Press Releases

 A Letter From Mayor Witte (9/17/2010)

It’s time to narrow down the talk about Olean’s struggling downtown, and vacant, deteriorating storefronts. While these are universal problems that are plaguing most urban communities in the U.S. it is my hope that Olean is creative enough to find solutions and learn from others who are tackling these problems. We need to stay focused and positive to survive and thrive in the coming years.

There isn’t enough space to describe the many new things going on in our city that show how our Common Council, residents, businesses and volunteers are energized, moving forward and looking up. Success will float everyone’s boat, not just one person’s or one developer’s.

This effort is bigger than one executive order, and bigger than writing one check or asking for more taxpayer sacrifices. As a key component of downtown revitalization, the Urban Renewal Agency just acquired the Manufacturer’s Hanover Trust, Marra and Siegel’s properties for mixed uses. Other efforts take elbow grease and cooperation, such as Neighborhood Watch, or the Litter Control volunteer teams who mobilized this summer to keep the trash picked up. Or the group of young volunteers who spent their summer Sundays painting concrete poles and pulling weeds. Some property owners have continued to keep trash off the streets and pull the weeds, others have not. I have hosted the Mayor’s Executive Forum, and hold talks with top industrial leaders to find ways to cut costs and bring more jobs to our area, etc.

When I took office one of my first actions was to formulate committees, such as Fleet Management, Historic Preservation, Community Housing Rehabilitation, and the Zoning Update Committee, only one of several new key committees that has been meeting steadily since early this year to help turn things around in our wonderful city.

The Zoning Update Committee recently hired Stuart I. Brown Associates, a leading Planning firm, to work with the public and the city staff in a review and discussion of the city’s Zoning Ordinance to ensure its continued consistency with the 2005 Comprehensive Plan guiding the city’s development efforts.

This firm has experience with successful projects in communities suffering from the decay caused by the 1960’s Urban Renewal, conversion of residential neighborhoods to commercial use, and other issues paralleling our own.

Some of Stuart Brown’s projects have helped the city of Batavia, a regional center in a rural county. Another project helped a Brownfields area similar to our own, left by chemical plants north of the Robert Moses Parkway. Another is the midtown development in Rochester where the pressure was on to force apartments into ground-level retail space.

“You need to line that (City Center Use District) with open-faced retail,” said one consultant who had helped the city of Rochester preserve its downtown and resist the efforts of large corporate developers.

I appreciate Mr. Magnano’s contributions to our community. I received his assistant’s letter Wednesday requesting a meeting to resolve an adverse ruling made by the Zoning Board of Appeals for his variance request for ground-floor apartments on North Union Street. That letter suggested Park Centre Development would sue the city if the matter was not resolved in his favor, but there was no deadline.

I am not a member of the Zoning Board of Appeals, but I know that its rulings must follow strict guidelines and stand up in court. Approval of that downstairs variance could have brought costly lawsuits against the city and the taxpayers from other developers who might profit from straying outside the boundaries of the zoning ordinance.

In my response to Mr. Magnano’s letter I expressed a willingness to meet at any time on the subject of any appropriate uses within our business district, but I stand behind the Zoning Board of Appeals and I cannot resolve the matter of the apartments to Mr. Magnano’s satisfaction. It would simply not be legal.

Let’s get some ideas flowing. Please start by taking a look at the city’s zoning ordinance and list of 45 permitted principal uses now allowed in the City Center Use District. The list, the Zoning Ordinance and the Comprehensive Plan are on file in the Community Development Department and on the city’s website (www.cityofolean.org). Perhaps there is a small business on that list that appeals to your imagination and at the same time fills a need in the community.