Josh Saxton, project manager for Passero and Associates, explains the project to the City of Batavia Planning and Development Committee on Tuesday evening.
The City of Batavia Planning and Development Committee on Tuesday evening voted to table the 235 State Street senior housing project and did not recommend moving forward with rezoning the project location from an R-1 Residential District to a P-5 Planned Development District.
Committee member Jim Krencik asked why most of Part 1 of the Environmental Assessment form was not filled out. Project Manager Josh Saxton told the planning committee they are still working on completing a traffic study of the area and will eventually provide information on lighting, storm water and utilities. Saxton said the EAF was just submitted today.
Saxton told the planning committee the project will include housing for independent senior living, 55 and over.
Committee member John Roach asked if the project was geared for market rate rents, or subsidized housing.
“It would be New York state tax credit, 60% AMI (area median income) and under, so it wouldn’t be subsidized housing, but there would be possibly a subsidized mortgage. We’re a not-for-profit property manager, developer, so it would be tax exempt bonds, New York State mortgage,” Rochester Management Property Manager Scott Procious said.
“They can’t make above a certain amount to qualify. It’s more that middle range between, between low-income housing and market rate.”
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According to Procious, there will be one-bedroom apartments along with a few studio apartments in the four-story, 113-unit building. Passero Associates is the architect and civil engineer for the project and Pike Construction is the general contractor.
“We haven’t even brought this to New York State yet; we want to get the city and state to work together. We don’t envision applying for funding until sometime next year, so this is kind of a long runway.”
Procious says it takes possibly a year to get through the state’s application process for the low-income housing tax credit program.
The city is planning to hire an environmental expert to assist in the process according to Code enforcement officer Doug Randall.
After some discussion on how to move forward, Randall advised Planning and Development Committee members that they should table the item since there is not enough information to make a recommendation.
