HIGHLAND AVENUE: Brownfield program pushed at meeting

Local News

April 1, 2008

Officials say community will drive redevelopment

By Dan Miner/minerd@gnnewspaper.com The Niagara Gazette Tue Apr 01, 2008, 09:25 PM EDT

Consultants and officials from virtually every level of government converged Tuesday to explain the $400,000 federal grant they say will revive the struggling neighborhood surrounding Highland Avenue.

“The process is remarkable,” said Mark Reid, a consultant with Urban Strategies Inc., the Toronto-based firm hired by the City of Niagara Falls to work on the project. “It’s about brownfield transformation.”

About 45 people gathered at the Doris W. Jones Family Resource Center on Ninth Street to hear the presentation. The city received word they were accepted into the state’s Brownfield Opportunity Area program in Fall 2004, but the funds finally became available in Summer 2007.

The meeting was the first of five open houses that will be held in the process, which will take 18 months and turn community input and a series of environmental, land-use and marketing studies into a master plan. They hope businesses use the plan to turn the area’s vast expanses of brownfields into green businesses that will employ local residents.

“It’s extremely important, not only for the Highland area but for the City of Niagara Falls,” said James Pitts, the CEO of J.W. PItts Planning and Development LLC, another consultant working on the project and also the meeting’s moderator.

A series of speakers went through the program, including the importance of community involvement and examples of other cities which have been successful in redeveloping their brownfields.

But after the presentation, questions were raised about the effectiveness of the program. Highland Avenue resident Ken Hamilton pointed out that several such studies have been done in the past, to little gain.

In a series of exchanges with Pitts and Henry Taylor, who is the director of the Center for Urban Studies at the University at Buffalo and is involved with the program, Hamilton detailed his issues with such studies, especially that the businesses they do attract don’t hire those who live in the neighborhood.

Of all the people present at Tuesday’s meeting, only two actually live in the Highland community, Hamilton said.

Taylor responded that this project is different in that it will be driven by the community, and therefore serve its best interests if it’s put in place.

“You can do something about it, or you can complain forever,” he said.

Text Only | Photo Reprints

Local News

State senator, wife beaten at Seneca Niagara Casino
A state senator and his wife were attacked and beaten and a casino “shareholder” was arrested after one or more incidents at the Seneca Niagara Casino Friday night.

February 11, 2012 1 Photo
Staff cuts, large tax increase being considered to fill N-W's $10.M deficit
February 10, 2012
Police searching for jewelry thief caught on tape
February 10, 2012 1 Photo
Falls cops arrest pot and heroin dealers
February 10, 2012 2 Photos
Child run over be car on Niagara Avenue
Falls Traffic Division investigators said an 11-year-old boy was struck after he darted into the street, in front of a car as it pulled away from a stop sign.

February 9, 2012 2 Photos
Gerber resigns from SPCA board; calls for adding veterinarian to staff
A Town of Niagara veterinarian and long-time member of the SPCA of Niagara Board of Directors has stepped down.
Dr. William Gerber submitted his resignation on Tuesday. It was effective immediately.

February 9, 2012
Militello paid $50K to leave Niagara-Wheatfield
Former Niagara-Wheatfield Superintendent Carl Militello is receiving a $50,000 from the district, according to a separation settlement agreed to on Feb. 1.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
Joseph Davis State Park gets some green
Officials in the Town of Lewiston received approval Thursday to spend a significant portion of the community’s incoming greenway funds on the redevelopment of Joseph Davis State Park.

February 9, 2012 5 Photos
Has NYPA relicensing agreement led to a revival?
A state senator is calling for an audit of the low-cost power and cash used in the last seven years by Niagara County entities that have shared in the benefits of the 50-year relicensing agreement with the New York Power Authority.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
Autopsy unable to determine cause or time of Judith Burr’s death
An autopsy by an Erie County Medical Examiner has failed to determine either the time of death or the cause of death of Judith Burr.

February 9, 2012 1 Photo
More Local News Headlines

Do you think cigarette sales to non-Native American customers should be taxed on reservations?