Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - The ongoing battle against the massive Kensington Expressway project in the East Buffalo community will continue following the ruling of a State Supreme Court judge on Friday.
In a decision from Justice Emilio Colaiacovo on Friday, he ruled that given the low threshold to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) and the state's failure to do so, the decision from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) is arbitrary and capricious. As such, the petition from the East Side Parkways Coalition is granted in its entirety.
As a result, the issuance of permits by NYSDOT are annulled, and the negative declaration is also annulled.
"What happened was that Judge Colaiacovo from the Supreme Court of New York State has decided that the Department of Transportation did not do their homework, did not do the proper studies, and as a result, he has put a halt to any construction idea of the toxic tunnel, the $1.5 billion toxic tunnel that was planned for the East Side of Buffalo," said Alan Bozer, attorney representing the East Side Parkways Coalition (ESP) in the lawsuit against NYSDOT. "Things are at a halt, and now we're going to regroup, and we are hoping that there will be some true community involvement in what is to be done with that area."
The judge also required NYSDOT to stop proceeding with the project until it has completely complied with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR), and is ordered to conduct and prepare an EIS concerning the affected areas of this project.
Terry Robinson, member of ESP and a longtime resident of Humboldt Parkway, is elated with the decision from Justice Colaiacovo on Friday, but he did expect that ruling based on the judge's previous statements.
"The judge was very astute in assessing that they obviously had not done the proper hard look in realizing that there was going to be a tremendous amount of impact as a result of this five-year, billion dollar-plus construction project through the middle of a residential neighborhood. And that there's environmental impacts, there's health impacts, there's impacts on the historical structure of the area," said Robinson on Friday in an interview with WBEN. "The judge seemed to indicate early on that he appreciated both the magnitude and the scope of the impact of this project, and he was just demanding that they follow the law and do what was appropriate under the circumstances."
Bozer adds that the others in the Humboldt and East Side community who organized the opposition to the DOT's plan have always been concerned about the health effects of the Kensington Expressway.
This is one of the things that the judge heard, his decision focuses, in part, upon the emissions and the problems that have arisen from having an expressway through a densely populated area. He says in his decision that this community has suffered enough, that it is time for a real study to be done, and that's what we're looking for. And we think the city really should be involved in this process going forward," Bozer said.
While Robinson is pleased with Friday's ruling, he knows the struggle continues toward looking for the right project to properly address the Kensington Expressway.
"We don't want to slow things down, we don't want to just be naysayers. What we're looking for is a solution to the problem," Robinson said. "We want this project to continue as quickly and as fairly as it can, so what we anticipate is there will be an injunction, stopping this toxic tunnel, the cancer alley that they propose to continue, will not happen. But we want to move forward in a way that moves forward the City of Buffalo, and makes the project area a good neighborhood to live in. That does a regional look at the transportation network that works with our neighbors - Cheektowaga, Amherst, West, Seneca, Depew - in order to make the best transportation network possible for our city."
Robinson is of the belief that a complete, fair and thorough environmental impact study may not be completed for up to a year's time. Bozer, though, says that timeline is very difficult to gauge.
"One of the reasons it's difficult to answer is that it is not a transparent process," he said. "What happens is a lot of things will be going on in Albany offices that will not involve the community. We will not see how quickly it moves along, and that is assuming that the DOT will be the lead agency. I can say that, at this point, we don't believe the Department of Transportation is capable with coming up with a community friendly plan, and we are hoping that city leaders now get involved, so that the city's perspective can come along and help the residents of the city that are affected by what is going on here."
Robinson is hopeful that the right project for the Kensington Expressway will move Buffalo forward as an example of an efficient, sustainable, and an environmentally sound city.
"We want to continue moving Buffalo into its third century as the place where there's always innovation and approaches to things that are the right solution. This is just the first step. So we couldn't be happier in having the support of various media and social networks and outlets that wouldn't let this thing be buried under the usual shenanigans and political subterfuge that actually goes through," Robinson said.
In addition, Bozer says it's the East Side Parkways Coalition's goal to get an in depth study done for the area surrounding the Kensington, which suffers some troubling rates of respiratory and cardiovascular illness, and life expectancy.
"Going forward, we would like to come up with a solution that does not entail having 75,000 cars a day go through a disadvantaged and very densely populated area. That's what I see the East Side Parkways Coalition doing," Bozer said. "They want to be in the room when these decisions are made, they want a transparent process, but they want the health concerns of the community to be heard and recognized."
View the full decision from Judge Colaiacovo below: