The Gateway Center, located at 31 Water St., Jamestown, has been proposed to be renovated into a housing development called the Gateway Lofts. P-J photo by Dennis Phillips

The Jamestown Planning Commission has approved a positive declaration of the State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) assessment for the Gateway Lofts project, again.

On Tuesday, the commission approved the recommendation from city staff of the positive declaration, which means an environmental impact statement will be produced. This isn’t the first time the commission has called for a positive declaration for the project. In October 2018, the first time the Gateway Lofts project was being discussed, the commission also called for a positive declaration.

Following the commission’s meeting, Crystal Surdyk, city development director, said the staff is recommending the positive declaration because it will lead to an environmental impact statement being produced, which provides more detail into the overall project. She said there are still project concerns that need to be addressed by the developers — Southern Tier Environments for Living (STEL). She added that with the proposed site being the Gateway Center, which was the former Chautauqua Hardware, there are Brownfield site concerns. Also because the building is located near the Chadakoin River, there are also waterfront issues that need to analyzed. Surdyk said the environmental impact statement will answer the questions that need to be addressed.

After the commission approved the resolution for a positive SEQR declaration, Steven Ricca, Bond Schoeneck & King attorney who is representing STEL, said an environmental impact statement won’t resolve the main issue that was discussed during the commission’s meeting, which is housing mitigation compared to the number of new units being created as part of the Gateway Lofts project.

The Gateway Lofts proposal calls for 110 units, consisting of two, three and four bedroom apartments, to be created. STEL has also agreed to mitigate, or fund the demolition, 21 dilapidated houses in the city. Of the 110 apartments that could be created, 56 are reserved for homeless people while the remaining 54 will leased to low- to moderate-income residents.

Greg Rabb, John LaMancuso and Michael Laurin, planning commission members, all discussed how they are concerned about how the new project will go against the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, which details that there are too many housing units in Jamestown. It was stated that more housing units being created can lead to lower property values and more vacancies in the city, which negatively impact neighborhoods.

Ricca requested that STEL representatives be invited back to the commission’s next meeting to negotiate a better ratio of new housing units to those being mitigated. Under the current proposal there will be 54 new units being created, which will be leased to paying tenants who could potentially rent housing elsewhere in the city, well demolishing 21 units.

In 2018, STEL, along with other project partners Community Helping Hands, and the Jamestown YWCA, first came forward and proposed renovating much of the Gateway Center building in order to develop 79 apartment units on the second, third, and fourth floor of the building. Those units would be used by a variety of tenants, including single parent families recommended by the YWCA, those with disabilities and also those who would be referred from the county jail diversion program.

In October 2018, the commission voted to prevent the project from moving forward based on the project not being fully in line with the city’s Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, along with several other environmental concerns that were raised about the project.

Since October 2018, the project developers have been working with city officials on the newly developed Gateway Lofts plan.