Bill Text: NY A01775 | 2017-2018 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Establishes requirements for notice, access to information and public comment period with respect to uniform procedures for pending environmental protection agency projects and regulation.

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-01-03 - ordered to third reading cal.132 [A01775 Detail]

Download: New_York-2017-A01775-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          1775
                               2017-2018 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    January 13, 2017
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by M. of A. DINOWITZ, ROSENTHAL, COLTON, OTIS -- Multi-Spon-
          sored by -- M.  of A. LUPARDO, PERRY, RAMOS -- read once and  referred
          to the Committee on Environmental Conservation
        AN  ACT  to  amend  the  environmental  conservation law, in relation to
          uniform procedures
          The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and  Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section  1.  Paragraph  (a) of subdivision 1 of section 70-0109 of the
     2  environmental conservation law, as added by chapter 723 of the  laws  of
     3  1977, is amended to read as follows:
     4    (a)  On or before fifteen calendar days after the receipt of an appli-
     5  cation for a permit which has been filed in  a  manner  and  in  a  form
     6  prescribed  by  the department, the department shall mail written notice
     7  to the applicant of its determination whether or not the application  is
     8  complete  and shall publish a listing in the environmental notice bulle-
     9  tin that such application, whether or not complete, has been submitted.
    10    § 2. Subdivision 1 of section 70-0109 of the  environmental  conserva-
    11  tion law is amended by adding a new paragraph (f) to read as follows:
    12    (f)  A  member  of  the  public, upon request in writing, shall be (i)
    13  given access to all correspondence between the applicant and the depart-
    14  ment except for trade secrets or material maintained for the  regulation
    15  of  commercial  enterprise  which  if  disclosed would cause substantial
    16  injury to the competitive position of the applicant, and  (ii)  informed
    17  about pre-application conferences or meetings between the department and
    18  any  applicant and may attend without participating in those in which he
    19  or she has an interest.
    20    § 3. Paragraph (a) of subdivision 2 of section 70-0109 of the environ-
    21  mental conservation law, as amended by chapter 285 of the laws of  1990,
    22  is amended to read as follows:
    23    (a)  Immediately upon determining that an application is complete, the
    24  department shall cause a notice of application to be  published  in  the
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03603-01-7
        A. 1775                             2
     1  next  available  environmental  notice bulletin which shall be not later
     2  than ten calendar days after the date of such determination and not less
     3  than once during the fifteen calendar day period following such determi-
     4  nation  in  a  newspaper having general circulation in the area in which
     5  the project is proposed to be located, and shall provide notice  to  the
     6  chief  executive  officer  of  each  municipality  in which the proposed
     7  project is located, and may direct the applicant to provide such reason-
     8  able notice and opportunity for comment to the public as the  department
     9  deems  appropriate.  In  addition  to  being  placed in a publication of
    10  general circulation in the county or borough in  which  the  project  is
    11  located,  or  in  more than one publication if appropriate, where one or
    12  more publications of less than  county-wide  circulation  exist  in  the
    13  project  area  notice  shall be placed in at least one such publication,
    14  and in a project area where twenty-five percent or  more  of  the  popu-
    15  lation  is non-English speaking, notice shall also be placed in at least
    16  one publication which is widely circulated in the area printed  in  such
    17  language. In no case shall the public comment period be less than twenty
    18  days from date of publication, or forty-five days if a legislative hear-
    19  ing  or  public  hearing  is scheduled. If no hearing is scheduled and a
    20  member of the public requests during the comment period that a  legisla-
    21  tive  or public hearing be held, the comment period shall be extended an
    22  additional thirty days from date of  publication  in  the  environmental
    23  notice  bulletin  of notice that such a request has been made. Newspaper
    24  publications shall be provided by the applicant.
    25    § 4. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth  day  after  it  shall
    26  have become a law.