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Home My WebLink AboutP. Sarkus Letter.pdfAugust 2, 2017 Village of Cayuga Heights Mr. Brent A. Cross, Zoning Officer and Zoning Board Members Marcham Hall Ithaca, New York 14850 Dear Mr. Cross: After reading Mr. Tim Ciaschi's letter of 7/28/17 to you and members of the Zoning Board I feel that as the co-owner of the Carriage House Apartments (190 Pleasant Grove Rd. LLC) I need to weigh in with my version of the interaction with Mr. Ciaschi over the last 9 months concerning the proposed easements between our 2 properties. Tim (Mr. Ciaschi) first sent a letter to us requesting a drainage easement for 2 connections to our drainage ditch or swale from his property, the Community Corners Center. I, along with our 2 property managers, Justin Kimball and Tim Robertson then met with Mr. Ciaschi in early November 2016 on the border of our 2 properties. He brought a map with him (a very "busy" map that was difficult to read) to show us the proposed connection sites to our drainage area. While studying the map, I noticed that it had closed the pass-thru between our 2 properties. Mr. Ciaschi explained that he would get more parking spaces on his side of the boundary by closing this off. I, of course protested, even saying that it was my understanding that we had an easement by prescription as this pass-thru had existed since 1965. 1 had actually been thru this with Mr. Ciaschi's father, Joe, about 25 years ago when he had proposed closing the pass-thru. Well, Tim didn't agree that we had this easement by prescription and said he could close off the opening anytime he wanted and intimated that this was also the desire of Village Board. He also stated that this would stop fast driving vehicles from racing thru his property. A subsequent visit to the Village office to view previous meeting minutes showed us that the Board by a good majority favored leaving the pass-thru open for various reasons including safety, emergency responding concerns and increased traffic congestion. So I told Mr. Ciaschi that the only way that we would consider his proposed drainage easement was that he would give us a recorded pass-thru easement that we felt we had already but would end any controversy about it , once and for all. We then embarked on a 6 month back and forth on the 2 proposed easements with my issues never being fully addressed or accepted. I didn't like the fact that Mr. Ciaschi wanted to narrow the pass-thru from 25 feet to 18 feet without providing a pedestrian bridge/walkway between the 2 properties as future pedestrians would be competing for space with moving vehicles in the narrower version proposed by Mr. Ciaschi. It was a safety issue with me and my partner, J. Michael Kimball. The drainage easement had problems that I could never get Mr. Ciaschi's attorneys to deal with as well. I wanted to discuss increased water volume downstream, potential liability issues and future maintenance of the drainage Swale etc. The entire issue became more confusing early on when Mr. Ciaschi requested permission to park cars in our parking lot. I worked on a proposal that would provide as many as 10 parking spaces for the Community Corners if he needed it. It was basically intended as "Gift" to be helpful to a neighbor with some remuneration but his attorneys kept tweaking it as if we were negotiating a deal. I would send a simple 1 page "memorandum of understanding" or "A Parking Arrangement" and they would send me back a 3 page Agreement with notary lines included at least one of the times. At this point my wife noticed a spike in my alcohol consumption and my little dog (picture attached) has just begun to forgive my grumpiness with her. This parking arrangement is no longer under discussion. We were billed over $1900.00 by our attorney in an attempt to find common ground on all issues. It was not to be as I finally threw up my hands and declared I was finished and Mr. Ciaschi and his attorney could speak with Mike Kimball if there would be any further discussion. even considered suing the other side for diminution of motor skills, the need to double my Zoloft as well as pain and suffering. Mr. Ciaschi's attorney in a latter communication wondered if he had made things worse. I responded emphatically YES. I think they thought that we were the lucky, advantaged party and that they controlled the narrative and that was a major problem in our failed negotiations imo. Since we have a Freddie Mac loan on our property with very tight provisions (no leases longer than 1 year and others), we offered a drainage lease as an easement might not be allowed under our mortgage loan. Mr. Ciaschi has been given the name of a person at M&T Bank in Rochester, NY who could delve into the Freddie Mac loan details to see if we could grant a drainage easement. However, even if we could, I was unable to have our concerns addressed during our negotiations. One example was every drainage agreement draft sent to us said we declared that our property was free of any liens. I corrected them about 8 times and still the language was never changed I apologize for the length of this letter but I felt that our position in this matter should be told. Btw, I like Mr. Tim Ciaschi as I did his dad. We just had trouble finding common ground on these issues. Maybe he and his attorney will work better with my partner, Mike Kimball, If they choose to pursue this. I can be reached at 607-220-8128 and psarkus@twcnv.rr.com Sincerely yours, Peter J. Sarkus (peter)