County approves Sackets housing tax break

By BRIAN AMARAL
TIMES STAFF WRITER

WEDNESDAY, MAY 2, 2012

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A developer is set to bring 92 housing units to Sackets Harbor after the Jefferson County Board of Legislators approved a 10-year tax break Tuesday night.

The units, which will be built by Lawler Realty LLC, will be located on 22 acres of land at Madison Barracks.

The payment in lieu of taxes agreement will give the company a 50 percent break from what it would have been taxed without the agreement. After 10 years, the units will be taxed at the full rate.

Officials at the Sackets Harbor Central School District, whose board approved the tax agreement in April, expect five to 10 more students as a result of the project.

Jefferson County’s approval represented the final municipal hurdle for the tax break.

The approval also cleared the county’s decks of ongoing PILOT considerations after a flurry of activity that saw approvals for tax breaks on hundreds of housing units. The approvals, some of which came amid sometimes-rancorous debate, will help the area plug an expected shortfall.

Robert F. Hagemann III, the Jefferson County administrator, said county development officials were in the very beginning stages with developers.

In other action Tuesday night, the Board of Legislators unanimously passed a resolution opposing the federal government’s efforts to speed up wind power on the Great Lakes.

The resolution isn’t binding on the federal or state governments, but it signals opposition to wind turbines in the eastern Lake Ontario basin, which officials said could dissuade wind power plans.

“We have come to equate industrial wind power with big money, big companies and big politics,” said Donald J. Metzger, a resident of the town of Lyme.

Times staff writers Reena Singh and Gordon Block contributed to this report.