‘I’m not anti-growth': Lancaster could pause large-scale residential development

LANCASTER, NY (WKBW) — A Town of Lancaster lawmaker wants to put the brakes on large-scale residential development for a full year. A proposal calls for a one-year moratorium on building new commercial residential property that if approved would pause all applications, approvals, and construction on commercial residential properties.

"I’m not anti-growth. I’m not anti-commercial development,” remarked Robert Leary, supervisor-elect, Lancaster.

Lancaster Town Councilmember and supervisor-elect Robert Leary told me he is proposing a one-year moratorium to prevent new construction of residential developments, apartment and townhome complexes, and condominiums only in the town.

“Why is that a concern for you right now?” Buckley asked. “Because right now we have pretty much too much growth at this point in time. It's time to take a pause. We've had a lot of problems. We've had problems with traffic,” replied Leary.

Leary says by pausing for one year, the board would have time to improve infrastructure and zoning. However current projects already approved would not be affected.

“We are not stopping anything to do with if you own a piece of land right now, you have your house on it but want to build a house for your kids next door. You can go ahead and do that. We're not stopping anything to do with people who want pools in their yards, and all that good stuff -- put up fencing or any of that. It just has to do with the larger, larger-scale developments for residential.

Some residents that I spoke with have some mixed views on a moratorium.

"Rather than just saying no, no, no, we can't do this, allowing us to be able to grow and develop and flourish hopefully,” Arylnn Williams replied.

Williams is a resident and businesswoman. She says blocking new housing could prevent younger people and families from moving in.

“There may need to be more options for us to be able to come here and if we want to be in this area and we want to flourish, we want our families raising this area, we need to have more options, and right now there aren't very many options for us. And so, I think that having that development would really help to bring some of the younger community into this area and be able to allow it to flourish in that regard rather than you know, it's like everybody's kind of stuck,” reflected Leary.

“I think it's okay like it is right now,” responded Mark Jarnot, Lancaster resident.

Jarnot agrees with the town's proposal saying there's "too much growth" and new residential development should be halted.

“I think best just leave it as is. Sometimes developers are in a hurry to build, but they're not so worried about the consequences. They go down to Florida with their profits and they leave you know, sewer systems overloaded or other issues,” reflected Jarnot.

And an overloaded sewer and the water system is exactly why Leary says he wants a one-year pause.

The proposal could come up for a town board vote on December 18th.

“A lot of traffic problems. We have low water pressure over on Pleasantview and in that area over there, which causes problems. It's a nuisance for the people and it can also be a danger because we got to have sufficient water pressure to do things like fight fires,” Leary noted.

But Leary told me he’s also concerned about increases in police and fire calls in 2023 and wants to make sure law enforcement and public safety is not at risk.

“We have to, as a town board, look at the safety issues, the health issues, quality of life a lot of people want to come to Lancaster. We've grown significantly, while some of the other towns around us may have not grown as quickly as us. We have somewhere over 45,000 people now. So we got to look at all those different aspects,” Leary commented.