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State Very best Court docket Justice David Gandin tossed a lawsuit via a bunch antagonistic to the Woodstock Library’s transfer to Bearsville, giving the mission the golf green gentle to transport forward with plans.
In a ruling issued November 7, Gandin mentioned the library performed its due diligence all over environmental overview and denied the Article 78 petition that sought to have any motion associated with the library relocation annulled or enjoined.
“I’m extraordinarily glad. I think like we’ve accomplished the proper procedure from the start,” Library board President Jeff Collins mentioned concerning the Monday, November 7 resolution. “There is not any advantage to the lawsuit. The pass judgement on mainly validated that.”
A bunch known as Library Enthusiasts, headed via Hera (no surname) and Elaine Hencke had argued the transformation of 10 Dixon Road, the previous Miller/Howard Investments headquarters, required extra thorough overview underneath the State Environmental High quality Overview Act (SEQRA) as it constitutes an important alternate of use and must had been regarded as a Sort I motion as an alternative of the less-stringent Sort II.
The pass judgement on disagreed.
“The document prior to the Court docket means that even had the Board discovered it used to be a Sort I motion, it took the considered necessary ‘arduous glance’ on the doable environmental affects of the library mission. The Board carried out a radical, reasoned investigation prior to adopting the answer to relocate the library to ten Dixon Road,” Gandin mentioned in his ruling.
The pass judgement on did to find fault within the Library’s Sort II discovering as it comes to the “substitute, rehabilitation or reconstruction of a construction or facility in type at the identical website.”
Gandin mentioned the newest use used to be an optic lens production facility and a public library isn’t a considerably an identical use. Gandin it seems that ignored the reality the newest use used to be, in truth, place of business area, a element Library Director Jeff Collins mentioned doesn’t topic at this level for the reason that case used to be brushed aside.
Gandin rejected Library Enthusiasts’ argument {that a} proposed modification to the utilization desk within the gentle business district is a part and parcel of the mission and will have to be reviewed in tandem.
“Any resolution to amend the The town’s zoning code will probably be made via the The town Board. The Library Board’s discovering that the library mission used to be a Sort II motion is a separate resolution.”
The The town Board unanimously licensed the alternate on September 20, smartly after Gandin won supporting paperwork within the case.
Library Enthusiasts had argued the alternate constituted spot zoning, one thing each town and Gandin refuted.
“Additionally, any zoning modification would permit a brand new use in all of the zoning district and does now not simply have an effect on 10 Dixon Road,” Gandin wrote.
Whilst the opposition workforce contends contaminants have been discovered at the website courting again to its use as a lens manufacturing unit, the Library commissioned additional check borings and located no vital ranges of contaminants. Research did to find prime ranges of zinc 18 toes or extra underneath floor stage, however plans don’t name for excavation to this intensity.
Hera reserved remark for a later time pending dialogue along with her supporters on what would possibly come subsequent.
In the meantime, plans transfer onward. The library is shifting from conceptual design to the design file section, then it’ll cross out to bid, Collins mentioned.
On Might 10, with a vote of 845-500, Woodstockers licensed a $3.95 million bond to buy 10 Dixon Road and transfer the library.
The library bought the Bearsville development June 29 for $2.579 million and can use the remainder bond price range for renovation and shifting bills.
Library trustees plan to promote the present 5 Library Lane development and the valuables on which the Library Laundromat sat on so much around the side road. They’ve dedicated to moving the library garden, which is on a separate lot, to town to be preserved as a park.