After several years and multiple administrations in the city of Jamestown, the attempted annexation of the Dow Street substation property in Falconer has come to an end.

On Monday, the Jamestown City Council unanimously approved the terms and conditions of the settlement proposal between the Board of Public Utilities, the village of Falconer, the town of Ellicott and the Falconer Center School District, thereby discontinuing the annexation litigation.

According to the settlement agreement commenced by the city of Jamestown, there is a 20% reduction of the current assessed valuation of the Jamestown BPU’s Down Street Substation parcels by way of an exemption granted by the Falconer Central School District, town of Ellicott, village of Falconer for an initial term of 10 years, in consideration for the city’s discontinuance of the pending annexation proceedings and its agreement not to recommence annexation proceedings.

Falconer, Ellicott and the school district all approved the agreement before Monday’s meeting. No one commented on the resolution during the city’s meeting.

The annexation case originally started in January 2017, under former Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi. A three-member Fourth Department Appellate Division ruling in 2019 dismissed the city’s original annexation request on a technicality, ruling the city hadn’t filed its initial court filings in state Supreme Court within a 30-day window prescribed in state law. As part of that 2019 ruling, the Appellate Division did not make any ruling on the merits of the case.

The Board of Public Utilities and city then started a new annexation proceeding in March 2020 when Eddie Sunquist was mayor. In November, state Supreme Court Justice Lynn Keane ruled the substation property proposed for annexation extends to the centerline of Tiffany Avenue, where it adjoins the city’s existing municipal boundary.

The Dow Street Substation property is currently assessed at $6,592,856 and the reduced assessment will be $5,274,284.

Since 2017, all parties have racked up high legal fees trying to win a decisive victory in court. In 2019 alone, the BPU paid $400,000 toward the case. Falconer, Ellicott, and the school district have spent at least $720,000 over two years.