OSWEGO, NY – The Common Council voted 4-3 Monday night in favor of assisting a local developer.
At last week’s Physical Services Committee, Alderman Mike Joyce (R-Seventh Ward) requested a discussion regarding having the city pave Sophie Drive.
The development is in the Seventh Ward and is owned by John Darling.
Joyce pointed out that the money the city spends to help out the developer will be returned to the city in just a few years in the form of property taxes.
No action was taken at the committee level. Monday night it was brought to the council floor without further committee discussion.
Council President Dan Donovan (R-Fifth Ward) said he wouldn’t support such a resolution until the city had a policy in place regarding how to fairly deal with such requests.
“The whole purpose of the committee meeting is to discuss agenda items and get them set for council,” Council Vice President Connie Cosemento (D-First Ward) pointed out. “This had some serious concerns. I think it’s a bad precedent for councilors to bring things off the floor that have not gone through committee. This item never came to resolution.”
Approving this resolution opens the door to the council getting all kinds of requests, she warned.
Budget time is coming up for the city, and even though she hopes not, the city may have to look at its employees as it tries to balance the 2009 budget, she noted.
It would cost approximately $11,000 for the city to put down the base coat of blacktop. Each of the developer’s eight townhouses would be assessed for more than $178,000.
“So, in about five years, with our labor cost and everything, we should see a return on our money,” Joyce said at the committee meeting. “I think this is a good, positive start in development … the city will be showing a return within a certain period of time.”
Cosemento feels it’s too much of a gamble.
“It’s not fair to our taxpayers, who can barely afford their taxes, that we’re going to enable the developer (with taxpayer dollars,” she said. “This is a bad precedent; the city is not a bank, we should not be using taxpayer money and heavy equipment used to service the taxpayers. This is premature.”
Joyce noted the eight townhouses have to be completed before the city does the topcoat paving.
“It’s a win-win for the city. We’re going to put out money to help the developer along, but we’re going to receive this tax revenue in the future and if we don’t, the developer is going to pay it,” Joyce said.
The city needs to develop, he added.
“This is what we need to do. We need to move forward. We need a larger tax base,” he said.
Cosemento said she has received some call from people who are opposed to the plan.
The mayor will meet with the developer to negotiate an agreement.
Cosemento, Donovan and Bill Sharkey (R-Sixth Ward) voted against the resolution.
Besides Joyce, Mike Myers (R-Second Ward), Sue Sweet (R-Third Ward), and Shawn Walker (R-Fourth Ward) voted in favor of the resolution.
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Nice example of four council members ignoring what the people want and taking care of their friends.
Joyce, Sweet, Myers, and Walker continue to show that they are in office to please a select of the residents and screw everyone else.
Hey…I need my house re-roofed and some new windows and how about some new siding? The city can pay for it and just up my assessment to get it back some time in the future. The argument used to back this proposal is ludicrous at best!
Unbelievable, OUR tax dollars at work. More proof the four [insult referring to Aldermen removed here] are just the Republican [insult meaning “those who follow the party line” removed here] (as is always the way) for big business, [insult implying criminal activity removed here], meet the new GOP, same as the old GOP, their buddies win, us taxpayers lose.
[People who sign their names get more leeway with strong comments, as per our rules. But the “no insults” rule is hard and fast, hence the edits above. -Editor]
[Insult meaning “Voters or taxpayers” removed here] voted them in, and now their pals are getting what they want!
When will Oswego learn?
The city has been paving new developments for over 50 years. Who do you think paved Presidential Plaza subdivision? Who do you think paved Barden Drive, or the Pond Path development? What about Sunrise Subdivision? S.W. 8th st? Brittany Hills? Woodridge? Kingsford Woods? Windsong Drive? Crestwood? Fairview Terrace? Whitetall Circle? Country Lane? Lynian Way?
The Charter of the City of Oswego specifies that the what the city will install on new developments. The city provides the water and the base coat of blacktop on top of a street bed prepared by the developer with water, sewer, gas, electric, cable, telephone already installed.
How many subdivisions do you think would be developed in (backward, no economic development) Oswego if the city didnt participate to the minimal extent that it does? My answer would be zero. In fact, during the second half of the Sullivan administration and all of the Hammill administration, subdivision development stopped.
Not a single new housing project was started. It was only once Gosek came into office that we saw additional housing developed. Gosek oversaw the finalization of the upper section of Woodridge, Crestwood, Crestwood South and Darling Drive.
SO what do you want Connie and crew? No development at all, or development with a little help from all the taxpayers who will eventually reap the benefits of 1.5 million of additional tax base for the City, County and School district.
What the heck?????