Read the court order by Allegany County Supreme Court Judge Thomas Brown
By Andrew Harris
The municipal parking lot in Wellsville NY has been in the spotlight for most of 2023, after being purchased by William and Iris LLC. By purchasing the former Rockwell’s building, the property included about one third of the Municipal Parking lot. For many decades, the parking lot has been shared by surrounding small businesses and provided free parking for local residents and patrons of the business district.
William And Iris LLC, after failed negotiations with the Village of Wellsville, installed a perimeter of lumber around the newly acquired parking lot to prevent parking or “ingress and egress,” as the court injunction describes. Shortly after installing the wooden barricades, William and Iris LLC began installing wooden sheds on the space in an effort to start a storage unit rental operation. In response, the Village of Wellsville began the process of forcing the sale of the lot using eminent domain authorities. Eminent Domain allows a court to force the sale at fair market value for the “public good,” in cases where property owners refuse voluntarily sell.
In a private response to William and Iris LLC’s barricades and sheds, Tim and Eileen Shea, owners of Tim Shea Plumbing and Heating at 82 North Main Street, filed the request for the court order to restore “ingress and egress,” provided in an established easement established in 2006. This legal easement has provided a broad level of access to the entire parking lot for commercial and residential traffic. More specific to the Shea complaint is that by erecting the barricades, then storage sheds, William and Iris LLC have violated that legal easement. For example, the Shea’s contend that because of the now restricted area of the parking lot, they are unable to receive deliveries because a typical tractor trailer can not manuever in and out of the lot.
Judge Brown’s order acknowledged that the now restricted areas of the parking lot are causing damages to Tim Shea Plumbing and Heating. The injunction by Judge Brown states the “easment area shall be the entire paved lands” of the parking lot. In reality that means that obstruction of any access to the entire parking lot would be a violation of the easement.
Also within Judge Brown’s order, in a footnote, the court acknowledges that it did consider damages to William and Iris LLC’s business but indicated that the storage units were all vacant and no proof of revenues were provided.
The plantiffs in the case will be required to post a $5000 bond and ask a court to make this a permanent decision. The bond is required to compensate William and Iris LLC if the injunction is reversed. The $5000 number is derived from the expected cost to remove all the storage sheds and barricades. Should this injunction be reversed after William and Iris, LLC have removed the obstructions, they would be entitled to the $5000 to cover costs. The owner of William and Iris LLC estimated in court filings that the cost to remove each unit is $300 and sixteen units currently cover that space.
The owners and employees of Tim Shea Plumbing and Heating are prohibited from parking in the easement areas established in 2006
We have reached out to the Tarek Otero, owner of William and Iris LLC and Tim Shea Plumbing and Heating for comment without success.
Village of Wellsville Mayor Randy Shayler feels the injunction was necessary:
“I am very pleased but not at all surprised by Judge Brown’s decision.”
