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Houses to be demolished for Athenex project

OBSERVER Photo by Amanda Dedie The boarded up properties on the edge of the proposed Athenex territory are going to soon be subjected to asbestos testing before being demolished.

Slow and steady wins the race — at least, hopefully, that’s how it is in Athenex’s case.

According to Dunkirk Town Supervisor Richard Purol, the Athenex company has two contractors that it is working with to arrange an asbestos survey for the two homes one the edge of the property that will eventually be demolished. Athenex is also looking for an request for proposals for contractors for the total project build. Once a proposal has been chosen, there will be a pre-construction meeting at the Dunkirk Town Hall, and then hopefully the ball can get rolling.

“…They will have a pre-construction meeting at our town hall, and then a groundbreaking date will be decided — it depends on when the governor is available to come down. So that’s where Athenex is right now,” said Purol.

In Athenex-related news, Erie Land Development LLC is hoping to purchase a plot of land across the Athenex property at 468 Lake Shore Drive East, where they hope to construct eleven 8-unit apartment buildings and car garages, as well as a community building and retail building with four apartments.

The Dunkirk Town Board questioned the workings of this proposal, considering that one of the wetland zones on the Athenex property extends onto the potential apartments property.

“If our wetlands from Athenex goes into their property over there, and we have to keep it up … if they give them that permission and he starts building over there and there’s no more wetlands, why do we have to have the wetlands on our side?” Purol questioned.

According to Purol, a report from the Army Corps of Engineers states that the wetlands can’t be mitigated; there are seven designated areas, and since one goes into an area across the street, nothing can be done with it. Purol will be turning over a copy of the report to Town Attorney Jeff Passafaro to see what the deal with that will be, because Purol believes that if the apartment complex can rid the one side of the street of their wetlands, the Athenex property should be allowed to do the same with the conjoining wetland.

“There are wetland maps. We have (Department of Environmental Conservation) wetlands. They regulate wetlands in New York state. Why the Army Corps is involved in this one, other than the fact it flows towards Lake Erie, I’m not sure … The DEC generally has the wetland map,” said Passafaro.

Passafaro also says that undocumented areas can be considered a wetland — if there’s a dip in the ground and someone finds some tadpoles and water in there, the DEC can designate that area as a wetland. So it can be tricky.

“That just fries me sometimes, but we have to go by what they say,” said Purol. “It’s just that if they can mitigate land from Westfield for the Thruway, and put a pond over here by Canadaway Creek for 12 frogs and a couple of turtles, why can’t they do it on a big project like this?”

A Zoning Board of Appeals meeting was held on May 23 regarding the apartments, the proposal for which was originally denied because the proposed use is not permitted in an “R-1 Residential District,” which is a single-family district. At the ZBA meeting, the proposal was unanimously passed.

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