city planning and development committee

A project to build 30 single-family homes on the north side of Batavia has passed the initial round of evaluation by the city’s Planning and Development Committee and is set for a public hearing next month.

North Pointe Patio Homes, represented by Robert Pidanick, manager of land development for Nussbaumer & Clarke, Inc., and Eric Harrower of Batavia Homes & Development, Inc., is a subdivision plan to divide two parcels into 30 individual building lots with common areas owned and maintained by the homeowners association on North Pointe Drive in the city.

“It’s a marriage of (Marrano Homes) Builders, who will construct the patio homes and Batavia Homes & Development, who will supply the lots and materials,” planning committee Chairman Duane Preston said. “The single-family patio homes will be for sale and not lease and can be customized to the purchaser’s liking. A spec house will be on-site at the North Pointe location.”

The site sits behind John Kennedy Intermediate School and between North Spruce Street and Garden Drive. There are to be 4-inch fiber-reinforced concrete sidewalks with widths of 5 feet, and the subdivision “shall be designed with consideration being given to the preservation of natural features,” the plan states. 

“Precautions shall be taken to protect existing trees and shrubbery during the process of grading the lots and roads. The developer shall not remove any trees over six inches in diameter at breast height from the site without City Planning Board approval,” it states. “In the event any trees over six inches are removed from a site, the developer shall replace each tree at a ratio of two to one. 

“The subdivider shall preserve unique physical features, such as historic landmarks and sites, rock outcroppings, hilltop lookouts, desirable natural contours, stands of trees and similar natural features,” it states.

The plan states that all lots that are disturbed during construction and that are not covered by structures or paving shall have a minimum vegetative ground cover to prevent erosion. There are no trees plotted out between the sidewalk and curb, and one shade tree shall be provided per residential lot. 

Each home is to have an attached garage.

Genesee Lumber has designated a portion of its Ellicott Street store for customization of the patio homes, Preston said. The homeowners association will take care of the subdivision maintenance.

Area variances will be made on an as-needed basis for all lots since the road has curves that may require particular variances depending on the location, he said. 

This week’s meeting included a preliminary review of the plan and drainage, street lighting, sidewalks, tree removal, and landscape plantings. Preston said more in-depth details of the plantings and street light recommendations made by the committee will be returned to the next meeting. 

A public hearing will also take place to allow for comments about the project. The meeting is set for 6 p.m. April 16 in council chambers, second floor, City Hall.   

In a continuing succession of steps to reach final planning approval for a new southwest site of Burger King, the Carrols Corp. folks have made it through another round of the city’s Planning and Development Committee this week, Committee Chairman Duane Preston says.

The Planning committee advised real estate manager Doug Beachel Tuesday that his client had to meet three contingencies handed down from the Genesee County Planning Board in order to get this ball rolling:

1. Applicant needs to complete a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP) and obtain a Stormwater permit for construction activity from the state Department of Environmental Conservation.

2. Applicant needs to obtain comments about the potential traffic impacts of the project and obtain a required driveway permit from the state Department of Transportation.

3. Applicant needs to complete a 9-1-1 Enhanced Standards application. 

The project will then move on to the ZBA. Once all of these requirements are met, the properties of 301-305 West Main St., 307 West Main St., 4 South Lyon St., and a portion of 6 South Lyon St. need to be merged before anything more can commence, Preston said. 

The project has gone through several layers of various code, green space, height, width, zoning and layout revisions for the last year. Officials are hoping to have a new site in place by the fall of 2024. The new Burger King would be located at the corner of South Lyon and West Main streets. 

It has taken nearly five attempts for a Take 5 oil change business to receive final blessings to move into a former T Mobile building on the west end of the city, due to special use and variance requests that agent Evan Gefell needed before proceeding with his plans.

Gefell, of Quattro Batavia LLC, agent for the proposed Take 5 oil change business at 425 West Main St., Batavia, spoke about the project during the city’s Planning and Development Committee meeting Tuesday after a preliminary meeting in May and a subsequent trip to the County Planning Board.

Fellow Quattro Development representative Peter Pavek attended in May and asked for approval to remove the existing building at the site — formerly used for the phone business — and to construct a new building with pits to do oil changes. That revision required a special use permit.

Code Enforcement Officer Doug Randall had said that per zoning, they wanted to change the number of bays, and asked if the company would be good with that, and Pavel had agreed.

Given the minimal use for a waiting area, there was also no use for so many parking spaces, and Pavek said they could reduce the parking spots and add to the green space.

“Any additional green space you can maintain, that’d be great,” committee member Ed Flynn had said.

According to company data, the sites typically get 50 vehicles per day, with variations of busiest times throughout the day — mid-morning and especially at 3 p.m. reaching peak times.

The committee gave a preliminary thumbs up, with instructions to return with a detailed site plan, which Gefell had done on Tuesday.

“So the model of this is, you stay in your car, it's a 10-minute oil change, and then you continue on. It's a little traffic generator, it doesn't require a lot of parking, it's just kind of for the staff since the user stays in their vehicle,” he said. “This allowed us to really expand the green space on site. It's increased the green space from 24 percent to 47 percent. You can see some of the trees and the buffering and landscape that we've added. You know, we're not concerned about queuing with the two bays. And I think some traffic or data was presented or provided, but peak hours, you know, it's not a significant amount of customers at one time for traffic generators.”

An average location serves 40 customers a day, he said. They don’t do ancillary services outside of oil changes, wiper blades and air filters. 

“So it’s really quick,” he said. “There’s no transmission, there’s no brakes, no anything like that. So the idea is to get in and out quickly and not have any queuing.”

The meeting included a public hearing. There was no communication submitted regarding the business, and no one signed up to speak.

The committee approved the site plan and special use permit and gave a negative declaration for the environmental review, meaning that there would be no negative impact on the environment with the business in place.

Chairman Duane Preston liked the plan, he said. 

“It’s a good plan, lots of green space,” he said. 

The committee also referred the plan to the Zoning Board of Appeals for the zoning variance as the next step in the process.

There’s a richly iconic salon in New York City known for being luxurious in nature and set apart by its vivid red door, a symbol of Elizabeth Arden Spas and perfumes.

By no means was the red door being wrangled over Tuesday evening by property owner Ken Mistler and members of the Planning and Development Committee as luxurious in nature, but it will be the signature — of the entrepreneur’s latest venture into the world of entertainment.

This heavy-duty red door will lead the way to The Bowery.

“That’s the oldest street in Manhattan. It’s light industrial, New York City when the shanties were all downtown, in the mid-1800s,” Mistler said after the meeting.

His vision for this gritty, edgy shanty town climate will serve up a host of eclectic live musical artists and comedy acts in the movie theater-turned-Bowery,.

Mistler, and his engineer, Andy Schmieder, landed before the committee due to their request for a handicap-accessible ramp leading up to what are now double doors to be converted into one large, wide entry/exit doorway on Alva Place.

Members David Beatty, Ed Flynn and Duane Preston were less than impressed with the thick steel fire door being the main entrance to a business.

“My only criticism is that it’s a rather mundane entry for a dining/pizza shop. Is there going to be any other entrance?” Beatty said.

Flynn added that it looks like a utility room.

“There will be a marquee over it,” Mistler said, answering Flynn’s question about it not having a window. “There’s a door without a window now.”

Beatty wanted to confirm if the space would eventually be a functional theater. 

No.

“It will eventually be a comedy club and music venue,” Mistler said.

They circled back to the door. Is it to be the final and permanent door to the establishment? Yes. With no windows? That’s right.

Beatty joked that it was going to be a speakeasy, some clandestine spot that served illicit liquor back in the days of prohibition.

“We have a problem with the look of the door,” he said.

Code Enforcement Officer Doug Randall asked if Mistler would consider some type of artwork on the door, and Mistler said sure, he was open to suggestions.

The three members approved the request for a ramp, and encouraged Mistler to return with another door design when he begins his future facade work.

As for the dining/pizza shop, there won’t be any actual indoor dining, Mistler said. The pizza shop will have two purposes: one will be for a one-size pizza take-out service from a walk-up window, and the food will also be used at The Bowery for patrons. He has no intentions of competing with local restaurateurs.

“You want fancy-style pizza, go to Roman’s. I don’t want to step on anybody’s toes in the food business because that’s not what I want to do. I love to work with the restaurants in Batavia so that we could do dinner and a show again, like I did with the movie theater,” he said. “My first idea was to cater to seniors, there’s not a lot of things for seniors to do in the day, let’s give it to the seniors … a three-piece brass band, a motivational speaker, a pianist, we’ll have a piano there.”

He has connections with promoters at both ends of Batavia — in Buffalo and Rochester -- and plans to bring in comedic and musical acts from in and out of state. There will be a dance floor in front of the stage, a full bar and some edibles, per State Liquor Authority, which “requires us to have a substantial menu.”

“For once, I want to do a business that’s fun,” he said. “I’ve got contractors ready to go. Inside is completely empty. Okay, so I don't have any demolition to deal with, demolition is already done. All I have to do is put it back together, and it's a lot easier to put them together than to take it apart. Yeah. A lot easier. So I want to get it open within six months.”

He will be meeting with Randall to go over the interior design and obtain a building permit. The city has been “really easy to work with,” he said, and although people see the bad stuff, Batavia is becoming more business-friendly, he said, “which is great.”