South Avenue residents keep green space

Residents of South Avenue in the Village of Brockport can rest easy for now as village officials rescinded the motion to declare a piece of property at 52 South Avenue as surplus.

"Right now we've deemed it not surplus and we will leave it as is," Trustee Maria Castaneda said at the May 1 board meeting.

Resident Bob Canham urged the board to put the wording "in perpetuity" into any motion made and wanted the property deemed as a park. "We want to see those words as they are for Sagawa Park," he said.

Mayor Mort Wexler said the board first needs to figure out what makes a piece of property a park. "Is every green space not being used for a house, a park?" he asked. "There was once a house on that property and now that it came down, does that piece of property automatically become a park? We need to check into that."

Trustee Carrie Maziarz told the South Avenue residents that board members would be looking into ways to legally keep the piece of land as green space and determine ways for it to be addressed in the comprehensive plan.

Residents from the area had presented the board with a petition filled with close to 200 signatures when the board made the decision to declare the property surplus. Village officials were counting on the sale of the property to bring an additional $20,000 into village coffers but residents were determined to keep it an open space.

May 7, 2006