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Post-Standard,
The (Syracuse, NY) July 17, 2003 HARDSCRABBLE POINT HOMEOWNERS MEET WITH SPAFFORD TOWN BOARD. Sara Errington Staff writer Three residents of
Hardscrabble Point, a cluster of homes on Skaneateles Lake, came to the
July 10 Spafford Town Board meeting with a question for the board
members.
"Is there going to be a comprehensive plan in the town or are we
just going to be zoning helter-skelter along the lake and perhaps change
the character of the lake?" asked Stephen Buechner, a landscape architect
who said he's owned a home at the point for decades. "In my wildest dreams I never imagined that someone would go down
and build a 5,000-square-foot home," Buechner said.
The buyer pulled out when percolation tests on the property failed
to find a spot where a septic system could be placed, he said, but the
property remains on the market.
Other camps have already been knocked down and replaced with grand
lakefront homes, and the rural character of the area is slowly vanishing,
he said.
He suggested that updated zoning laws could help shape the
development that is creeping south down the shores of Skaneateles Lake.
The only addition to the town's zoning since 1973 is a section on
communications towers, he said.
"I guess I'm a little bit from the old school," Town Supervisor
Gordon Ireland replied. "I really hate bureaucracy and I hate to have
people pitting a neighbor against a neighbor. We've already got some of
that in this town and it's not a positive thing."
Ireland said he's more concerned about the poor people in the town
who can barely hold onto their land than he is about rich people building
big homes on the lake.
"I'm not against everything you're saying but I don't want a lot
more restrictions than what we really need," he said.
Ireland said that zoning in Skaneateles hasn't seemed to stop
people from replacing cottages with big fancy homes on the lake.
"I don't know how you really restrict somebody. If I wanted to ...
put up a half-million dollar house I think I should be entitled to do
that," he said.
"They have got so much money to spend on these kind of places. They
want to be on the lake and money doesn't appear to be a problem," Ireland
said.
Buechner asked if it would be useful for him to discuss the town's
zoning with the town planning board. Ireland encouraged Buechner to do so.
In other business
The town board voted to honor Edwin Lukens, 81, of West Lake Road.
Lukens, a retired teacher and coach, set a world record in the men's 80 to
84 age group triple jump in March at the USATF National Masters Indoor
Track and Field Championships in Boston. Copyright, 2003, The
Herald Company | ||