By Jason Emerson
Editor
After more than one year in stasis, a 2015 lawsuit by Ledyard Avenue residents against the village of Cazenovia has moved to the next procedural step in the case with the recent filing of a motion for judgment in New York State Supreme Court in Madison County.
The lawsuit seeks to have the village’s 2014 rezoning of Ledyard Avenue — called the Western Gateway district — annulled on the basis that the law was unconstitutional, specifically that it was illegal spot zoning that is inconsistent with the village comprehensive plan.
The new motion was filed July 5 by Cazenovia attorney Barry Schreibman on behalf of Ledyard Avenue residents William and Cynthia Loftus and Martin and Betty Smith. The motion seeks to resolve the issue by submitting competing motions to the court for summary judgment.
“We will be glad to have [this lawsuit] be resolved versus hanging out there and creating uncertainty,” said Mayor Kurt Wheeler. “But, the disappointing part is that we will now have to spend public funds to address it when we could put that money to much better use.”
The Western Gateway rezoning law, approved in September 2014, established a new “Western Gateway” zoning district and changed the zoning of certain land parcels on both sides of Ledyard Avenue from Route 13/Lakeland Park to the western village boundary by the Trush property. The intention was to emphasize new and more potential uses for the large old homes on Ledyard Avenue as a way to prevent deterioration of those properties, to maximize land use by allowing more commercial development and to help beautify the village entranceway area overall, according to the legislation.
Nearly every resident in the Ledyard Avenue neighborhood opposed the legislation during its four-month public hearing process in 2014, stating that it was an ill-conceived and under-developed plan that would turn the spacious residential corridor into a soulless commercial strip. Many opponents also claimed that the law was proposed mainly to benefit Richard Hubbard, owner of The Brewster Inn, and his previously existing plans to purchase the houses at 8 and 10 Ledyard Ave. and turn them into wedding and overnight expansions for his business.
The law went through multiple public hearings before the village board unanimously passed it on Sept. 2.
Schreibman filed suit in state supreme court in Madison County on April 20, 2015.
The lawsuit contended that the law is spot zoning because it would mainly benefit only Richard Hubbard, owner of the Brewster Inn, by allowing him to expand his business into a non-conforming use for the neighborhood. The lawsuit also argued that the rezoning served no purpose since it claims to prevent neighborhood blight when there is no current blight; that the improved economic development proposed in the law is redundant and therefore unnecessary, and more appropriate for the Village Edge North and Village Edge South areas, which have identical zoning; and that the rezoning would not help historic preservation in the neighborhood but would most likely undermine such preservation by allowing the expansion of existing historic structures for non-residential uses.
In a letter to the editor submitted to the Cazenovia Republican at that time, Schreibman stated that his clients’ complaint “is that the rezoning adulterates their neighborhood by introducing commercial uses into a district whose dominant use has been residential since Cazenovia was first incorporated as a village in 1810.”
Now that Schreibman has filed a motion for judgment, Village Attorney Jim Stokes said he now is preparing his submission to the court on behalf of the village. He said he expects the return date for the case to be in October – when oral arguments will be made in front of a judge.
