With an affirmative vote from the Amherst Town Board on Thursday, Erie County is now the owner of the former Westwood Country Club. This caps off a long saga for the town, which for years has been looking to redevelop the sprawling North Forest Road property.
However the $1 transfer to the county is not fully sealed. Dan Gagliardo, the Republican candidate for Amherst town supervisor, has filed an Article 78 lawsuit challenging the process of the project. He's alleging town and county officials rammed through the project, before public hearings were held, and believes the timeline of record releases didn't add up.
"[In] April they had a press conference. The first time that they had a public hearing was August," said Gagliardo. "They didn't vote on August 18, then on September 2, they had another one, and they did that purposely, because we were talking about a referendum."
Gagliardo is running against Democrat Shawn Lavin, who is a sitting board member, in November's election.
"The allegations are incorrect to begin with. I mean, this is somebody who's going to file a lawsuit spending Amherst taxpayer dollars to fight the construction and the completion of a park?," said Lavin. "That's not something I can get behind. We've had emails, conversations, public hearings. So I disagree with all those statements. This has been as transparent as we can."
Under the terms, Erie County will take ownership of the property, and spend upwards of $9.1 million transforming it into the mixed-use "Willowdale Park" and 9-hole golf course.
Amherst spent nearly $8 million acquiring the 170-acre site in 2023. There had been previous plans as part of a "Amerhst Central Park," including a failed bid to get MusicalFareTheater a permenant performance space.
Gagliardo believes by giving up ownership, Amherst is giving up a possible revenue source, and creating competition for the nearby 18-hole Audobon Golf Course, owned by the town.
"We should be exhausting all possibilities to make this a taxable, viable entity for us," said Gagliardo said. "If that doesn't work, then we need to see whether we want to make this our town golf course. Remember, if they put another golf course there, we're going to lose money from something that we make money, which is Audubon."
Officials like Lavin, who recused himself from the vote after advice from town attorneys because he works for Erie County, are happy to see something materialize with the Westwood site, calling it long overdue.
"This project's been ongoing for over a decade, right? Residents have seen that property fenced up for more than 10 years. And finally, we're going to bring a result and a conclusion of this project," he said. "People can use that property and that asset within the town of Amherst, hopefully by the beginning of 2027."
Erie County officials broke ground Friday morning on the Westwood site in Amherst.
"There's been some critique of this project, as we know by some making it sound like it's not costing Erie County anything." said Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz during the groundbreaking ceremony. "Erie County is investing more than $9 million in total with regards to this project, to ensure that we take what really is just a wasteland right now, of empty land in the middle of the Town of Amherst, and turning it into this incredible park that will be utilized by so many people, not just Town of Amherst residents, but Erie County residents, but specifically by Town of Amherst residents."
