East Aurora Advertiser

Community Members Weigh in on Both Sides of Proposed Flag Lot Law



A public hearing was held last week for the Town of Marilla’s proposed flag lot law, and community members spoke out against and for the proposal in front of the town board.

Town Clerk Dawn Pearce read a letter that Planning Board member Daniel Handy sent in and he protested the ban. As a former farmer and landowner, he feels like a ban on flag lots will have an impact on his retirement. He does not have a pension and would like the option to divide his property for sale as economic security. 

Handy said that while the moratorium was going on, the planning board made several attempts to reach out to the Conservation Advisory Board (CAB) to discuss flag lots, but the two boards never met to discuss the ban together. The Planning Board had recommended keeping flag lots and they suggested altering the code. Meeting minutes from August 2019 state they suggested that the minimum width and length of a flag lot should only include the “flag” portion of the lot. 

A flag lot is when a piece of property is divided into two, creating space for two different residences. The back lot is shaped like a “flagpole” when viewed overhead, with the buildings being placed on the “flag” portion of the lot. 

Meeting notes indicated that CAB members were worried that flag lots would allow driveways to be built that are over 1,000 feet, which would be difficult for the fire department to reach buildings in the event of an emergency. Handy’s letter said this concern could be addressed without creating a ban.

“This issue could be addressed by adding a fire hydrant at the expense of the applicant before the house was built, and a pond could also be dug,” Handy’s letter read. “Marilla’s code also prevents the town from looking like Elma because in Marilla you can only have two flag lots per tax parcel and driveways have to be one-hundred feet apart.”

Marilla resident Jim Hopper also opposed the ban. He said that the frontage in Marilla is disappearing, as are farms, and the backlands will go unused without flag lots. He said that when he was younger, there were 77 farms in Marilla and a majority of the land was used for farming. Today, there are five working farms. He would like to see the town board give the public more time to weigh in on the topic. 

“The backland on farms will be unusable if there are no flag lots. We have seven invasive species in this town that are taking over and if we don’t use the land it will be turned into brush. It will be a jungle,” Hopper said. “Let’s take six more months of public meetings, and none of the guys that I know with skin in the game showed up tonight.” 

Hopper also said that he has three easements on his 60-acre property and he has been planning for flag lots. 

“Down the road I would like to see it developed instead of backland that nobody can get to,” he said.

Supervisor Earl Gingerich, Jr. said that any lots that were already divided out would be grandfathered should a ban take place.

CAB Vice-Chairman Roger Gustavel was at the meeting, and he explained why he supported the ban. He said he joined the board in 2004 to make it more difficult to create flag lots because at the time, developers were trying to take advantage of the rules, and since then it was accomplished. However, in recent years more people have been applying for flag lots and he thinks that this trend will continue.

“I would rather see the backlands undeveloped,” Gustavel said. 

In January 2019, the town board decided to reexamine the current law after five applications for new flag lots were received. They created a six-month moratorium which gave the Planning Board and CAB an opportunity to examine the law as it is currently written, and over the course of the year this moratorium was extended twice. 

The board did not take action at the board meeting. 

The next meeting is scheduled for April 12 at 7:30 p.m. at the Marilla Town Hall on Two Rod Road.

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