The Sharon Springs Joint Planning Board is being sued over its November approval of the Key farm subdivision.
In an Article 78 petition dated December 14 and received by the Town of Sharon Wednesday, December 27, Peter Doherty, George and Kathlyn Craft, Christopher Eastman, John Funicello, Scott and Kathie Ryan, Mitchell Owens, Matthew Zwissler, and K. Richard Van Dyke contend the JPB failed to follow SEQRA procedure and requirements and failed to properly advertise a September 13 meeting, violating the state Open Meetings Law, in regard request to subdivide the Staleyville dairy farm into 23 housing lots.
The lawsuit seeks to have the JPB’s decision annulled and also asks the respondents—the JPB, developer New York Land & Lakes, neighbor Aaron France, and Raymond Jr., Pamela, and Scott Key to cover legal costs.
“This is a bill that will be put on taxpayers,” said Supervisor Sandra Manko, who defended the JPB as one of the best and best-trained in Schoharie County.
“I’ve lost track of how many copies of laws they’ve written that I’ve handed out to other supervisors. The Planning Board studied at this for months and months… It’s easy to sue when you don’t like a decision and I guess that’s what this is.”
In a 4-3 vote on November 15, 2017, and after months of discussion, the JPB approved the Keys subdivision contingent on DEC approval of a plan to mitigate the project’s potential impact on the Norhhern Harrier—marsh hawk—which nests at the site.
The neighbors named in the lawsuit were among those who argued the subdivision—permitted under the town’s land use code—would impact their farms by chopping up and limiting access to farmland.
They also worried that it would increase traffic and stress their already fragile and unpredictable wells.
The lawsuit charges that the JPB’s actions “were made in error of law, constitute an abuse of discretion, were made in violation of lawful procedure, and were made in an arbitrary and capricious manner…”
The petitioners are being represented by Andrew Brick, attorney for the Donald Zee Law Firm in Albany; JPB Chairman Rat Parsons and Secretary Mary Ann Larkin have been ordered to appear at the Albany County Courthouse on Wednesday, January 31 at 9:30am.