Grand Island, NY (WBEN) A 200 acre parcel of land recently donated to the Senecas could quickly become an issue in the town of Grand Island. The nation is asking the federal government for reserve fee status, which could negatively affect the town's tax base.
"I guess didn't see that coming," says Supervisor Peter Marston. He notes it is a huge piece of land. "It probably represents about 50 percent of our available commercial property that is unbuilt."
Marston says if the federal government grants the request, that parcel would be off the town's tax base permanently. "My biggest concern is, the property has been, I guess, portrayed that it would always be some sort of commercial entity. And I do not know what their intent is," says Marston. He says the property was always zoned that way. "Any type of utilities to the property are kind of consistent with commercial use, so we simply just don't know what their intent is," adds Marston.
Marston says he is willing to work with the Senecas. "We just need to understand what what their future intent is, so that we can appropriately work through our concerns," notes Marston. He says he's only had a couple of texts.
Marston says this is a unique situation, and did not see this coming. Could the town get the land back? He says no. "I believe they have intentions to use the property, so I don't know why they would sell it, or I don't even know that they could that was donated to them. So I don't know how that would work out," explains Marston.
Acquest recently donated the land to the Senecas after trying to put an Amazon distribution center in the town that was met with opposition from residents.