Lawsuit can go forward

Vote on lease eyed

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. » A state Appellate Division granted a motion, agreeing with a state Supreme Court decision from December 2016 denying a dismissal of a lawsuit over a proposed parking structure next to the City Center and the Mouzon House.

The motion, which happened at the end of November, allows the case to move forward.

David and Dianne Pedinotti, owners of the restaurant, say a 4-1 vote was needed to approve the lease for the parking garage or approval from the mayor, but when City Council voted, the lease was approved with a 3-2 vote during the spring of 2016 with Mayor Joanne Yepsen voting against the lease.

The city argued the 3-2 vote should have allowed the lease agreement to be signed, asking the court to dismiss the case.

The motion prevents the city from appealing state Supreme Court Judge Robert J. Chauvin’s December 2016 decision to deny the dismissal of the lawsuit.

The city attorney couldn’t be reached for comment.

The Pedinottis also want the city to repeal a law, which as written would permit the taller parking structure to cast a shadow on the solar panels the Mouzon House has installed on its roof.

Since the parking structure’s inception, the Mouzon House owners have battled the project, which is designed to go up right next door to their eatery on the edge of High Rock Park. The land there, currently a parking lot, is owned by the city.

The Pedinottis could not be reached for comment.

Last month, the City Center Authority said it acknowledges the Pedinottis’ right to continue pending litigation, but the CCA is committed to the completion of the parking garage.

Before Election Day, the Pedinottis’ took their fight to City Hall, asking for the city to release emails between City Center officials and city council commission-

sioners after the city appealed the Appellate Division’s decision to release the emails. The appeal is still pending.

Michele Madigan, the city’s commissioner of finance, released a statement after the Pedinottis asked for the emails last month, saying the city council members had nothing to hide in regards to their communication with the City Center.

“The city attorney’s decision to seek appellate review of the lower court’s decision is instead part of the city’s broader position on the case, which is that the City Council has followed the legally correct process every step of the way in an attempt to see this worthwhile parking structure built in a timely manner,” Madigan said in the statement.