News10NBC is continuing to investigate the closure of Waterview Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center.

Waterview Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center is closing after inspectors said poor conditions put residents' lives in danger.

Advocacy groups gathered at Washington Square Park in Rochester to demand improvements in nursing home care during the inaugural Long-Term Care Reform Day.

The closing date for Waterview was set for Thursday, but has been extended to Tuesday.

A local advocacy group is planning a rally Sunday to demand better oversight of nursing homes in the wake of the Waterview Heights closure crisis.

A former Waterview nursing home resident says he was kicked out of the facility last week and is now homeless without his critical medication.

Thursday marks the state-approved target date to close Waterview Heights, the rehabilitation and nursing center that's been the subject of multiple News10NBC investigations.

Waterview Heights Rehabilitation and Nursing Center has less than one week to find new homes for its remaining 70-plus residents.

Sonic vibration celebration of winter/summer mid point with Version Radio selectors on the Version Hifi Solar Soundsystem. All welcome 😎 Weather dependent: Eric Armishaw Park Pt Chev/ Waterview from

Webster's Zoning Board of Appeals granted the two area variances Waterview Apartments Phase 3 needs Tuesday night, on a 4-1 vote. The board also granted all five residential requests on its agenda. Michael Short, James Spampinato, Corrine Volo and Christopher Centola voted for the Waterview variances. John Accorso voted against. The board took the agenda out of order. The chairman said the tabled matters were the longer discussion, so the scheduled residential items would go first. ## Waterview Apartments Phase 3 Legacy Development Co., Inc. is the applicant. The variances allow a front setback of 18.7 feet where 75 feet is required, and a single-family district buffer of 38.5 feet where 100 feet is required. The project is six buildings plus a community center, 56 units in all. Each building is two stories, on a proposed 13.15-acre parcel in the MHR Medium High Residential District. Counsel for the applicant framed the request as a renewal of two variances this board granted in 2024 rather than a new application. The project had already been cut down, counsel said: two three-story buildings with 90 units became two-story townhouses with 56 units, a single driveway onto McEwen Drive and significant landscape buffers. The applicant's design engineer explained the delay. Changes to state wetland rules in January 2025 were challenged by developers statewide, the Department of Environmental Conservation appealed and then revoked the appeal, so the project is operating under the pre-2025 rules. The engineer said the wetland at issue is an off-site pocket wetland to the west that the project does not touch. The board's own counsel told members to treat the request as a new application, but said the board is generally bound by its own precedent, and that a member may still vote no. A McEwen Drive resident said a response dated Aug. 28 recorded a positive jurisdictional determination for wetlands on the area and classified it a Class 1 wetland, the highest protective classification in New York State, and offered the board a copy. The resident called the request substantial, a 75 percent reduction for the buffer and 61 percent for the other, and asked the board to seek more information on the determination. **Those two wetland accounts were never reconciled at the meeting.** The applicant's engineer described a small isolated pocket wetland the project is not touching, and said the engineers knew it was a wetland when they ran the density calculation. The resident said that because the applicant is using the entire property to meet its density requirement, the wetland by the bay has to be considered. The recording carries no request from the board for a copy of the determination. In its findings the board said there were no adverse physical or environmental impacts, based on current wetland codes and stormwater practices. Buffering along McEwen Drive ran through the discussion. Town staff told members the sewer department had raised concerns about planting in the right of way near underground utilities. One member, whom the recording does not identify, said that was troubling because the board's original comfort with the project rested on that buffer. The applicant said it would work with the town on shallow-rooted plants. The board attached a condition requiring the applicant to work with the town highway and sewer departments on the vegetation identified in the 2024 application and to provide a significant buffer for McEwen Drive residents. After the vote the chairman added the standard terms: all permits before work begins, and meaningful movement within one year. ## Five residential requests, all granted **1054 Klem Road, chickens.** The board granted a special use permit for a 6-by-9-foot chicken coop and **a maximum of seven hens, where the agenda noticed eight**. The motion as first made cited eight. Another voice at the table proposed seven, and the motion was amended before the vote. The permit is good for one year, after which the applicants return for renewal. Two other conditions ride with it: no roosters at any time, and the coop roof to be reconstructed and cleaned up. Staff told the board no complaints have been received, and the board's findings noted the coop has been there at least 30 years. **1725 State Road, garage.** Granted an area variance for a side yard setback of 12 feet where 15 feet is required, on a 0.68-acre parcel. The homeowner said an old garage had come down after its foundation failed, and asked for a conventional 40-by-40 replacement. No one spoke at the public hearing. Conditions: all required building permits, and one year to make meaningful progress. **539 Countryside Lane, garage addition.** Granted an area variance for a front setback of 49.2 feet where 60 feet is required. A member made the point that carried the item: the relief is needed only because the property is a corner lot, so what would ordinarily be a side setback counts as a front because it faces Bay Road. No one spoke, and the chairman thanked the applicant for letters of support from neighbors. Conditions: permits, and one year. **400 Lake Road, home addition.** Granted an area variance for a 460-square-foot addition to a pre-existing non-conforming home. A neighbor spoke in support and offered access through a private drive if a truck blocks the entrance. A neighbor spoke against, asking the board to deny the application over a long-running dispute about acquiring abandoned railroad property along the shore, saying one or both applicants were among those who refused to sign a release. The applicant said the history was unfamiliar and that no one had ever come asking for a signature. Word had reached the applicant that a brother did not want to sign, but not why. Conditions: the construction manager and owner must maintain drive access during construction, all required permits, and one year. **522 Hackberry Way, covered porch.** Granted an area variance for a rear setback of 43 feet where 50 feet is required. The board passed the item over on its first call because the applicant had not arrived, and heard it later. A member found the difficulty was not self-created, attributing it to the lot size and to the builder leaving the porch out rather than seeking a variance. Conditions: permits before any work starts, and one year. The board then took up Verizon's two cell towers, closing public comment on both and tabling them to October. It approved its Aug. 11 minutes and ended shortly after 11 p.m. The Ledger's report on the two tower hearings has the public comment and the town consultant's findings. ## Get Webster news in your inbox Independent local journalism for Webster, NY. Subscribe free Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. * * * _AI tools were used in drafting and research._

Analysis: However much we like the idea of electric buses whizzing quietly along the edge of the Waitematā, we need to test if spending $7b-plus is value for money

Both of Verizon's proposed Webster cell towers are on the Zoning Board of Appeals agenda Tuesday night, each asking for an area variance from the 100-foot maximum height the town code sets for a communication tower. The board meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Town Board Room at 1002 Ridge Road. The agenda is a legal notice that the board "will conduct a public hearing" on eight applications. Approval of the Aug. 11 minutes is the only other item. Waterview Apartments Phase 3 is on the agenda for a fourth straight meeting. The other five items are requests on residential properties. ## The two towers The agenda names Robert Burgdorf as the applicant on both, for Bell Atlantic Mobile Systems d/b/a Verizon. The Lake Road tower would go at Lake Road and County Line Road, on a 7.8-acre parcel in the LL Large-Lot Residential District. The agenda describes a communication tower of 125 feet with a four-foot lightning rod, 129 feet overall, where the maximum height allowed is 100 feet. That listing cites Sections 130-10 and 350-13 of the town code. The Webster North tower would go near 1222 Wildflower Drive, on a 14.2-acre parcel in the R-3 Single-Family Residential District. The agenda describes a tower of 135 feet with a four-foot lightning rod, 139 feet overall, against the same 100-foot maximum. That listing cites Sections 130-10 and 350-12. The Lake Road tower has been before the Zoning Board of Appeals before. It was on the board's agenda in March and again in April, and was tabled both times. The Wildflower Drive tower has not been on a zoning board agenda at any meeting in the town's posted record since September 2025. Tuesday's agenda lists both tower applications among its tabled matters, under the same public hearing notice as the rest of the meeting. At the Planning Board's Sept. 1 meeting, the board was told Verizon is on this week's zoning board agenda for a preliminary introduction of the Wildflower Drive project. The Planning Board tabled both tower applications to Oct. 6 that night, on 5-1 votes. The Planning Board left the Lake Road public hearing open, so residents can still speak on that application. The Ledger's recap of the Sept. 1 meeting has the votes and the discussion. ## Waterview Apartments Phase 3 Waterview Apartments Phase 3 is the first of the three items the agenda lists under tabled matters. Legacy Development Co. is asking for two area variances at the northwest corner of Willow Point Way and Nautical Mile Drive. One would allow a front setback of 18.7 feet where 75 feet is required. The other would allow a single-family district buffer of 38.5 feet where 100 feet is required. The application covers six buildings plus a community center, 56 units in all, on a proposed 13.15-acre parcel. Each building would be two stories. The site is in the MHR Medium High Residential District, and the agenda cites Section 350-14. The June 9 agenda carried a note tabling the application to July 14. The July 14 minutes record it tabled to the Aug. 11 meeting. The Aug. 11 agenda carried a note tabling it to the September meeting. The Ledger covered the board's June 9, July 14 and Aug. 11 meetings. The Ledger's account of the July 14 meeting records neighbors along McEwen Drive opposing the application. ## Five residential requests Four of the five ask for area variances. The fifth asks for a special use permit. The Ledger is not naming the applicants on those five items. Item 4 requests a side yard setback of 12 feet where 15 feet is required, for a new garage at 1725 State Road on a 0.68-acre parcel. Item 5 requests a front setback of 49.2 feet where 60 feet is required on a corner lot, for a garage addition at 539 Countryside Lane. Item 6 requests a rear setback of 43 feet where 50 feet is required, for a covered porch at 522 Hackberry Way. Item 7 requests a special use permit for a 6-by-9-foot chicken coop and no more than eight hens at 1054 Klem Road, on a 2.2-acre parcel. The Ledger has an explainer on how Webster's backyard chicken permit works. Item 8 requests an area variance to allow the alteration or extension of a pre-existing non-conforming single-family home at 400 Lake Road, for a 460-square-foot addition. That address is a separate property from the tower site at Lake Road and County Line Road. ## How to be heard The public can speak on any of the eight applications at the hearing. The hearing is at 7 p.m. Tuesday in the Town Board Room at 1002 Ridge Road. The Ledger's guide to the Zoning Board of Appeals explains how to take part. Chairman Michael Short opened the board's May 12 meeting with a reminder, according to the minutes: > public discussion is going to be limited to five minutes per person per application. And discussion must pertain to the property being reviewed. The board's July 14 minutes record the same five-minute limit. The board is also scheduled Tuesday to approve the minutes of its Aug. 11 meeting, which the town had not posted when the Ledger checked Monday. The next Zoning Board of Appeals meeting is Tuesday, Oct. 13. Previously in the Ledger: How Webster reviews a cell tower application (Sept. 2) covers the 100-foot cap, the preference for sharing an existing tower and the limits federal law places on what a board may weigh. The Ledger's Sept. 1 preview of the Planning Board hearings covers both applications, the parcels and the town's own radio-frequency reviews. ## Get Webster news in your inbox Independent local journalism for Webster, NY. Subscribe free Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. Unsubscribe anytime. * * * _AI tools were used in drafting and research._