CRAIG WATSON / BEACON NEWS
Bigelow Homes will donate 5 acres off of Montgomery Road
to the East Aurora School District.
BY DAVE PARRO
More than a year after promising the East Aurora School District 8.3 acres of land in exchange for the demolition of the Hi-Lite 30 drive-in theater, Bigelow Homes this week instead delivered 5 acres worth about $1 million.
It turns out the original promise included more than 3 acres of detention pond, which the School District understandably doesn't want because of concerns about liability. Funny how that was never mentioned until now, especially because the developer claims that was the plan all along.
While the local malcontents always scream about scams and lies, it does seem like this deal was at the very least deceptive.
Although Mayor Tom Weisner and the Bigelows backed off their promise for the full 8.3 acres in August 2006, that happened two months after the City Council's controversial vote to shutter the popular drive-in. So essentially, a false promise was made that influenced an important decision.
To be fair to Bigelow, the land donation far exceeds the $242,000 the developer would have had to pay the School District in a land-cash deal. But the larger land donation was supposed to be compensation for the loss of an Aurora icon.
Jamie Bigelow wants East Aurora to build a school on the donated land for HomeTown kids. But did he really think that would happen on 5 acres, or 8.3 acres with a pond for that matter? If Bigelow really wanted a school built, he would have donated the necessary 11 acres. Let's not try to make East Aurora look like the bad guy here when the cash-strapped district sells the land.
The original promise was that the School District would receive land worth $1.3 million. That was the number that influenced the drive-in vote. As an act of good faith, Bigelow should give a cash donation in lieu of the land slated for detention. Even the developer admitted he wasn't surprised that school officials don't want the pond. So why make it part of the offer in the first place?
Is anyone surprised about this?
The longer term concern is now it is easier in the future for a developer to say X at one point and do Y at another.
Also the idea of including the pond shouldn't be a surprse at least one alderman was asking about that months and months ago...
Not to sound like the 'malcontents' but I do hope the Beacon looks into this a little deeper at some point. If nothing else finding out what others think the land is worth.
OneMan
I will always believe that any developer should be required to build the school for their new subdivisions, at their own expense if it will be putting a burden on the current schools. They come in and build with no concern for what the additional numbers mean to the schools, traffic, etc. then move on to another area to ruin the land some of us hold so dear. This one was messed up from the beginning and the city of Aurora should have listened to all the people who signed the petitions to keep the drive in!
Mr. Parro, I agree with you that Bigelow was deceptive, but it should be pointed out that Weisner AND Bigelow made that promise, so Weisner was also deceptive.
And, those folks at http://www.OpenlineBlog.com were dead-on accurate when they screamed about scams and lies. They got their facts correct and warned everyone the 8.3 acre land parcel was not going to happen.