OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford The city of Dunkirk wants to give up this portion of Deer Street to help enable an apartment project.

The city of Dunkirk wants to abandon a portion of Deer Street.

The Common Council has set a public hearing about the move for the start of its next meeting on May 20. The short stretch north of Fourth Street, leading to the Save-a-Lot Plaza, would get transferred to private ownership.

Councilwoman Nancy Nichols asked for more information about the proposal.

“This is a request as was conveyed by the owners of the plaza … it’s in conjunction with the Regan Development project happening there,” Planning and Development Director Vince DeJoy responded. The project will add apartment buildings to what is currently the western side of the plaza.

“The entrance (to the plaza from the road) will not be blocked,” DeJoy continued. “There would be permanent easements for the city in terms of addressing any issues with sewer or water lines, or any utilities that are underneath that entrance. There would be permanent easements…for Lake Shore Savings Bank and the Regan Development project. We’re just trying to replace parking that they feel would be lost with the end part of the plaza on the west side.”

DeJoy called it “quite unusual that a city owns a street that’s not a thoroughfare, that’s basically going into a private development. If you can find me another one of those type of situations, I’d be happy to look at it, but it’s just an unusual situation.”

He continued that Lake Shore Savings is “OK with it, as long as they have permanent rights and an easement in perpetuity for entrance from that wide roadway that they would be agreeable to this.”

“So you’re not going to be closing off the road from Fourth Street,” Nichols inquired.

“Not at all. It would still be a major entrance,” DeJoy said. He said that calling the city’s proposed action a “closure” is incorrect. “It would still be the same entrance.”

However, he acknowledged, the plaza owners will take over snow plowing of the road.

“I know that this is just a public hearing, but afterwards, there needs to be a lot more clarification,” Councilwoman Natalie Luczkowiak said. “Because a lot of people use that street.”

“There will be,” DeJoy said. “The owner of the plaza will be here. Again, there will be all the rights and easements to access it for the bank, for the Regan Development project, and for any other use of tenants in that plaza.”

City Attorney Elliot Raimondo said that by state law, the city must hold a public hearing on closing the road so it can hear from any concerned neighbors.