Corinth Village Residents:

Why your Village Board voted to start the Eminent Domain process with regard to the former International Paper site.

Over the past two years, the Village Board has received petitions with thousands of signatures from our residents stating that you do not want the trash industry in Corinth.

In response to these concerns, the Village Board has been working for the past year to develop laws that will prohibit the burning or processing of waste materials on this site.  The Village Board believes that the nature and character of future use of the site is the most important issue to confront our Village in many decades.

The Village Board has twice made arrangements for a public forum to allow interested industry parties to address the community on the proposed development of the site but twice the meetings were cancelled.

In the fall of 2005, the Village received information that certain parties were interested in pursuing a waste to energy facility that would gasify chips from tires and, in addition, construction and demolition materials coming from New Jersey and other locations far from our Village.  It was represented that sorting these materials on site would create job opportunities locally.  Other parties have subsequently expressed interest in using the site for similar purposes.

The Village has been threatened with litigation as we have gone through the process of drafting legislation and enacting moratoriums on waste.  The Village expects litigation to commence after our moratorium expires and with the passage of our new zoning laws.

The Village believes that there are parties that have been exploring the formation of a railroad company on site.  If this happened the Village’s ability to impose reasonable controls on development at the site would likely be superseded by federal control under the Federal Surface Transportation Board.  This may enable an owner of the site to operate the existing landfills, bring in waste from outside our community, stockpile waste on site, develop a waste transfer station and conduct other activities on the property without due regard to Village, Town or even State laws.

An important way for the Village to protect against this threat is to start the process necessary to exercise the power of eminent domain before any rail road is formed at the site.  Once a rail road is formed and filed with the Surface Transportation Board, the Village’s efforts to have any meaningful control over the development of the site become much more difficult and uncertain.

The Village’s goals in this process include safe industrial development on the site that promotes our local economy by attracting of variety of industries, businesses and other uses at the site and, further, possible public uses for portions of the site.  The Village believes that the interests of local residents are best served through their elected local representatives and that the eminent domain process will ensure that local control over the development at the site can exist.

As always, your Village Board is ready and willing to meet with all interested parties, including the site’s owners, at a public forum so that all concerns, especially those of the community may be fully discussed.  Further updates will be posted on the village website at www.villageofcorinthny.com

Respectfully,
           Brad Winslow, Mayor