SCHENECTADY Car dealer claims part of Maxon Rd. City wants access to planned development on Peek Street BY KATHLEEN MOORE Gazette Reporter
A used car salesman is arguing that he owns a section of the city’s roads. Sev’s Pre-Owned Luxury Autos has been parking vehicles on Maxon Road for more than two decades, after the city abandoned the road in the 1980s. Now the city wants the road back — and the company is suing to keep it. The company’s attorney is arguing that Sev’s has taken “adverse possession” by using the land for so long without any complaint from the city. “If you occupy and use a piece of property for 10 years, that property can become yours,” attorney Mark Lebowitz said. “If you occupy and use it openly, act in all respects as if it’s yours, you can claim adverse possession.” He said Sev’s has plowed, maintained and improved the roadway, a length of pavement about 100 feet long. Sev’s claimed the road from its intersection with Erie Boulevard to the city’s barricades beyond the underpass. The only building in that area is the car dealership. City officials have rejected the argument, saying that no one is legally allowed to claim adverse possession for municipal property. But Lebowitz said an abandoned road can be claimed. “You can’t if it was owned for governmental purposes,” he said. “If it was just a piece of woods and you built a house there, you could.” And he thinks the city will be unable to prove that it ever owned the road. ...............>>>>......................>>>>.................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r00901&AppName=1
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