land use

The Town of Darien Planning Board this week approved a special use permit for a new indoor play center and café, which will cater to parents and their young children.

This new establishment, Nutty’s Playden, will likely open sometime between mid-August to early September of this year at 1415 Broadway Road in Darien, said Crystal Nutty.

Nutty applied for a special use permit as opposed to a basic commercial permit. The location has been home two a couple of different restaurants in recent years.

“There are children involved. We will have indoor play equipment inside of the building rather than normal restaurant equipment or business furniture. This is also because we are a café mixed with a play center,” Nutty said.

“We will be taking over the lease [to the building] in August. There are a few things that the owner must do to the building before we take over the lease — like cleaning it out and making sure the bathroom is up to code because right now it is not.”

She said Nutty’s Playpen will have the following: 

• A large play structure that offers obstacles for children “to walk through, climb through and weave around.”  
• Slides  
• Creative play stations where children can pretend they are veterinarians or grocery store clerks  
• A pretend food truck as part of an imagination station
• A separate area for children ages 0 to 2   
• Creative stations where children can draw, color, build blocks or do puzzles.  
• A ball pit and sensory pit for digging and exploring
• Regular classes and events
• A café with strictly pre-packaged items as well as fresh baked goods, coffee, soft-serve beverages and birthday parties.  

“We are waiting for the building to get cleared out and the work to get completed so we can start moving our stuff in so we can get it opened. We will have a website hopefully within the next month. We won’t be open for live booking until we get a little bit closer,” Nutty said.   

“We will be offering online booking as well as drop-ins so people can come in for open play at any time. We will have a maximum capacity. We have not figured out what that is with fire and safety because once we get everything in the building, then we will work out those numbers a little bit. That is what the next step is.”

A long-discussed plan to build a biogas plant in the Genesee Valley Agri-business Park in the Town of Batavia is again moving forward with the recommended approval on Thursday of a height variance for a storage tank on the property.

CH4 Biogas of Covington, operating the business name Genesee Biogas for the project,  first proposed the plant in 2014. 

Sara Gilbert, of Pinewood Engineering, asked the board to Genesee County Planning Board on Thursday to recommend approval for the company to build a digester storage tank taller than allowed by zoning code.  The biogas plant seeks approval for an 83.5-foot tall digester tank.

Gilbert noted that the board previously recommended approval of the variance for a plant location that was going to be just outside the ag park but the Town of Batavia board prefers the company build the plant inside the park so the application for the variance needed to be resubmitted for the new location in the park.

She also noted that HP Hood was granted a variance for a much taller tank, and Oatka Milk has tanks with heights that do not conform to the zoning code so the Genesee Biogas proposal is consistent with existing construction in the area.

The board approved the recommendation with one no-vote, from Eric Biscaro, who expressed concern about potential odor from the plant.

"I don't care what the height of the tank is, personally," Biscaro said. "I mean, I'm right next to this thing, and I would just as soon get back into that park further because I work at Armor (Building Supply) right down the road from Oatka and Let me tell you, it's pretty ripe there sometimes. And I'm close to this plant, living near there then I am at work. I'm under the impression that this plant is going to smell worse than Oatka."

No, Gilbert said, everything at the plant is enclosed, and the air coming out of the plant is filtered.

"It is different than maybe a more traditional digester," Gilbert said. "It actually has a negative pressure system that can pull the air out and put it through a biofilter system that filters the air. So it does not have a strong smell. And it doesn't have any animal waste at all associated with it. It's only food-grade waste from the plants in the park."

Genesee County Planning Director also informed the board that the only matter on the agenda for Thursday was the high variance. Genesee Biogas will present at a later date a site plan review, where issues such as odor can be considered.

In 2014, at a previous public meeting, Paul Toretta, CEO of CH4 Biogas, explained how the plant works: "We make green power out of organic waste. Once the digester does its thing, it captures methane and powers an engine that makes green power and puts it on the grid. The engine produces heat that can be used to heat Quaker Muller and Alpina (the plants in the park at the time), helping them cut their heating bill."

Quaker Muller's plant is now owned and operated by HP Hood, and Alpina is owned and operated by the Upstate Milk Cooperative.

A Grand Island-based developer has submitted an application to the Town of Batavia to build an 80-unit apartment complex on 9.47 acres of land next to the MedTech Center, part of the MedTech Park, along Assemblyman R. Stephen Hawley Drive.

The location is across the roadway from Genesee Community College.

The land is currently owned by an entity of GCEDC, the Genesee Gateway Local Development Corp.

The name of the complex on the application is Countryside Apartments, and the application was submitted by David Mazur.

The plan calls for six 12-unit buildings and one eight-unit building with 24 three-bedroom apartments, 42 two-bedroom, and 14 one-bedroom, with 36 single-car detached garages.

The total project cost is expected to exceed $12 million.

The application does not include -- which is normal for building applications -- any information about possible construction incentives GCEDC might offer.

The project will require water, sanitary sewer, storm drainage, natural gas, cable, and electric utilities.

The developers are proposing a connection to the existing 12-inch water main with a 2-inch domestic water service and a 2-inch fire service for each apartment building.

The town board approved the land for Planned Unit Development (PUD) in November 2022.

When all the units are rented, the complex is expected to have minimal traffic impact.  On weekday mornings, 9.6 vehicles entering, and 36.1 vehicles exiting.  In the afternoons, 19.4 vehicles entering, and 36.1 vehicles exiting.

The Genesee County Planning Board will review the project at its meeting on Thursday.  The meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. in County Building #2 on West Main Street Road in Batavia.