Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - It may not be easy for some long-time residents of the Marine Drive apartment complexes to embrace change, but change is coming.
Tuesday night was one important step in the new development process as it was the first planning meeting or open house for the Buffalo Municipal Housing Authority (BMHA) and the architects in the efforts to gauge what the residents of the Marine Drive Apartments are looking for in the new developments as well as properly explain their vision.
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Many concerns were raised, but the main concerns with the residents was relocation. Luckily, this really isn't going to be much of an issue at all.
"One of the number one things we're explaining on the site is that it's not looking to be a plan that displaces anyone," said Ashleigh Walton, an architect of Urban Design Associates, who are taking the lead on the design process.
"So it's really looking at what do you build first. There's a parking lot right now that's between Marine Drive and the Skyway. If a building is built there first, that has about 300 units on it, then residents can move there and are not displaced off the site. So there's always a site first that can be built and people can move from each site into the new construction and never have to be displaced off the site during the process."
This idea pleases Barbara Aviles, a 14-year resident of the Marine Drive Apartments. "At first, I was nervous, because I thought that we were going to be displaced, which is my big concern, I did not want to have to move to then be moved again," she said. "It seems to me that these people are trying to do it differently, which is great, because this is a model for how things like this should be done."
Both the Executive Director of the BMHA, Gillian Brown and Aviles agree that something needed to be done about these old buildings, and tearing them down makes the most sense.
"As time went on, the buildings have deteriorated so badly," said Aviles. "We have smells and it's become a really big problem. The apartments are overheating, I mean, the structure is damaged. It's time that they get torn down."
"We're trying to take these antiquated dilapidated buildings, where virtually every system is malfunctioning in one way or another and turn them into a development that people can be proud to live in. That will complement all the work that's gone on to Canalside and this whole area of the city," said Brown.
What are residents looking forward to seeing?
"I just want to live in a nice place to tell you the truth. I want to live in an apartment where I don't have to open every window because it's overheating to the point that we're going to pass out," said Aviles. "My daughter is disabled ... I would like a bathroom where she can actually go into the bathroom with her walker or her wheelchair and she actually fits. And a kitchen that is not a two by four where I could teach her how to cook because she could actually get into the kitchen instead of sitting across the hallway from me. That's what I would like, I feel like it's time for us."
Marine Drive resident, Mengistab Hailemariam says he would like to see some accountability and enforcement of rules so that these new properties will continue to look as new as the day they were built.
"Everyone has to be accountable," said Hailemariam. "If management is going to give me a warning, but still I do it again and again, it's not going to make sense."
"I think people here are looking for the same kind of amenities that people everywhere expects. They want lobbies where people can gather, they want community rooms that don't look like the one here. They want one bedroom apartments that are bigger than 412 square feet. You know, they want the same things that anybody wants," says Brown.
On Thursday March 2nd, there will be a draft plan presentation on the 37th floor of the Seneca One Tower from 6-7 p.m.
"We are committed to keeping this as affordable housing on the waterfront,"
said Brown. "And we are committed to there being no fewer than the 616 units that we currently have. So that's what I just have to keep making sure that I keep telling people over and over because I really want the residents to be in this with us and not opposing us for the wrong reasons."
The total estimated cost of this project is $400 million dollars and will be designed in phases starting in 2024 and will end in 2029.