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Canton town board approves annex near Sullivan Drive

Posted 9/15/19

By ADAM ATKINSON North Country This Week CANTON – The town board has approved the request by Argent Development to allow the village to annex a 3.3-acre lot off Sullivan Drive from the town. …

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Canton town board approves annex near Sullivan Drive

Posted

By ADAM ATKINSON

North Country This Week

CANTON – The town board has approved the request by Argent Development to allow the village to annex a 3.3-acre lot off Sullivan Drive from the town.

Argent, which owns the lot, wants the village to take over jurisdiction of the land so the developer can supply village water and sewer services to several proposed housing projects on the land.

Both village and town boards have approved Argent’s petition to have the lot annexed.

The village recently approved a State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) study of the annexation, finding no negative impacts from such a move, and has signed off on the annexation itself.

According to the state’s general municipal law, residents within the territory to be annexed that are registered to vote – in this case 4 or 5 individuals who live in a townhouse-style apartment complex there – have an option to approve whether to accept the annexation or not.

Previous discussions about this approval, probably in the form of a special election, have raised some concerns from the members of both boards, primarily about cost. Options have been discussed on how the vote should be handled, whether by special election, during the general election or by a petition probably brought door to door.

Daniel C. Ramsey of Pease and Gustafson LLP, the village’s legal counsel, said that the county election commission has indicated they would support the municipalities whichever way they decide to handle the issue.

The town would be in charge of handling the special election.

Ramsey said the idea behind the residential approval is that, in theory, it would insulate the municipality from the possibility that an aggrieved resident in the annexed territory who didn’t have a say in the annexation could later challenge the village takeover of the lot.

The board agreed to approve the annexation, but directed the town attorney to research with village counsel on the best way to handle the resident vote issue.

Argent Development plans to construct housing matching style and design of the existing apartment building there. Three to five houses could be built on the site, featuring 1200 to 1400 square feet of living space and three bedrooms each.

The current apartment unit receives village water and sewer services through an agreement reached with the village several years ago. That agreement does not now allow those services to be extended throughout the lot to potential development of single family residences or duplexes.

The annexation into the village will allow extension of village water and sewer services throughout the lot to the housing sites proposed.