All eyes are on the planning board in the Village of Churchville as its members decide the fate of a site plan for 110-foot silos Star of the West Milling Company proposes to add to its South Main Street site. In March, the company obtained the necessary height variance to build the silos (the Village of Churchville has a maximum height allowance of 50 feet) and mill Manager Francois Lachance took his company's site plan to the planning board for approval, hoping to build this past summer. The process stalled when planning board members decided to examine the environmental impact of the towers more carefully - specifically visual and noise issues - and ordered a full environmental impact study, a process that could take at least six months, according to Mel Olver, attorney for the planning board. A draft of the site plan was submitted to the planning board at the end of September, according to Lachance, and its members have sixty days to respond to it - during which time neighbors are invited to look over the draft, at the village office, and comment on it. The planning board could accept the draft at its next meeting, November 6, and vote to halt the environmental impact process, or it could continue on its present course. Neighbors are pleased the planning board is investigating the environmental impact on the village, according to Larry Powell of Fitch Street. Powell opposes the construction of the silos, and said he does not feel the Village of Churchville Zoning Board of Appeals investigated the question thoroughly when deciding to grant the height variance. "The zoning board acted totally in error," Powell said, in a telephone interview last week. "(Board members) made uneducated decisions and acted on them." Powell, and other neighbors, felt the Star of the West did not meet requirements for obtaining a variance, such as proving financial hardship, and further felt the zoning board should have required a full environmental assessment of the project. The neighbors filed a lawsuit against the zoning board of appeals this spring. That lawsuit was dismissed because the group did not name Star of the West in the lawsuit, which claimed that environmental impact statements were not filed accurately. "We're not a rich bunch. We couldn't afford to hire a high-priced lawyer. We were told it would cost $5,000 to $10,000 to fight it, with no guarantee … so we took up a collection and went at it ourselves," Powell said. "It was thrown out on a technicality, not because we were wrong." In a telephone interview last week, Lachance said it is simply a question of when, not if, the silos will be built. "Because we have the variance, we can go through the process, it may take two years, but eventually, once all the planning board concerns are met, we can build the silos. The variance is good forever," Lachance said. Lachance said mill owners are facing a bigger issue than what is currently on the table. "The plan is to expand the mill and increase production eventually," Lachance said. "Once we build the silos (at a cost of $4.5 to $5 million) will we be allowed to expand? Will we run into resistance later? … These silos are not portable. We cannot pick up these 110-foot concrete silos and move them." Lachance said mill owners would like some assurance that the village wants the mill here, and will support it. "The president of the company did not leave the last meeting with a warm and fuzzy feeling," he said. Lachance said he wanted to present the planning board with a 10-year plan for approval, but was told by attorney Olver this was not possible, because any site plans approved must be completed within two years. Expansion could take between five and ten years, Lachance said. "We're not giving up, we will continue the process," Lachance said, but meanwhile, owners are looking at other sites to build a new mill, including one in Genesee County which meets all its requirements. Lachance said any new mill would have to be on rail once again, close to the wheat source in Western New York, near its customers in Rochester, Buffalo and New England, have access to good municipal water and electric supplies and be near good transportation routes like Interstates 490 and 90. He agrees the village is not the best location for the mill. "If we were to build a flour mill today would we select (the present site)? No. … But the fact is, the mill was here first, and the homes grew up around it." Powell said he and other neighbors are not against the mill, and realize the mill has been in the village for almost 200 years. "Yeah, I bought my property knowing the mill was there. I also bought my property knowing there were ordinances in place, and a responsible board in place, watching out for me and my neighbors," he said. Such ordinances include the 50-foot height maximum for new building in the village. Powell said he feels that zoning board members ignored the village's comprehensive plan and jeopardized quality of life and property values in granting the height variance. "I really don't think they can picture how big these towers will be. It is like putting up an 11-story building … with a footprint bigger than most lots on Fitch Street. The height of these towers is such that they will actually block sunlight from neighboring homes," Powell said. "When we moved in twenty years ago, the neighborhood needed help," he said. "People have taken time, cleaned up their yards, sided their homes … Now this will send property values down. And not just on Fitch Street." Lachance said he feels the silos would eventually become just a part of the landscape. "I think if you took a poll of the people in the village, we have support," he said. "A lot of people don't want us to leave; they don't care about the silos." He said he feels residents should be more concerned about loss of industry. "Taxes and electric rates go up if Star of the West moves out," Lachance said. "One way to attract new business is not to scare off the ones you've got. You already have empty storefronts … here we've got one business that wants to expand." Neighbors like Powell, as well as planning board members like Tom Dyer, want to know why it is an all-or-nothing proposition. "I don't think anybody in this room is against Star of the West staying in the village," Dyer told representatives from the mill at the October 9 planning board meeting. "You'd be building them right now if you'd have kept them the same height … Height is the big issue." "We haven't considered compromise," Lachance said last week. "The neighbors haven't come to us to tell us what it would take." Lachance said building 85-foot towers, the same height as the existing ones, would cost almost $1 million more to get the same wheat capacity. Frankly, he said, the mill does not have to compromise at this point. "We were granted a variance to build 110-foot silos," he said. Powell said he and his neighbors plan to continue to attend planning board meetings to make their opposition known. The planning board will meet Wednesday, November 6 in the Village Hall, 23 East Buffalo Street, at 7 p.m. |
