To the Editor:

Nov. 9, 2016:  As an environmental lawyer with more than 25-years of experience and as a project attorney intimately familiar with the issues at hand, I am writing to correct the sadly misinformed letter written by Bill Gaston (October 26) regarding the Tuckahoe Planning Boards October 19th approval of the Marriott Hotel Project on Marbledale Road.

In calling for an environmental impact statement (EIS), Mr. Gaston and others ignore the State Environmental Quality Review Act Law, also known as SEQRA. Under SEQRA, the Marriott project is not large enough to trigger an EIS. Remediation projects, like this one, are completely exempt from SEQRA review because the state already has stringent measures in its program to address all of the potential impacts to a community during a remediation project's implementation. 

From the very beginning, the safety and wellbeing of this community have been--and continue to be--the project's highest priority. Bilwin Development Affiliates has done everything in its power to allay the concerns of the community, yet many have chosen to ignore these efforts. Bilwin has gone above and beyond the state's environmental and clean-up requirements for this site. The company has even funded an extensive round of supplemental testing not typically required by the state. Strict dust control and community air monitoring have also been implemented. 

Every test result to date confirms that the approved plan to remediate the site poses no health or safety threat to the public. In fact, the most recent radiation test results from early October, taken at the insistence of the public, show that no harmful radiation levels were detected and levels are at the same radiation levels that exist everywhere. Bilwin has also vowed transparency on environmental testing at every step along the way and is committed to releasing environmental test results to the community as they come in. 

The reality is, this area of Westchester has had its share of brownfield clean-ups. The worst, deemed far more contaminated than the Marbledale Road site, was in downtown Bronxville at the Fareri site. Another was King's Electronics--one block away from the Marriott project. The Eastchester ballfields contained contaminated fill. All three sites, today, are important community resources. 

Right now, at no cost to taxpayers, a private developer and respected environmental specialists are working hard to clean up this contaminated--not toxic--site in the most environmentally responsible manner possible with oversight from two state agencies and the village's special consultant. In the near future, the planned hotel and restaurant will become an economic anchor and revenue generator for this community. With no hotel currently in Tuckahoe, it will also serve as a gathering place for families. 

If the project goes away, the full cost of clean-up will ultimately fall to local tax payers and the land will lie fallow and useless.  We believe that this is an unacceptable alternative. 

Local-area residents should embrace the facts, accept the validated data, stop calling this site toxic, and consider themselves fortunate that a community developer has put his own private resources on the line to help this community transform a former landfill into a community asset. 

Linda Shaw, Esq.
Knauf Shaw LLP

Editor's note:  MyhometownBronxville does not fact-check statements in letters to the editor, and the opinions do not necessarily reflect the thinking of its staff. Its objective in publishing letters to the editor is to give air to diverse thoughts and opinions of residents in the community.