SEQRA – New York State’s Environmental Quality Review Act – turns 50 on September 1st. It isn’t clear whether this milestone should be marked with a celebration or memorial service.
SEQRA’s goal when enacted a half century ago was to motivate government decision makers to consider environmental factors when undertaking or approving projects, activities, or new policies. As recognized by then-Governor Hugh Carey, state and local agencies were not sufficiently considering environmental factors when undertaking or approving various projects or activities. The 1975 statute’s remedy for that deficiency was the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a document meant to provide a systematic method for government agencies, project sponsors and the public to consider significant adverse environmental impacts, alternatives, and mitigation.
New York’s courts have long recognized that an EIS is the heart of the SEQRA process, and that the threshold for requiring preparation of an EIS is relatively low. But the need to expend substantial amounts of time and money to prepare an EIS has led developers and government agencies to treat SEQRA’s requirements as a nuisance to avoid.
A tangible measuring stick of the steady erosion in state and local agencies’ commitment to their duty to comply with the letter and spirit of SEQRA is a tally of the number of EISs annually prepared statewide. In 1989, 385 environmental impact statements were produced by local and state agencies. Just five years later, that number dropped by more than half to 167. In 2024, an EIS was required a paltry 27 times statewide despite more than 1,500 local municipalities and a host of state agencies and authorities obligated to comply with SEQRA’s mandates.
The city of Buffalo’s decisionmakers have proven as derelict in their approach to the preparation of EISs as their counterparts across the Empire State. In its 1994 “State of the Environment Report”, the Buffalo Environmental Management Commission frankly concedes that, “Due to a lack of procedural guidelines, and in some cases lack of commitment, the City of Buffalo does not always obey New York state law regarding mandated environmental review procedures. “ Three decades later, that lack of compliance and commitment to SEQRA continues as Western New York’s largest city once again failed to issue any EISs for the entirety of 2024. The only existing mechanism to challenge disregard of SEQRA is a judicial proceeding. Perhaps it is time to establish an official board to review SEQRA decisions and issue binding decisions. Such a step will take legislation in Albany and our governor’s approval.
With All Due Respect 