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Construction of a new 20,000-square-foot facility, started last summer, marks an important expansion at the regional offices of the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) in New Paltz. There are also more ephemeral changes, designed to represent the Spitzer administration’s approach to New York’s relationship to its natural resources.
The governor’s broadly voiced initiatives are being enthusiastically presented locally by the DEC’s Region 3 director, William C. Janeway, who was appointed last May. He most recently served as The Nature Conservancy’s primary liaison with state government in New York. Prior to that he was the executive director of the Albany Pine Bush Preserve Commission, which helped raise $23 million in private and public support to expand the preserve and advance the conservation of the unique and endangered natural environment of Albany’s inland Pine Barrens.
Janeway has stepped into an organization in flux, in an expansive state of mind. The new addition, nearly doubling the size of the Region 3 office, is being created to meet the increasing demand for the state agency’s services. The seven-county region now has 256 employees.
Once the new space is completed, the staff will move in. The 24,000-square-foot older building, dating back to 1967, will then be renovated. According to regional operations supervisor Len Bouren, the large pit right up against South Putt Corner Road to the east of the site will serve as a stormwater retention pond. “There will also be a loop road that goes behind the building, with a 200-car parking lot,” he said. There will be a circular drive and parking spaces for visitors in front of the building.
“The increase in services is remarkable,” noted Shari Orton, Janeway’s administrative assistant. “There are more permits being applied for, more projects to monitor, greater habitat protection to implement and oversee .… In general the world has become more environmentally conscious, with stricter regulations, and it is our job to monitor this growing consciousness and protect our natural resources.”
Embracing sustainability
Janeway – who likes to be called “Willie” – sat recently in his New Paltz office in front a map of the region, an area that stretches from Westchester and Rockland counties up to part of the New York City watershed. The region includes Sullivan and Ulster counties but not Greene and Delaware, which report to Region 4 in Albany.
The Hudson Valley is, in Janeway’s mind, situated at a crossroads. “New Paltz is now relatively close to the city,” he said. “The development that occurs here can be done in a way that enhances the community. If it is done wrong, then it will ruin the ridge views, wipe out farmland, create more traffic, and destroy what it is that has attracted and retained so many of us here.”
“What do I see?” waxed the lanky, bearded administrator rhetorically, looking down at his purview. “A region in transition, rich in resources but with the fastest-growing communities in the entire state .… More biodiversity here than the rest of the state combined, yet a host of challenges that makes it imperative we get down and figure out how to make sustainability and smart growth work without making a lot of tradeoffs.”
Janeway displayed a host of position papers, mission statements and a pair of priority sheets sent by former assemblyman Pete Grannis, Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s DEC commissioner since last spring. Janeway spoke rapidly and enthusiastically about an administrative commitment to building “a stronger DEC” after years of staff and funding cuts. The Pataki administration had talked big about the environment but in Janeway’s view was able to deliver only much less. “It’s very easy to look at it all from a 10,000-foot height, seeing only the big picture,” conceded Janeway. “It’s another thing to put it all into specifics. This administration is determined to go beyond the sound byte and get on with the challenges on the ground.”
The new regional director summarized the change in the way he thinks state government has changed its philosophy when it comes to environmental protection. “A hundred years ago the idea was to destroy parts of the environment and protect some areas,” he said. “Fifty years ago we still allowed the environment to be destroyed but attempted to mitigate some of the impacts. As we develop economically, we now need to both protect and restore our environment. Smart growth is a great catchphrase, but we need to implement it.”
Grannis’ new DEC mission statement and list of issue priorities notes the agency’s constitutional mission to conserve, improve and protect the state’s natural resources, as well as their well-being “by embracing the elements of sustainability — the simultaneous pursuit of environmental quality, public health, economic prosperity and social well-being, including environmental justice and the empowerment of individuals to participate in environmental decisions that affect their lives.”
The Grannis document outlines a “greenprint” to combat climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging low-carbon technologies, and elevating awareness of problems, adaptation needs and ability. There’s much mention of smart growth, sustainability, and preservation of open space and working landscapes.
The laundry list of worthy goals continues. DEC wants “to connect New Yorkers to nature” via better environmental education and more green space “close to where people live, work and play.” The agency wants to safeguard unique natural assets via ecosystem-based management techniques and to exhibit more sensitivity to state watersheds and the forest preserves. The Grannis regime promises “fair and effective enforcement,” stronger partnerships in both the public and private sectors, a revitalized DEC workforce and a more proactive engagement of the public.
Baggage claim
Where does that leave the DEC and Janeway vis-à-vis the most publicly specific of the agency’s regional issues? Among these is Spitzer’s “agreement in principle” (AIP) for developer Dean Gitter’s long-proposed Belleayre Resort complex of hotels and a golf course. In addition there are the proposed Canopy Development spa resort at Williams Lake, various growth scenarios in the Stewart Airport vicinity, alternatives for the new Tappan Zee Bridge, and a host of housing and leisure developments, exemplified by the proposed riverfront development in Kingston, called The Landing, that has energized regional environmental powerhouse Scenic Hudson.
Janeway smiled. He said that he legally can’t discuss Williams Lake, even with Grannis, because of his regional office’s involvement as a possible lead agency for environmental review. As for the Belleayre Resort review, he noted that a revised scoping document, designed to outline the key issues for study, discussion and possible mitigation over the coming year, has been provided extra time to ensure “that it be done right, answering everyone’s concerns.”
Janeway presided over a trio of December 2007 scoping sessions at which hundreds of Catskills area residents questioned the resort’s appropriateness for their communities, as well as the negotiating process by which he governor’s AIP was reached.
“The best thing will be to look at the new scope next to the old,” Janeway said. “We can’t just keep saying no to everything. The thing to remember as well is that this agency did not sign the governor’s AIP.”
As for Stewart Airport and the Tappan Zee, the Region 3 director was careful to note his push to “explore alternatives.” Tappan Zee’s replacement might cost $12 billion, a nice piece of change. Janeway championed new staff hires, a better business climate in which former environmental “opponents” were now speaking in green terms, and a great deal of interest in municipalities doing things differently.
Janeway said he hopes to see the renovations at his currently chaotic offices finished this year. He talked of building a sense of cooperation and hard work, both within the department and in its dealing with its mission and those it is supposed to benefit.
Janeway and Grannis have been pushing new ways of looking at increasing flood problems in the region. New York City’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) has been in talks about new dam protections and means of dealing with storm-water runoff. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, involved in a host of major new projects on a local basis, is listening to DEC input on how to build projects that no longer create other problems.
A proposed “Hudson Valley-Catskill Region county and local government climate change pledge” acknowledges endangerment and aims to treat global warming as “an unprecedented opportunity to build sustainable, energy-independent and secure communities; vibrant innovation economies; healthy and safe schools; and resilient infrastructures.” By informing and inspiring the public, planning for major changes, getting ready “to identify systems such as water supply and sewer infrastructure that may be at risk due to sea-level rise and future changes in climate,” and “prioritization of the most vulnerable local areas,” the DEC can plan for a globally warmer future.
Janeway’s next appointment was on deck. Glancing down once again at the map of his sprawling region on the coffee table below him, he smiled, and in his enthusiastic, big-picture way, prepared to moves on.
“As you could tell from our discussion,” he wrote later that afternoon, “we are working to strengthen the agency from top to bottom to better enable us to fulfill DEC’s important responsibilities, including the protection of our clear water, clean air and open space.”
“After you read the commissioner’s two-page priority sheet,” he suggested, “please let us know if you have questions on that or anything else.”
The letter was signed: “Willie.”
