The Lancaster Town Board unanimously denied the rezone petition of Tyler Development LLC for the purpose of rezoning property located on Broadway in the Town of Lancaster, New York (SBL # 116.00-1-13.11 and 116.00-1-18.21).

The Applicant had requested that the property be rezoned from Residential District One (R-1) and Residential Commercial Office District (RCO) to Multifamily Residential Three (MFR-3) for the purpose of constructing a patio home development.

Resolution sponsor Council member Donna Stempniak read off the board findings that led to the rezone denial.

1) The Town Comprehensive Plan and the Town’s zoning map designate the majority of the property for lower density residential development. The Comprehensive Plan does note that higher density development is permitted near the villages and in sewer districts, but controlling density and providing adequate buffering between high-density developments is an important component of the Comprehensive Plan and the R-1 zoning fulfills that purpose. With respect to Tyler’s rezoning request, the Board finds that the Comprehensive Plan and the current Zoning Regulations do not support the rezoning of the Property to MFR-3 and the current R-1 zoning should remain in place.

2) The site is located within a 100-year and 500-year floodplain. The depth of the water table is less than three feet and it is adjacent to wetlands. One of the goals of the comprehensive plan is to protect important environment features. Increasing the density of this parcel would permit more intensive development that would exacerbate the identified finding impacts.

3) The community of development would have mitigated some aspects of higher density…the continuity of development wouldn’t mitigate the aspects of a higher density development in this area since this development would be contiguous to an existing patio home development.

For example, traffic flow from this development could not be diverted through two access points; one on Broadway, another on Bowen. This is important to the increase in traffic at the intersection of Broadway and Steinfeld.

Moreover, drainage could have been better coordinated and since this proposal did not have a tie-in to an existing development, this does not mitigate the traffic situation.

The Board finds that adding a high-density residential development in this area, in addition to wetlands, potential flooding, drainage, and traffic impacts require denial of the rezoning petition. In summary, the proposed rezoning would not be in the public interest, would be detrimental to surrounding land uses, and is not consistent with the Comprehensive Plan.

For the reasons stated herein, Tyler’s rezoning petition is hereby DENIED in its entirety.

Residents thank board

On behalf of the Parkdale/Glendale coalition spokesperson Michelle Sporysz thanked the board for the denying the rezone.

"I want to thank each and every one of you for not only listening to our concerns, answering all our written questions, but for taking the time to meet with all of us, one-on-one, and putting faces to hear us and represent the town. You all walked the property with us when it was wet and cold, during the cold rain and saw the lay of the land and what we were concerned about. As residents we feel our concerns were heard and we want to thank you."

In turn, Mrs. Stempniak commended the residents for all the research and information they provided to the town which made the rezone denial possible.