Town Board votes Thursday on environmental review of Xerox-area road project

The Webster Town Board will vote Thursday on a resolution closing out environmental review for the Webster Transportation Infrastructure Project, the road and trail package tied to the Xerox campus redevelopment. If the board adopts the resolution, no Environmental Impact Statement is required.

The 6:30 p.m. workshop Thursday is canceled. The 7:30 p.m. regular meeting is on.

The meeting is in the Town Board Room, 1002 Ridge Road. The agenda opens with Open to the Floor, where speakers get five minutes each. The environmental resolution is seventh of nine numbered items, so residents can speak on the resolution before the board votes.

The town's calendar lists a Hojack Trail Improvements ribbon cutting at 4 p.m. the same day, on the Hojack Trail at Klem Road.

What the project is

The transportation project is funded by a FAST NY Track C grant awarded to the Webster Economic Development Alliance, the project's sponsor, which is carrying out the work on behalf of the town and the village. The applicant's section of the form gives the grant's purpose as "to rehabilitate existing roadways and create roadway extensions to improve circulation, access, and safety in this area." The traffic report says the work will "position the campus and surrounding area for subdivision, redevelopment, and investment of vacant and underutilized property, fostering business attraction in key strategic industries." The grant triggers a process under which Xerox Corporation dedicates privately owned roadways and land to the town and the village, so the company's property can be reached from a public right-of-way and subdivided.

The Town Board voted 5-0 on Aug. 20 to approve a Xerox petition to annex a Chiyoda Drive parcel from the town into the Village of Webster. That approval is one step, and the Ledger's explainer covers what still has to happen.

The study area runs from North Avenue and Webster Road east to Basket Road, and from Mitcheldean Drive south to Route 104. Six road components are in the package. Two extend existing roads: Boulter Industrial Parkway west to Salt Road and Chiyoda Drive west to Route 250. The rest is reconstruction of Orchard Street, Panama Road and Mitcheldean Drive, plus a multimodal trail along Phillips Road.

The scope of Thursday's vote

The project's environmental assessment form states that the work "does not include any redevelopment or new buildings, only transportation infrastructure." Thursday's vote is a finding about the roads. The Xerox campus redevelopment those roads are built to serve is not part of the action under review.

Passero Associates, the project's traffic consultant, found no significant adverse traffic impacts at completion in a July 28 report. Twenty years out, the report finds left-turn-lane warrants met and expects a signal will be needed where Salt Road, Mitcheldean Drive and the Boulter extension meet. Both findings assume build-out under part of the 2024 Reimagine Webster Brownfield Opportunity Area plan, including about 1,133 residential units and 1.8 million square feet of light industrial space. That build-out is not part of Thursday's action. The report's sole recommendation is that future development in the study area provide independent traffic impact studies.

How the review got here

The resolution and the town's June 5 notice classify the project as a Type I action, which the state's environmental review regulations treat as more likely to require an Environmental Impact Statement. The classification also requires a coordinated review among the agencies with a role in the project. Under the regulations a Type I review ends in one of two ways. A positive declaration requires an impact statement. A negative declaration does not.

The board designated itself lead agency Aug. 6, after notifying involved agencies June 5. Consent is assumed if no involved agency objects in writing within 30 days.

The board's environmental assessment form, dated Aug. 27 and prepared by Town Engineer Keith Mortimer, rates all 20 areas of potential impact and marks none as potentially moderate to large. The form checks the box for no significant adverse environmental impacts and no impact statement.

Supplemental responses filed with the form say the Boulter Industrial Parkway and Chiyoda Drive extensions will clear about 4.11 acres of wooded area. The applicant's Part 1 identifies no species within the project limits that are rare, threatened, endangered, or of special concern and conservation need. A culvert goes into the bed and banks of an existing stream, enclosing 800 square feet of it. The stream falls under federal jurisdiction as a Water of the United States, and an application has been submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers. NYSDEC classifies the stream Class C. The stream is not subject to state Protection of Waters permitting. The town says the embedded culvert design maintains natural stream substrate, aquatic organism passage and stream function.

The filing also says the Xerox campus "has several sites currently undergoing remediation or that have undergone prior emergency spill remediation," and that NYSDEC "has selected No Further Action as the current remedy with the continued operation of site-wide groundwater migration control." An environmental easement limits use of portions of the site to industrial and commercial uses. The town says core samples taken for the project indicated no elevated levels of contaminants within the project area, and anticipates no impact.

The 2027 budget

Thursday is also when the 2027 tentative budget becomes the preliminary budget. Under New York Town Law §106 that conversion happens on completion of the board's review, so the conversion is not a numbered item. The town's schedule puts the filing of the tentative budget at Aug. 31.

The date for residents to mark is Oct. 15. At that 7:30 p.m. meeting the board holds the public hearing on the 2027 preliminary budget and adopts the 2027 final budget, both the same night.

In-year budget items and routine business

Two items adjust the current year's budget. Item 5 is a transfer that moves money among 80 existing lines in the adopted 2026 budget, leaving total appropriations unchanged. Item 6 raises appropriations by $90,550. Part of that takes the Program for Aging from $159,000 to $176,600. Each increase carries a matching source: $45,400 in intergovernmental charges, $45,000 in departmental income and $150 drawn from fund balance. Neither item raises the tax levy.

One item authorizes the supervisor to sign a benefits contract for Police Capt. Mark Reed. The contract is not in the agenda packet. The resolution says the contract will be filed in the town clerk's office.

The rest is routine: Aug. 20 minutes, bills, a prepaid warrant and purchase orders as submitted by the director of finance.

What the record shows: The board votes Thursday on a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The town's filing describes 4.11 acres of tree clearing and a culvert through a federally regulated stream, with an Army Corps permit still pending.

What's still open: Whether the board adopts the resolution. It recites a completed public comment period, and no document the Ledger reviewed establishes whether such a period was held or whether the recital means the 30-day involved-agency objection window.

What we couldn't verify: No total project cost or FAST NY grant amount appears in the agenda packet the Ledger reviewed.

AI tools were used in drafting and research.