The City of Batavia and the Batavia Development Corporation held an open house before the City Council meeting on Monday night to gather input from the public on how they feel about the future development of the Tonawanda Creek waterfront area near the McCarthy Ice Arena on Evans Street.
Conceptual drawings of the Creek Park area, showing two different examples for the Evans Street site, were on display (shown below) along with drawings for the area of Alva Place and Bank Street (the former JCPenney’s store)
“We have, for the last two years, had a committee that’s been getting together and looking at two of our opportunity zones in the city to determine what is the best use of these underutilized spaces,” says Tammy Hathaway, Director of the Batavia Development Corporation.
Concept A includes parking under the building, because it is in a flood zone currently.
“Our partners at LaBella have been listening to everything that the committee was thinking about and what they wanted buildings to look like, Edward Flynn, AICP/LaBella Associates | Vice President Director of Planning gave us about 10 different options. We did a survey with everyone on the committee, and this was the one that got the most votes.”
Hathaway says the concept drawings will serve as a guide for any potential developer who might be interested in the area.
Concept B-different building layout with a community garden
Bank Street and Alva Place
Possible apartments at the former JCPenney’s
The second area at Alva and Bank Street, the former JCPenney’s, shows a 55-unit apartment building(s) with a courtyard (top right) of the above wide rendering.
“So, we took JCPenney’s, which we don’t want, it’s privately owned, but again, what is best use of space? This is just an idea. They’re concepts, right? But then we also put some linear buildings, some apartments, and a little bit of mixed use along Bank Street.”
The Batavia Development Corporation is working on getting the Creek Park area ready for development. After a few questions are answered by Federal and State governments the area should be open to developers.
“We’re waiting to hear back from FEMA to let us know where we are and do we have any options for changing that floodway,” Hathaway says.
“So, FEMA has changed the floodway and we’re waiting to hear answers back to the questions that we’ve asked them about the change in the floodway, and it has to get entered into the Brownfield cleanup program with the state. It does qualify, we’ve had all the environmental testing. We have an LLC that’s been created for the area. It’s called Creek Park, Batavia LLC. Everything is done in its name so that when it is ready to be sold to a developer, they will be able to purchase the LLC. All the testing, all the documentation, will be included.”
Hathaway says the public comments collected during the open house will be taken into account.
“We will take back anything that is practical and realistic, that can actually fine tune any of these ideas. We’ll send them out to the engineers. They can change those. We’ll let the committee know. The committee is made up of leadership and stakeholders in both the city and the entire county, so we have some county leaders. It’s a good cross of people, its people who have had a professional and personal investment in Batavia and the county.”