TOWN OF MANLIUS – Residents living in the vicinity of the proposed Garden Park Apartments on Highbridge Street appear universally opposed to the four-story apartment proposal.

The 8.7-acre property is located in a former gravel pit adjacent to Brookdale Alzheimer’s care facility just north of a sharp, blind bend in Highbridge Street. The developers are seeking planned unit development (PUD) status rather than going for a traditional zone change.

The proposal calls for a modern, four-story apartment building that would have 80 apartment units. The developer provided a traffic study that indicated the structure would add about 11 cars an hour on Highbridge Street during peak hours. The target market for the apartment complex would be empty nesters looking to downsize from single-family homes.

Despite being directly across the street from several single-family homes, currently the property is zoned Commercial A, which is one of the town’s more intense land use zones.

“Going this route is bringing it down to the level we believe is adequate and a complement to what already exists at the property,” said Chris Danaher, an attorney representing the developer.

All of the speakers at the public hearing on the PUD status last week who live in the area reacted negatively to the plan. Many complained that the traffic on Highbridge Street near that bend makes it very difficult for them to get out of their driveways or to walk the neighborhood safely. Others indicated that the vacant parcel is one of the last areas of green space along Highbridge Street and that the architecture doesn’t fit at all with the older farmhouses in the neighborhood.

Bill Gray of Highbridge Street cited some of the history that led to a zone change on the parcel in the early 1990s, which received the approval of the town board at the time because it was based on having several smaller multi-family units on the property.

“Neither the massive bulk, nor the architecture is consistent with the surrounding land uses,” Gray said. “The current Garden Park proposal is not at all consistent with the proposal that was used to justify the original zoning change. There should not be a second bite at the apple.”

“The idea of having a four-story building in there, that’s ridiculous,” said Richard Konys, who lives on the hill above the proposed building. “I’m a senior in this town, I could probably benefit from this place, but I just don’t think it fits into our neighborhood. Just walk up the street. Every house is a farmhouse. That [isn’t] a farmhouse.”

The town board is expected to make a decision on the planned unit development status later this month. If it passes, the proposal would go to the town planning board for site plan review.