Bassett Hospital has filed its draft environmental impact statement (DEIS) for their proposed parking lots at Harrison House and Bassett Hall with the village planning board.

The planning board must now review and accept the DEIS after which the public may make comment on the document.

Planning board chairwoman Teresa Drerup said Tuesday that she will ask board members to spend the three weeks before its June 9 meeting reviewing the document to make certain it meets the requirements set in the scoping document. If the DEIS is found lacking in any respect, the board may ask Bassett Hospital to revise it.

The planning board has 45 days review and accept the DEIS. Once it is accepted, there will be at least a 30-day period for public comment.

"We will, no doubt, schedule a public hearing," she said.

Drerup said she has not yet had an opportunity to take a detailed look at the document and could not comment about it.

Bassett Hospital vice-president Joe Middleton, who has spearheaded the parking lot proposal, is currently on vacation and unavailable for comment.

The DEIS looks at potential environmental impacts and mitigation measures identified by the planning board in its review of the parking proposal. It also investigates seven alternatives to the proposal.

The plan for the two lots would add 61 parking spaces at Harrison House and 73 new spaces at Bassett Hall. The new spaces would increase the total number at Bassett Hall to 165.

The DEIS was prepared by Clough Harbor and Associates in Albany and according to their analysis, the hospital is short between 28 and 84 spaces for patients and visitors and 100 to 250 spaces short of the need for employees. The total shortage is in the range of 128 to 334 new spaces.

The higher range would accommodate some of the increased need for parking that now occurs illegally in the area and as legal on-street parking, according to the DEIS.

"An increase in available parking at Basset Hall and Harrison House, as indicated in the project description above, will benefit the general public served by Bassett Healthcare by eliminating the frustration and inconvenience of not finding convenient parking," the DEIS states. "Village of Cooperstown residents will benefit by additional parking within the hospital complex by reducing the need for parking on village streets and the number of cars circulating through village neighborhoods in search of parking spaces."

The DEIS examined existing conditions and impacts on noise, air, community resources, ecology, historical and archeological resources, visual resources, land use and zoning and transportation.

Clough Harbor conducted a traffic study for Bassett in 2004 to evaluate the impact of the proposed lots on intersections on Beaver Street at Chestnut and Pioneer Streets and Susquehanna Avenue, and at intersections at Walnut Street and Delaware Avenue, Fair Street and Atwell Road, Mill Street and Brooklyn Avenue, and River Street and Elk Street.

According to the study, all intersections currently operate satisfactorily with peak traffic from 7:30 a.m.to 8:30 p.m. and 3:15 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. The only exception is River and Elk Streets whose peak was from 10:45 a.m. to 11:45 a.m.

The analysis showed that the average daily traffic volume on Beaver Street between Susquehanna Avenue and Pioneer Street is 4,400 vehicles per day. The volume on Fair Street between Atwell Road and Beaver Street is 3,600 vehicles.

According to the DEIS, the traffic generated by the additional parking spaces will increase movement delay only slightly and will not have a significant impact on traffic operations at the study intersections.

The proposed parking lots do not conflict with surrounding land uses, the DEIS states, but some residents may feel that the landscape change from the loss of mature vegetation will alter the character of the area.

The village may lessen that impact by requiring the planting of new trees and landscaping.

Trees and landscaping also figure heavily in the mitigation of visual resources in areas adjacent to the proposed sites where they will serve as vegetative buffers.

The two proposed sites may impact the historic and cultural resources of the area by disturbing prehistoric deposits that could be buried beneath the surface.

"The historic sensitivity for the project sites are highest at the Bassett Hall project site where potential deposits associated with the site's use as an orphanage during the 1870s may be present," the DEIS states.

There is a recommendation in the DEIS for further archeological investigation of the sites.

The project will impact water resources by an increase in the amount of stormwater generated. Untreated water from the lots could contain antifreeze, road salt, oil, sediments and other pollutants common to parking lots.

The plan calls for the construction of two new separate storm drainage systems including catch basins, underground storage pipes, storm water filtration systems and a stabilized outfall eventually leading to the Susquehanna River.

According to the DEIS, the residential nature of the project sites generally inhibits their ability to support a very diverse population of bird and mammal species. Undeveloped land to the south of the sites is used by numerous species that may also use both sites for foraging or nesting purposes. Those species could include reptiles, amphibians, small mammals, migratory songbirds and some raptors.

"Because development of the sites requires removal of native vegetation and habitats and replacement with paved surfaces, wildlife populations and habitats would be permanently changed within the site," the report states, adding that it is not anticipated that mitigation will be required for impacts to wildlife or their habitat.

Community services - police, fire and emergency medical services - will not be impacted by the proposed project. Service providers have indicated they have sufficient resources to accommodate any additional need created by the new parking lots.

For the DEIS, Clough Harbor focused on the localized impacts on air quality in the vicinity of the two proposed lots. The air quality analysis report indicated that a project of the scale proposed does not have theability to jeopardize air quality standards.

There is some potential for the project to have a short-term impact on air quality during construction primarily from the diesel exhaust from large trucks and other equipment.

It is also possible, depending on weather, to impact air quality with dust which can move from the sites to adjoining areas. That impact may be mitigated by limiting the amount of bare soil exposed at one time, frequent watering, suspension of construction activities during periods of high wind and covering trucks.

Noise is another area which is not expected to be impacted by the new parking lots. It should be noted, however, that the DEIS erroneously states that the village does not have a noise ordinance.

Based on the increase in traffic within the project area, the DEIS states, a noise level increase of less than one decibel is expected.

Noise from snowplowing in the new lots is also expected to be within the range of existing measured noise levels.

The only potential noise impact noted in the DEIS is that created during the construction period. Construction noise is unavoidable, but it can be mitigated and controlled by avoiding night time work, limiting activities to 7 a.m. to 5 p.m., performing regular machinery maintenance and the placement of stationary equipment as far away as possible.

The DEIS examined seven alternatives to the proposed parking lots. The alternatives include carpooling and busing employees, leasing off-site parking space, moving specific departments within the hospital to an off-site location, constructing a multi-level garage, reducing the size and/or eliminating one of the proposed lots and taking no action.

Aside from the carpooling, which Bassett has already implemented, the DEIS dismissed all other alternative for a variety of environmental and financial factors.

Busing employees using the county bus system was not considered a feasible alternative for a number of reasons, including, scheduling, the need for remote parking lots, the requirement to also pick up the general public and the costs involved.

Alternative parking sites currently in use have helped with the space shortage, but do not eliminate the need for the two proposed lots.

The idea of moving some departments off the main campus was examined by Bassett, the DEIS said, but was found to be cost prohibitive. It would generate approximately $5 million in additional annual operating expense.

A multi-level parking garage was ruled out because it would create traffic management problems at the site during peak hours; would have a greater negative impact on the surrounding residences and community character and thirdly, because a three-level garage for 1,600 spaces would cost approximately $5.4 million, according to the DEIS

Reducing or eliminating one of the proposed lots was rejected because it would not meet the hospital's parking requirements and because it is not necessary to mitigate any adverse environmental impacts, because there are none, the DEIS stated.

The final alternative - no-action - would not meet Bassett's need for additional parking and would likely result in the continued use of on-street parking by employees.

The planning board's review of the DEIS is set begin during its next meeting on June 9.