By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

The village of Baldwinsville will receive a 2% increase in taxes each year under a 30-year payment in lieu of taxes (PILOT) agreement with the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency and the developers of Conifer Village, a low-income housing community for senior citizens. The Baldwinsville Village Board of Trustees approved the PILOT at its Aug. 15 meeting.

Kevin McAuliffe of the Barclay Damon law firm, representing the Baldwinsville Senior Housing Preservation, LLC, appeared at the board meeting to answer questions about the PILOT.

Mayor Dick Clarke said the board was concerned about what could happen to the property if the owner of Conifer Village decides to sell. He asked if the PILOT would still apply if a future developer did not want to maintain senior housing.

McAuliffe said there are protections both on the county and federal level from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) requiring Conifer Village to remain strictly for low-income seniors.

“The most important one from your perspective is the local limitation and that is imposed by the IDA,” McAuliffe said. “They will only approve the application as a continuation using the HUD certificate for Section 8 senior citizen housing and in the event there is a sale to someone who changes it, any proposed use of that, abandonment of the low-income housing, the IDA deal goes away.”

McAuliffe added the HUD certificate is filed with the county clerk “much the way a lien or a mortgage would” informing the public of the allowed uses of the property.

“It would make the PILOT now become annulled in the event that there was some change in use,” he said.

Trustee Mark Wilder expressed his displeasure about the fees OCIDA will receive from the PILOT agreement, which total about $571,000. He said he felt the village has had PILOTs “thrust on us,” greatly reducing tax revenue.

“I think the timeframe is excessive and the percentage is not great,” Wilder said of the 30-year Conifer Village deal.

Clarke said current Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon is more understanding than his predecessor, Joanie Mahoney, about the tax burden PILOT agreements can place on a municipality. Clarke cited the PILOT for the former Tri-County Mall property as an example of such harmful agreements.

“[He] knows people have taken a hit from PILOTs,” Clarke said. “Ryan is making an effort here so we have much more of an input. He wants us to feel when we get done that we weren’t treated rudely.”

“I don’t like the OCIDA project fee. I feel like we’re subsidizing OCIDA,” Wilder said.

“It’s 13 years of what they would pay us at the current rate,” Code Enforcement Officer Gregg Humphrey said.

Wilder asked if OCIDA would approve the proposed renovations to Conifer Village without a PILOT.

“If there’s no PILOT, this project is dead,” McAuliffe said.

Despite Wilder’s misgivings, Trustees Megan O’Donnell and Mike Shepard noted that Conifer Village has a long history as a community where seniors can thrive in B’ville.

“Having had two grandparents who lived in Conifer back when it was first developed in the early ‘80s, I know that they thrived there and I know that it was nice to have them close and they did consider themselves rightly residents of our community,” O’Donnell said. “Forty years later, I can only assume that they’re in need of updating. The residents are certainly entitled to it.”

Wilder said he would support this project but hoped the village would have more opportunities to review PILOT agreements in the future.