Residents of Hidden Hollow Road in Hamburg are up in arms after part of a wooded area that shields their quiet street from McKinley Parkway was thinned of trees and other foliage during construction of a new home earlier this month.
    The residents live in a 24-lot development created by Frank Parlato Jr., who emphasizes retaining a natural environment in his projects. The land that was thinned of greenery was part of the 30-acre wild area that all of the lot owners on the 46-acre development share.
    "Hidden Hollow isn't hidden anymore," said Nancy Gorman, who lives across the street from the site of the new home near the corner of McKinley and Hidden Hollow. "Now I look out my dining room window and all I see is McKinley Parkway. I don't like it. I loved being in a little nook."
    "They raped the land that was forever wild," said Anne Marie Seidleck, who lives next door to Ms. Gorman and recently brought the matter before the Hamburg Zoning Board.
    Although the damaged area is a very small portion of the overall wooded area -- measuring about 50 feet by 175 feet -- residents say the area was vital.
    "To us that's a very important strip because it separates us from
McKinley," said Joseph Lau, president of the Homeowners Association, which formed recently to address the problem.
    "The whole neighborhood as a group is very concerned. It is a violation of our community."
    Lau said that more than half of the development's homeowners turned out for the last meeting and that all votes taken at the meeting were unanimous.
    The owner of the house under construction, Wallace Grieser of Hamburg, said the trees removed from the area were mostly thorn apple trees that were"really wild, like bramble, or like tumbleweed. It was just a mess."
    He described the strip as an area of "broken beer bottles and weeds." But residents say the wild area acted as a sound barrier as well as a visual barrier from the well-traveled McKinley.
    Grieser said he has already provided Parlato with a plan that will be presented to the association in an effort to resolve the conflict.
    "It's not our objective to strafe the land," said Grieser, who is also on the Hamburg Rejuvenation Committee, a beautification group.
    "I'm confident that the neighbors on Hidden Hollow will agree on a plan in the next few days that can be executed to everyone's satisfaction.
    "The land belongs to me as well as the other landowners in Hidden Hollow," Grieser said, adding that he will be more affected by the area because he will be living adjacent to it.
    Several trees remain standing, and Grieser said the proposal he submitted to Parlato included adding 10 arborvitae and eight to 10 maple trees, as well as some flowering shrubs and bushes.
    But residents say that will not restore the buffer.
    Parlato, sometimes known as an "undeveloper" for his tendency to leave parts of his developments in a natural state, acquired the land as a 50-lot subdivision but chose to develop just 24 lots.
    Although Parlato no longer owns any of the lots, he is helping to resolve the problem. He said he thinks residents will soon rise above the conflict.