Ten residents of the Elmwood Village sued the City of Buffalo and the developers behind the Elmwood Crossing project, asking the court to overturn the city's finding that the project can be considered as a planned-unit development.
The lawsuit, filed on Thursday in State Supreme Court in Buffalo, asserts that the planned-unit development designation violated the city's laws and comprehensive plan, and that the procedures followed by the city Planning Board and Common Council "were defective, flawed and unlawful."
It claims the planned-unit development "is systemically inconsistent with the Comprehensive Plan, was adopted solely for the convenience" of the developer "and not the welfare of the city at large."
The lawsuit asks the court to overturn the city's finding and require that any further zoning actions related to Elmwood Crossing honor the city's comprehensive plan and the Green Code.
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The suit names as defendants the city, the Common Council, the city clerk, the Planning Board and Elmwood Crossing LLC – the development entity owned by Sinatra & Co. Real Estate and Ellicott Development Co.
Amy Nagy, director of development for Sinatra, and Brendan Mehaffy, director of the city's Office of Strategic Planning, declined to comment. Representatives of the Council and Ellicott did not respond to requests for comment.
Sinatra and Ellicott are pursuing a $100 million-plus redevelopment of the former Women & Children's Hospital of Buffalo campus into a new mixed-use development, in a process expected to take several years to complete. The project for the 8-acre site includes 220 apartments, 27 condominiums, 20 for-sale townhouses, a 75-room boutique hotel, a day care, an urban grocery, boutique shops and offices – all spread over locations on three streets.
Construction on the first piece of the larger project, a five-story building at the corner of Elmwood Avenue and Bryant Street, has begun, and the developer received approval early this year for the day care and townhouses.
But the proposals have been met with widespread criticism from neighbors and other residents, who have objected to deviations from the Green Code, especially to the sudden demolition of a house on West Utica Street after the Preservation Board recommended against a permit.
The developers obtained the PUD last year to unify the rules, requirements and potential uses under a consistent set of zoning rules. However, each individual project must still come back to the city Planning Board and other municipal bodies for review.
The lawsuit claims that the Council failed to comply with the Green Code. It also says the Planning Board "did not make written findings of fact" as required by the code, "thus failing to verify its compliance with all applicable standards," and that the city clerk did not publish the PUD, also as required.
According to the lawsuit, the developers filed their application for the PUD to the city clerk on Oct. 21, 2019. The Planning Board was slated to consider the request on Nov. 4, with a Council public hearing scheduled for Nov. 6. A notice of proposed waivers and modifications as part of the PUD was included in the Common Council meeting packet on Oct. 29, but no other details were made public, the lawsuit continued.
The Planning Board issued its findings to the Council on Dec. 4, and the Council voted on an amended PUD on Dec. 10. The amendments were described in a document on the Council's website.
That same day, however, the Council recalled the legislation before Buffalo Mayor Byron W. Brown could sign it, and then convened a special Council meeting two days later to pass a new version of the PUD. The second version, according to the lawsuit, contained an additional 62 "waivers and modifications" from the Green Code, beyond what was contained in the original version. And it was not available to the public in advance of the vote.
The lawsuit was filed by Elmwood Village residents Undine Bistany of Lexington Avenue; Ruthellen Bunis, Edward Handman, Germain Harnden, Andree Lippes, Joel Lippes and Kristin Siano of Hodge Avenue; Anne Murphy of West Utica Street; Daniel Sack of Lancaster Avenue; and William Wisniewski of Bryant Street.
All live within a short distance from the project site. They say the project will reduce the value of their property and diminish the quality of life within the neighborhood.
