Sarah Taddeo

@sjtaddeo

Developers of a proposed plaza on Monroe Avenue are again blaming Wegmans for their development hurdles.

The Daniele family is attempting to develop a restaurant and retail plaza, to include a Whole Foods grocery store, on the former location of Mario’s restaurant and Clover Lanes bowling alley. The development review process has been mired in neighbor and business concerns, as many say the proposal appears to be too large for the area and could bring too much traffic to a main suburban artery.

Now, Danny Daniele said Wegmans is at fault for his family’s removal of fast food restaurant Chick-fil-A from the plans for the proposed Brighton plaza.

Danieles say Wegmans tanked Chick-Fil-A in Brighton

“We had been working with Chick-fil-A to incorporate the restaurant into the Brighton development,” said Daniele in an email statement. “However now with Wegmans putting heavy handed pressure on the town of Brighton to reduce traffic on Monroe Avenue, it became quickly evident the town would not allow such a successful business as it would create too much traffic.”

He went on to say that it would be too expensive to attempt approvals and permits for Chick-fil-A, which may be coming to Greece in the summer.

Chick-fil-A representatives could not be reached to confirm whether the chain was in talks to propose a location as part of the Whole Foods project.

Chick-fil-A clears hurdle for Greece

The Danieles had previously pointed at Wegmans for causing delays in the town's review process by voicing its opposition to the development in regard to traffic. Wegmans representatives have said the company was not alone in its concerns about Monroe Avenue congestion, and said it wasn't concerned with competition from a possible Whole Foods store.

"We sent a letter to the Town of Brighton in May 2016 to share our concerns about traffic …..period," said Wegmans spokesperson Jo Natale Thursday in an email. "Why the developer, eight months later, would single out Wegmans when hundreds of residents and other businesses have been expressing these same concerns is perplexing."

Town supervisor Bill Moehle said he hasn't seen an application for a Chick-fil-A location in Brighton, but added that the town doesn't have to see separate applications for every retail establishment or restaurant that would go into a proposed plaza, as long as various entities jibe with the project review as a whole.

"It’s important in the end that whatever goes in there in consistent with the environment," he said.

Moehle said earlier this month that the scope and timing of the town's review process for this proposal is thorough but typical for a project of this size.

STADDEO@Gannett.com