Whitestone residents want answers
on major development project
BY SUZANNE MONTEVERDI
smonteverdi@qns.com / @smont76
After uncovering more changes to a
long-disputed Whitestone development
project, residents and a local elected
official are calling for increased transparency
from a state agency.
On Nov. 27, state Senator Tony
Avella and a group of local residents
met at the Waterpointe site at
151-45 Sixth Rd. to voice alarm with
recent updates from state officials.
Previously an industrial zone, the nearly
12-acre site has been a topic of concern
in the neighborhood for a number
of years. Edgestone Group LLC, the
site’s current owner, purchased the land
in 2012 for $11 million and originally
sought to build 97 two-family townhouse
homes and nine additional single-family
houses at the site. However, the developers
changed their plans to 52 singlefamily
homes after protests from the
community.
Currently, Edgestone is working to
remediate the site — which is covered
with toxic soil — under the oversight of
the state’s Department of Environmental
Conservation (DEC) through the voluntary
Brownfield Cleanup Program. The
program is meant to “encourage privatesector
cleanups of brownfields and to
promote their redevelopment as a means
to revitalize economically blighted communities,”
according to the DEC website.
In late September, Community Board
7 received an “Explanation of Significant
Difference” fact sheet from DEC informing
them that the city agency has modified
the cleanup agreement with developers.
After inspecting the developer’s
remediation work, DEC determined that
the site is slated to achieve a “Track 4
restricted residential cleanup” instead
of the initially agreed upon “Track 2
residential cleanup.”
Board members who noted that the
new Track 4 designation restricted the
developer’s ability to build the agreed
upon single-family homes reached out to
the city agency with their concerns. The
DEC issued a revised sheet two days
later, omitting the “single-family housing
is prohibited” language.
Still, according to Avella, the community
was not involved in the discussion
to allow these “significant and detrimental
changes to the remediation plan.”
“Using an inappropriate fill could
have serious repercussions for whoever
ends up living at the site and could
restrict how homeowners are allowed
to use their own property,” the lawmaker
said. “The community board and
Whitestone as a whole seem to have
been kept in the dark about recent significant
changes to this remediation plan,
but today we are demanding that DEC
give us the respect we deserve and be
transparent about what has happened.”
Kim Cody, the president of the
Greater Whitestone Taxpayers Civic
Association, told reporters that the
change “falls directly on DEC.”
“The DEC should have had inspectors
6 CRYDER POINT Courier | DECEMBER 2017 | www.qns.com
on this site when this soil was
being brought in and it should have been
stopped immediately,” Cody said
According to the DEC, records of
the DEC’s findings and project plans
are available at the nearby Whitestone
Library. However, lifelong Whitestone
resident Robert LoScalzo claims the
newest records at the site are about two
years old.
The site was originally purchased
for $25 million in 2005 by developer
Bayrock Group, who later went bankrupt
after they were fined by DEC for
transporting toxic soil into the already
contaminated site.
Photos by Suzanne Monteverdi/QNS
Under the current plans, developers
are required to install a minimum twofoot
cover in the ground, with a demarcation
barrier between the fill and the
cover. This segment of the project is
expected to be completed by the end of
this year.
A sub-slab depressurization system
(SSD) system will also have to be
installed in each new building erected
on the lot. The mechanism will read for
any harmful active vapors released into
the air.
QNS reached out to DEC for comment
and is awaiting a response.
