Geneva to Shodeen: Weather-proof blacksmith shop or pay $27,000 fine

Developer Shodeen’s refusal to make a historic blacksmith shop at 4 E. State St. “weather tight” could get expensive as the city of Geneva has imposed a $27,000 fine.

Geneva’s citation alleges that the owners of the former Mill Race Inn site failed to maintain the former blacksmith shop’s exterior surfaces as required by the property maintenance code.

The fine is $750 a day, according to the city’s property maintenance code, retroactive to Oct. 17 – not June 20 when the citation first was issued – city attorney Ronald Sandack said at a second follow-up adjudication hearing Nov. 21 at Batavia City Hall.

Oct. 17 is the day hearing officer Victor Puscas set in September for Shodeen to make the circa 1843 limestone structure “weather tight.”

“Have you made any progress?” Puscas asked the attorneys.

“There’s no progress,” Sandack said. “Despite our pleas for compliance, they have no indication of any interest in complying with the rulings that you have made and the requirements of weatherproofing the structure.”

Sandack said what is left to do is impose fines.

According to the city’s property maintenance code, the maximum penalty is $750 a day for each day the problems are not fixed.

“We will nullify the penalties, but we need some incentive of compliance. Otherwise, they will continue to thumb their nose at the city – not just the city – but this tribunal,” Sandack said. “As they think they are, apparently, immune from rules.”

Last month, Shodeen officials filed court papers asking a judge to review the hearing officer’s decision and reverse the order.

That case has a court date of Feb. 4, 2025.

Sandack said they would go to court before that date.

“Yes, there’s a lawsuit,” Sandack said. “A seemingly never-ending venture of reviewing these processes.”

Sandack described being notified of the court filing at the hearing last month as having a copy that was not file stamped thrown at him.

“I have not thumbed my nose at anyone, one, and two, I do not recall throwing anything at you,” Shodeen attorney Daniel Konicek said.

“I’m not sure you have jurisdiction in this proceeding anymore now that that complaint has been filed,” Konicek said to Puscas. “As I read the code of civil procedure, once I file that [lawsuit], the circuit court now has jurisdiction over this matter.”

Sandack said the filing does not necessarily change the jurisdiction – and that is a legal question.

Koniek provided Puscas with case law that shows the circuit court has jurisdiction and not Puscas as the hearing officer in the adjudication process.

“It is unquestioned that this matter was left open and that no final ruling from you as hearing officer has occurred,” Sandack said to Puscas.

“We would like a final ruling from you. We are not seeking fines from the date on which we issued the citation,” Sandack said. “We could, under our code, do that. We took it from the Oct. 17 date, which you recall was a compliance check date.”

Puscas asked why not close the file and let the parties take it up in circuit court.

Sandack replied the city would like fines to be assessed.

“Let me just do a little bit of digging for my own satisfaction that we are complying and satisfying the city ordinance as well as the state statute,” Puscas said. “I may not have any authority to do anything, but I want to double check.”

Puscas said he would issue an order in a couple of days.

Konicek said he was not going to argue the fine because he didn’t think the hearing officer had jurisdiction for any findings in the case.

“You might be right,” Puscas said.

The former blacksmith shop, which has historic landmark status, has been at the center of a series of public hearings.

The owners asserted it would be too expensive to repurpose it and sought to demolish it, but preservationists countered that the owners were not willing to try other options.

City officials denied Shodeen’s request to demolish it in 2023. Demolition is a last resort if there are no other alternatives.

The property is no longer owned by the Shodeen Family Foundation, but by another legal entity, Mill Race Land Company LLC, as of Sept. 27. The Shodeen Group LLC is listed as its registered agent, according to Secretary of State records.