Lawsuits Officially Filed Over GM Property

All of the documents filed by Silverberg Zalantis LLP, representing Tarrytown, are found attached as .pdfs in this article.

A law firm representing the Village of Tarrytown has officially filed a lawsuit against Sleepy Hollow over the environmental findings regarding the

The action is a direct result of a Tarrytown Board of Trustees resolution () to restart the lawsuit which alleges that the proposed development would pose too great a traffic impact on the Village, and has no adequate traffic mitigation plans.

The lawsuit was filed in New York's State Supreme Court on Tuesday by Silverberg Zalantis LLP – a Tarrytown-based law firm.

"Sleepy Hollow has acknowledged there would be a traffic impact on Tarrytown," said attorney Katherine Zalantis. "The issue is, the Sleepy Hollow board didn't take a hard look at traffic and parking issues impacting the Village of Tarrytown."

The lawsuit challenges Sleepy Hollow's  State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) findings. Those findings deemed traffic concerns a non-issue, and that mitigation plans were adequate. The SEQRA findings were adopted by the Sleepy Hollow Board of Trustees i (click link for documents). 

Trustees agreed that the proposed GM development, which includes 1,177 residential units, "is one which minimizes or avoids adverse environmental effects to the maximum extent practical," and that there were no changes from the Village's 2007 SEQRA findings on traffic and mitigation measures (included in the exhibit document located above).

In 2007, the Village of Sleepy Hollow proposed the removal of some on-street parking in Tarrytown to ease the traffic burden through the village. However, Tarrytown does not feel the measures are adequate to deal with the size of the development.

"There is no objection to the redevelopment of the site, but rather the objection is to the scope of the site," Tarrytown's legal documents stated.

Final approval for the proposed GM development has not been given. A public hearing to decide whether to approve or disapprove a Special Permit so the property can be developed, will take place on June 7, 2011 at 7 p.m.

Sleepy Hollow Mayor Ken Wray said the new public hearing would be short, as it is being conducted to comply with state notification laws.

If the special permit is approved, GM will likely sell the property to a developer that will move the process forward.