ALTAMONT — With a lawsuit lingering and an active and engaged citizenry watching, the village board on Tuesday delayed another month on deciding whether to allow a residential property to be rezoned commercial so that Stewart’s expansion plan can proceed.

Citing the need to be able to thoroughly explain its reasoning in determining what, if any, impact the rezoning of 107-109 Helderberg Ave. and construction of a new Stewart’s shops would have, the Altamont Board of Trustees for the second month in a row made no determination on the rezone of the property, and said that it would again take up the project at its November meeting, which because of the election, is set to take place on Tuesday, Nov. 19, at 7 p.m. 

This was the second time that Stewart’s Shops had requested to have the property it owns at 107-109 Helderberg Ave., next to its current store, rezoned from residential to commercial — a request that the village board had fulfilled last December. That 3-to-2 vote paved the way for Stewart’s to build a new shop on the site.

Several years earlier, Stewart’s rezone request had been denied, with a 2-to-2 village board vote. The recent March elections saw a nearly evenly divided citizenry with the two incumbents, who had both voted in favor of the rezone, edging out challengers who objected to it.

A lawsuit filed in April by a group of Altamont residents against the village board and Stewart’s prompted the company in July to reapply for the zoning change. 

At the Oct. 1 meeting, the village board went through Part 2 — the 11 questions — of the state’s short-form environmental assessment review and determined that, when considering Stewart’s proposal in light each question, the project’s impact was moderate-to-large (no-to-small impact is the only other option)  on the assessment’s first four questions:

— Will the proposed action create a material conflict with an adopted land use plan or zoning regulations?

— Will the proposed action result in a change in the use or intensity of use of land? 

— Will the proposed action impair the character or quality of the existing community?

— Will the proposed action have an impact on the environmental characteristics that caused the establishment of a Critical Environmental Area?

After answering each of the four questions, the next thing the board had to do was to come up with a determination of significance, which is the third and final part of the short-form environmental assessment review.

In the determination of significance, for each question in Part 2 that was answered “moderate to large impact may occur,” the village board is to explain in detail why the proposed project “may or will not” result in an adverse impact on the environment. 

At this point, the board must decide if the moderate-to-large impacts can be mitigated with processes already in place in the village, for example, zoning.

While, legally, the board would only have to explain its reasoning in answering the first four environmental assessment questions, it was advised by the village attorney, John Hartzell, that, in light of the Concerned Severson Neighbors lawsuit, the board should explain its reasoning for its answers to each of the 11 questions.

The board agreed with Hartzell and agreed that he would come up with a working draft of the determination of significance to which the board would make revisions as it sees fit.

This will be presented to the public at the village board’s November meeting, at which point a determination on the project’s environmental impact would made. If Stewart’s proposed expansion is found to not have an impact, a negative declaration would be made, and then the rezone of 107-109 Helderberg Ave. would be taken up. 

If, instead, the expansion is found to have an impact then a positive declaration would be made, which would not kill the project; rather, it triggers the need for an Environmental Impact Statement. The impact statement describes the action; provides an analysis of all the action’s environmental impacts as well as an analysis of action alternatives; and identifies ways to reduce or avoid adverse environmental impacts. 

The statement may be prepared by either the applicant — Stewart’s — or a lead agency — in this case, the village board. After the statement has been reviewed, the lead agency will either have to approve the project or kill it completely.