This article shall be known as the "Vukote Drainage District
Spoils Area Law."
When the Vukote Allotment was first established in the 1920s, the developer retained title to property running generally between the designated building lots and the Vukote Canal, which the allotment plats called the "Spoils Area." The purpose of the Spoils Area was to provide access to the canal for maintenance, including dredging. Title to the Spoils Area remained with the developer's heirs until 1998, when it was purchased by the Town of Busti on behalf of the Vukote Canal Drainage District to facilitate a dredging project. In the intervening years, homeowners within the Vukote Canal Drainage District had built improvements to their properties that encroached into parts of the Spoils Area. This presents a problem for the Town in that homeowners now wish to replace these encroachments or to construct new ones on property that does not belong to them. The Town Code Enforcement Officer has no authority to issue a building permit for an improvement to property that does not belong to the applicant for the permit, nor can the Zoning Board of Appeals grant a variance for property that does not belong to the applicant for the variance unless the applicant has obtained the permission of the Town Board to use Town property. Without a building permit or a variance, or both, any improvements in the Spoils Area cannot comply with Chapter
405, Zoning, of the Code of the Town of Busti. The purpose of this article is to enact a system that will permit homeowners to continue to use the Spoils Area to some extent, yet prevents the Spoils Area from being permanently obstructed should dredging or other maintenance be needed in the future.
For purposes of this article, the following terms shall be defined
as follows:
ENCROACHING STRUCTURE
Any structure not belonging to the Town of Busti located
in whole or in part in the Spoils Area, as defined herein, except
for retaining walls.
SPOILS AREA
All land shown as "Road" and "Spoil" on the Map of the Vukote,
Addition C, dated October 6, 1925, and filed in the Chautauqua County
Clerk's office on May 5, 1926, in cabinet, 2, Section E, map
number 3; also all areas shown as "Spoil" on the Revised Map of Vukote
Allotment, bearing a revision date of March 23, 1928, and filed in
the Chautauqua County Clerk's office on May 26, 1928, in cabinet
2, Section E, map number 64.
The Town of Busti hereby issues a blanket license to property owners within the Vukote Canal Drainage District to maintain, replace, or newly construct encroaching structures in the Spoils Area adjacent to their properties, subject to the limitations set out in §
392-14. Such license may be revoked permanently or temporarily at the discretion of the Town Board should any encroaching structure fail to comply with the requirements of this article or any other applicable regulation or pose an impediment to canal maintenance, including dredging.