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file photoMap of Mountainview Estates project.
File photoThe property known as the Mountainview Estates.
file photoMap of Mountainview Estates project.
File photoThe property known as the Mountainview Estates.
COXSACKIE — Village Mayor Mark Evans announced Monday that the lawsuit filed by United Mobile Homes against the village of Coxsackie has been settled, clearing the way for the company to proceed with the project on Van Dyke Street and the Schoenborn property.
In an effort to resolve an otherwise costly and protracted litigation, UMH Properties, Inc., and the village of Coxsackie agreed to the settlement, the village said.
UMH and the village consented with the decision to settle. A consent decree was drafted and the terms agreed upon included a settlement payment by the village UMH.
United Mobile Homes was awarded $275,000. According to the Village Clerk’s office, when the lawsuit was initially filed in 2018, the village of Coxsackie submitted it as an insurance claim. The $275,000 was paid by the village’s insurance.
UMH has submitted an application for a portion of the acreage zoned as the town of Coxsackie to be annexed by the village of Coxsackie. Nothing can proceed until this is determined.
In accordance with the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state environmental quality review, the village will review any potential impacts to the environment, endangered and threatened species, including habitat impacts.
United Mobile Homes began purchasing parcels of land surrounding the initial 180 acres intended for Mountainview Estates. Most of the 180 acres are wetlands, which means UMH must ensure mitigation with the Department of Environmental Conservation.
United Mobile Homes filed paperwork in 2018 to begin a lawsuit against the village of Coxsackie after the board voted to restrict mobile home development.
United Mobile Homes Coxsackie and Albany attorney David Engle served a Notice of Claim, or a legal prerequisite to a lawsuit, to the village board for damages accusing the village board of taking improper action regarding UMH’s applications to build a manufactured home park on 110 acres at 25 Van Dyke St. to be named Mountainview Estates.
The board failed to act on the application, ignored requests for UMH to be heard and changed the law in an impermissible fashion to deprive the company the full use of its 110-acre property, which caused the company to incur substantive costs, according to the claim.
UMH Coxsackie is a subsidiary of UMH Properties, which owns and operates 112 manufactured home parks in eight states.
The approximate value of the claim filed in 2018 was $3 million. The amount was based on the money UMH invested in the project, including purchasing the property in 2005, engineering and design services and a plan to protect the area’s endangered owls and wetlands, according to Engle.
Sparring between UMH and the Coxsackie Village Board of Trustees began in 2006 when the village imposed a building moratorium after UMH proposed constructing 260 manufactured homes.
In 2009, the state Department of Environmental Conservation issued a sewage connection moratorium after the village was found to be dumping more than the allowable discharge from sewer and wastewater treatment plants into the Hudson River, according to the claim.
In 2015, UMH filed another building application that included a wastewater treatment plan in compliance with a waiver provision for sewer use, according to the claim. The village board denied the application in 2016. At that time, trustees said UMH did not submit wastewater treatment plans in the application, according to the claim.
UMH submitted another application in 2017 to build a smaller 161-unit manufactured home park after Evans said the village received financing to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant to be in compliance with Department of Environmental Conservation codes, which would be completed by 2020.
The village board voted 4-1 to approve a local law to regulate the location, development and operation of mobile home parks in the village. The law would have forced UMH to reduce its plan to build 160 homes on 47 acres to 80 homes on 110 acres.
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