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Important meetings (Linked to Agenda) |
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News Flash |
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Latest News: |
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Amherst Town Board meeting on September 5th The Town Board righted the wrong of the Planning Board by Voting to down zone multiple properties on Millersport to SA and TND. Most of the rezonings were approved to coincide with the Town’s Comprehensive Plan. Click here to check out the September 5th Board Meeting minutes. Amherst Planning Board meeting on Thursday, June 29th The Planning board voted to recommend against the rezoning of the Wal-Mart Parcel (and others) by a 5-2 margine on Thursday. The members that were FOR the rezoning were: The members that were For the rezoning were: Marjory Jaeger Debra Norton The members that were Against the rezoning were: Catharine Weiss Robert Gilmour Robert Simmons Jon O'Rourke Dave Winzig It was pretty clear that this decision was already made before the public hearing as most of the members who voted against the decision were all people with political ties to the land owners, or in position to profit from this venture. Amherst Planning Board meeting on Thursday, February 16th Two items were brought before the planning board, the first item was to establish a positive declaration in the SEQR process for the site, this declaration will start the process to a full environmental review starting with a public scoping meeting on March 23rd. The scoping meeting is meant to gather a list of concerns from the public on what has to be addressed in the final review, the more items, the better. The second(Last item on the agenda) item brought before the board was the down zoning recommendation for the parcels on Millersport Highway, Mr. Black got up and read the recommendations from the planning department, the WalMart parcel was one of the parcels that was recommended to be down zoned to “mixed use”, but Mr. Black explained that there currently is no true mixed use zone designations and that there will be once the new zoning codes are approved by the town board. Which means that the town board needs to vote in the new zoning codes and then request the planning board to rezone the property to the new zoning designation. The board approved the recommendation of the planning department by a vote of 4-3 The members that were For the recommendation were: Catharine Weiss Marjory Jaeger Debra Norton Dave Winzig The members that were Against the recommendation were: Robert Gilmour Robert Simmons Jon O'Rourke Town Board meeting(February 6th, 2006) The town board voted 5-2 in favor of Dan Wards resolution concerning the prohibition of big box stores over 50,000 Sq. Feet on parcels not adjacent to Transit Road, or Niagara Falls blvd. William Kindle wanted the resolution to include Sheridan Drive and Maple Rd. and would not vote in favor of it unless those two streets were included. the two NO votes were Kindel and McGuire. Traffic Safety Board Meeting(February 1st, 2006) Thanks to RS and MS for News Update The Traffic Safety Board listened to some of the residents concerns and reviewed the preliminary site plan. They decided that the traffic impact study needed to be redone because the traffic indicated numbers were the same for the year 2007 and 2017 showing no change in the 10 year span. They were also concerned that the Bridge over ditch 26c (unnamed creek) on New Road might make the entrance on New Road unacceptable. Ultimate decision on the entrance traffic light on Millersport will be up to the state. It was also mentioned that New and Smith Roads were County roads and not designed for truck traffic weight. The County is aware of this issue. These were preliminary recommendations, leaving room for the board to review the site plan prior to the SEQR Scoping. Gary Black, from the Planning Department, was at this meeting and explained more regarding the SEQR time table. He said that he expected the Planning Board to issue a "positive declaration" at the Feb. 16th Planning Board meeting which would cause a full scoping process to After the final scoping findings are compiled, there would be a public comment period of at least 60 days and will involve at least one public hearing. This is when we will want to have people submit their ideas and concerns related to what environmental impacts they would like studied for the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS). Once the scoping process is complete, WalMart must compile and submit a DEIS including all of the areas included in the final scope. This may take them one week or months to complete. It was estimated that the DEIS would probably be finished in late spring or early summer. There will be another public comment period and at least one other public hearing after the DEIS is complete. All comments/concerns must become part of the DEIS, in addition to any responses by the lead agency Mr. Black believes that it is better for the public to comment mostly during public comment periods because After the DEIS process is complete, there is a similar process to issue the Final Environmental Impact Statement and the Planning Board will vote to approve or deny the site plan. He said that the site plan will not be approved before the entire SEQR process is complete. He also stated that the Scoping information will be on the town website sometime after Feb. 16th. Town Board Meeting (January 17th, 2006) The town board voted 7-0 to initiate a down-zoning of the proposed property where WalMart would be built. The procedure is that the town Planning board must now submit an application to rezone the property and then hold a public hearing on the proposed rezoning. After the public rezoning hearing, the Planning board would make a zoning recommendation to the Amherst Town Board who will then vote to accept or overrule the recommendation. |
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