Village says no to subdivision request

Homeowner challenged century-old easement in order to build two more houses on his land Warwick — The Village of Warwick won’t be on board with a Cascade Road man looking to build three houses on his property. “The Village Board looked at the engineer’s statement, which was done a year ago,” Mayor Michael Newhard said. “It stated there should be no subdivision because of the watershed. It was very conclusive and we had to go with that.” Jay Jason asked the Village Board last month to consider approving his plan to build two more houses on his property, where his house currently stands. Even though the property is solely in the Town of Warwick, the village has an easement on the property over the creek to protect its nearby reservoirs. Written nearly a century ago when only one farm existed on the property, the easement is restrictive, allowing for only one house on the parcel. In the 1940s, according to Jason, someone broke all of the covenants and installed a cesspool and built a bridge over the stream without the village’s consent. He moved there in 1995 and removed all of it. Now, the village has said no to Jason because of their concern with their water safety. Calls to Jason’s home were not returned. He came to the Village Board because he didn’t want to go through the entire process with the town only to have the village decline. “This is purely town zoning,” Jason said in August. “I will have to file SEQR with the town. But I can’t go to the town until you say this is acceptable.” He had asked that the Village Board accept the town’s decision when it is made, but no one on the board was comfortable with that.