BATAVIA — The Town Board has added residential uses to the list of uses allowed at the Upstate New York Medical and Technology Park on MedTech Drive, allowing a Grand Island firm to pursue a building project at the site.
On Wednesday night, the board approved adding one-family dwelling, two-family dwelling, multi-family dwelling, townhouse and twin-home development to a list of uses for the property allowed by the zoning code. MedTech Park is a planned unit development (PUD).
The board said the Genesee Gateway Local Development Corp. (GGLDC), in a Nov. 11 letter, asked the town to add the residential uses, allowing Regall Properties, LLC of Grand Island to purchase remaining land at MedTech, off of MedTech Drive, for a mixed-use residential project.
Another reason for the approval, the town said in the resolution approved Wednesday, is some of the revenue from a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes (PILOT) agreement and sale of the land will go into the Batavia Home Fund. The fund, created by an agreement of the city, town and Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC), was created to help rehabilitate and update housing in the city.
“It’s an EDC (GCEDC) project. I don’t know how much detail we’ve really seen,” said board member Chad Zambito. “We know it’s a proposal for multi-unit housing.”
The project would be for market-rate units, the town said. The land goes from west of the MedTech building to the woods, board members said.
“They couldn’t do anything until we said it was allowable,” board member Patti Michalak said.
The proposed residential project will have to follow the normal approval procedure, including coming before the town Planning Board, Town Board members said Wednesday.
The board also approved a $16.9 million budget for 2023. The tax rate went down from $2.51 per $1,000 of assessed property value to $2.22 per $1,000.
