The Fleming town board repealed its six-month moratorium on multi-building residential development in the lakeshore district Monday night in favor of a more expansive three-month moratorium.

The revised moratorium includes the town's entire Owasco Lake Watershed, or about one third of the town: its lakeshore district, and portions of an agriculturally zoned district and a residential zone.

Town Supervisor James E. Young and Councilman John Sroka collaborated on the moratorium proposal during an October work session. Sponsors of the law say they intend to protect Owasco Lake from further pollution.

But Young said the moratorium is not really necessary.

“Folks don't understand the SEQR process,” he said. “All of the issues that homeowners are concerned about are included in our planning process.”

In fact, plans for major subdivisions have to be routinely approved by Cayuga County, according to Young.

A 28-lot proposed lakeside subdivision, Lakewood Landing, will not be able to move forward with the moratorium in place.

Developers Thomas and Christine Izzo, say they have spent more than $100,000 on the lake district project for 23 single-family homes.

When the county receives the new moratorium proposal, along with a map of the watershed, it can either agree and approve the projects, respond with no comment, or approve with a comment, Young said.

The original moratorium was repealed because the Cayuga County Planning Department had never reviewed it.

Town attorney Dale Yates advised the board that the town could be open to problems if anyone challenged the law unless procedures were scrupulously followed.

If the county approves the moratorium, another public hearing will be held before a town ordinance enforcing the new moratorium can be approved. Once in effect, the new moratorium could be renewed for another three months.

“It's good to be cautious,” Sroka said. “Development is good for our town.”

However, he advocated due diligence in the procedure.

“If everything is all right, we owe it to the residents to see if we do have adequate safeguards,” Sroka said.

He noted that Cayuga County Soil and Water is examining Vanesse Brook, the main tributary to Owasco Lake that runs through the entire watershed. Sroka welcomed the extra three months that the new moratorium would allow.

The deadline for next week's meeting by the Cayuga County Planning Board has passed, so the revised moratorium will have to be submitted to the county by Dec.11 for consideration at the Dec. 20 meeting, according to Amy DeAngelo, county planner.

Any public hearing on this issue would not likely take place before January.

Developers who already had projects under way, such as the Izzos, would not likely be exempt from the ordinance.

“The language says ‘any or all subdivisions,'” Young said, “no matter what stage it's in.”

However, the new law would provide for people who can demonstrate that the moratorium adversely affects them, according to Sroka.

The impact of growth on the watershed and on neighborhoods has been an issue in the recent election.

Young, first appointed supervisor in 1999, has worked through the state Farmland Protection program to keep more than 3,000 acres from development to help fellow farmers. It forbids farmers from selling land to housing developers.

Young pointed out that Fleming's infrastructure can accommodate a lot more development.

“It's oversized,” he said, with just a little more than half of the water capacity and at about half the sewer capacity. “There's a tremendous amount of room for growth in this town.”

Young's was the only dissenting vote when the town board passed the six-month moratorium in June.

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311, ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net