Wheatfield Planning Board denies motorcycle driving academy

By Benjamin Joe

Trainers for a motorcycle driving academy were disappointed by the decision of the Town of Wheatfield Planning Board to deny them the right to hold classes in a parking lot by Nash Road and Niagara Falls Boulevard.

Before the judgement on July 15, Joe Hartrich, co-owner of the Harley Davidson dealership on Erie Avenue, asked the board to consider the activity as a “temporary situation.”

“The only thing, as we said last time, at the very least, see this to be a temporary situation. Try it out. If the decibels are too loud, then it’s done,” he said.

The decision to deny was unanimous, disallowing even a trial run of classes the academy had hoped to complete.

Planning Board Chair Susan Angello-Eberwein told Hartrich, “It’s just not the neighborhood for it.”

At a prior Planning Board meeting, some residents from Nash Road were not convinced by a live demonstration of two of the motorcycles – which are special training vehicles for inexperienced riders – that operated the same distance away from the parking lot to the nearest house.

Complaints of potential noise ruining summer weekends were weighed in a public hearing by the board.

In other news

More than 15 residents from Nash and Errick roads were also at the meeting to listen to plans for the Errick Road subdivision.

The proposed development would consist of 143 single-family homes and 38 duplexes.

While driveways would face inward in a “cluster” away from adjacent Errick Road, three entrances to the subdivision would open onto it.

Chip Kunecki of Errick Road said he’s lived there for 40 years and worries about additional traffic in the area.

“You’re going to have 300 cars every morning and night going down Errick Road?” he asked. “It seems like a big deal.”

The developer, Angelo Tomasello, was asked by the board to return with additional plan details.

Angello-Eberwein noted this was the first meeting in a long process and asked the audience to allow the board to hear the proposal, which may or may not go into a public hearing at a later date. Until then, she asked for silence while the board listened.

“This is a new presentation to us … what you’re hearing tonight is what we’re hearing for the first time,” she said.