The New York City Department of Sanitation (DSNY) recently launched their efforts to create and implement commercial waste zones (often referred to as commercial waste franchising). They are fast-tracking the environmental review process, cutting it close to the regulatory mandated bare minimum time to review and comment on their documents. The following is some background to help understand this rare and strategic move.
Environmental reviews start with an Environmental Assessment Statement (EAS) that is used to determine if additional assessment, in the form of a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) is in order or not. DSNY, as lead agency, determined that this project does indeed require an EIS. Once that decision is made, the next step is to produce a Draft Scope of Work for the EIS, have a hearing and 30-day comment period, and then submit a Final Scope of Work that accounts for all comments received. Typically, the Draft EIS comes sometime later, as the Final Scope is meant to inform what analysis and data will be used. The Draft EIS then must have at least one hearing and at least a 30-day comment period.
Here’s where DSNY has shown their desire to race through this process. Having completed these steps through the Draft Scoping Document, DSNY proceeded to write both the Final Scope AND the Draft EIS, producing them both on the same day, February 22, 2019. They also announced that there would be two hearings on the Draft EIS, oneduring the day and one at night, and would allow for a comment period of just under 40 days.
On March 11, BOMA NY sent a letter to the Commissioner requesting that this arrangement was insufficient for such an enormous proposed undertaking that would change the way every business in the City manages its commercial waste. We asked for hearings in every Borough, more evening hearings, and a 120-day comment period. Several of our allies have or will make the same requests, and we should know soon if DSNY agrees to our desired conditions.
In the meantime, BOMA NY and our allies are putting together comments to submit singularly and as a group. DSNY will then publish a Final EIS that will take into account and/or respond to all comments, and then a Findings document that lays out their future intentions. BOMA NY will keep you informed as this process continues to evolve.
For more information about the DSNY commercial waste zones and other legislative issues that effect our industry, please click here for a recent BOMA NY article featured in Real Estate Weekly.
