Jamestown City Council (September 26, 2022)

The Jamestown Salary Review Commission is ready to go after City Council approved the final appointments needed Monday night.

Council President Tony Dolce‘s appointments of Pat Smeraldo, Mike Laurin, and Taje Hall were approved to serve on the commission.

He said he wanted to choose people who were interested in serving and had some government background, “I know that some of the Mayor’s appointments are former department heads, so I was trying to put together a group that would understand the history and understand a little bit about the process so they’re not exactly starting from ground zero.”

Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s appointments that were approved in August are former City Comptrollers Joe Bellitto and Ryan Thompson; as well as Heather Greenfield, who is the Financial Coordinator for the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency.

The City Charter requires that a Salary Review Commission is convened every four years to review the salaries of all elected officials.

Dolce said the commission would likely start meeting next month. He said they are required to present a recommendation to the City Council by the end of the year. City Council then votes on those recommendations.

Any salary changes would not go into effect until January 1, 2024. The Mayor’s current salary is $72,000 which hasn’t had an increase since 2008. City Council members receive a $5,000 salary with the Council President receiving an additional $1,000 stipend. Dolce said it has been 38 years since council’s salary has been adjusted.

Rendering of proposed Tim Horton’s on Washington Street

The Jamestown Planning Commission reviewed an initial site plan for a new Tim Horton’s on Washington Street.

Franchise Owner Blake Tarana said the 880 square foot building at 1515 Washington Street will be the first of its kind in the United States as a drive-thru only store. The site will feature a double drive-thru, a walk-up window, and some outdoor patio seating.

The site plan requires a variance approval for parking set back. The required set back is 10-feet and the restaurant owners are requesting 5-feet to allow for a by-pass lane around the perimeter of the lot.

The variance request will appear before the Jamestown Zoning Board of Appeals at its June 1st meeting.

The Planning Commission is then expected to approve the final site plan at its June meeting.

Comments from the Planning Commission included a suggestion by Commission member Mike Laurin that bike racks be added to the design due to its proximity to the bike path and Riverwalk.

City Principal Planner Ellen Shadle said the ordinance would be part of the City’s zoning provision. A Preservation Board would accompany the ordinance which would be comprised of community members.

She said the ordinance is designed to help find solutions for property owners, “And so if your goal is to add space to your residents, the ordinance does not prohibit additions but that addition may not necessarily look the way it’s initially intended within the guidelines of the ordinance. And if you want to make your house or building more energy efficient there may be an issue around vinyl windows.”

Shadle gave an example of how urban renewal efforts might have been different for the City back in the 1970s, “You know, if there had been an LPO back in the day when they were razing Brooklyn Square, maybe there still would be a Roosevelt Theatre and there wouldn’t be a drug store drive-thru there anywhere?”

Commission member Mike Laurin said preservation is something that the community can get behind but thinks it should be something the homeowner is wanting to do willingly and the oversight seems negative, “I’m in favor of a program or something to encourage residents and property owners to maintain their property. When you look around the city there are a lot of houses that are in need of maintenance for a variety of reasons. Some of those are not because they don’t want to but because there are financial restrictions through them.”

The ordinance will continue to be reviewed and edited by the Planning Commission before coming up for a vote by the Commission.

JAMESTOWN – Several people were on hand for Monday’s Jamestown City Council voting session to voice their support or concerns regarding the proposed Jackson Spring housing development on the city’s north side.

CODE, Inc. is proposing to build the $12 million development on North Main St., which would involve the demolition of eight dilapidated homes at no cost to the city, and the construction of two complexes. One building will have 36 units, with 28 one-bedroom and eight two-bedroom apartments. The second complex would include seven town houses, five with two bedrooms and two with three bedrooms. The new building would also be the new location for Southwestern Independent Living Center.

City resident Mike Laurin offers comment on the proposed Jackson Spring housing development during the Dec. 19 Jamestown City Council meeting.

One individual who spoke was resident Mike Laurin, who was also the author of a recent commentary in the Jamestown Post-Journal. Laurin is opposed to the project, saying he’d prefer officials focus on other ways to make Jamestown safe.

“We need to focus on designing an environment that will reduce crime. I’m asking you to seriously consider what the primary and secondary effects of this project will be,” Laurin said. “Is it more likely to have a positive or negative impact on our community? Will there be any added expenses to the already over-burdened tax payers, either directly or indirectly? What other programs are available to help disadvantaged community members secure owner-occupied housing within our comparatively low housing market?”

Resident Bruce Johnson, who is a south side resident, said he’s familiar with the north side of the city due to his job as a postal worker, where he delivered mail for more than a dozen years.  He feels that the concentration of housing would further stretch out the local police presence across the city. In addition, Johnson was concerned that moving residents from dilapidated housing into the new Jackson Spring Housing would create a vacuum effect.

“Although it will improve the area shortly, what’s the long-term effect?” Johnson asked. “For the other housing that’s being vacated, will that attract more [low-income] people? And those type of people, we don’t need. We need people who can pay taxes.”

Resident Donald Paine addresses the Jamestown City Council on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016.

Not everyone who spoke was against the project. Several residents in the neighborhood where the development would be built, were on hand and said they support it.

Donald Paine, who lives on Spring St. near the proposed development site, said he thinks it will improve conditions on his street and neighborhood, adding that CODE will provide proper, safe housing to people whose only other alternative would be old, rundown apartments.

“Sixty to 70 percent of the condemned houses in our city are caused by people that don’t have money to fix them,” Paine said, noting that the Jackson Spring development would provide safer and more secure homes for residents. “We want to build nice, affordable housing for single women and disabled people. People who want to live in a place that has proper security. These places are very secure. They are protected.”

Several others  also spoke on behalf of the development, explaining it would  improve the quality of the neighborhood, while also injecting revenue into the city coffers since CODE gives the city an annual payment in lieu of taxes, based on the number of properties it manages within the city.

CITY COUNCIL HAS NO VOTE ON THE MATTER

During public comment, city councilman Tony Dolce (R-Ward III), who served as acting president for the evening in Greg Rabb’s absence, reminded those in attendance that it is a private development project that doesn’t require approval by the city council.

“This is a state funded project. If CODE receives the money from the state, the next step would be that they would have to get the City Planning Commission to approve the site plan,” Dolce explained to WRFA following the meeting. “Approving the site plan doesn’t mean whether or not the commission wants the project. It would be to focus on the scope of the project, the design of the building, ingress, egress, plumbing, drainage, landscaping, lighting – all those things that go into developing the project. The city council itself will have no vote, whatsoever.”

CODE has applied for state funding from the New York State Department of Housing and Community Renewal and expects to learn whether or not it received funding during the first half of 2017.

Plans provided by CODE, Inc. offers some details for the revised Jackson Spring housing project.