For more than two decades, a 52-acre island of farm field behind Walmart and The Home Depot and off Lewiston Road has been designated for commercial development.

Tractor Supply is proposing a new store at 8727 Lewiston Road that will occupy 5.08 acres of the farm field, which is currently owned by the Call family and farmed by MY-T Acres.

The new store will replace the Tractor Supply store at 4974 East Main Street Road, Batavia.

Commercial real estate broker Tony Mancuso, who is assisting in the development of the project, said  Tractor Supply is looking to move into a larger, more modern, more efficient building.

"They rent that building," Mancuso said. "They will own this building."

Mancuso and his father were involved with developing Veterans Memorial Drive, starting with Walmart, so he knows the history of the property.

"This has been zoned for this kind of development for over 20 years," Mancuso said. "When we did the other development, we put a road roadway up by the highway to come behind Home Depot and down (to Lewiston). So this has been on the books for 20 years so it was the logical place to go."

The developer will be Hix Snedeker, with engineering by Dynamic Engineering with legal representation for the permitting process by Hopkins Sorgi & McCarthy.

The project was presented to the County Planning Board on Thursday night and the board voted unanimously to recommend approval of the project with the following modifications:

• The applicant obtains a permit for the new road and intersection from the Department of Transportation;
• The applicant completes a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan and obtains a Stormwater Permit from the Department of Environmental Conservation;
• Given that the project is located in an archaeologically sensitive area, the applicant obtain a permit from the State Historic Preservation Office.

"With these required modifications, the proposed store should pose no significant county-wide or inter-community impact," the Planning Department said in its memo recommending approval with modifications.

The driveway into the project will take the same route as the planned roadway through the 105-acres of farmland and will be dedicated to the town so that it can eventually be part of the roadway that connects to Veterans Memorial Drive, coming out on the north side of The Home Depot. It will be up to the developer of any new commercial space on the remaining land to complete the road.

Mancuso said the same process was used when Walmart was built, with the start of Veterans Memorial Drive initially serving just Walmart.

Attorney Peter Sorgi said he expects the Calls to continue farming the undeveloped portion of the property, which they will continue to own.

The project will be considered by the Town of Batavia Planning Board at its regular meeting at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in the Town Hall.

With Tractor Supply vacating its location on East Main Street Road, it will add to the inventory of empty commercial buildings on the east side of town, which includes the former CountryMax location and the unoccupied gas station and convenience store on East Main.

Mancuso said not to worry.  He expects announcements soon about new tenants for those two vacant buildings and he already has two potential tenants interested in the Tractor Supply building.

"I don't like to see empty buildings either," Mancuso said. "So I'm trying to work it out as fast as I can."

The easements – three from Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp. and one each from Alex’s Place and Benderson Development (owner of the former Kmart store) – were bought for the nominal sum of $10 each.

Town officials needed the parcels as it prepares for the major rehabilitation of the road from Lewiston Road (Route 63) to Oak Street (Route 98). The state-funded project is scheduled to begin in the spring of 2021.

As reported previously on The Batavian, work will include new pavement, curbs and curbing from Lewiston Road to Richmond Avenue with sidewalks on both sides of Park Road, while pavement will by pavement will be overlaid and sidewalks installed on one side of the road from Richmond Avenue to Route 98.

The project also calls for new water lines and street lights on Park Road between Route 63 and Richmond Avenue.

In other action, the board:

-- Approved the purchase of 10 annual Laserfiche Participant User Subscriptions at a cost of $97 each and remote services at a cost of $150 to be used by employees who are working remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

-- Approved a “license agreement” with My-T-Acres Inc., for the farm operation to place a water pump on a 2.9-acre parcel on West Main Street Road to serve its agricultural needs. Currently, the Town is not using the land for governmental purposes.

Every time I drive on Route 63 out to Oakfield, I always love seeing this tree off in the distance at the end of a farm field owned by MY-T Acres.

On the road back to Batavia after a trip to Lockport for a story, I spotted this cabbage harvester working on MY-T Acres Farm off Lewiston Road, Batavia.

Batavia Farm Equipment has set up a holiday display using an irrigation system as a scaffolding for lights at MY-T Acres Farms on Lewiston Road.

It's spring and local farmers are getting their fields ready for planting. Photo taken from Lewiston Road of field owned by MY-T Acres.

The DEC faulted MY-T Acres for application of a restricted use of a pesticide by a non-certified applicator, use of pesticide contrary to the label and contamination adjacent the non-target area.

The pesticide used, Chloropicrin, is applied to potato fields prior to planting.

Oct. 12 was a humid, windless day and the pesticide hung close to the ground. One person was treated for minor exposure and residents who did not evacuate the area were encouraged to close their windows.

MY-T Acres waived a hearing on the violations and agreed to pay the fine.