After a two-hour public hearing to discuss the proposed new 6,300 square-foot events building by Owera Vineyards on its East Lake Road land, the Cazenovia Town Planning Board closed the public hearing on the issue, which means a decision by the board on whether or not to approve the application must be made within the next two months.
The hearing was similar to many of the previous public hearings on Owera’s proposals during the past year with East Lake Road neighborhood residents voicing concerns over the winery’s noise, lighting, traffic and hours of operation. There were, however, a few new points and facts brought up at the planning board’s Dec. 4 meeting — including the news that Owera owner Peter Muserlain is currently in the midst of an intellectual property theft lawsuit that potentially could affect, if not disable, his plans for the new winery building.
Owera’s application before the planning board seeks to build a new “Promotion and Marketing Facility” to replace its three-season events tent for special winery functions. If approved, the new building would be larger and more functional than the current events tent — and would be built using state-of-the-art soundproofing materials in order to eliminate the noise issues and complaints the winery has been fighting against for more than a year.
Joanne Gagliano, landscape architect for Owera Vineyards, appeared before the planning board last week and reviewed the winery’s proposal, which calls for the replacement of the winery’s 40-by-100-foot events tent with a 48-by-142-foot permanent building “with noise attenuating features,” as well as a 25-by-40-foot expansion of the existing adjoining patio and pergola. It also includes an expansion of the winery’s existing sanitary system, a new pump house and the expansion of the existing bio-retention area to accommodate storm water runoff from the building.
The building would be open seven days a week, 352 days a year and be able to hold 430 people. The proposed hours of operation would be 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Thursdays, 8 a.m. to midnight Fridays and Saturdays, and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
During the public hearing, numerous town residents — mainly Owera’s neighbors — spoke out against the proposal, claiming the winery is destroying their quality of life and property values, that Owera is not a farm winery but a commercial events center that does not belong in a residential district and that winery owners Peter and Nancy Muserlian cannot be trusted to abide by planning restrictions or town laws.
The main new information brought before the planning board on Dec. 4 was the news that Muserlian and his company, Pemco Construction Services, is currently fighting a lawsuit against Whelan & Curry Construction Services for alleged intellectual property theft of building plans and designs.
According to state supreme court documents obtained by the Cazenovia Republican, Muserlian worked with Whelan & Curry for many years, and in 2013 decided to form his own construction and management services company and no longer use Whelan & Curry’s services. He also enticed his main contact at Whelan & Curry, Richard Ruggaber, to leave Whelan & Curry and instead work for Pemco.
According to a deposition by Muserlian, he admitted to asking Ruggaber to fill an external hard drive with all the Whelan & Curry information relating to Pemco’s existing projects that was in the Whelan & Curry company database.
This action caused Whelan & Curry to file an order to show cause in state supreme court in Onondaga County in October 2013, the result of which was that the court issued a temporary restraining order against Pemco, Muserlian and Ruggaber from using any records from or relating to the Whelan & Curry information taken from its database.
According to Ken Moynihan, an East Lake Road resident and attorney who has spoken with representatives of Whelan & Curry, the company that day had reviewed the Owera Vineyards building plans in the planning board files in town hall and felt there were “some serious concerns” that Owera’s currently pending plans may be related to the Whelan information currently under restraining order.
“If Whalen is successful in its suit, what happens to the plans?” Moynihan asked the board.
Planning board chair Anastasia Urtz said board attorney John Langey would review the lawsuit and investigate if Owera’s proposal is part of the intellectual property currently under the court restraining order.
At the end of the hearing, Urtz said the board would review all the new information presented that night before it made its eventual decision on whether or not to approve Owera’s building request.
Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].
