Cultural Landscape Analysis and Environmental Law: From Visual Impact Assessment to Community Character

Keywords: cultural landscapes, environmental law, community character, Hudson Riveer School of Art, Finger Lakes, NY
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Tuesday
Session Start / End Time: 3/1/2022 08:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 3/1/2022 09:20 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 33

Abstract

In the 1960s, a proposed hydroelectric pump storage facility on Storm King Mountain on the Hudson River was denied on its potential environmental impact on the river and its aesthetic impact on the landscape. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 included similar legal regulations, as did the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act. In 1979, I wrote testimony on the potential aesthetic impact of a proposed nuclear power plant within the viewshed of the house, studio and state historic site of Frederic Church, a major artist of the 19th C. Hudson River School. The denial of the proposal was based on Visual Impact Assessment that documented Church's many paintings of his view downriver of the proposed site, and a Cultural Landscape Analysis of the historic landscape.These merged into the analysis of "Community Character." In 2018, the determination to deny permits for a proposed gas storage facility in salt caves at Seneca Lake in the Finger Lakes region of central New York State was primarily because the industrial project was out of step with the rural character and planning goals of the region and its emerging viniculture and agri-tourism economy. I will briefly describe these legal cases and current developments in Community Character Analysis and suggest roles that cultural and humanistic geographers can play in saving places.