Proposed development sparks debate

by Alice E. Gerard
Grand Island Dispatch, April 25, 2008

The Grand Island Town Board accepted the final environmental impact statement for the proposed Country Club Cottages cluster development, to be located on the Fix and Baseline roads area, but not before receiving an earful from concerned citizens.

According to Lois Shriver, a Snyder resident, several swales at the site were not delineated in the final environmental impact statement. She added that the Town Board visited the site during the summer of 2007. “You also saw the very large cattail swale at the southwestern corner of the parcel. Mr. McMahon, you looked at it, and you said, ‘Oh my gosh, that’s got to go back about 100 feet.’ There’s no place where that was delineated. Just to the east of it is another very large wetland. I call it a swale. Right now, there has to be at least a foot or a foot and a half of water in it. It is not delineated.”

Shriver said, “I know that this is taking a long time for this project.” She asked why developers seem to get their projects pushed through the approval process. “The citizens have something to say, too.”

Shriver also had criticism for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. “I want you to know that an official complaint has been filed with the inspector general’s office down in Alexandria, Va., against the Army Corps of Engineers, and the complaint has been forwarded to the Buffalo office here.”

Another speaker, Gerald Wochadlo of Fareway Lane, said that the final environmental impact statement does not take the wetlands into account. The result is structural damage to residences, Wochadlo said. “I have heard many horror stories across Grand Island from the residents,” he said. “Foundations are suffering cracking and settlement.”

Wochadlo urged Stickl Construction Co. Inc. of East River Road, to “guarantee foundations for a lifetime.”

After the Town Board voted to accept the final environmental impact statement, Supervisor Peter McMahon said, “The FEIS now has a minimum 10-day and a maximum 30-day waiting period. During that period, the town has to issue findings. The findings can either accept the mitigations that are proposed in the FEIS or add to them or change them in any way that the town board sees fit.”

Town Councilman Dick Crawford commented, “We have looked at every issue that was brought up by the community group. We will continue to look at it as the findings are looked at. The developer has, at this point, provided this FEIS.

It has been scrutinized by the Town Board, the other boards, and the town attorney, to look at all of the issues that are involved with it. It is not something that was pushed through. It is something that has gone through a great length of review. People in this room have been in hours and hours of meetings to make sure that every stone was looked at and that the decision was made on fact, and that’s what we have done tonight.”

In other business, the Town Board:

•Approved the Town Recreation Department’s hiring of John Loos, David Cole, Anne Dyet, Casey Dahlstrom, Jared Kazmierczak, Aaron Wood, Amanda Kaiser, Lisa Kurpiewski, and Kathryn Gilmore for seasonal work.

•Renewed Jayne Schaber’s special use permit to keep up to four agricultural animals on four acres at 394 Ransom Road.

•Gave conditional approval of the preliminary plat for seven lots at East River Landings.

•Gave conditional approval of the preliminary plat for 24 lots at Woods Creek subdivision.