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Public hearing set on incentives for COR Development

By Howard B. Owens

A public hearing has been set for COR Development's request to receive financial assistance to renovate the former Lowe's location in Batavia Towne Center.

UPDATE 7:40 p.m.: The hearing has been rescheduled. It is now at 4 p.m. April 23 at Batavia Town Hall. (It was previously set for April 22.)

COR is seeking nearly $1 million in tax incentives for the project.

Phil Ricci

4pm? What an insult!!! People work, sir! Scheduling a "public hearing" while most people are at work shows how cowardly they are!

Have courage in your actions if you're so confident!

Sickening!

Apr 11, 2013, 9:43pm Permalink
Brian Graz

Public hearing?

Scheduled for 4pm on a workday... how convenient.

Kinda speaks to the level of slime-ball Andrew Cuomo type dictator mentality that we're dealing with here. Push it thru without public input.
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"New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday trashed Washington's efforts to enhance background checks as a victim of too much public debate."

Apr 11, 2013, 10:06pm Permalink
Mark Potwora

Who is in charge of putting on this public meeting..Is it the county or the GCEDC..Since alot of this rests on Ms.Hancock to decide if this is a tourist designation..This should be with the county legislature and should be set up in the evening like all meetings are..They should be accommodating the public...What can the public say to stop them from coming up with their phony facts and figures on how this will be a win win for us the tax payers..Will they tell us how people will come from hundreds of miles and shop here..When they have the same stores 25 miles down the road....I think this will just be a meeting with alot of BS .....

Apr 11, 2013, 10:38pm Permalink
Jim Rosenbeck

A public hearing scheduled for 4 PM is a good indication of how much our input is valued. It is shameful behavior clearly designed to discourage hearing public input. I can't decide if I am more disappointed in the insult to our intelligence or the fact that we have arrived at a point where they think nobody will notice. Really a 4 PM public hearing? Lets recap; public hearing scheduled at an inconvenient time, by an economic development corporation with a vested financial interest in approving million dollar tax exemptions on a property and for a development company, that has already received tax breaks on the same property. We just need to convince ourselves that a strip plaza is a tourist attraction and then the rest of the proposition doesn't seem nearly so unbelievable. Well, except for the part where the prospective tenant isn't asking for any tax concessions. That makes the request for tax subsidies pretty unbelievable. Am I missing something here?

Apr 11, 2013, 11:44pm Permalink
John Roach

November is coming. The City of Batavia has 3 representatives on the Legislature and two of them tried to reform the GCEDC, one refused. The one who refused is Ed DeJanerio who represents the 4th and 5th wards. He will have an opponent this year and should be removed.

Apr 12, 2013, 6:23am Permalink
Dave Olsen

Not surprised. Jim's right, this is to discourage public participation.

Mark; I expect it's being held at the town hall because the Town of Batavia is where the property is.

Apr 12, 2013, 6:37am Permalink
Dave Olsen

Yes, you are missing something, Jim. The part about where us peasants are supposed to be working at 4 PM on a Tuesday, sos we can keep paying taxes and the EDC will have more play money to choose who gets to pay less and thereby justify their existence. And we should be grateful for all that is done on our behalves.

Apr 12, 2013, 6:44am Permalink

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