During a Downtown Revitalization (DRI) Open House on Tuesday evening, Batavia Development Director Tammy Hathaway revealed that one of the projects they would like to submit involves the rerouting of Ellicott Trail, so users will not have to ride along Ellicott Street which is a main tractor trailer route.
“We’re trying to bring Ellicott Trail off of the main route and bring it back into the center of the city, it’s much safer for pedestrians,” says Hathaway.
The trail begins on Route 33 near the intersection of Industrial Boulevard and extends east for 5 miles through the City and Town of Batavia and ends at Seven Springs Road.
“One of the things that our consultants have noticed is that the Trail is cut in two,” says City Manager Rachael Tebelski.
Users are using one half or the other, Tabelski said, avoiding the Ellicott Street section from Jackson Street to Harvester Avenue, most likely due to heavy truck traffic.
“It would come back by the Salvation Army. You cross Jackson, and then we try to reroute it all the way up School Street to Harvester, (through the area near US Chrome) and enter the cemetery off of Harvester. So, you’d really avoid Ellicott almost altogether, except for that one crossing that you’d make at the Red Apple/Kwik Fill gas station.”
Several easements would be required from two business owners.
“We only need the easement at the end by U.S. Chrome, and the Harvester. That’s a private drive back there, so we’re going to need the easement to go through that private drive. But Tammy and I have been working with John Wachter, the owner of the Harvester, and he’s very open to development ideas. He’s also very open to anyone interested in one or more buildings or property at Harvester because he is very interested in seeing development occur there. So, he’s been working with us for the last six months talking about bringing in different developers.”
Hathaway says the BDC is looking for anyone interested in developing the area between Swan and Harvester.
“The BDC is actually creating a request for proposals that will show the campus as a whole and partially broken up into different opportunities to put it out to developers to see if anyone is interested.”
Code violations at the Harvester have been addressed and six buildings have been removed from the property.
“As far as I’m aware, all of the code violations have been satisfied, and the buildings in dangerous conditions have come down. And like Tammy said, the owner is definitely interested in seeing redevelopment happen there and is looking actively for developers to come in and possibly purchase portions of the property or the entire property to move it forward,” says Tabelski.
“I don’t see that building coming up and running online in its current shape. It’s obviously in need a lot of investment to bring it back to the main building, to life. But is it possible? Yes. But maybe someone’s just interested in the Swan Street parcel. It’s probably a brownfield and would need brownfield cleanup done on it, which could give you tax credits, but maybe we start there, and just do the Swan Street part of it, and that is all part of this DRI boundary.”
(Provided photo)
As part of the DRI Open House on Tuesday, community members and stakeholders were invited to tour several areas, including the area around Jackson Square and the Farmers Market area at School Street.
“We’re also very interested in closing off this portion of Jackson, this little portion (near School Street) and putting a public market not directly in the parking lot, but over, so you’re not taking up all that parking, and making that a huge event space with a trail on one side, and then green space, event space, maybe a pocket park in that area.”
Tabelski says the idea was very well received by community members and stakeholders during the tour before the Open House.
School and Center Street
“It could be a second Jackson Square,” says Tabelski.
“You could put the astroturf down and do a night with kids on School Street or something. We’d love to see School Street not only have the trail go through it, but to clean it up in a way that’s another public part.”
Tableski says there is also a full sports court facility planned in the area of the McCarthey Ice Arena on Evans Street. The facility would have hard court surfaces for basketball and volleyball and be a full sports facility for winter and summer sports.
The parking areas would also be reorganized around the fire department.
Tabelski said there are no applications in yet. Project proposals must be received by September 4, 2026, by 5:00PM
Link to submit a project below:
Submitting a Project | Batavia, NY
The City of Batavia will submit their projects to the planning team being directed by Urban Strategies, based in Buffalo/Toronto. They will help guide the local planning committee in selecting projects and help evaluate the projects from different perspectives. They also provide professional advice in terms of which projects make the most sense from the market perspective.
James DiPaolo, a Planner with Urban Strategies explains the process.
“The process is that if the project is selected for DRI funding, that would be announced probably in the spring/summer of 2027. So, it’s still about a year out, and then the city would enter into a contracting period with the state to award the money essentially and implement the project. And from there, it’s sort of the more detailed design of the trail or whatever the project ends up being, and then the actual implementation of it. So the the design, engineering, and construction. So it will be easily a couple years out. We typically say that the projects that are funded through the DRI should be ready to break ground within two years. Some don’t take as long because they’re a little bit more straightforward. Others require a lot more detailed design and planning work to get off the ground.”
Urban Strategies is being paid $300,00 as part of the DRI $10 million award.
“It gives us a planning team to take us through the project. Urban Strategies is the principals of the team that we’ve been assigned. and they’re with us through the entire process through April,” says Tabelski.
Previously:
Keep pissing away more taxpayer money on frivolous BS!