Welcome to Lancaster New York (Cheektowaga, Clarence: insurance, buying a home, buying)

[bullitt4248]

If your thinking of buying a home in Lancaster New York - stop! Our taxes are among the highest in the nation. The new tax rate on homes is 100% market value - the more you spend - the more you'll spend. Almost all of Lancaster's green-space has bee dull dozed and built on. In many areas - they build on wetlands and flood plains -

When new home buyers go to the Town Government for help - their told by Town Supervisor B.Giza , "You should have done your home work before you bought that house"

Moderator cut: advertising website

[bmd69]

Does the Army Corp of Engineers or the NYSDEC know about the wetlands and floodplains.

[BuffaloTransplant]

bullitt, the town is great.[So is Alden] I live on the Lancaster/Alden border. There is a town map in Lancaster, readily available at the building office or Town Hall which shows EVERY creek & You can go to building and get a floodplain map. If you choose to buy in a new development where nitwits are putting in retention basins, shouldn't it tell you something? If you build 100 feet from a creek ( like in Foreststream or Summerfield or in the new development s. of Broadway on Bowen) you are ASKING for problems. People with brains built on land that was not floodplain. Farmers are selling large land areas and the developers trash the land into too small lots and tight housing. I know lots of city people who come here because they want out of the city and it has "green space" -- then, the next year, they post signs yelling "don't take my green space". What did they take the year before? The builders cannot build on wetlands. However, a muddy puddle is not a wetland ... even if a group who already built here thinks it is.Floodplains have to have retention basins and people have to buy flood insurance. It is their choice to build there. I think it is idiotic, but some people just have to have the big house in the new development and yes, those are the houses with the highest taxes... did you do that? Our taxes are a lot lower than Clarence; they have just as much building and some is worse. BTW, for your reference, we live on 4 acres here and we have been here over 35 years. We have never flooded. Our taxes and services are fine. Part of the land is Alden/part Lancaster. And, since we have a smaller older home, the taxes are low. You want big? You pay for it.

[CAugust]

hey everywhere there is some kind of trouble - i am currently listing a home close to 3000 sq ft in lancaster - solid as a rock, however major cosmetic needs to be done - its probably the biggest home in the area - lots of interest, even though it needs cosmetics - people are still loving the area
colleen

[BuffaloTransplant]

Colleen, there are 2 kinds of Lancaster folk. There are the NIMBY development people and the families who have always been here. We live on land that was in the same family from 1870 to 1955 -- when a guy bought our lot and built this house. The family who lived here? they still live next door.

A 3000 foot house in town/village is a marvelous old victorian... a 3000 foot house in the developments is just new NIMBY home(it is also higheer taxed). OTOH, Alden, at least (part of our land), hasn't been developed to the nth degree, yet.

Were I to move into town (Lancaster) I would NEVER move into a development. The homes are too beautiful.

[bmd69]

Like off of como park. I hated that when I first saw that being developed having grown up in Elma.

[BuffaloTransplant]

bmd, I see lots of overdevelopment of people who rush to leave the city for the open spaces and then immediately fence in the lot... not a difference is there?
All along William and Bowen and all the areas in the south of town being developed were farms; it doesn't make me really happy. [I am out on the border of Lancaster/Alden just south of Clarence.] Development where I live isn't much of an issue. Have a friend in Marilla whose area is all being chopped into lots from cornfields to make developments... every town has its problems. Personally, I think the 2 areas with the absolute worst lack of planning ever were Cheektowaga and W.Seneca

[bmd69]

The sign of the times. Here in south everything is exploding with growth. There are pros and cons to urban sprawl.

[Town&Country]

I was raised in Lancaster (Holland Ave.) and I can't wait to get back, next year hopefully and probably... Lancaster, Town Line, Alden, Bennington, Cowlesville, Attica, Darien, ...etc. I think that the people who live there don't really know what they have... try finding Anything like that in Florida... you can see a thunderstorm coming from 40 miles away here... I'm coming home no matter the taxes, they'll be like paying a homeowners associaton fee to me... if that... WNY is the real deal for this one...

[BuffaloTransplant]

Originally Posted by Town&Country

I was raised in Lancaster (Holland Ave.) and I can't wait to get back, next year hopefully and probably... Lancaster, Town Line, Alden, Bennington, Cowlesville, Attica, Darien, ...etc. I think that the people who live there don't really know what they have... try finding Anything like that in Florida... you can see a thunderstorm coming from 40 miles away here... I'm coming home no matter the taxes, they'll be like paying a homeowners associaton fee to me... if that... WNY is the real deal for this one...

Today was cloud banks over both lakes -- a sure sign of snow. The bands are north and south, not here. Our sky was blue with wispy white clouds. I was over on Transit by Transit Hill and it was clear all the way to the Boston Hills... since we are "flat", that is always a revelation we can see so far.

I came from the NY/LI area almost 40 years ago and would never go back.... we have friends who have moved to FL and are moving back!