NIAGARA FALLS — by DAN MINER

minerd@gnnewspaper.com

A little land is a precious thing to the folks in the Village of Lewiston. It’s a common gripe among officials in the roughly one-square-mile village that they’re plain out of room, having long ago built out to its limits.

One criticism lobbed at recent high-profile projects along the village’s flourishing retail strip around Center Street are that they add unnecessary density.

It was significant then when the New York Power Authority handed over the deed to 42-acres of prime real estate — the wide open land east of Artpark known as the Lewiston Plateau, or the Spoils Pile.

It was also significant the deed contained wording the parcel be used only for environmental or recreational purposes. If not, ownership will revert back to the power authority.

For now, the village plans to use half the land as a park, holding a summer baseball program there and encouraging many other activities, including flying kites, practicing golf and walking dogs.

“Everybody always talks about green space and we’ve got it all over this village,” Mayor Richard Soluri said. “I think that’s important.”

The other half of the land has been developed as a grassland habitat for birds and animals by a group of environmentalists, including Dr. David Cooper, past president of the Buffalo Ornithological Society and Bob Baxter, conservation chair of the Niagara Heritage Partnership.

“We wanted to get a habitat because of all the birds that are threatened, those which breed in grasslands are threatened the most,” Cooper said.

Paths cutting through high grass, plants and young trees mark the habitat area, which can be reached from a road near the Lewiston Public Library and is identified by several signs and a kiosk.

Both of the current uses have been developed in the past decade, after the village began leasing the property for $1 from the Power Authority.

From valley to rock pile

The area leading from the escarpment — on which large homes currently sit overlooking the Niagara River — to the village commercial corridor, was once a gently sloping, wooded valley, Baxter said.

But the building of the Niagara Power Project and Robert Moses Parkway in the late 1950s and early 1960s changed that. The power authority purchased the land from residents and the village and, as land was mined for underground tunnels and channels for the water, a steady stream of trucks pulled up to the side of the road and dumped piles of rock there.

The dump slowly grew to its current size, and was afterward given the name, the “Spoils Pile.”

“It was unwanted material that was dumped there,” Cooper said. “That’s a way of spoiling something.”

Leased and released

After the Power Project was completed, the power authority leased the land to the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation for use as a park.

In 2001, it was leased to the village. Using funds obtained from the county’s Environmental Cleanup Fund, the village laid down soil and planted grass on the former pile of rocks. Meanwhile, the environmental groups who helped secure the funds began developing their habitat area.

As a result of negotiations during the power authority’s relicensing settlement process, it was decided the land would revert back to its original owner, the Village of Lewiston. The new license took effect Sept. 1, 2007, and the deed was presented to the village at its July 7 board meeting.

Present use and the future

Cooper said the habitat area has worked out well and the key now is to maintain it. He said the whole property might be better used that way than as sporting fields, which he said have been planned for years but never came to fruition.

“Our aim is to produce flowers and grasses which are appropriate to this area of the country, which were here originally a couple centuries ago and to which birds are attracted,” he said. “We’re succeeding slowly. It takes a good bit of while, management of a habitat.”

Soluri meanwhile said the recreation half of the property is a benefit to the village’s several other parks.

“The plateau is being used more and more and I see its use evolving,” he said.

A “couple” developers have approached Soluri about the land but for now, given the wording in the deed, it appears residential and commercial options don’t exist.

That’s especially welcome news for Cooper. The fact that free land in the village is so hard to find is the whole point, he said.

“It’s not a place for building houses,” he said. “It would take away from the beauty of the gorge and of Artpark.”

Contact reporter Dan Miner at 282-2311, ext. 2263.