Bethel, Alliance settlement

Zoning change for 17B

By FRITZ MAYER

KAUNEONGA LAKE, NY — One of the many thorny issues surrounding the Toronto Reservoir is well on the way to being settled.

Alliance Energy and the Town of Bethel have reached a tentative agreement about the assessment of Alliance’s property. Alliance, which owns the Toronto, Swinging Bridge, Mongaup Falls and Rio Reservoirs, as well as Cliff Lake and four hydropower plants, has been battling with multiple towns to have the assessed values of their properties reduced.

At the Bethel town meeting on October 14, supervisor Dan Sturm said that the town had reached a tentative agreement with Alliance on a reduced assessment, which would lower the company’s tax payment. Before he announced the terms, however, he reiterated what had happened in other towns.

In February, in Lumberland, where Alliance holdings had been assessed at $16 million, the town agreed to reduce the assessment to $6 million or by about 62 percent. Five months ago in Forestburgh, the town agreed to drop the assessment from $13 million to $6.5 million, or about 51 percent.

The agreement with Bethel calls for a reduction from $2.68 million to $2.5 million, or a reduction of about five percent. “I couldn’t be more pleased,” Sturm said.

The board voted unanimously to accept the deal, which should end litigation that has been ongoing for about a year.

Several issues regarding the Toronto Reservoir remain to be settled. Some 33 residents who own property on the reservoir are pursuing a legal fight to have their assessments reduced because, they claim, the low water levels at the reservoir over the year have negatively impact the value of their property. And the issue of community access to the reservoir through The Chapin Estate remains in litigation.

Another development at the Bethel meeting had to do with changing the zoning on Route 17B from the Citgo gas station to the McKean Real Estate office. The current zoning is commercial, but the zoning extends only 250 feet back from the road. The proposed change would expand the commercial zone to 750 feet on either side of the road.

The Sullivan County Department of Planning and Environmental Management endorsed the change in a letter saying that it would promote “positive intercommunity impacts by enhancing retail and commercial opportunities within the 17B corridor by fostering a walkable environment.”

A public hearing on the zoning change was set for November 4.