Amherst, N.Y. (WBEN) - Benderson Development recently submitted a traffic impact study on the expansive Costco project on Ridge Lea in the Town of Amherst. Supervisor Brian Kulpa tells WBEN all the activity surrounding Costco and the potential for traffic trouble in the area gets a great deal of attention from town residents.
Kulpa says there will be some negotiating between Benderson and the town that needs to be completed. "It's a little bit of here's what we think, and then a little bit of here's what the town thinks. And then we're going to obviously try to get to a center position on what needs to happen over in that area," says Kulpa.
Kulpa says the traffic impacts aren't as big as you might think. "What we're looking at is a significant issue existing in the pattern over there, and trying to work past those issues. So I don't think it's a secret that there's a traffic issue on Bailey or on Ridge Lea, we're trying to figure out how can we make the entirety of the situation better, and not just mitigate the additional values," says Kulpa.
Kulpa says this is not singlehandedly holding up the project. He says the project is moving forward. While taking a couple of months, the reality is nothing will be done until next spring because of the upcoming winter.
Kulpa says the now visible Costco project is getting a lot of attention in Amherst. "Whether it's a traffic study, whether it's something about the retail environment, Costco gets attention," says Kulpa. But he says it's not the only big project the town has conducted traffic studies on. "The town's done traffic studies for enormous targets that have been built for huge grocery stores, for Walmarts, for a lot of very large retailers, so this isn't out of the norm to have this, there's traffic issues in all sorts of parts of the town."
