The Town of Van Buren spent about four minutes on the largest housing proposal it has seen in years, and that is roughly how these things start.

At its August 5 meeting the town board adopted Resolution 168-26-017, which does not approve anything, does not rezone anything and does not put a shovel in the ground. What it does is decide who is in charge of asking the questions. In New York land use, that is the step that determines how hard the questions get.

The proposal comes from Brolex Living Community, LLC. It covers roughly 103 acres on Crego Road, identified in town records as Tax Map No. 034.-03-01.1, and it asks the town to change the zoning from R-40, a low density residential category, to Planned Unit Development.

What the developer wants to build there is spelled out in the resolution: approximately 304 units of housing, made up of about 98 single family homes and about 206 for-rent townhouse units, plus a clubhouse.

For a town of Van Buren’s size, that is a significant number. Spread across 103 acres it works out to roughly three units per acre, which is a different kind of density than R-40 zoning contemplates. R-40 districts in towns like this one are typically built around single family houses on large lots, and the shift to a Planned Unit Development is what allows a mix of housing types and a negotiated site layout instead.

A Planned Unit Development is a different animal from ordinary zoning. Instead of applying a fixed set of rules already written into the code, a PUD lets a town and a developer negotiate the layout, the mix of housing types and the open space as a package. The upside for a town is leverage: it can ask for things a by-right subdivision would never have to give. The downside is that the terms are bespoke, which means the details matter more than the label, and most of those details are not public yet.

The proposal also does not stop at the zone change. The resolution states plainly that in addition to a zone change, the project requires subdivision and site plan approval from the Town of Van Buren. Those are separate approvals with their own reviews, and either one is a place where a project can be reshaped or stopped.

### What the board actually decided

The resolution makes four determinations, and each one carries weight.

First, the board classified the project as a Type I action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. Type I is the more demanding classification. It carries a presumption that the action may have a significant environmental impact, which means the review starts from a more skeptical posture than an Unlisted action would.

Second, the Town Board of Van Buren declared that it will act as lead agency. Under SEQRA, the lead agency runs the environmental review and makes the ultimate determination of significance. By claiming that role, the town board kept the review at the town level rather than ceding it to a county or state body.

Third, the board named nine interested agencies that must be notified: the Van Buren Planning Board, the Onondaga County Department of Transportation, the Syracuse-Onondaga County Planning Agency, the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency, the Onondaga County Department of Water Environment Protection, the Onondaga County Water Authority, the NorthWest Fire District, the Baldwinsville Central School District and the New York State Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

That list is worth reading slowly, because it is a map of everything 304 new households would touch. Roads. Sewers. Drinking water. Fire response. Schools. Historic resources.

Fourth, the board required a Long Form Environmental Assessment Form. The long form is the detailed version, and it obliges the applicant to document impacts across a wide range of categories rather than checking boxes on a short form.

The resolution passed 6 to 0. Councilors Chris Sherwood, Michael Burke, Roger Hand, Robert Grover and Jennifer Sullivan all voted yes, along with Supervisor Wendy Van Der Water. Councilor Charity Gustke was absent. Councilor Sullivan moved it and Councilor Grover seconded.

Any other agency that objects to Van Buren serving as lead agency has 30 days from the mailing of the notice to say so in writing.

### Nothing is scheduled yet, and that is the point

Residents looking for a date to show up and speak will not find one yet.

Supervisor Van Der Water explained the sequence at the meeting. The proposal has already received a positive recommendation from the Town Planning Board. Other involved agencies have to be notified for SEQRA purposes, and the town waits 30 days after that notification. The project then gets referred to the Onondaga County Planning Board. Only after that will the town schedule public hearings, and there will be two of them, not one.

Van Der Water said the town will notify residents of those dates so they can comment.

That is a longer runway than most people expect, and it is the practical answer to the question residents always ask, which is whether a decision has already been made. As of August 5 the town had not scheduled a hearing, had not voted on the zone change and had not completed the environmental review.

It is also worth being precise about what a positive recommendation from the Planning Board means, because it is easy to over-read. A recommendation is advisory. It signals that the planning board saw enough merit to send the proposal forward, and it does not bind the town board, the county or the environmental review that follows.

The county referral is a real step rather than a formality. Under New York General Municipal Law, zone changes near county or state roads and certain boundaries must go to the county planning agency, which can issue a recommendation that a town can only override by a supermajority vote. That mechanism exists so that one town cannot quietly make a decision with effects that land on its neighbors.

### A separate argument about $100,000

The most candid exchange of the night had nothing to do with Crego Road.

Mr. Jacobson of Brolex Living Properties, the same developer behind the Crego Road proposal, asked the board about reducing letters of credit on his current development at Treybrook. A letter of credit is the financial security a town holds to guarantee that a developer finishes the infrastructure it promised. If the work is not done, the town can draw on it.

Van Der Water said the board is not reducing any letters of credit at this time. The town engineer’s letter, she said, is a recommendation, and the board wants the phases complete before any reductions.

Jacobson pushed back. If the work is done, he said, there is no reason to hold the money. The purpose of a letter of credit is security for the town, not a punishment. He noted there will be additional securities for the next phases, and said there is currently over $100,000 sitting there while the majority of the work has been done.

The board did not change its position. The exchange is a useful thing for residents to have on the record, because the same developer is now asking the same board for a rezone on a much larger project.

### The rest of the meeting

The board also authorized a $2,100 capital project for a 2026 historical marker honoring Abram Pryne, funded by an accepted grant of exactly $2,100 from the Pomeroy Foundation. The town’s cost is zero.

Councilor Grover reported that the Comprehensive Land Use Plan is nearly done and scheduled a public hearing and open house for residents on August 18, 2026 at 6:00 pm at Town Hall. That is a firm date, it is sooner than anything on the Crego Road calendar, and a comprehensive plan is the document that shapes how every future rezone gets judged.

Councilor Sherwood reported from a Public Safety meeting on drainage work at the Highway Garage and a new gutter system for the roof, with summer drainage projects on Interstate Island Road and Connors Road west of North Brickyard, plus paving in Village Green. He said the committee discussed equipment requests for the 2027 budget and transfers needed this year to fund salt and overtime lines.

Town Engineer Jason Hoy said the last heavy rain tested the new drainage system at Idlewood Boulevard and Birchwood Boulevard, and that there was no road flooding.

Van Der Water reported that 391,000 pounds of water chestnuts have been removed so far this season, with crews moving to Oneida Lake and then returning to Clay. She also reported the July codes numbers: 32 permits opened, one of them a building permit, and 31 fire inspections completed.

The board went into executive session on a personnel matter at 7:29 pm, returned at 7:34 pm and adjourned to its next regular meeting on August 19, 2026 at 7:00 pm.

### Where to follow it

Van Buren Town Hall is at 7575 Van Buren Road in Baldwinsville. Regular town board meetings are held at 7:00 pm and minutes are posted on the town website, where the August 5 minutes signed by Town Clerk Lynn Precourt and dated August 6 are the source for everything above.

The next two dates that matter are August 18 for the comprehensive plan open house and August 19 for the next regular board meeting. The Crego Road hearings will come later, and the town has said it will announce them.