POUGHKEEPSIE – A condominium project adjacent to the Dwight Street Historic District in the City of Poughkeepsie, which received a planning board negative declaration of environmental impact in 2001, must now go through a full environmental review.
After the planning board’s ruling, the Historic Southside Neighborhood Association filed an Article 78 proceeding seeking to overturn the negative declaration, but State Supreme Court Justice James Brands denied that petition in 2015.
The local group appealed that ruling to the Appellate Division and now that court overturned the lower court’s decision and ordered a full environmental impact review.
The attorney for the historic neighborhood group, Steven Habiague, said the premise for the negative declaration was erroneous.
“They were proposing to reduce the forested part of the property, which was something like 2.7 acres and they were proposing to reduce that to 0.3 acres, so how can you have a visual buffer when you eliminate all of the vegetation,” he said.
Habiague also said the neg-tec cited that the condo buildings would be in the center of the property when, in fact, looking at the drawings of the plans, they were only 15 feet from the property line.
Steven Reifler owns the property and Thomas LaPerch was the realtor involved, said Habiague.
