E. Aurora mulls design standards and architectural review panel
Strong design standards and perhaps an architectural review panel could be on East Aurora’s horizon, as the village wrestles with how to define its appearance and boost its business core.
Village leaders are toying with the idea of stipulating design standards and maybe creating an architectural review board — on top of project reviews done by the existing Planning Commission — as ways to revitalize the village’s business districts and boost the appearance of its downtown core along Main Street.
Village trustees this week informally began picking the brains of Hamburg Village Trustees Laura Hackathorn and Michael Cerrone, both of whom have been instrumental in pushing for changes to building facades, renovations and other enhancements under way in their village’s Buffalo/Main streets corridor.
“Hamburg took advantage of the momentum created by its street project,” East Aurora Mayor Clark W. Crook said Monday, noting that Hamburg has several improvement projects going in tandem with the state’s reconstruction of that village’s Main and Buffalo streets area.
East Aurora invited the Hamburg trustees to give them ideas they could pattern to some degree and then tailor toward East Aurora, as it undergoes its own Main Street reconstruction for two years.
Meshing strong zoning and design guidelines, along with lighting standards and creating an architectural review board are critical to changing things and improving the look and feel of a village, Cerrone and Hackathorn told East Aurora officials.
Some don’t think East Aurora is wise to rush to mimic what Hamburg is doing. “It’s a slippery slope to start dictating to developers,” said East Aurora Trustee Patrick McDonnell. “The way East Aurora looks now is what makes East Aurora, East Aurora.”
McDonnell said he fears what could be in store for East Aurora, if some of those changes were implemented. “It could turn East Aurora into an Ellicottville or a Niagara-on-the- Lake with cutesy-pooh shops,” he said. “I’d rather have economics decide what businesses go in. Who is government to dictate what is architecturally appropriate?”
East Aurora lacks a formal set of design standards to hand to developers when they come knocking — something that the Village of Hamburg changed for itself over the last four years. “There is zoning, but our history shows a fair amount of poetic [license] in our development process,” Crook said. Developers now come in blindly with proposals, and the village sends them back to the drawing board for modifications, he said, which can be unwieldy.
Without design guidelines in place, Crook said East Aurora would not qualify for state grant money. “However, I think we have time to pull it off. We’re a little behind, but not too much,” he said.
e-mail: krobinson@buffnews.com
