Same village resident who sued over development approval also claims Route 20 land rezoning was unlawful
A second lawsuit challenging the lawfulness of the approved Cazenovia Market development in Village Edge South has been filed against the village and the developers. This action, taken by the same village resident who filed suit against the development’s municipal approvals, claims the village’s rezoning of 10 acres of land on Route 20 where the development will be located was unlawful.
The lawsuit alleges that two rezoning actions approved by the village board, one in 2014 and one in 2016, were inconsistent with the village’s 2008 Comprehensive Plan and were unlawful “spot zoning” done in collusion with the project developers to benefit their Cazenovia Market plan to the detriment of the Cazenovia community. The suit, a declaratory judgment action, requests nullification of both rezoning laws.
The new lawsuit was filed Feb. 2 in state supreme court in the Madison County courthouse by attorney Barry M. Schreibman, representing himself as the plaintiff. The defendants are the village of Cazenovia and developers New Venture Assets LLC and Sphere Development LLC.
Schreibman filed a separate lawsuit on Dec. 29, 2016, against the same three defendants, as well as the village planning board, also challenging the lawfulness of the approved Cazenovia Market development in Village Edge South (VES). That suit challenged the legality of the approval process for the project by the village planning board.
As with the Dec. 29 lawsuit, the Feb. 2 action states that Schreibman, who lives at 5 Burton St. in the village, has standing in the case because he will allegedly suffer “direct injury different in kind and degree than that experienced by the general public” from the development project, including noise pollution, air pollution and the devaluation of his property.
Cazenovia Market, which was approved by the village planning board on Nov. 28, is a mixed-use commercial/residential redevelopment of land on which currently sits a defunct diner and motel. The development will include an Aldi grocery store, a drive-thru pharmacy, a drive-thru bank, a fourth retail space yet unspecified for a business and four, eight-unit apartment buildings aimed at people ages 55 and older. Construction is expected to begin this spring.
In the Feb. 2 suit, Schreibman alleges that two rezoning actions undertaken by the village board — one to add pharmacies and banks and bank branch offices with drive-in facilities to the list of permitted structures in the VES mixed use zone, and one to increase the allowable size of buildings in the zone to 30,000 square feet maximum — were “textbook spot zoning” done to benefit the developer of the Cazenovia Market project. “The project could not be approved but for the rezoning … [and] the rezoning enable a project whose design utterly fails to meet the standards set for in the Comprehensive Plan,” the suit states.
Village Mayor Kurt Wheeler verified that a second lawsuit has been filed but otherwise could not comment on pending litigation.
Greg Widrick, a partner in the developing firm of Sphere Development LLC, said, this suit, like the previous one, is not slowing down the projected timeline for the Aldi grocery store project.
“Since the story was published about the first lawsuit, I have been approached by many people in the community who have thanked me for our perseverance and determination to see this project come to fruition, and that’s been great,” Widrick said. “I don’t know how to describe what Mr. Schreibman is doing other than lunacy –— this I just lunacy, completely. We feel the village board of trustees and the village planning board went above and beyond in reviewing our application and we are confident in the end the courts will make the correct decision.”
The lawsuits are scheduled to be heard in state supreme court in Wampsville on Feb. 28.
This is the third lawsuit Schreibman now has ongoing against the village and its development projects. In addition to being the plaintiff in the two actions against the Cazenovia Market project, he also filed a suit in 2015 to get the Western Gateway rezoning annulled as being unconstitutional and illegal spot zoning.
