Court rejects final lawsuit blocking Costco Wholesale in Guilderland:
https://www.timesunion.com/business/...%20the%20knick
"A mid-level appeals court on Thursday upheld the town’s Industrial Development Agency’s decision to seize unused streets in the town to allow the construction of a Costco Wholesale store there. The unanimous ruling appears to be the last legal hurdle Costco and Pyramid Management needed to clear to build the store next to Pyramid’s Crossgates Mall.
“Upon our review, we are constrained to find that the condemnation … was for a valid public purpose,” Thursday’s decision from the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court said.
A lawsuit filed by Thomas and Lisa Hart, owners of a nearby property, argued the IDA unlawfully used eminent domain to seize the land and streets where the Costco will be erected.
“The record demonstrates that the single-family homes on the affected properties were vacant and in a state of deterioration and that public roads in the project area had been discontinued. Moreover, as a result of the town’s comprehensive plan which established the transit district in 2018 and encouraged redevelopment in the area, the single-family homes became nonconforming,” the justices wrote. “As such, the IDA had support for its determination that the residential deed restrictions were ‘no longer consistent with the use and character of the area.'’’
The IDA cheered the decision.
“The IDA is pleased with the decision rendered by the Appellate Division,” the agency’s CEO, Don Csaposs, said.
The lawsuit was filed by the Harts in September. Their lawyer James Bacon contended that the IDA had not revealed plans to condemn or seize the streets under eminent domain until March 2023, which was very late in the planning and approval process for the proposed Costco.
The justices, though, ruled that the condemnation was nonetheless being done for a valid public use intended to stimulate the town’s economy.
“The design of the project bolsters the town’s greater plan to incentivize local economic development in this region. We accept the well-settled law that economic development may support a finding that a taking serves a valid public purpose,” stated Presiding Justice Elizabeth Garry, who wrote the ruling.
Under eminent domain laws, private property can be seized if the taker can prove that it is for a greater public good, such as economic development or job creation.
This was the fifth and final lawsuit filed over the Costco, a popular members-only warehouse store. Syracuse-based Pyramid Management, through its affiliated Crossgates Releaseco, has for several years tried to build the 160,000-square-foot store just west of Crossgates Mall at Western Avenue and Crossgates Mall road.
Four other suits, centering on environmental issues and the planning/zoning process, have been dismissed.
The lawsuit dismissed on Thursday centered on the IDA’s plan to condemn Lawton Terrace, Tiernan Court, Rielton Court and Gabriel Terrace and void deed restrictions in that area that would prevent commercial development.
Pyramid quietly bought up most of the homes in that area several years ago.
The developers did get some criticism from Garry, who knocked the way the company allowed the neighborhood to decay once people moved out of the homes.
“Crossgates should have been subjected to penalties for this apparently deliberate neglect, no such actions appear to have been sought or undertaken — and at this juncture, there is no remedy to be imposed,” she wrote.
The IDA can grant tax abatements to developers of projects like the proposed Costco, which makes it easier to gain financing on favorable terms."
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