Comment period for Lyon impact study extended
By ROB PRICE THE COURIER-ADVOCATE

FILE PHOTO It could be several months before village board members are able to take action on applications to demolish the former Dana Lyon school building and rezone the area for commercial use.

BATH — Area residents will have an additional week to submit written comments in response to an environmental impact study of the proposed demolition of the Dana Lyon school building and the rezoning of the property for commercial use.

Bath village board members extended the deadline to Jan. 19 after village attorney John Leyden suggested state agencies involved in the review needed the additional time. The agencies, which include the departments of Transportation and Environmental Conservation were to receive the EIS packets this week, after the village board officially accepted the draft as complete at a special meeting Dec. 12.

The Jan. 19 deadline falls after the board’s regular monthly meeting, scheduled for Jan. 15; however, Bath Mayor David Wallace noted at least two other steps in the environmental review process need to be taken before the board can take official action on applications from the development company Liberty-East Washington LLC to demolish the building and rezone the property.

According to Wallace, once the 30-day written comment period expires, Liberty-East Washington must draft a final environmental impact study that incorporates the written comments.

When the final study is complete, the village board must declare an additional 10-day period for written comments.

“You’re looking at late February or March (for board action),” said the mayor.

Liberty-East Washington purchased the former elementary school building from the Haverling school district and announced it would develop the property for residential use. The company later said a subsequent feasibility study indicated the local real estate market would not support the cost of renovating the building.

Liberty-East Washington now wants to raze the structure and use the property as the site of an Eckerds Pharmacy.

Local historical preservations organized as The Save the Lyon Commission are fighting the building’s demolition, arguing the Lyon can be renovated for community and residential use.

Separately, th e Preservation League of New York State has urged the building be spared and renovated as an example of “neoclassical academic design.”