Outer Harbor Development is Exciting, but Plans Fall Short

Refferances

NFTA’s RFQ to Solicit Developers City Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan Outer Harbor Development NFTA Site Governor Article on Outer Harbor Project NFTA Article at release of RFQ Article on Release of the RFQ FBNR Plan Buffalo Audubon’s comments FBNR Letter of Concern ERIE County Parks System Master Plan NFTA Outer Harbor Projects

Links

City Waterfront Resource BuffaloWaterfront.com Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers

by: David Coffee

Almost anybody familiar with Buffalo will agree that utilizing the waterfront is one of the most important tasks facing our city. Buffalo was born because of this unique waterfront, and our future will certainly be shaped by developments there.

Currently the NFTA and the city of Buffalo are working on plans for developing 120 acres of the Outer Harbor. Obviously such an enormous project must be undertaken very carefully, and the interests of the public must be seriously considered, however this is not what is happening today.

It must be noted that the effort to redevelop Buffalo’s waterfront has been proceeding rather well, and until now the project certainly hasn’t been rushed. In 2002 the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation finished its long awaited assessment of the Outer Harbor site, which opened the property to development.

From 2002 the process has proceeded cautiously and responsibly. Time was taken to conduct a Market Study, a public conference was held, projects were started throughout the waterfront, and then a formal Request For Qualifications was composed and released for potential Outer Harbor developers.

However once the developers submitted their proposals to the NFTA they were rushed by the public in the height of this Holiday season. On Saturday December 11 the proposals were released at a public meeting, the only public discussion of the proposals to date. Comments were accepted until January 10, and a week later the frontrunner of the three development teams was announced. The entire process lasted little over a month.

So what’s the hurry? We know that projects in the past have been delayed so long that they end up failing, and nobody wants to see that happen here, but this is the drafting of the final plan, this is where we decide what is actually going to happen on the ground. If anything this is the step that should be conducted most thoroughly.

Our public officials seem very eager get the developers onboard. They may have gotten a little worried about the project when only four plans were submitted for formal review, one of which dropped out early.

They also seem unconcerned that many aspects of the plans submitted conflict with the original goals of the Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan.

Another problem is that all proposals involve digging new canals through the contaminated brownfield site. Canals certainly were not recommended by the DEC, which stressed keeping the site isolated from the water table, avoiding inhalation of the soil, and even said that basements would not be possible for structures on the site.

There is also little attention paid to the fact that the property is on the great lakes. Aside from the new canals and boat slips that will end up competing with the Small Boat Harbor, the water around the site serves mostly to elevate the property value.

Looking on the bright side, the favored Lakefront Development Team is definitely the best choice. Though their plan must be redesigned it demonstrates that they understand many things about Buffalo.

They have included a large outdoor amphitheatre, evidently understanding that Buffalo loves music, art and festivals. There is also a convention center on their site, though this is not a good place for a new convention center it indicates that they were thinking about Buffalo’s unique needs in their design. Their plan is also the only one to include a public beach, arguably the only element of any of the proposals that cannot be simply relocated to another part of the city.

We’ve found a good developer, but we are still searching for a good design. In that search it would be wise to pay attention to the outline provided by The Friends of the Buffalo Niagara Rivers, it’s not a proposal but an outline that is vague enough to allow the developer some creativity but specific enough to keep the project within the limits of the region’s previously stated and thoughtfully researched goals.

If the Lakefront Development Team abandoned some of the unnecessary gimmicks in its plan like the amusement park and sports complex which will only distract from similar attractions in the area, and the convention center which would be better put by HSBC Arena. And if they abandoned the idea of digging canals in exchange for clustering dense development around the existing canals at either end of the site, then we would have a good actionable plan. A hybrid plan, from the Lakefront Development Team and FBNR.

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