Stickl revises request for zoning change

by Karen Keefe
Grand Island Dispatch, December 16, 2005

Heeding residents’ furor at a Nov. 21 public hearing, developer John Stickl came to the Planning Board on Monday with a revised blueprint. He still wants to build patio homes on 28.5 acres on the southwest corner of Baseline and Fix roads. But he proposes bigger lots, a buffer zone and less drastic rezoning to make the development more palatable to residents in adjacent neighborhoods. A number of residents said they feared a community of patio homes would devalue their properties, detract from the character of the neighborhood, destroy wildlife habitats and wetlands and create traffic and drainage problems. Planning Board Role Aside from appeasing residents, Stickl also has to convince the Planning Board that his rezoning request is not, in essence, spot zoning that sets a dangerous precedent, and that the new development will be for the good of all Grand Island.

Developer John Stickl explains to Planning Board members his request to rezone a 28.5-acre parcel on the southwest corner of Baseline and Fix roads. (photo by Karen Keefe)

Planning Board Chairman Doug Scheid said the board will determine if the request complies with the town’s master plan and recommend a course of action to the Town Board, which would then schedule a second public hearing. Also, Erie County planners have 30 days to review relevant aspects of the request.

Community Needs are Changing

Stickl maintains that the needs of the community are changing, and there is an increasing market on Grand Island for homes designed specifically for seniors who are downsizing, but who are mobile and do not need assisted living. “Right now Grand Island doesn’t offer it. It’s not available,” he said. “My phone is ringing off the hook of people saying, ‘You know what, we need this.’”

But veteran Planning Board member John Trianda told Stickl, “You know you can’t restrict sale of the parcels just to elderly people.” He said if you do build housing for seniors, it would be better on a bus route, near a shopping area, with a park and with a homeowners’ association so residents don’t have to mow their lawns or clear their driveways of snow.

Stickl assured Trianda the patio home community would have a homeowners’ association that would offer yard maintenance and snowplowing.

Revised Rezoning Request

Stickl new request is for a zoning change from the current R-1D to an R-1E so he can build roughly 78 single-story, single-family, two-bedroom homes on 70-by-135-foot lots. He originally proposed a zoning change to R-2, so he could build about 87 homes on 70-by-120-foot lots.

The current R-1D zoning calls for 80-by-160-foot lots.

“The patio homes would be ranch-style homes designed for seniors, and singles. We’re not interested in any attached housing,” he said. “We really wish to move these types of people into maintenance-free homes with smaller lots to maintain,” Stickle told the Planning Board. He had said previously that the price of the homes would start at $160,000, compared to the current sale price of $135,000 for existing homes in the immediate area. “I think their values are more than protected by what we’re attempting to do,” he said at this week’s meeting.

Buffer Zone Included

The map for Stickl’s plan includes a 25-foot buffer for green space between the new homes and existing properties.

He said the lot size would be consistent with existing homes on Fairview Court and Baseline and Fix roads. Stickl pointed out that when you add the 135-foot depth of the proposed lots, and then add in the 25-foot buffer, you get the same 160-foot depth as now permitted under R-1D zoning.

Planning Board member Frank Greco questioned Stickl about the proposed buffer zone. “How would you ensure that that remained green? Are you going to put (in) a deed restriction?”

Drainage Easement Considered

Stickl said he would be looking to a town recommendation, but is thinking that 135 feet in lot depth could be deeded to the new residents, and the 25-foot buffer could be town drainage easement.

“A lot of these folks have drainage issues,” he said, with adjacent neighborhoods’ water now going into the 28.5 acre parcel he owns. He said in the new development, the builder would install storm sewers and rear-yard drains that would have the effect of alleviating wet areas behind current residents’ homes.

Less Impact Envisioned

The developer also said the traffic and population density would actually be less if the parcel were rezoned to R-1E. He reasoned that most of the residents who would be attracted to this type of community would have one car per household, as opposed to the average 2-and-a-half car families in the typical R-1D homes. He also pointed out that the population density would be lower in the proposed development because, with the planned two-bedroom homes, households would be smaller.

The only areas of the Island currently zoned R-1E are the much older neighborhoods of Falconwood, Ferry Village and Sandy Beach.

‘Trying to be Sensitive’

Stickl said he realized any development would be difficult for current residents who were accustomed to living near a vacant piece of property. “We’re trying to be sensitive to their needs.”

The R-2 designation Stickl first requested allows attached homes, which Stickl promised not to build.

Residents at the Nov. 21 public hearing said one developer’s promise couldn’t keep another developer from building multiple-family dwellings in an R-2 district.

Some of those same residents attended the planning board session. When it was their turn at the microphone, several said they believed Stickl was making a good-faith effort at compromise by requesting a change to R-1E instead of R-2. But others weren’t satisfied with the revisions.

Residents Speak Out

*Anita DeGlopper and her husband own a 23-acre farm on the west side of Stickl’s property. She said if homes go up, the new residents may complain about the noise of heavy equipment, the hay dust and the farming odors that are natural to their farm. She would not like to see any restrictions of their right to farm the land as it has been for years.

*Fareway Lane resident Gerald Wochadlo said. “The change was only made in lot size. They’re still putting in patio homes, which, to me, is not acceptable.” His concern was over continuing drainage problems in the area.

*Another resident was concerned over the potential loss of open space. “Many of us on the Island came here from adjacent communities hoping that we would live in a less dense populated area,” said Fix Road resident Roy Tilghman.

*Lois Shriver of Snyder said today’s mobile seniors are tomorrow’s elderly, in need of convenient access to stores, banks and drug stores. She said the patio home concept does not address those changing needs.

*”I think John Stickl is trying to make the best of two worlds,” Scott Brady said. “I was very uncomfortable with the R-2; the buffer zone softens the area between old and new.”

Brady added,”It’s not the real world to think no one would develop. My biggest concern is drainage.”

At the close of public comment, the Planning Board tabled the issue until next month.