Nesconset FD-District moves forward with claim against neighbor over disputed land

February 8, 1990

From Newsday.
Nesconset fire commissioners voted this week to press their claim to a disputed parcel of fire district land by considering fencing off the property that has been used by a neighboring business for three decades.

The commissioners, who had previously rejected an offer of a land swap-and-money deal from Michael Sforza, owner of Consolidated Fuel Oil Co., voted 4-0 at their Tuesday night meeting to look into fencing the approximately half-acre property on Browns Road.

Sforza, who has parked trucks on the land, is laying claim to the property through a rarely used provision of state law, according to Marc Alan Glassberg, Sforza’s attorney. He said the provision holds that a person occupying property against the true owner’s wishes for more than 20 years – and the true owner knows about it – can claim the land.

The fire district contends that it did not know it owned the property, located behind the firehouse on Gibbs Pond Road, until last spring, when Sforza widened his driveway. It wasn’t until then that the fire district checked its property lines, which were outlined by concrete stakes.

“We thought he was close,” said Nalio D’Orazio, chairman of the board of fire commissioners. “We started to clean the property. We have concrete stakes in the ground that border our property. They were in the wooded brush area.”

D’Orazio said the fire district never gave permission for Sforza to use the property and immediately sent a letter telling him to stop using it. The matter has been in dispute since.

Sforza had offered the district approximately one acre of his land in exchange for the district’s property and $15,000.

“We told him that his offer wasn’t acceptable as presented,” D’Orazio said before Tuesday night’s meeting at the firehouse. “We said we would offer him less of our land, that would satisfy his needs, for an even swap of his property.”

Fire Commissioner James Trube said he believed Sforza’s property, which is next to Nesconset Elementary School, may be landlocked by the school and surrounding properties and may be inaccesible, and therefore may not be usable.

In a letter to the district, read at Tuesday night’s meeting, Sforza offered several other options to the district, including an outright purchase of the fire district property and the possibility of long-term leases. The commissioners did not consider the offers.

“He did not accept our final offer, and we will proceed with our plans to get bids for fencing,” D’Orazio said after the four commissioners present voted in favor of the action.

Sforza, who was not at the meeting, said later that not only is the land his, but that he has invested at least $20,000 for trees and maintenance on the property. He said he was not in favor of the district offer of a straight swap, adding, “Why should I lose what I already have?”