Grand Island files suit against federal government in Seneca land transfer

Town contends Interior Department land ruling impacts operations; Seneca Nation claims sovereignty rights

By Editor-in-Chief Terry Duffy

The $1 land transfer of 207 acres from Acquest Development to the Seneca Nation of Indians earlier this year has spurred new round of legal action from the Town of Grand Island.

According to the online source Law360, the town filed a lawsuit last month against the U.S. Department of the Interior, challenging its decision of the transfer. The action argues the federal agency’s ruling now impacts a number of town operational/enforcement areas. Included in the suit are restrictions placed on Grand Island zoning and land use, enforcement regulations and town easement access rights.

The suit, Town of Grand Island vs. United States Department of the Interior, et al. (Case 1:26-cv-01286), was filed June 23 in U.S. District Court For the Western District of New York. It follows the February decision by the U.S. Department of the Interior to place the Seneca lands into “restricted fee access.”

Town officials contend the Seneca land, located adjacent to the I-190 on the northwest corner of Grand Island, violates provisions of the federal government’s Seneca Nation Settlement Act of 1990. Specifically, Grand Island is challenging the legalities of Interior’s decision covering restricted fee status for the new Seneca property and its impact to the town.

“Restricted fee land is property owned by an Indigenous nation where the title is held by the owner, but its sale requires DOI approval. By placing the land into the status, it is exempt from state and local taxation,” the federal agency said.

In its filing, the town said the Seneca property includes town easements for Grand Island drainage and infrastructure operations, including an active pump station that serves its residents.

“The parcel was stripped from the town’s tax rolls, removed from its regulatory jurisdiction, and declared sovereign tribal territory based on a decision that does not qualify under the statute invoked to justify it,” the town argues.

As a result, Grand Island said the Interior decision now deprives the town “of an estimated annual $20,000 in property tax revenue and its authority to enforce zoning laws, land use regulations and environmental protections, including wetland designations,” according to Law360.

Grand Island further contends the land transfer now impacts its future growth potential: “The (Seneca) parcel constitutes over forty percent of the undeveloped commercial real estate within the town and represents one of the town’s primary areas of future economic growth and development, which has now been eliminated.”

The town contends, “Vacating (Interior’s) decision would restore the town’s taxing and regulatory jurisdiction over the parcel, reenable enforcement of the town’s zoning and land use regulations, and remove the impairment of the town’s easement access rights.”

Attorneys Peter C. Godfrey, Daniel A. Spitzer and Adam W. Perry of Hodgson Ross LLP are representing the town.

In response to the lawsuit, the Seneca Nation said town officials are, “trying to deny a sovereign nation our rights and our rightful opportunities for progress and advancement,” according to a recent WIVB-TV Channel 4 news report.

U.S. Department of the Interior officials were unavailable to comment as of this writing.