BATAVIA — The town Planning Board looked at plans Tuesday night for a proposed Tractor Supply Co. store at 8727 Lewiston Rd. on land that may be sold to the developer.
The town Planning Board saw the proposal for the first time collectively. The proposal by developer Hix Snedeker Companies LLC, would include a road from Lewiston Road running alongside the Tractor Supply building at which a person could turn left into the property.
Ryan McCarthy, a partner with the law firm of Hopkins, Sorgi & McCarthy PLLC of East Aurora, representing Hix Snedeker, presented the proposal. The 5-acre lot on which the Tractor Supply would be built is about 440 feet from Lewiston Road. That parcel and an adjacent 2-acre parcel are owned by Call Farms. A proposed purchase of those two parcels by Hix Snedeker is contingent on town Planning Board and town Zoning Board approval of the project.
“Tractor Supply is making efforts to expand into larger, more all-inclusive stores to compete more on the level of Home Depot or Lowe’s (Home Improvement), a lot of similar types of things — free-standing, standalone store, around 24,000 square feet, 110 parking spaces,” McCarthy said. “The main use of the store is allowed under the current code. There are a few accessory uses, which the code says would be anything customarily incidental.”
There would be a 3,744-square-foot garden center, 2,050-square-foot feed center and a propane station.
McCarthy was asked if there would be a traffic signal or just a stop sign at the intersection of Lewiston Road and the road into the property.
‘Just a stop at this time,” said Anthony Mancuso, commercial and industrial specialist for Mancuso Commercial Realty.
Another question was whether there would be a vegetative buffer between the two parcels and the church adjacent to the property.
“I know it was discussed, but I don’t think they’ve got it in the plans yet,” Mancuso said. The Tractor Supply would be about 700 feet from the church, the board was told.
McCarthy said developers are looking for major subdivision approval and site plan approval from the Planning Board. He said the project would need two minor variances from the Zoning Board of Appeals — one for a 16-foot fence around the garden center and the other for parking. The proposal is for 110 spaces rather than 120, McCarthy said.
“It’s not like a ‘peak hours’ kind of operation. It’s a constant flow (of vehicles),” he said. “Nationwide, they have 2,000 stores, so they’re very, very familiar with the amount of traffic they need to be able to handle. They’re very confident in the figures they need for that.”
Board member Paul Marchese said any retention pond at the site will need to have a fence around it. McCarthy said he would get back to the board on any questions it had that he couldn’t answer Tuesday night.
Board member Steve Tanner said, “I think the most important thing I’ve heard, that I agree with personally, is the landscaped buffer along the north side of the property line.” Mancuso said the issue of a buffer came up at a meeting with the town and town engineer.
“Because you’re the first project out there, we want to make sure that we have a good buffer for the neighbor and we continue that on,” said Planning Board Chair Kathy Jasinski.
Jasinski said the board will reach out if it has any questions.
“It’s the first time they’ve seen it. We’ll study our information and we’ll get back to you,” she said.
Jasinski said the Planning Board has to seek lead agency status for the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR).
“We have to give a month for that, so we won’t be able to do anything on your project until the middle of December,” she said. Jasinski said she’s asking the agencies the board notifies that it’s seeking lead agency status reply by Dec. 19.
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