The agenda for the special Irondequoit Town Board meeting that was called for 4 p.m. today, Wednesday, Jan. 23, had one item for board action, worded this way: “Adopt a resolution approving the PILOT agreement for the I-Square project.”
It didn’t happen.
Instead, the resolution, which had apparently gone through several changes over course of the day, was tabled.
Many in the full house that had come out, in frigid temperatures and on snowy roads, to the Broderick room at Irondequoit Town Hall for the meeting again went home frustrated.
I-Square, the “town center” development proposed by Irondequoit residents Mike and Wendy Nolan, who plan to fund it privately, and the Town Board have been at odds over a requested PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes agreement, the Nolans requested to make the project viable.
The Nolans requested a 25-year PILOT. The standard PILOT is 10 years. This past summer, the Town Board approved a 10-year PILOT. Mike Nolan said the project would not move forward.
The PILOT gets final approval from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA), but also needs the okay of the town and the West Irondequoit School District, since all three entities receive property tax revenue from the project site, at the intersection of Titus Avenue and Cooper Road. The school district has agreed to the PILOT.
After the town agreed only to the 10-year pilot, the two sides — the town and the developer — did eventually start meeting again, and seemed to have come to agreement on a 15-year PILOT with two five-year extensions. The final details just had to be hammered out.
Then the Nolans saw the resolution to be considered this afternoon for the first time late this morning. There was a paragraph, to which the Nolans objected, that authorized “the town supervisor and her advisors to enter into negotiations related to the execution and delivery of a custom PILOT agreement.”
They’ve been there and done that, Mike Nolan said. He’s ready for his dealings with the town to come to an end.
The resolution was revised, and shortly after this afternoon’s meeting got under way, the Town Board went into executive (private) session for “advice of counsel.”
When the board reconvened in public session, town attorney David Kresock said the board would not be acting, but instead taking the recommended revisions “under advisement.”
“I’m tired of this,” Mike Nolan said after the board voted to table the resolution. “I’m not going to continue to beg the town ... they made a grave mistake today.”
The agenda for the special Irondequoit Town Board meeting that was called for 4 p.m. today, Wednesday, Jan. 23, had one item for board action, worded this way: “Adopt a resolution approving the PILOT agreement for the I-Square project.”
It didn’t happen.
Instead, the resolution, which had apparently gone through several changes over course of the day, was tabled.
Many in the full house that had come out, in frigid temperatures and on snowy roads, to the Broderick room at Irondequoit Town Hall for the meeting again went home frustrated.
I-Square, the “town center” development proposed by Irondequoit residents Mike and Wendy Nolan, who plan to fund it privately, and the Town Board have been at odds over a requested PILOT, or payment in lieu of taxes agreement, the Nolans requested to make the project viable.
The Nolans requested a 25-year PILOT. The standard PILOT is 10 years. This past summer, the Town Board approved a 10-year PILOT. Mike Nolan said the project would not move forward.
The PILOT gets final approval from the County of Monroe Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA), but also needs the okay of the town and the West Irondequoit School District, since all three entities receive property tax revenue from the project site, at the intersection of Titus Avenue and Cooper Road. The school district has agreed to the PILOT.
After the town agreed only to the 10-year pilot, the two sides — the town and the developer — did eventually start meeting again, and seemed to have come to agreement on a 15-year PILOT with two five-year extensions. The final details just had to be hammered out.
Then the Nolans saw the resolution to be considered this afternoon for the first time late this morning. There was a paragraph, to which the Nolans objected, that authorized “the town supervisor and her advisors to enter into negotiations related to the execution and delivery of a custom PILOT agreement.”
They’ve been there and done that, Mike Nolan said. He’s ready for his dealings with the town to come to an end.
The resolution was revised, and shortly after this afternoon’s meeting got under way, the Town Board went into executive (private) session for “advice of counsel.”
When the board reconvened in public session, town attorney David Kresock said the board would not be acting, but instead taking the recommended revisions “under advisement.”
“I’m tired of this,” Mike Nolan said after the board voted to table the resolution. “I’m not going to continue to beg the town ... they made a grave mistake today.”
Nolan said today was the third time the Town Board has considered a PILOT resolution — and the third time they’ve failed to come to terms.
“I thought this was all done, up to two hours ago,” Nolan said. “Again, they’ve (the board) let us down.”
Nolan said he isn’t sure what his next step will be, but looks forward to election day in November, when three board seats, including the town supervisor’s position, will be up.
Supervisor Mary Joyce D’Aurizio said she’s willing to go back into negotiation with the Nolans and both his and the town’s attorneys.
“This is one I think we really can work out,” she said, later admitting that she does not want to gamble on losing the project altogether.
D’Aurizio added that the Nolans have to show “some benchmarks” for the PILOT extensions that will show some growth.
The Nolans said the resolution already includes those benchmarks. It does talk about the base PILOT payment, annual increases, deadlines for completing aspects of the project, and more. (Download the original resolution, from this morning, at www.irondequoit.org/content/view/200/670/
Town Councilwoman Deborah Essley said the benchmarks had not been “ironed out,” which is why the provision for D’Aurizio to remain involved with negotiations was added.
“Something of this magnitude and for this length of time (25 years) can’t be rushed,” Essley said.
Nolan says the board just keeps them going “round in circles.”
“I feel like a gerbil on a wheel,” he said. “We’ve had 13 meetings on this now.”
Irena Skrobach, the newest member of the Town Board, said it appears the town wants “some kind of oversight” over the benchmarking for the project, and added that she does want more clarity on the process.
Irondequoit resident and I-Square supporter Brian Charles said after the meeting he thinks the issue comes down to “lack of leadership.”
“From the number of fits and stops and go-rounds this has had, there’s still no leadership from the town to make something happen,” Charles said. “If I did that at work, I’d be out of a job.”
