By Ashley M. Casey

Associate Editor

After four public hearings and nearly a year and a half in the making, the Van Buren Town Board has approved an amendment to the town code governing property maintenance. The board voted 6-1 to pass the local law at its Nov. 4 meeting. Councilor Wendy Van Der Water cast the sole dissenting vote.

Van Der Water said the current property maintenance code needs improvement, and she thanked the Land Use Committee for incorporating public feedback into the law, but she thinks the law is government overreach.

“I don’t believe property law should have anything to do with aesthetics or what a Realtor considers attractive. My opposition is solely based on the rights an owner should have for owning property and paying their taxes,” she said. “Clean, safe and public health should be the only issues when dealing with a property maintenance law.”

Zoning/Planning Board Chair Tony Geiss weighed in during the public hearing Nov. 4. He said the town’s code enforcement department has struggled with getting residents to comply with the current property maintenance code for years. Geiss said he was in favor of the law.

Resident Sue Allen said the town should try to help residents who are struggling to keep their properties clean and added that property maintenance should not be the board’s priority during a pandemic.

Councilor Pat Dickman noted that the town’s quest to amend the property maintenance code “started way, way before the pandemic.” The Land Use Committee, chaired by Deputy Supervisor Mary Frances Sabin, began work on this local law in August 2019.

Dickman said maintaining a standard of cleanliness would help boost property values in Van Buren. She is a real estate agent with more than 30 years of experience.

“People want to live in a town … that’s interested in helping them maintain their property values,” she said. “Prospective buyers often want to drive by the neighborhood to see if they want to live there.”

Sabin said the town’s goal was to provide a clear, objective definition of New York State’s requirements that properties be “clean, safe and sanitary.”

“No one is really trying to make this into a Radisson community,” she said.

Sabin said the penalties under NYS code are much stricter and that jail time is very rarely used as a punishment for code violations in Van Buren. She said the state does not provide for a grace period for people to correct possible violations before a citation is issued.

Councilor Darcie Lesniak said the property maintenance law initially was a “hard sell” for her because she was uncomfortable telling residents what they could do with their properties. She said public feedback made the proposal a better law.

“I can support this tonight, but I promise that I will be watching the code enforcement officer over the next year to see what kind of complaints come through and how they’re handled and to see if we’ve done the right thing here,” she said.

Supervisor Claude Sykes said the law will not affect 98% of Van Buren residents and only applies to residential properties, not agricultural parcels. He said residents who feel they have been unfairly cited for code violations can present their case to the Zoning/Planning Board.