Newman Development filed its long-awaited Draft Environmental Impact Statement late Friday afternoon. The 800-page document, which is in two large binders, is available for inspection at the town offices.
A quick look indicates that at least half of the material is not new, but rather copies of previous documents already submitted in the matter. Here is a list of the new materials:
1. Color visual renditions of the proposed buildings taking from four different locations under both day and night conditions. These renderings by BRR Architecture show the 5 different configurations of the building that have been proposed.
2. A new economic study by Camoin Associates of Saratoga Springs that includes a so-called “peer review” of the CGR economic impact study. That review showed that CGR had overstated the potential sales of a new Lowes by a significant amount and had also over-estimated the amount of Monroe County business that could be re-captured. The Camoin study also made new findings on the employment impact of a Lowes and did a survey of the impact of a Lowes opening on other small businesses in five other similar size towns in the eastern U.S. Those towns were Oswego, N.Y. Bloomsburg, PA.; Somerset, PA.; Athens, OH and Clinton, NC.
3. A slew of new traffic studies by Fisher Associates, including:
a. A Gap & Delay study of Rt. 20A
b. A study of alternative routes to the site and through Geneseo.
c. A study of alternative routes to Rochester
d. A trip generation study
e. A market assessment Study
f. A study of the effect of truck traffic on the National Historic District
g. A Pedestrian and Bicycle study (1 page)
h. An analysis of the traffic impact of a new Lowes store in Oneida, N.Y.
In general, the new studies do not appear to fully follow the directions provided by the planning board in the EIS scope. The planning board’s next meeting will be August 11. A more thorough analysis of the DEIS will be made available on this web site within the next week.
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