The Jamestown Planning Commission is discussing mitigation proposals for a possible housing project in the city, again.

On Tuesday, the commission discussed the mitigation proposal submitted by Home Leasing, a family-owned, for-profit redevelopment company based in Rochester, for the possible renovation of the historic Arcade Building in downtown Jamestown.

In October, Bret Garwood, Home Leasing CEO, and Adam Driscoll, Home Leasing development manager, discussed the potential project to renovate the Arcade Building, located at 26-32 N. Main St., Jamestown, into an apartment complex with 36 units.

Garwood said they discovered the Arcade Building while working on the redevelopment project at the site where a building was destroyed by fire in 2017 along Main Street in Falconer.

Driscoll said during the preliminary analysis of the building, Home Leasing officials said they believe the building has great potential. He said the current plans include having 36 units, with 13 studio and 23 one-bedroom apartments.

Garwood said Home Leasing is in the early stages of potentially redeveloping the building and wanted to discuss the preliminary plans with the city Planning Commission before moving forward.

On Monday, the commission discussed the mitigation plan that was submitted by Home Leasing, which is to fund the city $500 for each unit proposed for a total of $18,000, which would go toward the Chautauqua County Land Bank Corp. to stabilize housing in the city.

Mike Laurin, commission member, said the city has a neighborhood plan that states the city shouldn’t add housing without removing units. He said Home Leasing should be able to tear down five to six properties to justify the 36 units it will be adding. He added possibly the funding could go toward renovating housing instead of just being for demolitions.

“The more funds we have to support (housing) the better off and more stable the neighborhoods will be,” he said.

Greg Rabb, commission chairman, said renovating and saving the Arcade Building will help stabilize the downtown neighborhood area. He proposed possibly the city could suggest that Home Leasing provide the city $1,000 per a unit for a total of $36,000.

“If they can pull (the renovation of the Arcade building) off, it helps stabilize the downtown neighborhood,” he said.

John LaMancuso, commission member, said the potential renovation of the Arcade Building is a “golden opportunity” that doesn’t come around often. He said it’s the first time in the last decade he heard of a proposal to renovate the historic structure.

“I would venture to guess that hasn’t happened too often,” he said about an organization proposing to renovate the Arcade building.

“I don’t remember anyone knocking on our door with a project like this that could solve a lot of problems,” Rabb said.

Rabb said he will submit the suggestions made by the commission during the meeting to Home Leasing to see if they will change the mitigation proposal. The commission is slated to discuss Home Leasing’s response at its next meeting Tuesday, Jan. 19.

Earlier this year, the commission reached an mitigation agreement with Southern Tier Environments For Living for the new Gateway Lofts project that will be located at 31 Water St., Jamestown. It took the commission and STEL more than two year to reach a mitigation agreement for the proposed 110-unit facility. The mitigation agreement has STEL providing city officials with $350,000 to assist in stabilize housing in Jamestown.

In other business, the commission also discussed the small cell infrastructure ordinance dealing with the installation of 5G cell phone antennas. Rabb suggested city officials should suggest to cell phone companies in the ordinance that they can place the antennas anywhere in the city outside of single-family residential districts or historic, cultural and natural significant areas in the city. He said if they propose to place in antenna in any of the restricted areas, then the communication company would have to approach city officials about the need for the placement in one of these locations.

“If (a 5G antenna) needed to go in a restrict area, they could come to the city and discuss it,” he said.

The commission didn’t take a vote on the ordinance, but will continue the discussion at its next meeting.