Onondaga County is proposing to construct an outdoor events center on County-owned land on the western shore of Onondaga Lake, in the Town of Geddes, Onondaga County. St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview Facility will be an outdoor event complex, which will include an amphitheater with both covered and lawn seats, a vendor area, recreational trails and amenities.

The County is now carrying out an environmental review of the proposed facility under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQR. The basic purpose of SEQR is to incorporate the consideration of environmental factors into the existing planning, review and decision-making processes. To accomplish this goal, SEQR requires a determination of whether a proposed action may have a significant impact on the environment and, if it is determined that the action may have a significant adverse impact, prepare an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). The County, as Lead Agency, determined that St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview Facility may have a significant impact on the environment, and determined that a Draft EIS must be prepared.

In the development of a Draft EIS, preparation of a draft scoping document represents an initial step in the review of potential environmental impacts for the proposed Amphitheater Facility. The primary goals of scoping are to focus an EIS on potentially significant impacts and to eliminate consideration of those impacts that are not relevant or non-significant with respect to the proposed action. Scoping was completed on May 22, 2014.

The next phase of the environmental review process was to make a Draft EIS available for public review and comment. The County approved the Draft EIS on July 1, 2014, and directed that it be made available for public review and comment. A public hearing on the Draft EIS was held July 23, 2014 at 11:00 a.m. in the Legislative Chambers of the County Courthouse in Syracuse, New York. Initially, written public comments on the Draft EIS were to be accepted between July 9 and August 11, 2014. At the August 5, 2014 Session of the County Legislature, a resolution was passed to extend the public comment period until September 5, 2014 and to hold an additional public hearing on August 26, 2014 at 6:00 p.m. in the Legislative Chambers of the County Courthouse in Syracuse, New York.

The final phase of the environmental review process for the proposed St. Joseph’s Health Amphitheater at Lakeview Facility involves the preparation of a Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) and the issuance of a Findings Statement by the County as Lead Agency. The County Legislature accepted the FEIS on October 14, 2014, and the Findings Statement on November 3, 2014.

The FEIS and the Findings Statement, as well as a number of related environmental review documents, have been made available to the public at this web site, and a public repository has also been established at the Solvay Public Library, 615 Woods Road, Solvay NY 13209. The documents at this web site and at the Solvay Public Library include Environmental Assessment Forms 1, 2 and 3, a Notice of Positive Declaration and Public Scoping, a Draft Scoping Document, comments on the draft scoping document received from the public, the Final Scoping Document, the Draft EIS, the Final EIS, which includes all of the public comments received on the Draft EIS and a responses to those comments, and the SEQR Findings Statement.

Contact:
Travis Glazier
Director, Onondaga County Office of the Environment
John H. Mulroy Civic Center, 14th Floor
421 Montgomery Street
Syracuse, New York 13202

Phone: 315-435-2647

email: TravisGlazier@ongov.net