Business

Governor has yet to sign EPCAL fast-track bill

Calverton EPCAL sign
MICHAEL WHITE FILE PHOTO | One of two signs marking the EPCAL entrance along Route 25.

The state bill that would fast track development applications at the Enterprise Park at Calverton was approved by both house sof the state Legislature in late June, but Governor Andrew Cuomo has yet to sign it into law.

Still, locally elected state officials say they are not worried, and that the governor is presented with hundreds of bills to sign in a given year.

“Obviously, I would like it signed sooner than later but I don’t think there is a cause to be concerned at this point,” said Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter.

“It just hasn’t been delivered to the governor yet,” said Drew Biondo, an aide to state Senator Ken LaValle (R-Port Jefferson), who was a sponsor of the bill.

Both men said they’ve been given no indication the bill has run into any opposition at the executive level.

“From what I’ve heard, the governor takes these bills in batches,” Mr. Walter said.

A spokesperson for Governor Cuomo said the governor considers about 100 bills a week. Once a bill is presented to the governor, he has a week to either sign it into law or veto it, she said.

She said the governor’s office doesn’t generally comment on bills until they are signed or vetoed.

The timing of the signing of the bill is not a concern at this point because the town still needs to adopt an environmental impact statement for the plan, Mr. Walter said, and that’s not expected to be done until next year some time.

“So this proposal wouldn’t really get rolling until next year anyway,” Mr. Walter said.

The bill establishes a generic environmental impact study, or GEIS, at the outset, to cover all possible development proposals for the town-owned land in Calverton that meet a re-use plan agreed upon by the town, county and state, officials have said.

Any fully engineered development proposal for land within the area covered by the study will be guaranteed approval within 90 days of the application being filed.

If an application isn’t approved in that time frame, it would receive a default approval.

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