A group of neighbors is going to court to block a project to convert a senior housing complex in Williamsville to mixed-income housing.
The proposal by People Inc. to take over the century-old Blocher Homes property has moved forward in recent months and could receive its final approval from village officials as soon as next month.
Proponents say the new housing is badly needed in Williamsville. The developer has altered the plans in response to concerns raised by people who live nearby and Blocher will make every effort to find a new home for its senior residents.
But critics say the project unceremoniously evicts dozens of seniors, including at least one centenarian, and is too dense for the neighborhood of single-family homes. The legal complaint contends the project would hurt the environment and the village Planning Board was wrong to conclude otherwise.
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"It's not being welcomed by the community," said William Hein, a Blocher Homes neighbor and participant in the legal challenge.
People Inc.'s plan to convert Blocher Homes to mixed-income housing has stirred up considerable opposition since the agency began sharing details in late July 2019.
While seniors have lived at the Blocher property since 1906, the current structure opened in 1970. Seven years later, Blocher Homes became an affiliate of Beechwood Continuing Care.
Beechwood officials have said financial and other factors make it all but impossible to continue to operate Blocher Homes in its current form. A spokeswoman on Monday did not say how many of Blocher's 57 beds are filled but said the home's census remains low.
Beechwood has said it has room for all of Blocher's residents at its Amherst continuing care campus but the offer hasn't satisfied seniors who want to stay where they are.
"I think it's rather disgraceful," said Craig Speers, whose 99-year-old mother, Mildred, a World War II veteran, has lived at Blocher for more than two years.
Under its plan for Blocher, People Inc. initially proposed constructing 87 apartments in both the existing building and an addition just to the west of the current structure along Evans Street at a cost of $29 million. Most would serve mixed-income tenants, with some set aside for people living with disabilities.
The agency later adjusted its plans and now would build three, smaller buildings on the 5.3-acre site that, combined with the existing building, would provide 95 total apartment units. People Inc. hasn't provided an updated cost for the project.
Neighbors on Evans Street, in Williamsville, and Village Pointe Lane, a street just outside the village limits with some of Amherst's priciest homes, packed public meetings last year to raise concerns about the potential effects of the project.
They said the construction is out of scale for the neighborhood, would produce too much traffic and eliminate much of the site's landscaping.
At the request of homeowners on Village Pointe Lane, the developer got rid of a driveway that would have allowed access from that street. Village officials had sought the additional entrance and exit to ease the traffic burden on Evans, but town officials wouldn't give their approval.
Unlike other proposed construction upended by the coronavirus pandemic, People Inc.'s plans for the Blocher Homes site haven't changed as a result of the outbreak, said Dennis Schrader, a People Inc. spokesman.
A group of project opponents got together to file a complaint on July 1 against the Village of Williamsville, People Inc. and Blocher Homes.
The neighbors say it is clear the project requires a more thorough review of its effect on the environment and the Planning Board did not follow the appropriate laws in reaching a different conclusion.
"We're just trying to get our voices heard," said Hein, a Village Pointe Lane resident, who joined the legal challenge with his wife, Diane, and son Rudolph.
The neighbors are represented by attorneys Elizabeth A. Holmes and Marc Romanowski. Sean Hopkins, Romanowski's former law partner, represents People Inc. and Blocher Homes.
"It always makes it more fun," Hopkins said of the lawyers' ties.
He said the complaint filed in State Supreme Court is premature because the Planning Board hasn't issued a final yes-or-no decision on the project.
That said, Hopkins added, "I think the Planning Board complied entirely with the requirements of (state environmental law)."
Holmes, however, said it is appropriate timing to ask a judge to review the Planning Board's declaration.
She said it's clear the Planning Board had a mixed view of what the project will do to the surrounding neighborhood and some members felt they had received too much important documentation too late in the review process.
"I think a number of Planning Board members would have preferred to digest that information before voting," Holmes said.
Since the May Planning Board meeting, the village's Zoning Board of Appeals in June granted a variance for the number of parking spaces for the apartments.
The last step requires the Planning Board to approve the site and architectural plans for the project. This could come as soon as the August Planning Board meeting, Hopkins said.
Blocher neighbors and family members of its senior residents say they aren't happy the project is moving ever closer to approval over their objections and they say Williamsville officials are neglecting their constituents.
The village said it was reviewing the litigation and declined further comment, with Mayor Deborah L. Rogers noting the Village Board doesn't play a role in this decision-making process.
Speers, for his part, said he's frustrated but hopes it isn't too late to stop the project.
"I don't believe this is over," he said. Speers said his mother and other residents appreciate the great care they receive and noted Blocher Homes has no reported cases of Covid-19 among residents or staff.
Beechwood, in contrast, has had 21 Covid-19 fatalities among an unknown number of cases, according to the state Health Department.
Cameron Alam, whose mother, Syd MacDougall, is a Blocher resident now receiving Hospice care, said Beechwood hasn't moved forward with any of the improvements it promised to make at its Amherst continuing care campus for Blocher residents who agree to move there. Beechwood has cited the pandemic as the reason why.
"Not a single resident wants to leave Blocher, not to move to a different facility, nor to be relocated to a different town to a nursing-home-level campus such as Beechwood. Especially now, during a pandemic," Alam wrote in an email to The News.
