NEW YORK SITE FIGHT: DECISION EXPECTED NEXT WEEK

Northgate Wal-Mart decision coming [Rochester Democrat and Chronicle]

Greece residents could learn as soon as Wednesday whether retail giant Wal-Mart will receive permission to build in Northgate Plaza on Dewey Avenue.

Gary Tajkowski, the town’s director of development services, said the Planning Board and Board of Zoning Appeals have scheduled a joint meeting for Wednesday at Town Hall to give their decisions in the matter.

The Wal-Mart project entails tearing down part of the existing Northgate Plaza to make way for a 146,000-square-foot superstore and a 4,000-square-foot McDonald’s. Town officials have been considering the plan and questioning developers since early this year, and have held numerous public hearings where residents and neighbors aired their concerns.

Those who would like to see the plan go forward say it would revitalize a mostly vacant, ill-kept plaza. Opponents say a big-box store on Dewey Avenue would damage their quality of life by bringing in unwanted traffic, crime and noise.

Tajkowski said the Sept. 12 meeting could be cancelled if the boards don’t get final information on the project back by then from the Monroe County Department of Transportation and other government agencies.

He said the meeting could conclude in a number of ways: The Planning Board could demand an environmental quality review of the project, which would halt approval until a study could be completed; the zoning board could deny developers requested variances, which would nix the project; or the project’s site plan could either receive full approval or a rejection.

Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Friday, September 07, 2007

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