Tag: outer harbor

Sep 17

2015

Contamination a challenge on Outer Harbor

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The state’s leaner and greener plan for the Outer Harbor still has some obstacles to overcome, chief among them the contamination of 60 acres adjacent to properties targeted for residential and commercial development. As Investigative Post reported in March, about 40 percent of the soil samples taken on the parcel detected contamination levels that made it unsafe for use as a park. The standards would be even stricter for using the property for residential purposes. If that’s not bad enough, one acre in the parcel is a partly remediated Superfund with a restriction against residential development. Officials concede it’s going to[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Aug 6

2015

Outer Harbor plans shrouded in secrecy

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The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation is again the subject of transparency complaints over its planning effort for the Outer Harbor. Board member Sam Hoyt had said the state would unveil a revised development plan at two public meetings in April. The development corporation controls some 200 acres of lakefront at the Outer Harbor. But those public meetings never happened. Instead, Investigative Post has learned that state officials have held at least two secret brainstorming sessions. Some who attended had been critical of the state’s first Outer Harbor plan released last fall. That plan included up to 2,100 housing units, stores and restaurants. But Assemblyman Sean Ryan, U.S. Rep. Brian[...]

Posted 7 years ago

Apr 16

2015

Bye-bye, Dug’s Dive

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The owner of the popular waterfront restaurant on the Outer Harbor tells Investigative Post he is pulling out at the end of the season. Tucker Curtin said he and the Tennessee-based company selected by the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. to manage the marina and adjoining land at the Small Boat Harbor don’t see eye to eye on how the property should be redeveloped. “We don’t think the vision down there is congruent with what we’re looking to do,” Curtin said Wednesday at a forum on the Outer Harbor hosted by Investigative Post, the latest in its “At Issue” series.[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 26

2015

Panel split on need for new Bills stadium

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A new stadium for the Buffalo Bills would cost $1 billion to construct and require up to $600 million in public infrastructure improvements, an entrepreneur who has proposed building a facility on the Outer Harbor says. A new Bills stadium was the topic of discussion for a panel of speakers Wednesday during a happy hour discussion at Allen Street Hardware sponsored by Investigative Post. But do the Bills really need one, especially considering the $130 million in renovations to Ralph Wilson stadium that the team unveiled this past season? “Absolutely yes,” said George Hasiotis, vice president of the Greater Buffalo Sports &[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 6

2015

Stonewalling on Outer Harbor is transparent

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In Part Two of our report about contamination on Buffalo’s Outer Harbor, Dan Telvock documents the failure of the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corp. to release public documents and answer questions regarding efforts to develop the waterfront. A growing list of critics have faulted the state agency for its lack of transparency. Part One can be found here.

Posted 8 years ago

Mar 5

2015

Outer Harbor: Toxins, yes; transparency, no 

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(Editor’s note: Watch WGRZ’s 6 p.m. newscast Friday for a second installment of the package.) The state’s latest approach to developing the Outer Harbor calls for expediting the construction of housing next to a partially remediated Superfund site contaminated with sludge that possibly causes cancer. The revised scheme is aimed at mollifying opposition to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation’s original plan to build housing next to the environmentally sensitive Times Beach Nature Preserve. Shifting the first phase of residential and commercial development a mile south of Times Beach borrows from a plan advocated by Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper that has[...]

Posted 8 years ago

Oct 9

2014

Unfinished business for Buffalo’s Outer Harbor

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Buffalo, which has suffered over the years from a series of planning mistakes, is nearing a decision on how to develop its Outer Harbor even though the state agency managing the project hasn’t completed its homework on key legal, financial and environmental issues. These unresolved issues, particularly whether to build five-story condos, shops and restaurants near the environmentally sensitive Times Beach Nature Preserve, are at the core of a dispute that boiled over last week. Rep. Brian Higgins and Assembly Member Sean Ryan went public last Friday in their opposition to the Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation’s development plan for[...]

Posted 8 years ago