The Town of Batavia Planning Board voted unanimously on Tuesday night to appoint itself the lead agency in the environmental review process for a new Tractor Supply location at 8727 Lewiston Road.
Tractor Supply is planning a 24,000-square-foot building to replace its current store at 4974 East Main Street Road.
Not only will the new location be larger, but Tractor Supply will also own the land and building. The company leases the current location.
"The main effort is to expand into a larger space and be an all-inclusive store that competes more with The Home Depot, Lowes, and those types of stores," said attorney Ryan McCarthy.
Real Estate broker Tony Mancuso said previously that he has potential tenants already considering the former Tractor Supply location, so it may not go vacant long.
The current location is owned by 1515 Management Company Inc., which appears to be a company based in Iowa with principles living in Boca Raton, Fla.
Tractor Supply is acquiring 5.08 acres, a portion of a 50-acre farm field owned by the Call family and actively farmed by MY-T Acres. The five acres will be divided into four parcels.
Tractor Supply will occupy a parcel 340 feet from Lewiston Road. There will be another parcel between that parcel and Lewiston Road. It's expected that the parcel, zoned commercial, will be developed at some point, as well as the other two parcels being acquired by Tractor Supply, but there are no firm plans for development at this point.
The new location will have 110 parking spaces, which is 10 fewer than required by ordinance, which means Tractor Supply will need to apply for and receive a zoning variance.
McCarthy said Tractor Supply, which operates nationwide, knows the flow of its business well, and the store will not need 110 spaces, which means less land to cover with asphalt.
Plans to convert the farm field into commercial development have been on the books for more than 20 years. As part of the project, Tractor Supply will start construction of a road -- initially a driveway into the new store -- that will eventually connect Lewiston Road to Veterans Memorial Drive on the north side of The Home Depot.
A planning board member asked if it will be necessary to install a traffic light at the new road and Lewiston Road, and Mancuso said, "not yet." Not until a planned roadway is installed directly opposite the location that will connect Lewiston Road with West Main Street Road. That vacant land, in the town's Comprehensive Master Plan, is designated for commercial development.
The proposed project will be back before the board in a month when the board will review the environmental impact report.
