Town of Clarence Town Board·September 23, 2026
A Traffic Light for Eastgate · Costco Opens October 28 · $3 Million in Fire Contracts Go to Hearing · Two Permits Granted, Three Hearings Set
In a 35-minute meeting that opened with a welcome-home for Councilman Bob Altieri, the Town Board sent Benderson Development's plan to signalize the Eastgate Plaza driveway on Greiner Road to the Planning Board — but not before three council members picked apart the lane design, and not before the applicant's engineer let slip that Costco opens at Eastgate on October 28. Erie County has already recommended the light; the state wants it interconnected with the Transit Road signals. The board also set October 14 public hearings on 2027 fire-protection contracts with five fire companies, the largest of them Clarence Center's at roughly $1.8 million and Harris Hill's at $909,649; granted Zoé Restaurant its 250-square-foot front patio and Woodview Construction & Homeview Properties its fleet-storage lot on Sheridan Drive; referred Lakeside Sod's 8,000-square-foot machinery barn and Canine Kennels of Clarence's 2,400-square-foot expansion downstairs; set 7 Brew's drive-through hearing for October 14 and the annual excavation-permit and Community Development Block Grant hearings for October 28; appointed a school-district special patrol officer at $46.76 an hour; bought a $54,763 Ventrac mower; and paid $933,712.87 in September 10 bills on time. Councilman Paul Shear now has two seats to fill: the Planning Board vacancy announced two weeks ago, and a new one on the Zoning Board of Appeals. The joint Town Board–Planning Board session on the new code is Wednesday, September 30, at 6 p.m.
The Eastgate Plaza driveway on Greiner Road is, today, full access in and right-turn-only out. Benderson Development Co., LLC wants to make it a full, signalized intersection — left turns out toward Transit included — and on Wednesday it asked the Town Board for preliminary review of that conversion at 5183 Transit Road, in the Major Arterial zone. Director of Community Development Jonathan Bleuer laid out the paperwork already in hand: the Erie County Department of Public Works has reviewed Benderson's traffic-signal warrant analysis and recommends a signal be installed; the State DOT has asked that it be built to state standards so it can be interconnected with the existing signal at Transit, Greiner and Maple. A referral to the Planning Board, Bleuer said, “would allow for a thorough review.”
The referral was never in doubt. The lane layout was. Benderson's site civil engineer, who gave his name as Dave Zappelli[*], had barely finished saying the plan “will probably need a lot of attention” before Councilman Peter DiCostanzo gave it some, repeating a point he said he had raised at the morning work session. As drawn, the exit's right lane is shared between right turns and straight-through traffic. “The beauty of that exit now is that people going right — it's just almost a constant stream,” he said. Put one car in that lane waiting on a red to go straight and “you're gonna stop anybody who wants to make a right.” His suggestion: share the through movement with the left lane instead. “There's definitely something we will look into,” the engineer said.
Councilman Bob Altieri went after the other end of the driveway. Inside the plaza, he noted, the road narrows to one lane at a stop sign before splitting into two lanes north toward Greiner. With a red light at the new signal, he said, “you could back up past the stop sign at certain times of the day” — “like Christmas,” someone added. “The plaza gets crazy.” Supervisor Patrick Casilio then built on both: why not shift the single inbound lane to the west and run two outbound lanes all the way from the stop sign, “where the gas station is,” so the northbound approach is two lanes “right from the get-go”? “Bob is right,” he said. “There's gonna be a backup getting out of the gas station and getting out of the BJ's plaza totally.” The engineer agreed to consider it and confirmed the signal would be coordinated with the Transit Road lights and run on state DOT infrastructure.
Then the supervisor asked the question he said he would not ask. “I could ask him when Costco is gonna open, but I won't do that to him.” The answer came anyway: October 28 — and, the room was assured, before the West Seneca store. The referral to the Planning Board carried on a voice vote. It is, as this page noted two weeks ago, the second Greiner Road traffic matter on the board's plate this month; on September 9 the board asked the county for turning lanes at another point on the same road.
Board: Supervisor Patrick Casilio (presiding); Council members Peter DiCostanzo, Paul Shear, Daniel Michnik, Bob Altieri. All five reported; Altieri was welcomed back after an absence. Staff: Jonathan Bleuer, Director of Community Development, presented every land-use item.
Applicants heard: Sutton Architecture for Zoé; Homeview Properties; Lakeside Sod; Metzger Civil Engineering for Canine Kennels; Benderson's site engineer; Carmina Wood Design for 7 Brew.
Public speakers: none at either hearing.
A traffic signal is not installed because a property owner wants one. Under the federal Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices, which New York adopts, an engineer must show that an intersection meets at least one of nine warrants — thresholds for things like eight-hour and four-hour vehicle volumes, peak-hour delay, pedestrian volume, or crash history — before a signal is justified. Greiner Road is a county road, so the county's Department of Public Works is the authority that reviews the warrant study; it has, and it recommends the light. The state's interest is different: Transit Road is a state highway (NY 78), and a new signal a few hundred feet from the Transit–Greiner–Maple signal has to be interconnected — wired to run on a coordinated timing plan — or the two lights will trap traffic between them. That is why the DOT wants it built to its standards. What the Town Board controls is neither of those things; it is the site plan — how many lanes, where the stop sign sits, how the plaza's internal road meets the new intersection — which is exactly what Wednesday's questions were about.
The supervisor's report carried the morning's biggest dollars. Casilio moved to set public hearings for October 14 on 2027 fire-protection contracts with the town's five fire companies, in five-minute slots starting at 10:15: Clarence Center Volunteer Fire Company (10:15), East Amherst Fire Department (10:20) — “which we split with the Town of Amherst” — Harris Hill Volunteer Fire Company (10:25), Rapids Volunteer Fire Company (10:30), which covers “about, I don't know, two square miles down in the north country,” and Swormville Fire Department (10:35).
The amounts as read are in the sidebar. Two of them did not survive transcription intact and are reported as ranges rather than figures; the three that did total $1,239,625, and with Clarence Center's roughly $1.8 million the package is on the order of $3 million. Casilio was explicit that these are the companies' own asks: “I honored the request that they had for these contract amounts” in the preliminary budget he will submit at the end of the month — and, turning to DiCostanzo, “you might change your minds on this, but this is the preliminary budget.” Voice vote, carried.
Two personnel items rode the same report. The board appointed a special patrol officer, part time, at $46.76 an hour — “an hourly equivalent of $55,000 annually” — under the town's agreement with the Clarence Central School District for special patrol officer services, effective September 24, subject to pre-employment requirements; the resolution notes the officer may carry an approved firearm on duty under a license issued pursuant to the Penal Law. And it appointed a part-time clerk at $20 an hour, effective October 5. Neither appointee's name is reliably rendered on the recording (Editor's Note).
Clarence Center VFC — heard as “one million eight hundred and fifty dollars”; roughly $1.8 million, exact figure not recoverable from audio
East Amherst FD (split with Amherst) — heard as “$1,729”; almost certainly a six-figure sum misheard, not recoverable from audio
Harris Hill VFC — $909,649
Rapids VFC — $51,907
Swormville FD — $278,069
Hearings October 14, 10:15–10:35 a.m. The legal notice, when published, will carry the exact figures.
Zoé Restaurant, 5701 Transit Road. The 10:15 hearing was over in about six minutes. Mike Burger[*] of Sutton Architecture, 5409 Main Street, Williamsville, described a 250-square-foot patio for three to five tables in front of the existing restaurant on the one-acre Major Arterial parcel: new doors from the dining room, a concrete slab, railing, planter boxes and an aluminum-frame fabric awning. No one from the public rose. The board's only substantive question, after the motion, was whether anything stops a car from driving into it; it is fenced, and the drive aisle turns there rather than aiming at it. The temporary conditional permit was approved on a voice vote with the standard four conditions: an initial term of no more than one year, operation per the application and testimony, compliance with Engineering, Building and Planning, and applicable fees. The rest of the exchange was about breakfast prices — see Overheard.
Woodview Construction & Homeview Properties, 8955 Sheridan Drive. The 10:20 hearing was shorter still. The applicant wants to store fleet vehicles and trailers in a screened, gated stone lot behind a 960-square-foot garage the Planning Board has already approved but which is not yet built, on a roughly half-acre Commercial parcel on the south side of Sheridan east of Shimerville Road. Dante Santora[*] appeared for Homeview. “You made some excellent adjustments,” a council member told him; the supervisor added that the project “has come a long way” and that months of work lay behind what looked quick from the audience. No public comment. The permit carried seven conditions — the standard four plus: the stone lot kept in a condition that prevents excessive dust; the stone removed and the area returned to lawn when the permit ends; and outside storage limited to licensed vehicles and trailers, none of it outside the stone area. Asked on the record whether he had heard, understood and agreed to the conditions, the applicant said yes three times. The supervisor called for a roll call; the individual votes are not audible on the recording (Editor's Note).
Both permits granted Wednesday are Temporary Conditional Permits, and both carry the same first condition: an initial term of no more than one year. That is the point of the instrument. A TCP lets the board say yes to a use its code does not permit outright — a front-yard patio on a state highway, outdoor storage of a contractor's fleet — while keeping the applicant on a short leash: the permit comes back for renewal, and a renewal hearing is where neighbors' complaints, dust, noise or a fence that never got built get aired. It is how the board handled Lemon Auto Detailing in May, and Lemon Auto's renewal is already on the work-session docket again. The trade-off is procedural: the town gets leverage, and the applicant gets an annual appointment with the board for as long as the use continues.
Lakeside Sod Supply Co., Inc., 6660 Goodrich Road. A family sod, seed, fertilizer and soil operation on 23.3 acres in the Industrial Business Park zone wants an 8,000-square-foot metal building for machinery storage and maintenance. Mike Bradl[*] appeared for the family; the supervisor said he “had to get this guy out of my Facebook feed” and reminded the room that Clarence is a right-to-farm community, that Lakeside has been there “67 years, when nobody else was there,” and that complaints from newer neighbors “have to be taken with a grain of salt.” What followed was several minutes on why the sod at the stadium in Orchard Park had to be replaced — the applicant's view being that the original installation was never aerated and top-dressed, so the roots never took, and that the inch-and-a-half replacement now down is too thick to maintain and will be replaced again. “Do you imagine how this conversation is changing all the betting odds right now?” the supervisor asked. The referral to the Planning Board then carried on a voice vote after someone noticed no motion had actually been made.
Canine Kennels of Clarence, 9785 County Road. Michael Metzger of Metzger Civil Engineering, 8245 Sheridan Drive, with Chuck Kelkenberg[*] for the owning family, asked for review of a 2,400-square-foot metal addition to house more boarding kennels at a two-acre Industrial Business Park site on the east side of Killdeer Lane. The original building went up in 2014, a first addition in 2018; this one is to match materials and colors “so that it does not look like an addition.” No questions. Referred on a voice vote, with the supervisor's hope that it be “one and done” at the Planning Board — “bad for him, because he bills by the hour.” This is the same County Road stretch as AJ's Tree Service, whose hearing is October 14.
7 Brew, 4301 Transit Road — October 14, 10:45 a.m. The drive-through coffee stand at Transitown Plaza that this page has followed since it was tabled in May now has Planning Board concept approval with 19 conditions and a recommendation for the special exception use permit its drive-through needs. Anthony Pandolfi[*] of Carmina Wood Design appeared to have the hearing set; the board obliged on a voice vote and then asked the real question — when would it open? Not this year, he said: development plan approval, the Landscape Review Committee, a return to the Planning Board and engineering approval remain, so “probably midwinter,” though these operators “go right ahead to start pulling permits and get them built as fast as possible.” A couple of parking spaces have been eliminated and employee parking is being worked out with the plaza owner. One council member's condition for the hearing: that Carmina himself be out there “directing traffic with cones and a vest on.”
Annual excavation permit renewals — October 28, 10:15 a.m. Four sites: New Enterprise/Buffalo Crushed Stone, 8615 Wehrle Drive; Lakeside Sod Supply, 6660 Goodrich Road; and Michael Development at 10001 and 10051 Wehrle Drive. Bleuer said tax bills, DEC permits, bonding and fees are being collected and will be on file before the hearing, and volunteered that the planning office “has received, whether it be complaints or inquiries, regarding these operations” — he started to say two of them, then declined to narrow it — and that each was investigated promptly with the owners. “Everything is in order for these requests.” Voice vote.
Community Development Block Grant — October 28. The town has identified two candidate projects for this year's federal CDBG request: senior center furniture and Rural Transit Services, Inc. The agenda still shows two blank lines under the applicant list, and the supervisor said the blanks would be filled “if there is another idea.” The motion set the hearing for 10:50 a.m.; asked to repeat the time, the supervisor said 10:20. The legal notice will settle which. Voice vote.
Two vacancies now, not one. Two weeks ago Councilman Paul Shear announced an opening on the Planning Board. Wednesday he had “two openings — one at the Planning Board and now one at the Zoning Board of Appeals.” No names, no timeline, no application process were stated for either.
The joint meeting has a time. The Town Board–Planning Board session on the new code, announced September 9 with no time or place, is next Wednesday, September 30, at 6 p.m., per an exchange at the very end of the meeting. The place was still not stated.
Local Hollow Brewing has a ribbon. This page noted on September 9 that Local Hollow Brewing's outside-dining permit modification at 10737 Main Street had missed three consecutive agendas. It missed a fourth Wednesday — but Councilman Peter DiCostanzo reported that “several of us were there for their ribbon cutting,” identifying the new owner as a woman named Hillary[*] who is buying the brewery formerly in the Hollow and “changing it up a little bit.” The supervisor asked that the town get contact information for the new owners. The permit modification remains without a recorded disposition.
A $54,763.35 mower. DiCostanzo's one motion accepted an MTE Equipment quote dated September 2 for a 2026 Ventrac mower with leaf plow and turbine blower under the Sourcewell cooperative contract, not to exceed $54,763.35 from Parks Equipment Capital Fund 105, and declared three machines surplus for trade-in as no longer functional: a 2014 Jacobsen mower (P707), a 2012 Ventrac contour deck (P677) and a Toro Groundsmaster (P539). The P, the board was told, is for Parks; H is for Highway.
The calendar. The Clarence Center Merchants Association's Saturday-night event, held the same night as the Clarence Center Fire Company open house, drew “hundreds if not thousands,” with the Highway and Parks departments credited for street safety, tables and crowd control. The Youth Bureau's Halloween in the Park is Saturday, October 17, 2 to 6 p.m., at Town Park on Main Street. Clarence High School's Halloween Headlight Hike at the Nature Center is Saturday, October 24, in the evening. An event in the Hollow falls on the first Saturday in October. And from the Town Clerk's table: school taxes are due October 15. “Please don't be late.”
Wednesday cleared two of the four hearings this page was carrying — Zoé and Woodview/Homeview, both granted — and added five. The October 14 meeting now holds eight noticed hearings: the five fire-company contracts (10:15–10:35), AJ's Tree Service, 9865 County Road (10:40, set September 9 with the supervisor recused), and 7 Brew (10:45). October 28 holds the excavation renewals (10:15) and the CDBG hearing (10:50 or 10:20). Downstairs at the Planning Board, the referral pile is now 9740 Lapp Road, STEM Automotive, LENCO's development plan, Lakeside Sod, Canine Kennels and Benderson/Eastgate. The 1866 Zion Lutheran parsonage landmark request, tabled September 9 for more history, was not mentioned. Neither was 5445 Transit Road, LLC's clearing-and-grading permit, which was on the September 9 work-session list and is on neither list now.
The posted work-session docket for Wednesday listed both public hearings and all six formal items that reached the 10 o'clock meeting, plus two work-session items that did not: the renewal of Lemon Auto Detailing's temporary conditional permit at 8145 Sheridan Drive — the automotive-detailing permit the board conditioned on a 230-foot wood privacy fence in May — and a new one, Picone Construction Corp., seeking preliminary review of rezoning 10975 and 10985 Main Street from Residential Single-Family to allow future commercial use behind the existing houses. On the September 9 cycle, items moved from the work-session list to the formal agenda in about fourteen days; on that pattern both would reach the October 14 meeting. Nothing said in the closed room is on the record.
Every action recorded, in order. Except where noted, votes were by voice (“all in favor — aye — opposed — carried”) with no tally announced and no opposition heard; the supervisor's stated practice is roll calls on land-use decisions, and one roll call was called Wednesday. All five members were present. No recusals were stated. Mover and seconder are recorded where the audio identifies them; the clerk's roll call at the top of the meeting is not intelligible on the recording beyond two “here”s.
Moved by the supervisor after he began reading the special patrol officer appointment out of order and doubled back. No discussion.
Appointment under the agreement between the Clarence Central School District and the Town for special patrol officer services, subject to receipt of pre-employment paperwork and requirements. The resolution states the officer may carry or possess an approved firearm while on duty with a license issued pursuant to the Penal Law. The appointee's name is not reliably rendered on the recording and the agenda gives only the title.
Amounts as heard: Clarence Center roughly $1.8 million (garbled), East Amherst garbled (“$1,729” as transcribed; split with the Town of Amherst), Harris Hill $909,649, Rapids $51,907, Swormville $278,069. The supervisor: “I honored the request that they had for these contract amounts” in the preliminary budget due at month's end; the board may revise. Flagged for dollar magnitude.
Subject to completion of pre-employment paperwork and requirements. Appointee's name not reliably rendered.
Moved by DiCostanzo. 2026 Ventrac mower with leaf plow and turbine blower. On the question, a second motion declared surplus for trade-in as no longer functional: 2014 Jacobsen mower (P707), 2012 Ventrac contour mower deck (P677), Toro Groundsmaster mower (P539).
Moved by DiCostanzo after no member of the public asked to speak.
Conditions: (1) initial term no greater than one year; (2) operation in conformance with the application, business plan and testimony; (3) applicant to meet any additional requirements of Engineering, Building and Planning; (4) applicable fees per town code. On the question, the patio is fenced and sits off the drive aisle's turning line.
Moved by DiCostanzo; no public comment.
Seven conditions: (1) initial term no greater than one year; (2) conformance with application, business plan and testimony; (3) any additional Building and Planning requirements; (4) stone parking area maintained to prevent excessive dust; (5) stone area removed and returned to lawn on termination or expiration of the permit; (6) outside storage limited to licensed vehicles and trailers, none outside the stone area; (7) applicable fees. The applicant affirmed on the record that he heard, understood and agreed to the conditions. The supervisor called a roll call; the recording captures a single “aye” and the supervisor's “good luck,” not the individual votes. The motion as read gave the address as “555 Sheridan Drive” and the cross street as “Chambersville”; the agenda's 8955 Sheridan Drive and the street index's Shimerville Road govern. Flagged for the unrecorded tally.
The mover first said October 26, corrected to 28. Bleuer: tax bills, DEC permits, bonding and fees being collected and on file before the hearing; complaints or inquiries received regarding these operations were investigated promptly with the owners; “everything is in order.”
The supervisor called the vote before any motion had been made; the motion was then made and seconded and the vote retaken. Right-to-farm noted from the chair.
Metzger Civil Engineering for the owners. Original building 2014, prior addition 2018; matching materials and colors. No questions from the board.
Erie County DPW has reviewed the signal warrant analysis and recommends a signal; NYSDOT asks that it be built to state standards for interconnection with the Transit/Greiner/Maple signal. Board comments for the Planning Board's file: DiCostanzo — move the shared through movement from the right-turn lane to the left lane; Altieri — the single-lane stop-sign approach inside the plaza will back up under a red; Casilio — shift the inbound lane west and run two outbound lanes from the stop sign at the gas station. Applicant: signal to be coordinated with Transit Road timings on DOT infrastructure; Costco opens October 28. Flagged as the meeting's most consequential referral.
Planning Board concept approval carries 19 conditions and a recommendation for the SEUP. Opening expected “probably midwinter” after development plan, Landscape Review Committee, Planning Board and engineering approvals.
Motion stated 10:50 a.m.; asked to repeat the time, the supervisor said 10:20. Not resolved on the recording.
Approved as listed on the agenda.
General fund $619,612.92; Highway $212,250.14; Water $1,032; Fire protection districts $57.38; Lighting $760.43; Agency $100,000. Total $933,712.87. Read and paid on the normal cycle, unlike the August 27 bills two weeks ago.
No speakers at “For the Good of the Town.” Before the gavel: the joint Town Board–Planning Board meeting is next Wednesday, September 30, at 6 p.m.
What aired and what did not. The 8:30 work session is not live-streamed and is not on this record; its docket is described from the posted agenda only. The stream opened 18½ minutes before the call to order, which came a few minutes after 10:00 (the supervisor noted “it's past 10:15” eight minutes in); the meeting ran from gavel to adjournment in about 35 minutes. Timecodes in the motions list are recording positions, not clock time. Capture was continuous.
Corrections applied. Whisper rendered the two Wehrle Drive excavation sites as “Worley Drive” and Greiner Road as “Griner Road” throughout; both are corrected per the agenda and the town street index. The Woodview/Homeview motion as read gave the address as “555 Sheridan Drive” and the cross street as “Chambersville Road”; the agenda's 8955 Sheridan Drive and the index's Shimerville Road are used. Benderson Development was heard as “Anderson” and “Henderson”; the agenda governs. Board members' names are corrected against the verified roster (“Shear” from “shear,” “DiCostanzo” from “D. Costanzo,” “Michnik” from “Mitchnick,” “Altieri” from “Terry”). The street check's two “unknown” hits, Main Street in Williamsville and Maple Road, are real out-of-town references (the Zoé architect's office address and the Transit/Greiner/Maple signal) and were left alone.
Names this brief could not verify. Two appointees — the special patrol officer and the part-time clerk — are named in the resolutions but not on the agenda, and the audio renderings (“Michael plot,” “they don't a Keller”) are not usable; both are identified by title only. Applicant representatives appear only in audio and carry [*]: the Sutton Architecture representative, the Homeview representative, the Lakeside Sod family member (surname heard as Braydel/Brattle), the Canine Kennels co-representative, Benderson's site engineer, the Carmina Wood Design engineer, the new owner of Local Hollow Brewing and the organizer of the Headlight Hike. Michael Metzger of Metzger Civil Engineering gave his firm's address on the record and is used without a flag.
Figures that did not survive the audio. The Clarence Center and East Amherst fire-contract amounts are reported as approximate and unrecoverable respectively; the three that transcribed cleanly are given exactly. The special patrol officer's rate ($46.76/hr) and its annualized equivalent ($55,000) are as read. The CDBG hearing time was stated as 10:50 and then as 10:20; both are reported. The Woodview roll-call tally is not on the recording and is not inferred.
Other checks. The interests watchlist was checked against every address, applicant and entity on the docket; no match. The scanner entity database was consulted for the properties at issue and nothing in it bears on these stories. The [*] flag marks a name taken from audio alone with no official document to confirm it; verify against the town's official minutes before quoting.