STATE ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY REVIEW ACT

State Environmental Quality Review Act

State Environmental Quality Review Act

Overview

This project is being reviewed pursuant to SEQRA, Article 8 of the ECL, and its implementing regulations (6 N.Y.C.R.R. § 617), which are collectively referred to as SEQR or the SEQR process. The environmental review will follow SEQR and the City Environmental Quality Review (“CEQR”) Technical Manual generally will be used as a guide with respect to environmental analysis methodologies and impact criteria for evaluating the Proposed Project in this DEIS, unless stated otherwise.1

The Proposed Project is also being reviewed in conformance with the New York State Historic Preservation Act of 1980 (“SHPA”), specifically the implementing regulations of Section 14.09 of the Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Law (“PRHPL”), as well as with the requirements of the Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”), dated March 18, 1998, between the Dormitory Authority and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (“OPRHP”).

Project Location and Site Details

The Project Site (“Project Site”) is located at 2 Central Avenue in St. George, Borough of Staten Island, Richmond County, New York (Richmond County Tax Block 6, Lot 21). The Proposed Project site occupies approximately 3.47 acres of a 4.04-acre, city-owned 578-space surface parking lot known as St. George Municipal Parking Field. This municipal surface parking lot consists of two separate tax lots formally identified as Richmond County Tax Block 6, Lots 21 and 20. For the purposes of the Proposed Project, the Project Site encompasses 501 parking spaces and is limited to Richmond County Tax Block 6, Lot 21. The Proposed Project site is bounded by Hyatt Street to the north, Central Avenue to the east and St. Marks Place to the west. The Proposed Project site is bounded to the immediate south by Richmond County Tax Block 6, Lot 20, an approximately 0.57-acre parcel that would continue to operate as a 77-space surface parking area.2 The municipal surface parking lot is located within the civic core of St. George and is zoned as a C4-2 General Commercial District.

The Proposed Project site was the location of a portion of a quarantine hospital complex known as the “Quarantine Grounds” from 1799 through 1858. The Project site is eligible for listing in the State and National Registers of Historic Places. The hospital grounds and associated facilities were utilized to treat immigrants arriving in the United States. Archaeological field studies have identified the boundaries of a briefly-used burial ground, located in the northwestern portion of the Proposed Project site that was utilized in the late 1840s. In 1868, the area constituting the Proposed Project site was sold for private development, and residences were built on the site by 1912. These residences were demolished by the city in 1957 to make way for the existing surface parking lot.

Description of Proposed Action and Proposed Project

Introduction. The New York State Office of Court Administration (“OCA”), City of New York (“the City”) and Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (“DASNY” or the “Dormitory Authority”) have agreed to ...