By RITA FERRANDINO
Staff Writer

The Generic Environmental Impact Study has been undergoing development for a year and a half, and the community it describes may soon see the impact of the work.

GEIS coordinator Nan Stolzenburg met Wednesday morning with town of Otsego supervisor Bill Gates, town of Middlefield supervisor David Bliss and Dr. Henry Weil, the liaison between the committee and the anonymous individual(s) funding the project.

Since the group last met, Stolzenburg has completed her executive summary, which will stand apart from the GEIS and hit on highlights and conclusions. Committee members are planning to take about a week to review the summary and offer suggestions.

Stolzenburg said the information is as accurate as possible and that she's ready for the public to see the study when the committee gives the go ahead. The document answers all six of the study's original goals, she said. The GEIS was undertaken for the sake of understanding current environmental conditions of the Cooperstown area, identifying locations with critical environmental sensitivities, determining capacity for future growth and change, developing an understanding of the dynamics of human activities, documenting likely potential environmental impacts and evaluating strategies and alternatives that can be used to address impacts and reduce the detrimental impacts of development.

It's a mouthful, and the document is "rich in detail," according to Stolzenburg. While user-friendliness and usefulness are crucial, she said, it is equally important for people to realize that the GEIS is an analysis.

"Conclusions are drawn that some people may agree with, and some not," said Stolzenburg.

The focus appears to be on a more comprehensive regional picture instead of on each municipality in itself.

"I steered clear of saying this town is doing a great job with this or that and another one is lousy," Stolzenburg said. "The facts are presented and conclusions were drawn based on careful analysis of those facts."

Part of the committee's goal was to provide a tool planning boards and town boards can use when making decisions regarding development and environmental concerns. Maps included with the GEIS will cover a broad range of geological topics from view sheds to shale beds. Planning boards may benefit from an eight step process detailed in the document, aimed at determining whether a project meets permitting requirements and satisfies the community's vision for the future.

"It's important to maintain a regional perspective," Stolzenburg said.

The committee is planning to digest the information and figure out how best to make the next step towards going public. Weil suggested that the committee simulate a subdivision to see how useful the document is in practice and to determine whether any kind of major structural changes need to be made.

"It's an incredible resource like the Encyclopedia Brittanica," Weil said. "But if the encyclopedia wasn't alphabetically arranged, nobody would be able to find the information. This is an incredible resource, and we need to be sure we've refined the organization of it."

"We could re-read and edit, re-read and edit, read it again and keep re-writing," Stolzenburg said, "but at a certain point, we have to just stop."