EAST AURORA, N.Y. (WIVB) – The public was invited Tuesday to the Aurora Municipal Center to speak on the 12,000-square-foot family golf center zoning proposal, which is proposed to be located at 600 Olean Rd. in the Village of East Aurora.

“Changing the zoning of this property is consistent with this part of Olean Road and for us to move forward in this project, we would need that zoning change,” said Harrison Kelly.

Back in August, Harrison Kelly of Olean LLC requested to rezone Olean Road’s vacant lot to have 10 of the 14 acres that he owns changed from rural residential and agriculture to commercial for a golf-focused entertainment center. 

The remaining four acres would then be used as a buffer area between the property to the south.

However, there were questions on Tuesday about how it takes away from what residents call a ‘rural feel’ to the area.

“I believe that the purchase of this property was never looked at as a residential area. Being that this is a residential area, you look at it and want to add to the neighborhood,” said resident Tyrese Campanelli.

“This was purposely bought with intention of making it commercial not add to the residential area,” Campanelli continued.

Still, some local business on Olean Road sees this as an opportunity for more customer traffic.

“I’m not opposed to more people seeing it and knowing who I am and what I do [in that location]. From that point of view, I have to say that I’m ok with it,” said Tim Sonner, owner of Tri-County Tool Rental.

Deputy Supervisor Charles D. Snyder says he wants to see more specifics on each proposed phase. A big concern being environmental and how many trees would have to be removed to make way for the project.

“We did have a tree service done of all 14 acres. Currently you can look at the plan, on the drawings we would have to take out 10 to 12 Pine trees which we will then replace and that represents less than 2% of the trees on the property,” Kelly said in response.

There was no official application approval vote Tuesday night, other concerns proposed were flow of traffic from Main Street.

Taking everything into consideration the vote will be within the next two board meetings.