Sarah Taddeo

@sjtaddeo

The owners of Intergrow Greenhouses are looking at other land options where they can develop tomato greenhouses after a slow-moving review process for a Webster parcel.

“We are looking at different options," said co-owner Dirk Biemans, adding that he hasn't disregarded the Webster property as a possible development site. The company is on a timetable because the business, based in Gaines, Orleans County, has to begin expanding, he said.

Intergrow, which also has a location in Fillmore, Allegany County, is looking to eventually build three 25-acre greenhouses on a 114-acre parcel of land at the corner of Salt and State roads.

Because the Webster parcel offered the right combination of flat space and utilities, such as gas hookups, needed for the greenhouse development, it’ll be tough to find another property like it, said Biemans.

“It’s not easy, it’s a difficult search,” he said.

The company has been looking at properties in Ontario, Wayne County – in fact, there is a specific property being considered there, although plans are still a long way from being confirmed, said Ontario Supervisor John Smith.

"We have been working on this for many months...and wanted to explore this possibility with Intergrow," said Smith, adding that the company and the town have been in contact since the summer.

The prospective site seems to have the utilities needed for Intergrow to run a similar operation to the one proposed in Webster.

"We welcome the growth and the business opportunity," said Smith.

Intergrow first brought the proposal to the town of Webster last spring, and was met with resistance from neighbors who said the proposal was in conflict with a conservation easement on the property, plus it could bring traffic, light and noise to the semi-rural area.

Meetings were scheduled and rescheduled over a period of months last year, and the project was debated between the town, the neighbors and the owners.

“(The review process) is taking longer than we were led to believe,” said Biemans.

Intergrow tabled its application in the fall and has not asked to appear again before the Planning Board, said Webster Town Supervisor Ron Nesbitt in an email. He also said there is no set timetable for a project's review process.

"The process is the process, regardless of how long it takes and whether it's this project or a housing subdivision," said Nesbitt.

Greg Kist, a state conservationist with the United States Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service, sent a letter to Nesbitt in September, effectively saying that the Intergrow project seemed to be in direct conflict with several points in the conservation easement on the property, which was drawn up in 2005 between the town and the landowners, the Schreiber family.

For example, the property is home to "prime soils," and "it appears that extensive disturbance could be anticipated in the site preparation required for the construction of the greenhouses and associated structures," stated the letter.

It's up to the town and the developer whether they'll continue with the development process despite concerns about the easement, said Kist, although the federal government could intervene further if the NRCS found that the project was approved at the site and the easement was not enforced by the town, he said.

"We’re not against Intergrow and their operation," said Kist. "We’re simply trying to protect the rights of the taxpayers who spent millions of dollars in purchasing those development rights for those properties."

STADDEO@Gannett.com

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