Dale Anderson, Buffalo News, May 2 2008
PEACE BRIDGE
Many find reasons to say ‘no’ to span plan
By Dale Anderson NEWS STAFF REPORTER
Updated: 05/02/08 6:40 AM
As discussions of the Peace Bridge expansion are wont to do, the Olmsted Park Conservancy’s community meeting Thursday evening started with a small focus — the future of Front Park — and escalated into a struggle for the very soul of Buffalo.
It was standing room only in the West Side Community Services building on Vermont Street as Thomas Herrera-Mischler, the Conservancy’s new chief executive officer, began talking about how Front Park is a very special place and how bridge plans put it at risk.
“Buffalo deserves the best,” he said, “and we’re not being offered the best right now.”
Brian Dold, the Conservancy’s landscape architect, spoke next about reviving Front Park — restoring its traditional entrances, redefining its original pathways and eventually rebuilding one of its old landmarks, the Lakeview House, with its spectacular overlook.
Then David Colligan, an attorney and chairman-elect of the Conservancy, gave the group’s position on the Peace Bridge and its latest draft environmental impact statement.
Noting that Front Park “is the single most majestic place within the environs of the City of Buffalo,” Colligan went on to discuss the Peace Bridge Authority’s three plaza plans for a new bridge, declaring that the Conservancy strongly favors the shared border management proposal, which would only take 12 acres.
Then he discussed the problems — a 47-station truck inspection facility, fumes, noise, the leveling of 100 nearby homes, a ramp carrying five times the trucks that cross the bridge now.
“It would be a continuous stream of trucks,” he said.
Colligan said that the Conservancy has several recommendations — put a green roof over the truck center, put a landscaped cap over the Niagara Thruway, get rid of the truck ramp, restore the Porter Parkway and use the Lakeview House as a visitor center.
“You might ask, ‘Why is the Olmsted Parks Conservancy taking such a hard position?’ ” he said. “Ask what the plaza will look like in 50 years. Buffalo deserves a great gateway.”
He urged the crowd to write, e-mail, call and blog their friends, colleagues and elected leaders. Some of them, such as Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, D-Buffalo, and Niagara Council Member David Rivera, attended the meeting.
Hoyt said the neighborhood might be protected because it may eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, but Front Park “is not only eligible, it is on the National Register of Historic Places.”
Among other speakers, Kathy Mecca of Columbus Parkway cited high cancer and respiratory illness rates in the are a and attorney Bob Knoer charged that the Peace Bridge Authority behaves as if it is above U. S. and Canadian law.
danderson@buffnews.com
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