NEW PALTZ >> Wilmorite, the Rochester-based development firm, has filed a notice of appeal to a court ruling that upheld a New Paltz town Planning Board decision rejecting the Park Point SUNY housing project based on a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement with the Ulster County Industrial Development Agency.
At a Town Board meeting Thursday, town attorney George Lithco said the notice merely preserves the developer’s right to dispute the court ruling, and does not make any specific claims.
“This is a very fact-driven case,” Lithco said. “I’m sure there will be a lot of arguments based on what the Planning Board did and what the court failed to consider.”
In March, acting state Supreme Court Justice Michael Melkonian ruled that town officials could base their approvals on financial impacts to the community.
“There is nothing in the record to support (Wilmorite’s) claim that the Planning Board unlawfully usurped the authority of the IDA,” the judge wrote. “The IDA set the PILOT (payment-in-lieu-of-taxes agreement). The Planning Board simply determined that the amount and terms set by the IDA were insufficient to mitigate the adverse fiscal impacts. Both of these determinations were within the discretionary authority of each agency. Nothing requires that one defer to the other.”
Town Supervisor Susan Zimet said she expected the appeal because the judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the town against the county Industrial Development Agency over its approval of tax breaks for the project.
“As soon as they threw out our IDA (lawsuit), I knew the appeal was coming in a heartbeat,” she said. “If he (had) decided it and we had won it, then I think Wilmorite would have had to think twice about the fact that they had two strikes.”
Zimet said the town has insurance coverage for the legal expenses and has only been responsible for the first $10,000 of attorney fees.
Under a 25-year payment-in-lieu-of-taxes plan approved by the Industrial Development Agency last April, Park Point developer Wilmorite would have paid taxes of $750 for each of the 696 student housing beds proposed for the project the first year. The $522,000 total would have been divided among local taxing jurisdictions based on the percentage calculated by tax rates, and adjustments would be made annually to the per-bed rate based on a state index for student housing.
Town Board members at the time of the tax agreement argued that taxes at the full $53.4 million assessment for Park Point would have generated $237,013 annually for Ulster County; $385,023 for the town; and $1,058,282.27 for the New Paltz school district. Under the tax agreement, the county would have received $73,629; the town, $119,609; and the school district, $328,761.
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