Niagara County planning a business park in Cambria

Benjamin Joe, Niagara Gazette, Niagara Falls, N.Y.
·2 min read

Jul. 11—A new business park is slated to be built in Cambria. The property, dubbed the Niagara County Business Park, is on Lockport Junction Road across from the Town of Lockport Industrial Park.

The roughly 60-acre property is owned by Niagara County, which is now asking the Town of Cambria for a zoning change from agriculture-residential to planned unit development.

This comes as New York State is investing in infrastructure, according to Drew Reilly of Wendel, the engineering firm contracted by the county.

Andrea Klyczek, assistant director of the Niagara County Center for Economic Development, said there is hope that the development will be "entirely funded by grants," but could not put a ballpark figure on the total cost.

Recently, the Town of Cambria ruled an Environmental Impact Study must be done on the proposed business park. Town supervisor Wright Ellis said the benefit of that is a company could come into the park without having to do its own study.

"They still have to get their site plan approved by us (Town of Cambria), but they won't have to go to all the other agencies for approval," he said.

Those other agencies include the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the state Historic Preservation Office, which will decide whether to approve or reject the county's design at the end of the environmental study.

Reilly said that while there is a state-issued Shovel-Ready Certification, it comes with a fee, and is mostly useful to attract potential tenants. While the county is going through all the steps towards that certification, he said there probably isn't a need to get the actual designation.

"The county has a lot of customers, so it doesn't need it," Reilly said. "(But) when they're done, they can offer a site in the business park that all agencies have signed off on."

A public scoping session will be held at 7 p.m. July 14 at Cambria Town Hall to determine the focus of the Environmental Impact Study.

If all goes "smooth," Klyczek said, the business park could be developed in two years.