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The following article ran in the August 16, 2000, issue of the Daily Messenger and is reprinted here with permission.

Drumlins developer seeks judgment

A company with plans to build rental housing is suing to get sewer service.

By KRIS DREESSEN
Messenger Post Staff

VICTOR - The developer of the proposed Drumlins apartment complex is asking a state Supreme Court judge to rule on the lawsuit it filed against the village to gain access to Victor's sewer system.

Village attorney William Kocher said the village was served with the motion for summary judgment Friday. He declined to comment on the case.

The project developer, The Pioneer Corp., and John G. Turner, president of Ontario Heights Development, are suing the village to get sewer service to the proposed project. Ontario Heights Development owns the land, and Pioneer is the project developer.

Pioneer wants to build 154 upscale apartments in the existing Drumlins subdivision off Rawson Road in Victor, but the village says it's unable to take on the additional waste water from the complex. The town Planning Board deemed the proposal incomplete because the village said it cannot provide sewer service to the complex. The project has been in limbo for months.

With the summary judgment action, Pioneer and Turner are asking a state Supreme Court judge in Canandaigua to hear arguments in the case and make a ruling, instead of having the case go to trial. A hearing date is scheduled for Sept. 12, according to summary judgment court documents.

The village could appeal the judge's decision in the Appellate Division if it loses, Kocher said. If the village were to win an appeal, the case would be referred to trial, he said.

Jerry Goldman, attorney for Pioneer and Turner, declined to comment on the case.

Pioneer and Turner filed the lawsuit against the village in April. According to court documents, the lawsuit alleges that the Village Board approved in July 1986 an agreement that the village would provide sewer service for 192 residential units in a portion of The Drumlins, in exchange for Turner paying for cleanup of an oxidation pond that forms part of the village sewer system. According to the lawsuit, Turner honored the agreement and 20 residences were linked - but the village is still required to link another 172 units to the system.

In the motion for summary judgment, Goldman said the village is essentially admitting the existence of an agreement.

As part of its official response, the village alleges that Turner “failed to complete the work as specified" in the 1986 agreement, and that work did not rectify operational problems at the waste water treatment plant and therefore the village is "not obligated to supply any additional out of village sewer units." The village also alleges that sewer hook-ups to the site were to have taken place within a reasonable period of time. The village has spent more than $2 million trying to resolve waste water treatment plant problems, according to the response.

Mayor Tom Walker has said the village sewer system cannot handle water from the Drumlins project. Walker outlined sewer problems in a letter to Pioneer's attorney last spring, in which he said that the village is operating under a consent order by the state Department of Environmental Conservation and has until fall to upgrade its system.

Even if the village agreed or was ordered to provide sewer services to the Drumlins, it would still need to be approved by the DEC, according to the village response document.

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