GUILDERLAND — Who is responsible for knowing if the lines on a tax map are correct? The resident who has been paying taxes for years on a property that turns out to belong to the neighbors? The town? The county?

That’s what Guilderland resident Earl MacIntosh, 84, asked at a planning board meeting in August, after a presentation by surveyor Stephen Walrath about the Beliveau property on West Old State Road.

MacIntosh asserts that, for 38 years, since he bought the 50-or-so-acre property in 1978, he has been paying taxes on two acres of land that he did not actually own, because the tax map was drawn incorrectly.

He and his wife, MacIntosh told The Enterprise, bought the property without ever walking the entire span. They had wanted a farm and happened on this one, and made the decision after talking at the front porch with the couple who owned it before them. They walked it for the first time after buying it. “It’s not what I would do today,” said MacIntosh. “But the couple seemed very honest.”

After he bought the land, he says, he looked at the property line on a town map, he says, and it was shown as extending to the middle of a creek. Actually, there are two-and-a-half acres on his side of the creek that are owned by the Beliveaus. The rest of the Beliveau property is across the street.

The Beliveau family had long been keeping animals in the old barns on that part of the property, MacIntosh told the planning board, and he ran into “old Mrs. Beliveau” soon after he bought the land; she was crying and asking if he was going to make them stop using the barns. He assured her that he was not. “I told her ‘Don’t worry, you can keep on doing what you’re doing,’” he said.

The mistake only came to light, MacIntosh says, when he happened to run into Walrath as he was surveying the neighboring property, and shared with him his doubts about who owned the two or so acres across the street from the Beliveaus, at the eastern edge of MacIntosh’s Weathered Willow Farm — a Christmas tree farm and seasonal store — at 2090 West Old State Rd.

The neighbors were having some work done on the parcel, using heavy equipment, which worried MacIntosh, who did not want to be held liable if someone was hurt.

Walrath later invited MacIntosh to come to his office, MacIntosh said. The surveyor had a “very old map” hanging on his wall and told MacIntosh that he definitely did not own the small parcel at the edge of his land; the Beliveaus did.

“I’ll be doggoned,” MacIntosh reports saying to Walrath. “I’ve been paying taxes on this since the day I bought the property.”

He did a quick calculation, said MacIntosh, who retired as a vice president of Albany Medical Center Hospital. He paid $1,013 in taxes in January on the entire farm, including that 2.7-acre parcel, which he estimates to be 5.4 percent of the entire farm. So 5.4 percent of the total paid, he says, is $54.71, for the year 2015. So if he receives three times that amount, it would be approximately $165.

MacIntosh says he has stopped into the Guilderland Town Hall several times over the last few years and asked whether he really owns that parcel or not — the most recent time being a week before the planning board meeting — and each time was assured that he did.

The Beliveau family has owned the approximately 113-acre parcel on the north side of Old State Road, across from the property owned by MacIntosh, for about 50 years, more than a decade before MacIntosh bought his land. The Beliveau property contains several different lots belonging to the adult children in the family, as well as a parcel of farmland that is rented out.

The Beliveau proposal before the planning board was seeking to redraw the lines of the lots slightly, to create as much intact farmland as possible, and to carve out a lot for another sibling.

At the meeting, planning board chairman Stephen Feeney said MacIntosh’s concern is “not an issue for this board.” Tax mapping is done by the county, he said, so the question of whether there is a refund due, he said, is a matter for a different board.

Feeney added that, “It appears that there was an error in the tax map, which happens. This would clear it up for the future tax maps, and then the question of whether you are owed some kind of refund would be next.”

Town planner Jan Weston suggested that MacIntosh set up a meeting with Guilderland’s town assessor, to “see what the potential for resolution is.”

Karen Van Wagenen, the town’s assessor, told The Enterprise recently that the problem seems to have arisen in 1978, the year that MacIntosh bought the property.

Van Wagenen said that the mistake isn’t anyone’s fault, but noted that MacIntosh had never had the property surveyed, even though, many years ago, he had split off a portion of his land for his son, but never had the entire property surveyed.

The only way that people usually find out about any mistakes in the tax map is by hiring a surveyor when they are, for instance, subdividing their land, Van Wagenen said; the cost of hiring a surveyor, though, would probably not pay off in most cases, for those who were not drawing up new deeds, she said.

Van Wagenen said that, while MacIntosh has been paying on the land, the Beliveaus have been paying taxes on the buildings on that two-acre parcel for years.

MacIntosh told The Enterprise that he never had the entire property surveyed, because there was never any need. He gave a two-and-a-half acre parcel to his son and his wife as a wedding present, and he had that portion surveyed and a new deed drawn up; also, to get a mortgage on the house, MacIntosh and his wife had just the small lot around the house surveyed, “because that was the only part the bank was interested in,” he said.

The town has contacted the Albany County Real Property Tax Service Agency, Van Wagenen said, and that office has revised the tax map to reflect the correct ownership of the two-acre parcel. The county legislature will need to approve the refund, she said.

The town and the school district can refund MacIntosh three years’ worth of payments, VanWagenen said. Legally, they cannot refund more than that, she said, according to New York State Real Property Tax Law.

James Gazzale, Assistant Public Information Officer with the state’s Department of Taxation and Finance, cited state law saying that tax refunds are given for clerical errors or unlawful entry, but only for a period extending back three years.

MacIntosh said that at some point, if he and his wife ever decide to retire from the the Christmas-tree business — which MacIntosh says is just a hobby and a form of stress relief for him; he loves shaping and pruning the trees — they may decide to divide the land up into four equal parts and give it to their children. He supposed that at that point it might be best to have all of the land surveyed.

Asked how he felt about the prospect of getting back only about $165 from the town, MacIntosh said, “It’s just one of those things related to politics and life. I’m pleased that this is settled.”

Meyer property at 2751 West Lydius

On Aug. 10, the board also held a public hearing on the final plat of a proposed two-lot subdivision of the 1.65-acre Meyer property, zoned R-20, at 2751 West Lydius St. Gregg Meyer presented on behalf, he said, of his sister. A variance was recently granted by the Zoning Board of Appeals to change the setback that would be needed for a second house from 125 to 100 feet. The existing house, Meyer said, is for sale and should close soon. Ken Satterlee, who says his mother lives next door at 2743 West Lydius St., complained bitterly that his mother’s property value can be expected to decrease as a result of the Meyers’ “sliding additional ones [houses] in.” He said she has lived there for 50 years and never received any special treatment or “gift variance” from the town, and did “not want to sneeze and have the neighbors say “Bless you.’”

Knapp property at 2810 West Old State Rd.

Another public hearing was held on the final plat of a proposed three-lot subdivision of the 3.5-acre Knapp property, zoned R-20, at 2810 West Old State Rd., with Don Cropsey presenting. Cropsey noted that the driveway will be renamed as a private lane, Manning Lane. The lane will be shared, with each residence having its own portion. The board asked for “some turnouts or something” to be put in and for a written agreement about the lane’s maintenance to be filed along with the map; board chairman Stephen Feeney noted that, “These people might not be the best of friends.” This passed 6-0 with several conditions, including receiving approval of curb cuts from the town highway superintendent.

Other business

In other business, the board, in June:

—held a public hearing on and approved, 6-0, the final plat of a two-lot subdivision of the 93-acre Silvestri property at 181 Brandle Rd., zoned RA3;

— held a public hearing on and approved, 6-0, the final plat of a two-lot subdivision of the 23.4-acre Friedlander property at 6338 Gun Club Rd., zoned RA3; and

—approved, 6-0, a site plan review to allow the conversion of office space at 3356 Carman Rd., owned by Alberti and zoned LB and R15, into an apartment unit.