The battle between the Springfield planning board and Ross Valenza is shaping up.

Valenza, owner of the Diamond Tee Driving Range on Route 31, said at a planning board meeting last Thursday night that he does not believe that he is subject to the site plan review law for his proposed baseball camp on the site.

Planning board chairman Jim Willsey asked Valenza to submit paperwork proving his claim that "substantial commencement" had been undertaken at the site prior to the passage of the law in mid-December last year. That factor could determine whether the project is exempt from the law.

Valenza said that he's been steadily expanding his business over the course of the last decade. To date, he said he has spent $570,000.

Planning board member Ann Murphy asked, "What's to say when you bought this land ten years ago you had this plan?"

"You get an idea and you build on it," said Valenza.

"I might say I intend to row across the ocean," Murphy answered.

"Have you spent half a million dollars on a boat and oars?" Valenza said.

"Maybe I have," she said.

Willsey said on Monday afternoon that the definition of this term is not yet clear to the board and needs to be determined prior to any decisions regarding the status of specific projects.

"We're doing some research on precedents in the state," Willsey said.

During the meeting, Valenza said the motel he plans to construct and the proposed baseball camp are one project.

"I'm not sure I buy that," Willsey said.

Valenza has had a building permit since 1995 from the Otsego County Code Enforcement Office, and the permit is currently renewed and valid.

Dave West, Otsego County Code Enforcement Officer, issues permits for commercial projects in Springfield because the town doesn't have its own officer.

"As far as we're concerned he's got a permit for the motel, if he decided to go ahead and begin construction," said West. "It's Springfield's baby. They could ask us to revoke the permit, but I'd have to review it."

Willsey said that if Valenza chose that route, the board would "initiate legal action to stop him."

As it stands now, the board has agreed to send Valenza another letter requesting more information about his expenditures. At the same time, Valenza is sticking to his guns.

"I won't fill the forms out because I don't believe I'm subject to the law. I'll work with the board, I'll show you my plans, but I won't formally subject myself to site plan review. I have a building permit."

Valenza said that he doesn't want to present a case to the board and get a decision he doesn't agree with.

"If that happens, we'll wind up in court," he said.

He asked if Nan Stolzenburg, the new Springfield planning board consultant, is the same consultant employed by the town of Hartwick.

Stolzenburg shook her head no as Willsey said, "We're not following Hartwick."

"You may not want to follow Hartwick," Valenza said, "but I've seen what happened there. I can't afford to bankrupt myself looking to get a plan approved."

"Then the only choice is for us to go to court," said board member Bill Harman.

Valenza asked which of the board members are also Advocates for Springfield, a group that lobbied the town board for adoption of the site plan review law and earlier that evening presented its position on cell towers.

"That's none of your business," Willsey said. He later said that the question "smacked of McCarthyism" and that the board members are not on trial and are permitted their own views.

"We have a code of ethics," said Rosen at the meeting after Valenza expressed concern over "pressure groups" manipulating the judgment of the board. "We are not politicians here. We have public hearings for the sake of listening, and we're not manipulated by anybody."

"The very enactment of this law was from political pressure," said Valenza.

After the meeting, Valenza said that the board is made up of "good people with good intentions," but that they are inexperienced nevertheless.

"I know how these things go," he said. "They listen to a few people and that's it. Why should you have to pay for their experts when they want to fight you? It's not right."