The Committee would explore the
possibility of reviving the at the time forgotten plan to run a bike path down
the former Erie/DL&W right-of-way, which had become increasingly important
with Erie County's recent commitment to build their section from Kenmore Avenue
to Tonawanda Creek.
There seemed to be some hesitance on
the City's part to work with the organization, given the community’s staunch
opposition to a 2006 plan for commercial housing that saw the original plan
tabled. A group of residents were
responsible for passing around a 1,100-signature petition back in 2006 to shut
down a commercial development of the property, which ignored the Federal
funding for the path in lieu of a $40 Million Dollar housing development.
The remnants of this group put out a post earlier today and that petition was specifically
aimed at the opposition of housing development on the vacant parcel and rather
than the construction of the bike path.
These active citizens, along with the 30 foot right-of-way that NFTA
must preserve under their National Trails System ("Rail-Banking")
obligations (16 USC 1247 (d)) ultimately shut down the project, but in doing so
they burned any bridges they had with the City Government. As a result, when
UHC and their new Rails-to-Trails committee tried to move on anything, the City
seemingly stonewalled them.
Regardless, a separate interest group,
recently formed under the name Queen City Rail Trails (QCRT), began surveying
the site by GPS in order to record features such as wetlands, bird habitats,
and even elicit landscape and household dumping. By November, both the
UHC and QCRT were confident that they knew more about every inch of the site
than anyone in the City, and now had the data to support it.
The big change came in February, after
the organization's general elections. Mickey Vertino, a retired corrections
officer, local landlord, and long time resident of University Park was elected
president of the organization, bringing with him his infectious optimism and
enthusiasm. Ultimately, the UHC’s
Rails-to-Trails committee (also under the new leadership of Raymond Reichert,
another long time University Park resident) and their persistence paid off. After
talking with their councilwoman, Bonnie Russell, they secured a meeting with Mayor
Brown and several other key players. The City, convinced by the group’s efforts
and supportive after their thorough presentation at City Hall, began to explore
the possibility of pursuing the project once again.
The two biggest things that convinced
the City to continue ahead on this was the group’s willingness to cooperate and
an online survey that showed a majority of the community was in favor of the
path. Both the UHC’s general plan for the site and the Deputy Commissioner of
Park’s plan were presented to and then opened for discussion, with representatives
of the UHC and the City meeting half-way on a number of important issues. After some slight alignment changes
that would allow the project to be expanded on in the future and service a
greater portion of the community directly, the final plan had taken shape and
the City was on board.
Now, the University Heights
Collaborative is mobilizing to get as many signatures on a petition and
recently issued a new survey with a large number of respondents already. “Our
community feels energized and sees the potential this project has to improve
both the Heights and the entire City,” said Jordan. “QCRT recently entered the Designing to Live Sustainably
competition with a City-wide plan of bike paths and linear green spaces, and
this very well could be the federally-funded first step to achieving that
goal.”
When asked about the earlier post, Jordan stated that while some of
the concerns were valid, much of the concern was regarding misinformation and
the fear of the City revitalizing plans to build houses on the 30 acre
site. “They’re good people,”
Jordan went on to say. “We worked
with John, Jim, and Dave for the bulk of this project, but when we finally got
an audience with the Mayor, they didn’t like the plan the City put forth, nor
did they approve of the modifications we appealed for. City Hall has been incredibly helpful
in this whole project, but that good relationship and the future of this
project was based on collaboration.
We originally were pursuing along the whole rail line, but when we met
with the City, we found out that in order to gain access to the CMAQ money,
they had to match $266,000.”
“In order to do this, they had to use
money that they had slated for repairs to Minnesota Avenue Linear Park,” Jordan
continued, “so when they suggested that the path run down that park in order to
“kill two birds” with one stone, we didn’t find that unreasonable. Mr. Hall and that contingent decided
they were going to hold the Mayor and City Hall ransom by withholding vote
until they got what they wanted.
Given that this money will expire in September and elections are in
November, we could not support this kind of thinking. Ultimately, it’s the
position of the University Heights community and most of the City that the $1.1
Million of CMAQ money will be of great benefit, with this investment in the
Heights being far better than the alternative.”
Jordan assured that the City of Buffalo
and Watts Engineering are hard at work, entering into the necessary lease
agreements with the NFTA (who owns the rail property) and ensuring that the
money is secured by the September 30th deadline. “And the best part is that this path
could run right along side any future Light Rail development out of Lasalle,”
Jordan said. “We’re only limited
by the 75 feet between the two old DL&W/Erie bridge abutments, which is
plenty to run the 30 foot rail corridor and a 12 foot bike path safely.”
If you’d like to take part in the
survey distributed by Queen City Rail Trails, check it out by
clicking here. They have also
worked with the UHC to develop a petition to support the project. Contact them at queencityrailtrails@hotmail.com if you are interested in
signing/gathering signatures.
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