Richfield, county fight over wetlands

The acres were among about 100 allotted to Richfield when the county applied in 2001 to have an Empire Zone, a development zone wherein businesses can qualify for hefty tax breaks.

Now, the zone's administrative board and Otsego County Economic Developer Lynn Bass want the town of Richfield to give back that acreage so it can be assigned elsewhere.

"The area is a wetland and can't be used," said Ronald Feldstein, chairman of the Empire Zone's board.

If the town of Richfield gives back those acres, they could be held in reserve by the zone's administrative board and assigned to drier areas, he said.

However, at a meeting Monday in Richfield, the town board voted, 3-2, to table a resolution that would have reassigned the acreage.

According to town Supervisor Nicholas Palevsky, who has opposed parting with the acreage, there are no plans to put the resolution back on the agenda.

"If we give up these acres, there's no guarantee they'll assign more acres to Richfield," he said.

Conceivably, Richfield could agree to the request, put 73.81 acres to back into the county pool and then get nothing in return, he said.

"We didn't decide the wetland should be in the Empire Zone, Lynn Bass did that," Palevsky said. "But now that we have those acres, it's to our advantage to keep them."

If a business within the town wanted Empire Zone status, the town could apply to have some of its acres moved from the wetland to a more developable area, he said.

On the other hand, if the acres had already been assigned to another town, Richfield might not be able to accommodate such a business, Palevsky said.

The debate has sharpened because the Empire Zone's administrative board has decided not to approve two requests from businessmen to have their village of Richfield properties included in the zone unless the town accedes to zone's request.

Both Feldstein and Palevsky said Monday's meeting was not cordial at times, with the word "blackmail" being used by more than one party.

Meanwhile, at a meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, the village of Richfield Springs may give up 13.67 acres assigned as part of the Empire Zone.

Palevsky noted the land the Richfield Springs Village Board may give up is more than the 11.86-acre area needed by the two businessmen, Jay Bernhardt and Charles Furner.

Bass said she hopes town and village boards will cooperate with the zone's administrative board, as boards in the city of Oneonta and town of Otego have done.

"I think we need to work together on this," she said. If the zone's administrative board has acres in reserve, it can entice more businesses to the area, she said.

Bass said businesses in the Empire Zone are entitled property tax credits and wage-tax credits. A business within an Empire Zone that doubles its workforce would be entitled to a 100 percent credit on its property tax.

Businesses adding workers may be eligible for a tax credit of $1,500 per worker, or much more for certain targeted classifications of workers.

The jobs must pay a certain percentage more than minimum wage, but firms are not rewarded for offering high-paying jobs, she said.

The county has about 70 businesses waiting to be certified, she said.