Zoning denial cites 'adverse effects'

By Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

About a dozen Staley Road residents spoke against zoning variance requests made by a neighbor during a lively and well-attended Grand Island Zoning Board hearing Oct. 2.

Residents said they feared that granting the variances to allow a warehouse-sized storage building with a 6-foot fence in the front yard would have a negative effect on their neighborhood.

The five-member Zoning Board agreed with the residents and denied all of the variances sought.

The proposed structure at 3012 Staley Road is termed as a “10,000-foot building which is 8,300 square feet,” in the description submitted to the board.

Sumit Majumdar, owner of the property in question, spoke before the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals to request height and size variances for a storage facility he planned to build. Majumdar also requested a height variance from 3 feet to 6 feet for a front yard fence. Zoning Board Chair Robert Mesmer noted the property has a front yard setback.

Majumdar also applied in September for agricultural district zoning.

“I have several animals, including a disabled dog,” he explained. “I’m also in the process of getting a rehabilitation license for wildlife and also the processing and storage places for processing of organic garlic that I’ll be cultivating on the property.”

Majumdar said there are 6.5 acres of pond on the property. He said he was going to be raising chickens and taking care of animals on the remaining area.

Mesmer said, “From what I see there, I don’t see a whole lot of land available for that.”

Majumdar is president of Buffalo Biodiesel, a company that collects cooking oil waste and converts it into biodiesel. His business has been subject to scrutiny, which several residents referred to during their comments to the board.

According to Buffalo Business First, 27 restaurants have sued Buffalo Biodiesel over alleged unfair contracts after the company first sued the restaurants for alleged breach of contract.

Business First also said the state sent Biodiesel a shutdown notice because it had not submitted a valid permit application. The publication said Majumdar stated that the company has received an extension from the Department of Environmental Conservation and has hired an engineering firm to help ensure that Buffalo Biodiesel is able to receive a permit.

Mary Pfalzer, who lives close to the Staley Road parcel under review, raised objections to the requested variances. She said she is opposed to a building of this size.

“I have not seen one animal – and I have a direct view line – not even a dog,” she said.

Pfalzer said she was concerned the storage unit is going to end up being for business equipment.

“I do not think the intent is really for agricultural or proper storage,” she told Zoning Board members. “I don’t know what kind of building would need a 10,000-square-foot storage building in a residential area. It should be in a commercial or an industrial area. It shouldn’t be that close to the street. It shouldn’t be that size and scope. It should be within variance if it’s to be a shed for storage.”

Also speaking against allowing the variances was Staley Road resident Sherry Kern.

She said she and her husband, Cal “are vehemently opposed to the requested multiple variances by the owner of 3012 Staley Road.”

“When we purchased our property on Staley back in 1979, we chose Staley because it had a country feel,” she said. “Many things have changed since then, and many of those joys have been stripped away and no longer exist.”

She said the road is now heavily traveled, in need of repairs and unsafe.

Kern is a member of the Make Staley Road Safe Committee.

“We bring up our concerns at almost every Town Board meeting, and have been doing so for three years,” she said.

“Aside from the pharmaceutical companies, Staley Road is zoned as R-1 (residential), not commercial property,” Kern said. “Please keep our road R-1 by refusing to allow these variances.”

Brett Lombardo, a member of the town’s Agriculture Advisory Board, questioned Majumdar’s stated intent to use an 8,300-square-foot building to process and store organic garlic.

“That’s a whole heck of a lot of garlic to store in that big a building,” Lombardo said. “I just question what the building is really going to be used for.”

Paul Zimmerman, who lives next door to 3012 Staley, weighed in on the requested variances.

“I don’t think we should build a big building like that in front on the front lawn, close to the road,” he said. “It’s an eyesore to me. I can’t look out my kitchen window and I’ll see nothing but a big building.”

When the public meeting was closed, but before their vote, Zoning Board members gave their opinions of the request, based on the presentation and any submitted site plans or documentation.

Member Betty Harris said, “I think it’s excessive – very excessive. It’s too close to the road. It’s too commercial in appearance. There’s over $3 million-and-a-half value of property in the immediate neighborhood of this surrounding property, and I see devaluation in something like that. And no sight view, no nothing. It’s a self-created problem.”

She also said it would cause an undesirable change to the neighborhood

Mesmer said, “My biggest concern is they were talking about agriculture, but I don’t see where you can grow enough to do anything.”

He added, “We have 36 letters here stating that they are against it.”

The Zoning Board’s rationale in denying all of Majumdar’s requested variances was that approving them would have an adverse effect on the neighborhood.

Several residents again raised the issue of Majumdar’s zoning requests at the Oct. 6 Town Board meeting.