Tell Governor Kathy Hochul to Save SEQRA

Complete these steps to ensure your letter is received by the governor:
1. Complete form
2. Select “Sign Now” button
3. Check your email for a message from Group for the East End (please check your spam folder!)
4. Click the link to confirm your address

Tell Governor Hochul to Save SEQRA

Dear Governor Hochul,

For decades, the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) has been an essential tool that ensures the full examination and analysis of critical environmental issues with the opportunity for robust public input.

The proposed changes in the “Let Them Build” agenda raise several critical issues, including no mention of affordable housing—despite addressing the housing crisis as a key goal; severe restriction of local land use authority; disregard of community planning needs; changes to the regulatory review process; lack of clarity for development sites; and more.

Development projects can often impact ground and surface water quality, wildlife and critical habitats, traffic, and community character. Without the benefit of a full SEQRA review, these impacts not only have the potential to jeopardize the environment but reduce the public’s ability to fully understand the impacts and participate in a comprehensive review process. It also opens the door for developers to ignore important comprehensive planning recommendations and local priorities and take advantage of undeveloped lands.

If there is a compelling need to review the implementation of SEQRA, address that need in a rational, inclusive, and transparent review of the law’s implementing regulations, as has been the case for decades. And let the critical value of responsible environmental review not be scapegoated under the far broader issue of affordability, which the proposed changes do not seriously address.

Thank you.

You can add formatting using markdown syntax - read more

Add me to your mailing list

BCC yourself

2 signatures