Council Approves Assisting Developer To Move City Forward

by Steve Yablonski | June 23, 2008 11:20 pm

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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Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/news/fulton/council-approves-assisting-developer-to-move-city-forward/

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