OBSERVER Photo by Gregory Bacon Jim Wehrfritz, left, with the Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association, speaks at the Mayville Village Board meeting.

Neither the Mayville village nor Chautauqua town boards have signed on to join a lawsuit regarding the new wetlands regulations.

Jim Wehrfritz, the president of the Chautauqua Lake Property Owners Association, gave a presentation at the Mayville Village Board meeting Tuesday about his organization’s plan to file an Article 78 suit to try to halt implementation of the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s new wetlands regulations.

He said the lawsuit will be filed by April 30.

“We consider the regulations and their implementation to be arbitrary, capricious, irrational, and/or contrary to lawful procedure, overly broad (one size doesn’t fit all), vague, and/or with an unreliable methodology. We believe there is an insufficient rulemaking record including an incomplete Regulatory Impact Statement, Job Impact Statement, and Cost Benefit Analysis and/or incomplete fulfillment of the State Administrative Procedure Act Requirements,” Wehrfritz wrote in a letter to the Mayville Village Board.

The same letter was also emailed to the Chautauqua Town Board.

He has visited or written to a number of other municipalities that border Chautauqua Lake as well, inviting them to join the CLPOA’s lawsuit.

During Mayville’s meeting, Wehrfritz explained some of the CLPOA’s concerns.

“DEC Region 9, their logic for making those wetlands was … if an area contains weeds, they are wetlands,” he said.

He speculated that the DEC could determine that Mayville and Hartfield shorelines could be classified as wetlands.

There’s also concerns that on-shore properties could be affected as well.

“They (DEC) are telling people that if you’re going to do any building or any activity, you better ask the DEC to do what’s called a ‘jurisdictional determination’ and decide whether they’re wetlands,” he said.

Many organizations, elected officials and municipal boards have called on the DEC to delay implementing the new regulations, but Wehrfritz said Albany officials aren’t listening.

“In our opinion, litigation is the only option and that’s what we’re doing,” he said.

Wehrfritz said any municipality that wants to join the CLPOA in the fight should do so by April 15.

At this point, Wehrfritz said there is no cost for Mayville to join the lawsuit. He said they have $100,000 in pledges and donations.

After Wehrfritz left, Mayor Rick Syper discussed the presentation. He noted that although no financial commitments are asked now, that could change.

“We might be asked as a co-petitioner to bring some money over to the fight,” he said.

Trustee Mark Perry said the lawsuit “looks more like a lobbying effort.”

Trustee Bill Ward said that during the Chautauqua Lake Symposium, the Chautauqua Lake Association stated that “there were no significant concerns about restrictions affecting the CLA’s in-lake programs.”

He said he would want to hear from both the CLA and the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy before joining any lawsuit.

Village board members decided to not bring up any vote during the meeting.

At the Chautauqua Town Board meeting the next night, Supervisor Don Emhardt said at this time they are not joining the lawsuit either.

At the town board meeting, officials there did pass a Wetlands Compliance Waiver.

The waiver is meant to release the town from being fined by the state Department of Conservation. Even though the town would issue building permits, it would not be liable to pay any fine a resident may receive from the DEC regarding potential wetlands violations on Chautauqua Lake. The same resolution was adopted in Lakewood and Busti. The town of Chautauqua handles all building permits and code enforcement in the town as well as in the village of Mayville.

The towns of Ellicott and Busti have also decided against joining the CLPOA lawsuit in recent days, though the town of Ellery has agreed to join the lawsuit as have the Builders Exchange of the Southern Tier Inc.