CASSADAGA — The Village of Cassadaga will reopen discussion on its zoning law, as the 2025 update was never officially filed with the State. As a result, the old zoning laws are currently in effect, and instead of re-submitting the new laws as the Zoning Rewrite Committee submitted last year, the new administration wants to take a closer look.

Mayor Rudy Abersold, Trustee Dave Rowley and Trustee Jeff Frick – who were all not on the Village Board when the law was approved – expressed a desire to look over the laws and tweak portions where they see fit before it is submitted to the State.

Rowley said, “My thought is, I think we should take another look at it. There are some concerns expressed about the (short-term rentals) being too stringent. We’ve heard that from some of the folks in the community. I think we should take another look at the entire law.”

“It’s not going to hurt to take another look,” Frick said. “We’ll fix anything that we feel needs fixing, and the community needs fixing, and then we’ll be done with it.”

The document submitted by the Zoning Rewrite Committee is very lengthy and detailed. Trustee Danna DuBois is the only trustee at the recent meeting who was on the Village Board at the time of its initial approval. She emphasized the time commitment it takes to go through the document again. Rowley stated he has already looked through it multiple times.

Abersold said that he has spoken with Code Enforcement Officer Dan Delcamp about the zoning law numerous times, and Delcamp feels the law is “very restrictive” of what he can do to address issues in the village. Abersold assured the public that all the work done by the Zoning Rewrite Committee over the past several years will not be thrown away or ignored. Abersold wants to re-submit the law to the County Planning Board for more guidance.

A public hearing will be held once the zoning law is reintroduced. Following the public hearing, the Board can then act on it as a local law in 2026.

The Village Board also recently adopted the 2026-27 budget. Residents will see an increase of 11 cents per $1,000 of assessed value at a new tax rate of $3.43 per $1,000. The total budget amount is $591,434 with $152,887 to be raised by taxes. The budget stayed under the tax cap.

The next Cassadaga Village Board meeting will be today at 7 p.m.