There’s a three-way battle underway between the Amherst Town Board, a private developer, and UB, over who gets to control the land that borders the university.

Outside housing companies have been trying to push through plans for student apartments on Rensch Road, just across Sweet Home Road from the university, but the university has sued to stop the apartments.

Its officials say the land, zoned for research and development, should be saved solely for companies that are affiliated with UB. Allow the apartments, they say, and you’d open up a free-for all: donut shops, motels, and sports bars—a typical strip mall.

While UB’s concerns seem valid, research and development land has not been properly utilized. This leaves frustrated Amherst residents like Mark Kellam saying that after 30 years of failing to attract research companies, maybe it’s time to let an actual developer build something there.

Kellam agreed to sell his Rensch Road property earlier this year, when Philadelphia-based developer GMH offered to buy 11 residences on his road to build student apartments similar to the Sweethome Apartments. But there was a catch.

The properties GMH tried to build on weren’t zoned to be student dormitories—they weren’t even zoned to be residential. The properties were changed while the homeowners were living in them to be research and development space in order to facilitate UB research programs. Kellam, and most of his neighbors, have been trying to sell their homes for years, and say GMH has been their first prospective buyer.

When Mark Kellam spoke in front of the Amherst Town Board on August 6, he didn’t bring a PowerPoint presentation or a legal pad—he brought a photograph of a steel warehouse at the end of Rensch Road; the street where he used to live.

“This is an example of research and development,” he says, holding the photograph of UB’s library archives building. The building, built in 2006, is a beige warehouse standing roughly three stories high. The metal annex has no windows, save three on the front entrance. Many of the small trees planted on the site are badly damaged and nearly uprooted. It is easily visible from both the 290 and Sweet Home Road. Kellam explains, “UB couldn’t make a nice building because the economics did not make sense.” Standing in front of the board, he asked if buildings like that were really what the town and university wanted.

Near the end of the public hearing on August 4, the architect who designed it apologized.

Steven Carmino, the architect for the library project and the proposed GMH project, actually stood and apologized for the building. “It’s certainly not something that I publicize, it is an abomination. We needed the money. This is a project where we were told by officials from UB, ‘We want it cheap, we want it tall, we don’t care how it looks.’”

The State University of New York sued the town August 6, when the Town of Amherst voted to approve the housing project.

UB’s only intention, according to Robert Shibley, UB’s Director of Urban Design, was to “have a conversation about what that [Sweet Home Road] perimeter might be like, rather than take whatever proposal the next opportunist developer gives the town. We want to work with the town for a joint future for the town and the university,” he said.

Zoning laws are not unusual topics of debate at town board meetings. In fact, the board tried for years to come up with a master plan for Amherst, finally arriving at a finalized document at the beginning of this year, the first formal plan adopted since 1975. The decision to assign this master plan was unwavering, as once the plan was set, it was illegal to deviate from it without public hearings and a formal amendment. Nevertheless, many zoning amendments have been written already this year.

Most of the land parcels along Sweet Home Road are drawn in the master plan as research and development. Some research properties in Amherst include the Center for Inquiry, and the UB library archives annex, both on Rensch Road. There are also several office parks, but many in the area surrounding UB are vacant. Most of the land zoned research and development is undeveloped.

Shibley says that losing research and development land at this point in UB’s history would be a mistake. UB’s growth plan is to expand by 10,000 students and 1,000 faculty members by 2020. Baird Research Park, one of UB’s research facilities located on Sweet Home Road, is what Shibley sees as an ideal project. The park serves as a “technology incubator,” leasing space to UB graduates to start their own companies. More of that sort of space, he says, will be paramount to UB’s expansion. “This should increase our ability to take full advantage of land zoned in anticipation of that sort of growth.” Once older staff members retire, he added, they will open the door to new entrepreneurial staff.

UB issued a press release on May 16, 2007, announcing its lawsuit against the Town of Amherst. The university has set plans, it says, to “best link the edges of UB’s campuses with neighboring communities.” It continues, “Despite a series of several written communications and analysis…the university has been stymied.”

UB’s argument is that by allowing property on Rensch Road to be rezoned, Amherst is opening itself up to “spot-zoning,” a situation in which a town makes zoning decisions on a case by case basis rather than referring to a plan. Shibley sees this happening sooner than later.

“As soon as GMH looked like a positive win, there were proposals for a sports bar, two donut shops, a Dunkin Donuts and a Tim Horton’s, a small motel…you can start to imagine the strip that may be developed,” Shibley said.

This theory didn’t come up until recently. Largely, the reasons for UB’s disapproval of a Rensch Road development are difficult to pin down. In a March public hearing, UB officials said they opposed the project because “students learn better on campus.” The university later submitted that it is only capable of housing 30 percent of its students on campus, and that their interests lie in making sure development was controlled efficiently.

Melissa Subjeck of Hodgson Russ, the law firm representing UB, insisted on August 4 that GMH had not done the proper environmental tests, because it had not asked permission to have shuttle buses to and from campus. “GMH has never asked for permission to be on our campus. These are not public roads simply because they are open to the public.” One resident asked later: “Are we to believe that UB will tell potential students that if they choose to live in the student complex on Rensch Road, that they will have to walk to campus, because the shuttle bus will not be allowed?”

Oftentimes, UB’s arguments seemed misguided. When UB’s attorney, Dan Spitzer, spoke at the August 4 public hearing, he showed an advertisement from a GMH property in Florida, in which a man is pictured shirtless, embracing a woman. The slogan reads, “It’s better at Fontana.” He called the board’s zoning decision “a moral issue,” adding that the town board “cannot separate themselves” from the moral decision they would make. “This is a moral issue, you are signing off and saying I believe this is appropriate conduct for student housing. You cannot separate yourselves from what high-density student housing means.”

Mr. Spitzer was halted by Councilmember Dan Ward, who asked why the attorney was “making a land-use issue into a moral issue.”

After being stopped for going beyond his time limit, Spitzer accused the board of violating his right to speak. “My name may not be [GMH attorney] Sean Hopkins, but I have the same first amendment rights,” he said among catcalls from the audience. When he resumed speaking he said, “UB wishes it could go back 30 years and work better with the town, but that’s not a reason to approve this project. Just because you shot yourself in your right foot, doesn’t mean you have to shoot yourself in the left foot,” he said, looking to UB’s decision to relocate to Amherst in the 1970s. “Do what’s right for this project,” he continued. “Even if they’ve been wrong in the past, I ask you to set apart your legitimate animosity to UB.”

At the end of a May 16 press release, UB listed one Rensch Road resident who opposes the project and did not agree to sell his home. GMH presented a letter to the town board alleging that GMH offered the homeowner, John Giacalla, $900,000 for his property, which he declined, and asked for $1.2 million. GMH declined, opting not to include Giacalla’s land in their building plans.

Paul Kurtz is the founder of the Center for Inquiry, a research center located next door to the proposed development on Rensch Road. He spoke in favor of the project. “There ought to be room for fine properties,” he said, enthusiastic about the proposed design of the development. The Center for Inquiry is a large, well-maintained building that looks more like a house than a research institution. Seen from Sweet Home Road, it boasts glass panels and a carefully landscaped parking lot. “[The proposed development] would enhance and dignify the university. We’ve been there 16 years and the neighborhood has not improved. In some sense it has deteriorated. We have visitors coming from all over the world, and it’s an embarrassment to live in that part of Sweet Home Road.”

UB fears, it says, that building on Rensch Road will attract the same students who may have opted to live in the struggling University Heights area bordering UB’s South Campus. Vincent Clark, UB’s Director of Community Relations, says he doesn’t want to lose the neighborhood where he himself resides. “GMH is trying to suck the life out of University Heights,” he told the board. When asked later about the board’s decision to approve the rezoning, Clark voiced his disapproval of the board. “GMH came and dangled a couple bucks in their face. They jumped at it so fast, they forgot there were laws.”

Clark says that he’s concerned that GMH’s proposal is the wrong way to house students. “It is an outdated way to house students. It’s not effective, it’s a recipe for disaster,” he said, referring to keeping students unsupervised in close quarters off campus. He contends that it would be best for UB to wait for a better plan. “They’re sacrificing millions of dollars in the future for a couple pennies now.” When asked about what a future plan would look like for the Sweet Home area, Clark replied, “UB, when it says it’s going to do something, does it.”

This was a concern for many Amherst residents at the public hearing. The university, said some citizens, has ignored its neighbors in the past, making them wary about trusting their advice on an uncertain future.

Shibley is confident that buildings like the disliked library annex are things of the past. “We’re not going to build any more like that. We understand we have to make excellent places. [The library annex] would not get by our standards today.” Shibley explained that there are now new processes for UB projects, and that the school now has a planning board for “quality control.”

“That was then,” he said, “and this is now.”

UB is now back in negotiations with the Town of Amherst, and Rensch Road resident Matt Marotta fears the contract he signed with the developer will run out before the Rensch Road housing gets the go-ahead.

“I’m half packed,” he said wearily, “wondering if I should buy a new house.”

Peter Scheck is a senior English major and Features writer for Generation.