University at Buffalo - The State University of New York

Published: March 8, 2007

By KEVIN FRYLING
Reporter Staff Writer

The administrator in charge of planning for the Town of Amherst said Monday that coordination with UB is a crucial element of the town's long-term planning project as it goes forward.

Eric Gillert, Amherst planning director, was a guest lecturer in "Buffalo Niagara by Design," a course taught by Robert Shibley, professor of architecture and director of the Urban Design Project in the School of Architecture and Planning, who is overseeing UB's master planning process. Gillert told students that the Town of Amherst Comprehensive Plan was designed to work with the town's local partners to ensure that its implementation will cause "all the ships to rise together" throughout the region.

The establishment of an ongoing, collaborative plan—as well as creation of educational, social and cultural ties with UB—are two goals set forth in the plan.

"A key initiative is that Amherst should be a knowledge-based community," Gillert said. "That really speaks to the need for the town and university to come up with a system that makes sure we're all working together.

"We want to work together with the university to make sure we're both on the same track—running in the same direction with the same set of goals," he added.

Gillert explained that the town anticipates some changes will be made to the plan based on the results of the master planning process under way at UB—a project that will outline the physical expansion required to accommodate an anticipated 40 percent increase in students, 750 new faculty members and 600 new staff members in accordance with the goals of the UB 2020 strategic plan. He said the Town of Amherst Comprehensive Plan should be able to respond to the UB plan because it has been designed to adjust to changing circumstances.

"We look forward to that collaboration a lot," said Shibley. "The planning office in Amherst and the senior leadership in Amherst are quite open to the university engaging in a dialogue about the best collaborative planning we can have [in order to] advance both the goals of the Amherst plan and goals of the University at Buffalo."

One goal in the Town of Amherst Comprehensive Plan that seems to complement UB's goals was the town's plans to foster additional research and development off Sweet Home Road adjacent to the North Campus. "The plan calls for nonresidential uses in the town to grow by 6.9 million square feet by the year 2020," said Gillert, noting that a significant part of that space falls in the corridor that houses the UB Technology Incubator in Baird Research Park.

The possible loss of space from one of the few sites in the town suitable for nonresidential development is one reason there has been resistance to a recent proposal by a private Philadelphia-based developer to construct 225 student apartments along Rensch Road across Sweet Home from the North Campus, he said.

"If that land is pre-empted by student housing, it's no longer available to us to rebuild and sustain the economic base," Gillert said, adding that the decision regarding the land should come as a result of cooperative planning with the university.

"The process here," he added, "is reaching a common goal, a common vision and a common understanding as to who does what around the university."

Shibley agreed the decision should be based on collaborative understanding, since both UB and Amherst are the central stakeholders in the site.

The other topic students were eager to talk about was one on which there has been little movement: the prospect of a light rail line connecting UB's North and South campuses.

"Transportation is on the table; it's one of the things we have to talk about," said Shibley. "That conversation will happen."