Adi Talwar
A year and a half after it won City Council approval, a Staten Island development project is stalled thanks to an unsuspecting turtle.
In June, City Limits wrote about a development proposal in the Mariners Harbor neighborhood of Staten Island that would include a BJ’s store, a gas station and a parking lot next to several acres of wetlands.
The City Council and City Planning Commission approved the proposal back in 2017, apparently satisfied by steps the developer agreed to take to protect the wetlands.
Local advocates do not share that sense of satisfaction. Wetlands are a critical environmental resource as climate change causes rising sea levels and more intense coastal storms.
The state’s Department of Environmental Conservation is now in the process of deciding whether to grant the developer the permit it would need to proceed. The public comment period opened last week and lasts until August 30.
Details on how to comment are on the DEC website. Details on the project are here.
2 thoughts on “Brief Window for Comment on Wetlands Impact of Staten Island Project”
Note that the CPC document linked includes the mischaracterization that the plan was approved by DEC before 2017. It was not. Developers are only now seeking the approval from the state that they claimed they already had in 2017.
A patch of woods and swamps on the heavily populated, industrial northern shore of Staten Island, surrounded by strip malls and service roads, is an unlikely focal point for a save-the-wetlands campaign.