Update 4/12/26 - vote is Thursday!
The Planning Board vote is this Thursday 4/16 at 6:30pm, please attend if you can! This vote is the final approval for the project, the Town Board doesn't have to approve it as previously thought. The Agenda has been posted, there will be no opportunity to speak before or after on this issue. See full update below.
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We are now over 470 signatures, thank you everyone for the support!
At the Town Board meeting on Monday 3/23, 8 members of our neighborhood used our 3 minutes of expression each to bring this matter to the attention of the Town Board. Another member of the community in attendance was also inspired to speak in support.
- Supervisor Lavin clarified that this issue is not directly in front of the Town Board, but they will still ask the Amherst Police to have an elevated presence in the neighborhood based on the information provided.
- Deputy Supervisor Marinucci stated she is familiar with the issue as a parishioner of St Greg's.
- Councilmember Szukala mentioned that he is also familiar with the issue since he is the Town Board's Liaison to the Traffic Safety Board, attended the meeting where the proposal was originally presented, and stated that the way it was presented implied that the gate would prevent cut-through traffic.
Obviously we disagree with the contention that the gate will prevent new cut-through traffic, as well as many other assertions by the proposal, which we presented to the Planning Board on 3/19.
We were also able to send a FOIL request to NYSDOT for any accidents on Hopkins between Maple and Klein in the last 5 years. The results show 6 accidents where Bassett or Red Oak was the closest cross street, 4 of which occurred specifically within the window the Traffic Report claimed to study, and 2 of those are specifically marked “AT-INTERSECTION”. These are in addition to the 4 we know of personally from our own documentation, again showing the Traffic Report is incomplete. These documents can be found in this shared folder.
Additionally, Deputy Supervisor Marinucci replied to an email from me and clarified that this issue is completely up to the Planning Board vote on 4/16 and will not be subject to Town Board approval. While we wait for the Planning Board vote, it's imperative that the Town Board be aware that we are against this proposal and the universal opposition to it. We have created some templates in the same folder for emailing the Town Board which can be used as a starting point. Please e-mail and call the board and let them hear your voice, especially now that we have official data showing the inaccuracy of the Traffic Report. Contact information below as provided by the Town Board website:
Shawn A. Lavin
Town Supervisor
Email: townsupervisor@amherst.ny.us
Current Term: 2026 - 2028
Office: (716) 631-7032
Angela Marinucci
Deputy Supervisor & Councilmember
amarinucci@amherst.ny.us
(716) 631-7013
John Davis (Liaison to the Planning Board)
Councilmember
jdavis@amherst.ny.us
(716) 631-7013
Michael Szukala (Liaison to the Traffic Safety Board)
Councilmember
mszukala@amherst.ny.us
(716) 631-7013
Jack Kavanaugh
Councilmember
jkavanaugh@amherst.ny.us
(716) 631-7013
Hope to see as many people as possible on Thursday!