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THE STATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY REVIEW ACT (SEQRA) DETERMINATION DID NOT TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE ARCHAEOLOGICAL/HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE AREA WHERE THE APARTMENT COMPLEX WAS TO BE BUILT; DETERMINATION ANNULLED AND REZONING ORDINANCE VACATED (THIRD DEPT).

The Third Department, reversing Supreme Court, determined the “negative declaration” did not adequately take into account the historic/archaeological significance of the site where the apartment complex was to be built, and failed to include a necessary “consulting party.” The State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) determination was annulled and the rezoning ordinance was vacated:

In our view, respondent’s characterization of the archaeological impact as “moderate” unduly minimizes the historic/archaeological significance of the project site. We also find it significant that respondent’s coordination plan … excludes the Stockbridge-Munsee Community as a consulting party, notwithstanding EDP’s [Environmental Design Partnership] report including the Stockbridge-Munsee Community as a key participant. By letter dated May 3, 2022, just three days before respondent adopted the negative declaration, a representative from the Stockbridge-Munsee Community Tribal Historic Preservation Office wrote to respondent “to state the Tribe’s strong[ ] disagreement” with the proposed negative declaration resolution. … [T]he representative explained that “our office concluded there would be serious and irrevocable impacts to [i]ndigenous cultural resources including a significant site known to be eligible for the National Register of Historic Places and has yielded or may be likely to yield, information important in history or prehistory.” He further commented that “[f]or thousands of years the site was used for the extraction of resources for lithic tool making and camping along the [r]iver.” In 2021, a Stockbridge-Munsee Community Tribal Historic Preservation Officer submitted a statement to respondent explaining that the parcel “has high archaeological sensitivity and cultural significance for the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of Mohican Nation. . . . The recorded Chert Quarries Precontact Site represents immense cultural and educational significance. For thousands of years this area was used for the extraction of resources for Mohican people.” Matter of Bennett v Troy City Council, 2024 NY Slip Op 05257, Third Dept 10-24-24

Practice Point: Here the failure to take into account the historical/archaeological (“indigenous cultural”) significance of the land and the failure to include a Native American group as a consulting party warranted the annulment of the SEQRA determination (“negative declaration”) and vacation of the rezoning ordinance.

 

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