B U F F A L O N E W S
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has already completed its wetlands delineation process for a Grand Island subdivision, but some residents believe some wetlands were overlooked and they want the agency to revisit the site.
“It’s obvious what’s there; it’s very obvious,” Lois Shriver said Monday night during the regular Grand Island Town Board meeting.
Gerald Wochadlo, a Fareway Lane resident, said the proposed future site of the Country Club Cottages, at Fix and Baseline roads, has wetlands that were not delineated. Wochadlo is president of the Fareway Fix Baseline Neighborhood Association, which hired Watts Engineering last November to conduct an independent assessment of the site.
“There needs to be reassessment of the wetlands that were overlooked,” Wochadlo said.
Shriver, who is an Amherst resident but a member of the Grand Island group, said the Watts findings show wetlands with connections to navigation waters, making them eligible for the corps’ jurisdiction.
“If the state doesn’t take jurisdiction, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist,” she said.
The subdivision site underwent an assessment in September 2005, and the findings prompted the corps to require wetlands mitigation by the developer.
Town Supervisor Peter A. McMahon said the Town Board doesn’t make wetlands decisions and he doesn’t know if the corps will revisit the site.
“We can’t force them; they are higher up on the food chain,” he said.