Rotterdam NY...the people's voice

ROTTERDAM
Firm suing over Sync land zoning
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    A Galesi Group subsidiary has filed a lawsuit against Rotterdam and Sync Realty, claiming that town officials engaged in spot zoning when they approved a rezone of the former military housing complex off Duanesburg Road.
    Rotterdam Ventures claims the Town Board changed the Sync-owned property’s zoning from industrial to multi-family residential without conducting any of the necessary studies prescribed under state law. In addition, the company alleges the zone change contradicts the town’s comprehensive plan and doesn’t fit with the character of the surrounding area.
    “The comprehensive plan has consistently designated the area for light industrial uses and the rezoning is inconsistent with and contrary to decades of consistent planning and zoning designed to preserve the industrial character of the neighborhood surrounding the property,” attorney Jeffrey Baker stated in the 22-page challenge fi led in Schenectady County Supreme Court last month. “The zoning change was not calculated to benefit the community as a whole but adopted solely for the benefit of Sync without regard for any consideration proper to the Town Board’s exercise of its delegated zoning power.”
    Board members approved the rezoning of the eight-acre property in mid-April, despite the Schenectady County Planning Board, the Rotterdam Planning Commission and the town’s Comprehensive Plan Committee all recommending against the change. Prior to the approval, an attorney from the Galesi Group indicated the company would bring legal action if the zone change were granted for the property, which includes six apartment buildings, a two-story duplex townhouse and a singlefamily ranch-style residence.
    Andrew Brick, an attorney representing Sync in the case, scoffed at the lawsuit. He questioned why Rotterdam Ventures would claim the property is not suitable for multi-family residential uses when there are roughly a half-dozen occupied homes located on the Galesi-owned Rotterdam Corporate Park property at the end of Westcott Road.
    “It’s the most hypocritical lawsuit I’ve ever seen,” he said. “[The lawsuit] also fails to take into account that the property was never analyzed for comprehensive plan purposes because it was government-owned at the time.”
    Town Attorney Michael Godlewski said he’ll work with Sync’s attorneys to defend the case. He referred all other comments to Brick.
    “We will coordinate with our co-counsel to make sure a viable defense is put forth,” he said.
    David Buicko, Galesi’s chief operating officer, declined to comment.
    If the legal challenge is successful, Sync would be back where the company was in July 2008. For nearly two years, Sync rented apartments at the complex illegally, since it wasn’t zoned for residential uses.
    Sync outbid Galesi to purchase the property at auction for $1.92 million in April 2008. The purchase was followed by pair of unsucessful lawsuits Sync waged agains Galesi and the town.
    The first lawsuit was aimed at preventing Galesi from shutting off a sanitary sewer pipe running from the complex to the corporate park. In June 2009, the Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling in favor of Galesi. The complex is now connected to the town’s sanitary sewer.
    Sync filed another lawsuit against the town challenging the Zoning Board of Appeals’ decision that the military’s residential use of the property did not carry over when it was purchased at auction. A county Supreme Court judge upheld that decision during a ruling in October 2009, which compelled Sync to fi nally file a zone change application for the property later in the month.
    But the zone change application remained “dormant” from the time it was filed until February, according to the lawsuit. When a new Town Board took office, the application was revived and then hurried through the approval process without any environmental impact studies, the suit says. ....................>>>>.......................>>>>.....................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....r01102&AppName=1