NIAGARA FALLS: Rebuilding a better Highland

Local News

October 23, 2008

Brownfields rehab plan reaches half-way point

By Rick Forgione<br><a href="mailto:forgioner@gnnewspaper.com">E-mail Rick</a> The Niagara Gazette Thu Oct 23, 2008, 10:12 PM EDT

Ritchie Gore has a long wish list of ideas and development projects to revitalize Highland Avenue and the surrounding North End neighborhoods.

For starters, the depressed area could use its own grocery store and gas service station. Once those basic essentials are in place, she wouldn’t mind a few “green” industrial businesses or medical offices to open and begin offering jobs.

Maybe then, children wouldn’t have to leave the neighborhood, let alone the city.

“My kids grew up in this neighborhood but went to college someplace else and now live somewhere else,” said Gore, who has lived in the Highland community for 26 years. “If it wasn’t so bad here, then maybe they would’ve been able to stay. You can’t dwell on all of the broken promises and what’s happened in the past, you have to work for the future.”

For the North End, that future is now — and residents are being asked to shape it.

Close to 50 people attended a forum Thursday at the Doris Jones Family Resource Center to hear a presentation by Urban Strategies Inc., which was hired by the city in January to help the Highland community become a Brownfield Opportunity Area.

Brownfields are typically defined as property on which development is hindered by contamination or the possibility of contamination. Opportunity areas are eligible for state employment credits, which are enticing to new businesses or expansions.

In 2004, the city received a $375,000 grant to develop a revitalization plan targeting 560 acres of land classified as brownfields in the North End. Of that area, close to 200 acres is currently vacant land, said Mark Reid, a partner with Urban Strategies.

Thursday’s community forum represented the halfway point of the four-tier process, which is expected to be completed by next spring and will result in a detailed master plan submitted to the state for the redevelopment of brownfields and other revitalization strategies.

“How do we make this Highland community a better place to live, work, play and raise a family?” asked Henry Taylor, director of the Center for Urban Studies, which is one of the partners in the process. “That’s why we’re all here tonight.”

Urban Strategies presented an analysis of the challenges facing the Highland community and an outline of the opportunities, including capitalizing on the alternative energy and tourism industries. Following the 45-minute presentation, the audience was split into work groups and encouraged to develop ideas for development that may be implemented into the master plan.

“We want you to help us better what we have here,” said Urban Strategies Inc. partner Melanie Hare. “Tell us what you want Highland to be in the next 10 to 20 years.”

Taylor, whose team has conducted countless interviews with North End residents, said every request and proposal has had a common theme.

“No matter what we do, make sure we get more jobs into this community,” he said. “We’ve heard that over and over again.”

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