What would you do if a restaurant (local or national) was going to move just a few doors down from you and it wanted to place a garbage shed in front of its business? Let's say that the garbage shed was to be positioned on the 'residential right of way' instead of on the commerce-side of the building. With the compliance of the operator, I would think that a mutual agreement could be arranged between the neighborhood, the business and The City. Often times when a restaurant moves into a formerly non-restaurant space, these problems can, and often do, arise.
This is the scenario that neighbors living on Wellington Avenue in North Buffalo are facing. Apparently the business in question is a Subway restaurant - a business that has had a spotty track record in this city at best. Remember the corner of Elmwood and Forest? I wouldn't have wanted to live near that business with all of the garbage that accumulated on a daily basis - they were not good neighbors. Then again, it's not a KFC. Frankly I have nothing against chains, and even encourage certain ones to open in Buffalo. That's not the issue. The issue is quality of life for the neighbors, and if this city had updated zoning requirements for these types of conundrums, then we wouldn't even be discussing this right now. Following is the lowdown from resident Dan Ryan who is concerned that The City has not done its due diligence when it comes to handling the garbage issue.
Dan states that,
"Ideally they would partner with the business across the street for the shared use of their dumpster, or perhaps store their totes in the City owned lot across the street. The fact that there is no place on their property to store their garbage makes the site unsuitable, but our argument is that if they must locate there, have their commercial refuse on the commercial side of the property, not the residential.
"The Subway restaurant chain has plans to open a location at Hertel & Wellington in North Buffalo. While there is general opposition to bringing what some call a "strip mall franchise " to a district of thriving sole proprietorships, opposition has galvanized around efforts by the chain to build a garbage shed on residential right of way on Wellington Road adjacent to the property. The City Planning board at first tabled the measure urging the franchise owner to meet with neighborhood residents to share architectural drawings of what was promised to be an "attractive garbage enclosure". Two weeks later the board approved the garbage shed without the neighborhood having input.
"A petition opposing the construction of the garbage shed on Wellington with close to 300 signatures of neighborhood residents, business owners and patrons of Hertel shop was shared with the Planning board and with Councilmember LoCurto. The residents are requesting that if the restaurant is to be allowed to store their garbage on city property, that they be stored on the Hertel side, next to the totes that are already stored there by the adjacent neighbor - North Park Florists. To date there has been no public hearing on this issue. Those who are opposed to giving up city right of way on a residential street for the construction of a garbage shed are being urged to contact Councilmember LoCurto at 716-851-5155."
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This is the scenario that neighbors living on Wellington Avenue in North Buffalo are facing. Apparently the business in question is a Subway restaurant - a business that has had a spotty track record in this city at best. Remember the corner of Elmwood and Forest? I wouldn't have wanted to live near that business with all of the garbage that accumulated on a daily basis - they were not good neighbors. Then again, it's not a KFC. Frankly I have nothing against chains, and even encourage certain ones to open in Buffalo. That's not the issue. The issue is quality of life for the neighbors, and if this city had updated zoning requirements for these types of conundrums, then we wouldn't even be discussing this right now. Following is the lowdown from resident Dan Ryan who is concerned that The City has not done its due diligence when it comes to handling the garbage issue.
Dan states that,
"Ideally they would partner with the business across the street for the shared use of their dumpster, or perhaps store their totes in the City owned lot across the street. The fact that there is no place on their property to store their garbage makes the site unsuitable, but our argument is that if they must locate there, have their commercial refuse on the commercial side of the property, not the residential.
"The Subway restaurant chain has plans to open a location at Hertel & Wellington in North Buffalo. While there is general opposition to bringing what some call a "strip mall franchise " to a district of thriving sole proprietorships, opposition has galvanized around efforts by the chain to build a garbage shed on residential right of way on Wellington Road adjacent to the property. The City Planning board at first tabled the measure urging the franchise owner to meet with neighborhood residents to share architectural drawings of what was promised to be an "attractive garbage enclosure". Two weeks later the board approved the garbage shed without the neighborhood having input.
"A petition opposing the construction of the garbage shed on Wellington with close to 300 signatures of neighborhood residents, business owners and patrons of Hertel shop was shared with the Planning board and with Councilmember LoCurto. The residents are requesting that if the restaurant is to be allowed to store their garbage on city property, that they be stored on the Hertel side, next to the totes that are already stored there by the adjacent neighbor - North Park Florists. To date there has been no public hearing on this issue. Those who are opposed to giving up city right of way on a residential street for the construction of a garbage shed are being urged to contact Councilmember LoCurto at 716-851-5155."
Garbage tote issue aside since I don't live in Wellington, I live in this neighborhood and have no problem with this 'strip mall franchise' moving in as long as they run a clean operation. You want to talk about garbage, take a walk by Del Denbys (next to Kostas), the curb is littered with cigarette butts in front of this place all the time, there are a couple other sole proprietors who seem to have similar issues. I'm mostly anti-franchise and big box, but this is the biggest fast food franchise in the world, and its not like they are building a strip mall on Hertel, or will take away from the street.