Wheatfield residents oppose ‘low-income housing’

by Larry Austin
Niagara Wheatfield Tribune, December 14, 2006

A flier circulated in town has created a hue and cry regarding the proposed Church at Shawnee Landing housing complex.

The Wheatfield Town Board received an earful Monday at their monthly meeting from angry residents in the neighborhood of the proposed project, funded by state and federal Housing and Urban Development money. Residents were irate to learn the project would include three and four-bedroom apartments for low-income residents.

Town Supervisor Timothy Demler said the project, billed as senior housing, would have six one-bedroom, 14 two-bedroom, 32 three-bedroom and 12 four-bedroom apartments. The town board three years ago approved what they thought were only one- and two-bedroom senior housing apartments, Demler said, with “low-income included only as the senior portion of the HUD funding.”

Demler said the town would discuss the issue in a meeting with the developer, Payne Avenue Christian Church in North Tonawanda and Belmont Shelter Corp. Demler said the town would also invite residents in the Spice Creek, Trails End, Shawnee. Meadowbrook, and Timberlakes neighborhoods to attend the session.

The project is located on a 20-acre site on Shawnee Road in the town of Wheatfield and received $447,345 in federal grant money.

Caught Off Guard

The matter caught the town board and the chairman of the planning board off-guard. Demler said the town had an informational meeting three years ago that drew more than 50 neighborhood residents regarding the Housing and Urban Development project. Another meeting was held regarding zoning.

“Unbeknownst to me, is that I did not know we had a lot of units that were three- and four-bedroom,” Demler said, to which many of the estimated 50 residents in attendance at town hall Monday vocally expressed disbelief.

Julie Mills of Spice Creek told Demler: “You are supposed to be the watchdog for our community of what is going on in our community.”

Jim Adams of the Timberlakes neighborhood said crime would rise with the addition of the housing.

“To put something like low-income housing there is just a total disservice to the people that are there,” Adams said, adding that the development of 64 units would reduce the property values of surrounding homes.

“You know what type of people will be there,” Adams said. “I’m sorry if that offends anybody.”

“Why would you approve, why would you put anything low-income around $400,000 homes?” Adams asked.

“You can’t have a limit on who’s going to live in Wheatfield,” Town Attorney Robert O’Toole said. “You can’t have a minimum income for people living in Wheatfield.”

Met Requirements

If the plan meets site and engineering requirements, “we can’t say who is going to live there,” O’Toole added.

Several residents said they would not have bought their houses, many valued at over $300,000, had they known about the project.

Demler asked rhetorically what would happen if the town prevented the owners from building apartments because 30 to 50 neighbors didn’t want the development.

“We would get sued because they have a right to build there,” Demler said. “We can’t legally stop them unless there’s a code violation or they’re outside of their purview on zoning.”

Demler said the town has a seven-year waiting list for senior housing, and the project they approved would help address that issue with a subdivision for more senior housing. It was the town’s understanding the project would include one- and two-bedroom housing.

“That was the way that it was proposed,” Demler said.

“We’ve had a lot of success with these (senior) buildings in the town, and we do have a waiting list on them,” he noted.

Once the town board approved the preliminary plat, it goes to the planning board.

“The town board didn’t drop the ball. The town board did its role,” Demler said.

Plans Differ

Planning Board Chairman Richard Muscatello said the town board approved the plan, but the versions the planning board approved were not the plans that were sent to the federal government.

Earlier in the meeting, one elderly Wheatfield resident, Alan DeVantier, on a discussion of a cluster zoning law, used a racial slur when he asked: “Do you want to be like the n-----s in the city?”

O’Toole quickly ruled the question as inappropriate.

Demler said the resident’s choice of words did not reflect the attitude of the majority of Wheatfield residents regarding housing proposals.

After the meeting, Demler said the church “is a great group of people.”

“I think we were caught a little off-guard, and I’ll be the first to admit it. But if there’s a problem, we had a couple public meetings, and we’re going to look into what transacted,” Demler said. “I think everybody’s at fault here.”

“I’m not blaming the planning board. I’m not blaming the town board. I just think we all have enough guilt to go around and we just need to find out what happened.”

Demler refused to blame the developer or church.

“I think it was an unfortunate situation where either the developer didn’t understand what our position was,” he said. “Keep in mind, the town board does not ever directly oversee the planning board. That’s what their role is, to be independent of political influences.”

He called the issue a matter of miscommunication.

Other Items

Also at the meeting:

•The board held a public hearing regarding a cluster zoning amendment to town law. O’Toole said that for the past six months, the town’s Comprehensive Master Plan Implementation Committee has been reviewing the town’s cluster development law. The new law would require a 40 percent open space setback in return for increased density in the remaining parcel.

The 40 percent would include only buildable land and not wetlands, drainage ponds and otherwise unusable land, O’Toole said.

Town Engineer Timothy Walck commented that clusters are not an allowable use without recommendation by the planning board and approval of the town board, and are not allowable in an agricultural-residential zone (AR). The minimum lot sizes are 5,000 square feet and a minimum frontage of 50 feet, “much smaller than normal,” Walck said.

Clustering “takes the same number of lots and squeezes them into a smaller area,” Walck said. “To preserve, maybe, a stand of woods or preserve area next to a town park that the town wants to remain as open.”

The town would save money in the long term, he added, because smaller developments require less infrastructure – water, sewer, and roads – and less maintenance.

Walck said the concept allows “design excellence,” or more imaginative design, to preserve green space and allow the town greater flexibility, without allowing more lots.

Richard Muscatello, chairman of the planning board, said the law would preserve the culture of Wheatfield and make for a greener town. The measure comes in response to comments from the public.

Demler said the comments from the meeting would be used to advise the Comprehensive Master Plan Implementation Committee when it meets Thursday, Jan 4, at 6:30 p.m. in the community center.

Farm Law OK’d

•After a public hearing, the board voted 5-0 to approve a Right to Farm Law in the town. O’Toole said the town law would codify state law on the same topic, and puts prospective purchasers on notice that there is agricultural activity going on in their area.

Sound agriculture practices as established prior to surrounding non-agricultural residences are presumed to be reasonable and do not constitute a nuisance, O’Toole said in describing the law, nor do they adversely impact health and safety.

Demler said there have been periodic concerns about manure, but those who move to a rural town should expect those instances of odors from the “farm atmosphere.” Farming is part of “the culture, the heritage” of Wheatfield, Demler said, and the town fully supports the farming community and farming families in the town.

Deputy Supervisor Kenneth Retzlaff noted that the law is one many towns have adopted recently; Demler noted the deputy supervisor is a farmer.

Howard Schultz, a Wheatfield farmer, said farmers do their best not to bother non-farming residents, and that residents and farmers can all work together on farming issues.

On a related note, O’Toole said an agriculture task force committee is working with Niagara County Community College to develop an agriculture science course for residents interested in going into farming.

Endnotes

•Demler said the town Christmas party on Dec. 2 took place a day after a “hurricane and flood,” when Oppenheim Park was under about 17 inches of water. Almost 450 attended the party, but because of the weather missed out on a trip to the park to see the annual lights display.

Demler said a 12-foot evergreen Christmas tree was “freshly planted,” and on the following Saturday morning it “was freshly planted again.”

The town will offer free bus rides Dec. 14, from 6:30 to 9 p.m., from the community center to the park to see the lights.

Retzlaff praised Recreation Director Ed Sturgeon for his department’s work on the party, saying Sturgeon did a “tremendous job.”

“It was a full house, and it was beautiful,” Retzlaff said.

•The board approved a Shawnee Road sanitary sewer extension of 434’ extension.

•The board scheduled public hearings for Jan. 22 at 7 and 7:15 p.m. to hear comments on a proposed rezonings, one for a proposed two-lot subdivision on Krueger Road, and another to rezone a portion of 2557 Niagara Falls Boulevard from R-3 to C-1.

•The board will hold a reorganizational meeting Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2007, at 6:30 p.m.