This morning's Ithaca Journal reports on Tuesday's super-brief Zoning Board of Appeals meeting, looking more closely at why the ZBA delayed consideration of Varna II. The State Environmental Quality Review appears to be the main reason:
[ZBA Chair] Quinn said that on the advice of board lawyer Kristin Gutenberger, the board held off on deciding whether to grant Lucente a variance for a 260-unit planned unit development on 16 acres of property in the hamlet of Varna because the project's state environmental quality review (SEQR) impact assessment was not finished. Also, [Attorney] Gutenberger wanted a chance to do more research on the legal issues surrounding SEQR.
"SEQR is very critical here, and it's not done yet," Quinn said. "There are still issues that need to be looked into. We as a board want to understand the process entirely so we can make a decision that's best for the whole community."
There's also a piece on energy-efficiency incentives from New York State.
Posted by simon at December 10, 2010 12:30 PM in Ithaca Journal , Varna II , energy