Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Seven Springs petitioners fight bill limiting village creation
A group of Hasidic property owners that petitioned to form a new village next to Kiryas Joel is urging state lawmakers to reject a bill that could block those plans by raising the bar for incorporating a village in New York.
The pending legislation would grant town supervisors more discretion over the formation of villages by allowing them to reject a petition if it doesn’t serve the “overall public interest” or comply with the town’s Comprehensive Plan. The bill also would let all town voters cast ballots in a referendum to decide the fate of a proposed village, rather than limit the vote strictly to residents of the area to be incorporated.
Skoufis, the Woodbury Democrat who introduced the bill, has argued New York’s village incorporation law is outdated and makes it too easy to create breakaway villages, requiring just 500 inhabitants and a petition that meets all technical requirements.
Steven Barshov, the attorney for the Village of Seven Springs petitioners in Monroe, fired back with a memo in opposition to all senators and Assembly members last week, calling the proposal an attempted power shift that would undermine “the right of self-determination” of New Yorkers who want to form a village. He said the bill would “vest control over village incorporation in the town supervisor, who has no reason or incentive to approve it.”
Barshov’s clients are the second set of village petitioners to fight the legislation. Westchester County residents who have pushed for three years to create the Village of Edgemont in the Town of Greenburgh - and recently filed their second petition - have reportedly bombarded the office of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins with calls to oppose the Skoufis bill.
Neither chamber has approved the legislation, and just six voting days are left before lawmakers adjourn for the year. A Senate committee cleared the bill for a floor vote last month, but the Assembly’s Local Government Committee hasn’t taken it up.
The chairman of that Assembly committee, Fred Thiele, is also sponsoring the bill, and like Skoufis, has a proposed village in his district. That proposal near the eastern end of Long Island hit a roadblock on Monday, when the Southampton town supervisor rejected the Village of East Quogue petition because of flaws in its list of residents.
Barshov, in an interview on Tuesday, called the Skoufis bill “terrible public policy,” arguing that both sponsors were trying to change standards for new villages for the whole state based on proposals in their own districts.
“This is not the reason why you change the law - because you don’t like a village forming in your own backyard,” Barshov said.
Skoufis, in a statement responding to Barshov’s memo, accused the lawyer of using “exaggerations and falsehoods” to try to fool lawmakers and paint the bill as discriminatory against the Seven Springs petitioners. He described the petitioners as “disgruntled developers” who want to “cash in on a new village” and will “say and do anything to get their way.”
“My bill would hold hostile village incorporation petitions like Seven Springs accountable to the town they are trying to form within,” Skoufis said.
The Seven Springs petition, which would create a 1.9-square-mile village with just 610 residents and lots of vacant land, is awaiting a decision in a state Supreme Court lawsuit. The petitioners are demanding the Town of Monroe take up their proposal before a rival annexation request by Kiryas Joel that involves some of the same properties.
https://www.recordonline.com/news/20190611/seven-springs-petitioners-fight-bill-limiting-village-creation
The pending legislation would grant town supervisors more discretion over the formation of villages by allowing them to reject a petition if it doesn’t serve the “overall public interest” or comply with the town’s Comprehensive Plan. The bill also would let all town voters cast ballots in a referendum to decide the fate of a proposed village, rather than limit the vote strictly to residents of the area to be incorporated.
Skoufis, the Woodbury Democrat who introduced the bill, has argued New York’s village incorporation law is outdated and makes it too easy to create breakaway villages, requiring just 500 inhabitants and a petition that meets all technical requirements.
Steven Barshov, the attorney for the Village of Seven Springs petitioners in Monroe, fired back with a memo in opposition to all senators and Assembly members last week, calling the proposal an attempted power shift that would undermine “the right of self-determination” of New Yorkers who want to form a village. He said the bill would “vest control over village incorporation in the town supervisor, who has no reason or incentive to approve it.”
Barshov’s clients are the second set of village petitioners to fight the legislation. Westchester County residents who have pushed for three years to create the Village of Edgemont in the Town of Greenburgh - and recently filed their second petition - have reportedly bombarded the office of Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins with calls to oppose the Skoufis bill.
Neither chamber has approved the legislation, and just six voting days are left before lawmakers adjourn for the year. A Senate committee cleared the bill for a floor vote last month, but the Assembly’s Local Government Committee hasn’t taken it up.
The chairman of that Assembly committee, Fred Thiele, is also sponsoring the bill, and like Skoufis, has a proposed village in his district. That proposal near the eastern end of Long Island hit a roadblock on Monday, when the Southampton town supervisor rejected the Village of East Quogue petition because of flaws in its list of residents.
Barshov, in an interview on Tuesday, called the Skoufis bill “terrible public policy,” arguing that both sponsors were trying to change standards for new villages for the whole state based on proposals in their own districts.
“This is not the reason why you change the law - because you don’t like a village forming in your own backyard,” Barshov said.
Skoufis, in a statement responding to Barshov’s memo, accused the lawyer of using “exaggerations and falsehoods” to try to fool lawmakers and paint the bill as discriminatory against the Seven Springs petitioners. He described the petitioners as “disgruntled developers” who want to “cash in on a new village” and will “say and do anything to get their way.”
“My bill would hold hostile village incorporation petitions like Seven Springs accountable to the town they are trying to form within,” Skoufis said.
The Seven Springs petition, which would create a 1.9-square-mile village with just 610 residents and lots of vacant land, is awaiting a decision in a state Supreme Court lawsuit. The petitioners are demanding the Town of Monroe take up their proposal before a rival annexation request by Kiryas Joel that involves some of the same properties.
https://www.recordonline.com/news/20190611/seven-springs-petitioners-fight-bill-limiting-village-creation
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