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Buffalo Lawsuit Challenges a Casino Off Indian Land

NY Times
January 4, 2006
By DAVID STABA

BUFFALO, Jan. 3 - In the latest salvo between local advocates and government officials over this city's future, a coalition of citizens' groups, churches, business people and lawyers filed a lawsuit in federal court on Tuesday to halt construction of an Indian casino on the Buffalo River waterfront.

The suit alleges that federal officials, including Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, failed to abide by a 1988 law regulating gambling facilities established off reservation land when they approved the proposed Buffalo casino. The proposed facility is one of three gambling sites in this region allowed under a 2002 compact between New York State and the Seneca Nation.

In legal papers filed in Federal District Court, the plaintiffs - led by a group called Citizens Against Casino Gambling in Erie County - said that a Buffalo casino cannot be permitted under federal law, because the nine-acre site along the Buffalo River is not adjacent to an existing reservation and was not part of land claimed by the Seneca Nation.

In addition, the suit alleges that the approval process violated federal laws that require a study of the environmental impact of a proposed casino. The plaintiffs also say that demolition of a grain elevator at the proposed site would violate the National Historic Preservation Act.

"Some people have tried to make this into grain silos versus a casino, but this is a much more important issue," said Richard Lippes, one of the plaintiffs' lawyers. "These citizens aren't opposed to progress. They just want the right things to happen in the right way."

Barry E. Snyder, president of the Seneca Nation, was not available for comment Tuesday afternoon. But on Friday, he spoke dismissively of a possible lawsuit during the partial opening of a luxury hotel adjacent to the Senecas' existing casino in Niagara Falls.

"Lawsuits come and go - they don't interest me," Mr. Snyder was quoted as saying in The Buffalo News. "We took the opportunity to build a casino and hotel in Niagara Falls because no one else would do it. I've said the same of Buffalo, and we're going ahead. I'm a man of my word."

Proponents also maintain that the casino will create jobs as well as spur economic development in the long dormant area.

Several parties to the lawsuit, including Mr. Lippes and the Preservation Coalition of Erie County, also took part in recent years in two other significant civic lawsuits that sought to preserve land.

They were among the litigants who halted a state plan to build a marina, which would have been constructed atop limestone walls that were part of the original terminus of the Erie Canal, and a proposal by an international commission to build a steel bridge next to the Peace Bridge, which was built in 1927 and connects Buffalo to Fort Erie, Ontario.

In each instance, a judge ruled that the government agencies involved did not follow proper planning procedures. Both plans have since been revised. The waterfront plans, proposed by the Empire State Development Corporation, now include the restoration of the canal terminus and other historic elements. As for the bridge, a two-nation panel has recommended a sweeping cable-stayed bridge over the Niagara River.

"In both cases, we got something better," said Mr. Lippes, who served as general counsel to the primary plaintiff in each case.

Like the waterfront and Peace Bridge suits, the legal challenge to the proposed Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino is being financed in part by the Margaret L. Wendt Foundation, which often provides money to educational or artistic organizations.

"We feel the need to make sure the laws are followed when making this kind of change to our community," said Janet Loew Day, a foundation trustee.

The plaintiffs said that taking the land for the proposed casino site off the tax rolls and creating, in essence, a tiny sovereign nation housing the casino would run counter to the canal restoration plans and other nascent development in the area.