Wal-Mart foes to appeal ruling
Members of the Hartford-North Bailey Homeowners Association aren’t giving up their battle to keep a Wal-Mart Supercenter out of the old Ames-Hills plaza at Sheridan Drive and North Bailey Avenue in Amherst.
Despite two lower-court rulings permitting the Wal-Mart project to move forward, the neighborhood group now wants the state’s highest court to hear the case.
“I think there’s always the possibility that the judges who review this would see this in a different way,” said Frank Pasztor, president of the homeowners association.
Plans to put a Wal-Mart in the former Hills-Ames plaza have been circulating since 2006.
Since that time, members of the homeowners association have raised numerous objections, pointing out that unlike many other Wal-Mart projects, the Sheridan/North Bailey location is bounded by residential neighborhoods on three sides.
So far, members of the homeowners association have had little legal success convincing any court that their situation merits stopping the 185,000-square-foot project, which is a joint venture between Wal-Mart and Benderson Development.
In June 2008, former State Supreme Court Justice Joseph G. Makowski dismissed attempts by a homeowners organization to kill the project based on environmental and procedural grounds. That decision was upheld on appeal last month by the Appellate Division in Rochester.
Town and Benderson officials have stated that the Wal- Mart project would occupy a vacant retail plaza that has been dedicated for commercial, retail use for decades.
Pasztor responded that there’s a difference between a smaller scale retail development open during regular retail hours at the plaza location and what is currently being proposed for construction.
“What we’re opposed to is a 24-hour megastore,” he said. “Certainly that is a commercial plaza. Everyone would like to see something go in there. It’s better than an empty lot.”
The homeowners group will seek permission from the Appellate Division in Rochester to ask the State Court of Appeals to hear the case, Pasztor said. If that fails, the association will likely petition the Court of Appeals directly.
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