The planning board has declared its intention to be the lead agency overseeing the environmental impact of a planned warehouse development on Route 17K, west of the hamlet of Bullville.

YYY Properties wants to subdivide the property now home to a ramshackle barn and vacant house into two lots. They would then put a 161,000-square-foot warehouse on the 17-acre lot closest to Route 17K and a 58,200-square-foot warehouse on the 12-acre lot behind the first. Although modest by modern warehouse standards, the larger warehouse, if built, would be the biggest in town, Supervisor Charles Carnes said previously.

The land is zoned as a business park and would provide easy access to the Quickway Diner, further west off of Route 17K. An engineer from the firm Mercurio Norton Tarolli Marshall in Pine Bush previously said the project won’t disturb sizable federally designated wetlands in the area. At that time, YYY, registered as a limited liability company in Monroe, had not lined up tenants for either building.

Ryan Smithem, an engineer with MNT, told the board that an environmental assessment form for the project has been updated.

The board must circulate its intention to be the lead agency with other potential lead agencies in keeping with the State Environmental Quality Review Act. The state departments of Environmental Conservation, Transportation and Health could conceivably challenge the board’s declaration. That’s not likely, Zwart said. The board need not inform the neighboring town of Wallkill of its intention because the project is more than 500 feet from the town line.

The town has hired attorney Dominic Cordisco to represent the board for this project because its regular attorney, Ben Gailey, has a potential conflict of interest.