The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) has released for public comment a draft rulemaking package to streamline the environmental review process that, if adopted, would make the first update to New York’s State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) regulations in more than two decades.

The proposed amendments to SEQR expand the actions not subject to detailed review, known as Type II actions, modifying certain thresholds for actions deemed more likely to require the preparation of an environmental impact statement (EIS), making scoping of an EIS mandatory rather than optional, and modifying the acceptance procedures for a draft EIS, and more.

DEC’s proposed agency rulemaking for SEQR updates will include a 90-day public comment period and hearing, as required by the State Administrative Procedures Act (SAPA). DEC has already prepared a Draft EIS and the SEQR process is running concurrently with the SAPA process.

Additional information and the proposed amendments are available on the DEC website.