. The negative declaration stipulated that Walmart's application to build a new store at the site of the Napanoch Valley Mall on Route 209 was complete, and satisfied the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA.

The suit, the notice of which was received by the Wawarsing Building Department on April 28, alleges that the Wawarsing Planning Board "failed to conduct an adequate review of the potential adverse environmental impacts which might occur as a result of the Walmart project," as required under SEQRA, and that the planning board "failed to give adequate consideration to the modifications required by the Ulster County Planning Board," as required under general municipal law.   > MORE

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