WILMINGTON — A group of Wilmington residents who are against a proposed “town house” development near the town beach are organizing an effort to stop it from happening, going as far as threatening an Article 78 lawsuit if the project is approved.
A group of more than 30 citizens attended a meeting at the town hall Tuesday night to discuss how best to prevent the 10-acre, 36-unit development proposed by First Columbia, a Latham-based real estate development company. First Columbia has applied to the zoning board of appeals for a density variance because Wilmington’s land-use code allows a maximum of 20 units on 10 acres.
“We are ready to file the Article 78,” said Rose Ann Cooney at Tuesday night’s meeting. “We want the town to know it is gross negligence if you don’t follow zoning laws.”
Cooney and her husband Larry Hegele own and operate Whiteface Suites and Cabins, a property adjacent to the proposed project.
A Nov. 19 public hearing on the project was held at Whiteface Mountain Ski Center, with most of those who attended speaking in opposition to it. Zoning board members who attended Tuesday’s meeting said the public hearing was the first time they had heard any opposition to the project, even though it has been in the works for more than seven months.
“The public hearing was the first time I knew anybody had any complaints,” said zoning board member Tom Hinman.
“For seven months I had heard no opposition at all,” agreed Jerry Bottcher, another zoning board member.
But this is not the first time Cooney and Hegele have spoken out against the project. In a letter to the town board and town planning board dated May 19, the two outlined why they are opposed to the project, including six ways they say the development violates the land-use code. They submitted another letter on Dec. 2 stating their intent to file an Article 78 lawsuit should the variance be granted, and encouraged others to do the same. A petition in opposition to the project is also being circulated.
“More importantly, there are laws that govern the decisions you make,” Cooney told members of the zoning board. “It has nothing to do with public opinion.”
Cooney said that although she would still not be in favor of the project if the developer scaled the project back to just the 20 units the land use code allows, she would have to accept it because it falls within the constraints of the law.
“I don’t agree on it, but it’s legal,” she said.
A September written report from Saranac Lake-based Northwoods Engineering, a firm paid for by First Columbia to inspect the septic and stormwater system designs of the project, concludes that the systems will not physically fit on the site.
“No amount of additional information will change my mind that the shoe doesn’t fit,” engineer Cindy Garso wrote in an e-mail to the board.
According to town code enforcement officer, Robert Guynup, First Columbia has submitted revised plans, which include a scaled-back version with 33 units in 11 buildings, down from the original proposal of 36 units in 12 buildings. Representatives from First Columbia did not return phone calls from the News as of press time. The town zoning board meets the third Wednesday of each month at the town hall.
