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Muir Woods Wetlands Studies Need Redoing ; State Attorney General Says Serious Flaws Require New Assessments

Posted on: Sunday, 27 November 2005, 09:00 CST

By Thomas J. Dolan

Wetlands studies of Amherst's proposed 330-acre Muir Woods project are seriously flawed and must be redone, State Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer's office has told federal regulators.

Among other problems, Spitzer's office said environmental studies submitted by Ciminelli Development, the project's developer, contained "significant" errors "that greatly limited the amount" of wetlands on the site, alongside the Lockport Expressway near Sweet Home Road.

"New York State respectfully submits that the cumulative evidence presented here makes it imperative that the Corps revisit and reconsider its jurisdictional determination for this site," Assistant Attorney General Timothy Hoffman wrote in an Oct. 24 letter to the Buffalo office of the Army Corps of Engineers, which regulates wetlands.

Nearly half of the 330-acre site was found to be federally regulated wetlands in a 1996 study commissioned by the State Urban Development Corp, which then owned the property. However, Hoffman's letter pointed out that Ciminelli's studies -- which came almost four years later, omitted any mention of the 1996 report.

The Army Corps has jurisdiction of all wetlands that connect to the navigable waters of the United States, and Ciminelli's reports contend that the site has only 87 acres of federally regulated wetlands.

Hoffman could not be reached to comment, but James Monroe, a neighborhood leader who has studied the Muir Woods project, said the state's interest in the local development mirrors its intervention in two similar cases in Central New York.

The state intervened in developments in the Syracuse and Rochester areas, both administered by the Buffalo office of the Army Corps.

"The Army Corps has taken a very narrow opinion of what makes up a wetland," Monroe said. "The attorney general is saying they did not fully investigate. . . . We want you to go back out and reinvestigate."

David Chiazza, vice president of Ciminelli Development, said the company believes Spitzer's office has no standing to complain about the project, but the attorney general appears to be trying to expand the state's jurisdiction over wetlands.

Nevertheless, the state's letter appears to present another roadblock to the Muir Woods development, proposed five years ago as one of the largest office parks in the area.

Earlier this year, state environmental officials say they still have too little information to make decisions about the project, which will also include housing and retail space.

Chiazza, who praised the Muir Woods project, said Spitzer's objections will be a problem only in the event that the Army Corps of Engineers decides to reconsider its decision about the project's wetlands.

"It blows my mind to think that we're having the problems we're having," Chiazza said.

e-mail: tdolan@buffnews.com

Source: Buffalo News

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