The Town of Lewiston has again introduced a law abolishing its Environmental Conservation Commission and giving its duties to the renamed Planning and Environmental Review Board.
The town first introduced the potential change this past July, with Supervisor Steve Broderick, councilwoman Sarah Waechter, and town attorney Alfonso Bax working on revisions in the meantime. The given reasons for these changes, which have drawn opposition, were the commission was not doing its oversight work and its focus would be best served under the planners.
“It’s significantly different than the first version,” Bax said of the law, “giving it a lot more teeth.”
The new board would consist of seven members appointed by the town board for seven-year terms, giving preference to individuals with agricultural, engineering and/or environmental sciences backgrounds. Regarding the environment, the board would consider the preservation and quality of the natural and man-made environment in the town in the face of population growth, urbanization, and technological change.
Its other duties carried over from the environmental commission include providing a quarterly report of all applications it received that may have environmental impacts, maintaining communications with agencies and community organizations whose programming may impact the environment, investigating local environmental issues, and managing coastal zone matters.
The environmental commission normally meets on the second Tuesday of the month to look at potential environmental impacts from new town developments, though the last available minutes from a meeting were from July 2024, discussing the potential impacts of their disbandment.
Environmental Commission members and residents have objected to the change, with members like Brock Davy, Matt Feldman, and chairman Zach Collister telling the town board back in September this is not the right way to streamline government and that they need more legislative powers to bring entities like CWM and Modern Disposal to task on any issues.
A guest view from commission members of the Gazette published this past September argued that dissolving the commission would threaten the environmental stewardship and quality of life for residents.
Collister, who resigned from his position last week, remains opposed to the change feeling that the planners do not have experience with environmental issues. He said there had only been a few discussions with environmental commission members about the issue.
“Lewiston has a unique dynamic in this area,” Collister said, citing the special ecosystem that comes with the Niagara Escarpment and the presence of garbage and chemical dumps, Niagara University, and several land conservancies. “It makes zero sense to not have an environmental commission.”
A public hearing for this will take place at the next town work session, at 6 p.m. on Feb. 10.