It has been more than three years since Jonathan Bevilacqua began working on plans for a mixed-use community on 36 acres in Clarence.

The project has gone through several iterations since, and isn’t at the finish line, yet. But now he expects to start construction next year on well over $20 million of new development in the eastern suburb.

“It’s been years in the making, at this point, so it’s definitely rewarding to finally be making some real progress on it,” the developer said.

Bevilacqua Development is teaming with Alliance Homes on a project that will bring more than 142 new residential units – including 16 single-family homes and 36 townhomes – to an irregular swath of vacant and wooded land between Transit Road and Ransom Creek.

Located on the north side of Miles Road, north of Casey Road, the three-phase project will feature more than 32 structures arrayed across the site, with a maximum height of 40 feet.

The development at 6625 Transit would be divided among two sections – a 19.2-acre western section along Transit that is zoned commercial, and a 16.8-acre residential-zoned area to the east, extending toward the creek and Miles Road.

The project features:

• Four commercial lots of 0.8 acres each along the Transit frontage, with two 7,500-square-foot commercial buildings, a 2,982-square-foot restaurant and a 2,500-square-foot restaurant, both with drive-thrus. Each of the commercial buildings would have its own parking around it, with greenspace buffers in back.
• Two L-shaped, three-story buildings behind them, each with 22,750 square feet of ground-floor retail space and 31 apartments on the second and third floors.
• A proposed three-story apartment building in the middle of the site, with first-floor garage parking and 28 apartments upstairs.
• A series of nine two-story townhouse buildings with four units in each – two two-bedroom apartments and two three-bedroom apartments – for a total of 36 units, spread across the rear of the property and in front of storm-water retention ponds.
• A driveway and roadway curving through the site from Transit just north of the four commercial lots and then winding back toward the southeast corner, where it would extend into the residential property before coming out onto Miles. Sixteen detached home lots – ranging from 8,268 square feet to 32,011 square feet in size – would be arrayed on both sides of the residential portion of the street curving through the site, behind existing homes along part of Miles.

In all, that’s 62 apartments in the mixed-use buildings, 28 in the apartment building, 36 townhomes and 16 detached homes. Bevilacqua is handling the commercial components, including the apartment buildings, while Alliance takes the townhomes and single-family subdivision.

The plan would include several sections of open-space land within that overall property – including 8.4 acres with the residential land – so that only 21.9 acres of land are actually disturbed. But it also affects 3.46 acres of federal wetlands and 985 linear feet of ditches under the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ jurisdiction, so Bevilaqua will create 7.38 acres of new wetland and 325 linear feet of “enhancement” along a stream that flows into Ransom.

The project includes the driveway connection to Transit, the public road from Miles for the homes, as well as parking, landscaping, lighting, sidewalks and utility connections.

Bevilacqua – who first submitted plans in June 2021 – received environmental approval on Oct. 19, but still needs a special-use permit, site plan approval and minor subdivision from the town Planning Board, variances for height and number of units from the Zoning Board of Appeals and various permits. The ZBA meets on Nov. 8, and Bevilacqua said he hopes to get concept plan approval in December, followed by full approval by February or March.

If approved, Bevilacqua envisions the initial clearing, grading and site preparation to begin next spring, with three phases of construction starting in fall 2023 and ending by late 2025. The mixed-use and commercial components will likely be done first, followed by the residential, the company said in its filing with the town, but “the precise phasing will be dependent on market conditions.”