Although the infamous master builder and neighborhood wrecker Robert Moses is long gone, his approach lives on through some new civil works being proposed today.
And very few proposals are more emblematic of decisions that take little notice of the human consequences of progress than the plan for a new 45-acre Customs and Immigration plaza for The Peace Bridge in Buffalo.
Owned by the Buffalo & Fort Erie Public Bridge Authority, the International crossing connects Buffalo and Fort Ontario, Canada. Building a replacement structure has been the subject of protracted discussions and controversy for the past decade or more.
Early concepts for a new companion span resembling the current structure drew the ire of residents, community groups and some public officials who demanded a "signature" bridge, with distinctive architectural stature.
In 2005 a bi-national jury selected a soaring, two-tower cable stay bridge design that reached 567 feet high. More recently the U.S. Federal Highway Administration determined the new bridge would have an unacceptably high negative impact on migratory birds, and they are reported to have re-stated their concerns in a document circulated to officials in July. Canadian environmental officials have also questioned the bridge design, citing the migratory bird problem.
Peace Bridge officials then said they were considering designating one of the other proposals in the original competition that provides a lower profile, three arch span with a high point of 226 feet, but word was received October 10 from the Federal Highway Administration that the way is now cleared for a three-tower, cable-stayed bridge under 400 feet tall.
U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer was quoted as saying, "I never thought we'd get this far," after efforts to approve a sweeping "signature" design for the new span seemed bleak in recent months.
Construction work is still set to begin in late 2009 or 2010, according to Peace Bridge Authority this past summer. The bridge itself would be constructed between 2011 and 2014.
A Draft Environmental Impact Statement was issued for the $300 million project in September, 2007. This spring some $90 million was included in the New York State Department of Transportation's five year capital plan as the state's share of a new bridge project. The new Customs plaza is described officially as a needed upgrade that will make way for a new bridge.
The area's daily newspaper The Buffalo News recently opined that revisions to the original plan for the plaza have improved it -- now only 80 homes in the Columbus Parkway neighborhood will be torn down, and some others that faced the wrecking ball in earlier plans will be spared!
The rationale for wide destruction of a neighborhood in order to make ready for a new Peace Bridge with an uncertain future that may not be built for a decade or more -- if at all in the forseeable future -- has properly come under sharp scrutiny.
Public outcry over the original proposal and the involvement of groups like The New Millennium Group of Western New York and the Buffalo Olmstead Parks Conservancy has indeed resulted in less onerous plans (the Public Bridge Authority agreed to restore three acres of land to a park designed by Fredrick Law Olmstead and to remove traffic from the park).
In January the Preservation League of New York State named the Columbus Park-Prospect Hill neighborhoods to their "Seven to Save" list for 2008. "Unfortunately this area's historic fabric and residential character have been forced to take a back seat to the demands of truck and automobile traffic," said Jay DiLorenzo, the Preservation League's President.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation has also placed the impacted neighborhood on its list of "America's 11 Most Endangered Historic Places."
In late July U.S. Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton announced she would again press for the new Peace Bridge truck plaza to be built in Canada. That idea had earlier been the subject of negotiations between U.S. Homeland Security officials and the Canadian government, but was reportedly shelved due to disagreements over how and where drivers denied entry to the United States would be detained. Senator Clinton told The Buffalo News she would work with Representative Louise M. Slaughter of Fairport to try to come up with ways to revive "shared border management" that would eliminate the need for a new truck plaza in Buffalo's West Side. She said such a move could cut Peace Bridge expansion costs by $100 million.
As is often the case with modern-day public works projects, initial solutions to the need for a new plaza seemed to be developed without sufficient application of Smart Growth principles. And with several overlapping jurisdictions and interests involved, many people question why a more comprehensive set of ideas were not developed initially that would recognize and better accommodate competing goals.
Unfortunately the attempt to address what is a legitimate need to better serve the half million vehicles a month that currently use the bridge on average continues to be pushed by the Peace Bridge Authority, notwithstanding that failure. Unless, of course, further citizen involvement can result in a less invasive and more appropriately scaled plaza that sustains the existing stable neighborhood and promotes other livability features.
Derailing an ill-advised plan already anointed by officialdom is always the most difficult way to achieve Smart Growth -- it's a lot easier to seek intelligent, comprehensive solutions in the conceptual stage of a project. But with sufficient citizen input, the local populace will hopefully end up with a development that's more compatible with existing land uses, or one that is located elsewhere, as some observers of the process have suggested.
In an appendix to the 2004 DEIS, the Foit-Albert Associated Historical Architectural Survey Report describes the neighborhood as "a vast collection of properties, in context and relationship to each other, that are a rich fabric of Buffalo's past. Properties from 1890-1915, during the heyday of Buffalo's growth, remain on the streets of the Peace Bridge impact area as a testament to the rich history of the area.
"While there are individual buildings of merit, the neighborhood becomes significant as a collection of properties, a catalogue of local history and a timeline of architectural styles from early days to present."
Hopefully decision makers for the Peace Bridge Expansion Project will find ways to accommodate that reality through Smart Growth principles as plans move forward in the coming months and years.
(Updated 10-12-08)
