Smallwood and the road that wasn’t there

Bethel to be dealing with a lot

By CHRIS CONROY

BETHEL, NY — Smallwood has a unique situation, said Smallwood Civic Association president Herman Wiener, when it comes to “NOHs” and property sizes.

Paper streets

Non-operating highways, commonly known as NOHs or paper streets, pepper the hamlet of Smallwood.

NOHs are the remnants of roads that were planned, some as far back as the original development of the hamlet, but were never officially cut and placed on the town’s official road inventory. For years, the land set aside for the roads languished, not usable by property owners due to the reserved right-of-ways that ran through them.

According to the Bethel Town Board, tax numbers were assigned to most of the paper streets in 1990 and the parcels ended up on the tax auction block. This led to many being bought sight-unseen by people from out of the area. When buyers discovered the purchased parcels were unusable, sometimes even inaccessible, properties returned to the tax auction block.

Seeing this as a problem, the town board convinced the county to allow the town to deal with the paper streets. For the past few years, residents who own property bordered by Smallwood’s paper streets have been able to purchase them, thereby adding to their own property acreage. There are restrictions in place. The paper streets, while unofficial, still carry a requirement that they remain clear of permanent structures and other blockages.

Usually, there is no problem in the sale of a paper street or its management once it is sold.

But a handful of issues have arisen. These few occurrences have been severe enough for the board to put a moratorium on the selling of any more paper streets.

Possibly the most onerous of the issues centers around Drum Street.

The Drum Street situation was brought to the board by the Smallwood Civic Association late last year. In researching the matter, they discovered that Drum Street had been accidentally assigned a tax number. But Drum Street is not a paper street, it is a town road. It was also sold to a property owner on its length.

As the board has searched for a legal remedy for the erroneous sale, which cannot just be summarily revoked, the new owner of the street has, according to the civic association, put up a private road sign and blocked the right-of-way on a regular basis. This has caused distress to another property owner, who relies on Drum Street for access to her home.

As of the May 23 meeting, there has still been no resolution. The board committed to sending another letter to the purchaser, this time from town legal counsel, reminding him of the need to keep the right-of-way clear and that the official name of the road is still Drum Street.

Small lots

Smallwood is also plagued property lots that are too small to accommodate year-round wells and septic systems. In years past, this hasn’t been much of a problem since many Smallwood homes were seasonal.

In recent years, more and more people are moving to the hamlet as permanent residents. According to civic association members, this is leading to serious concerns among homeowners.

John Law is one of the residents with concerns.

Law’s property lies at the bottom of two hills. Homes up-hill from him, which were formerly seasonal residences, were recently converted to year-round homes. In order to do that, septic systems and wells have had to be put in.

The problem is, Law said at the May 23 town board meeting, there’s not really enough space for those features to be put in. At least not without infringing on his property. He’s also concerned about what the placement of septic tanks and leach fields up-hill from his wellhead could do to his water.

“We’ve had [the water] tested,” he said, “and thankfully it’s still good.”

Board member Lyndon Lilley voiced his concerns on the issue, painting a dire picture if something were to go wrong.

“Smallwood is full of marginal septic systems and wells as it is,” he said. If variances are granted and rules are bent, Lilley said there is the potential for contamination of the hamlet’s entire water table. That, he said, would lead to the expensive endeavor of putting in a full-blown public water and sewer system.

The board resolved to send a notice to the building department, asking for a report on the process used to determine the safety of the well and septic system of Law’s neighbor.