BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN).....To Mike Santello, it's bad enough that the Seneca One Stop gas complex now under construction just across Miami Street from his Mammoth Dispensary will have a cannabis dispensary inside the gas station, but while the project is being developed he is looking at a two-story-plus mound of dirt and fill.
"It's not a pretty sight," Santello said. "And, who knows how long it will be there."
The mound of dirt is just one of a laundry list of issues that business owners near the construction site have with the project.
"We don't know who this project is really for,," Santello said.
Construction began on Aug. 31 - with no advance word from the Seneca Nation - on a triangular 3.5-acre vacant parcel nestled between Miami, Chicago and Ohio streets and on what was determined by the federal Department of Interior as sovereign territory more than three years ago.
Plans for the project - which carries a $10 million-plus development price tag - calls for the Seneca One Stop to have 26 fueling stations, a convenience store and the dispensary.
"I am concerned about having a (Seneca) dispensary right next to us," Santello said.
Save for the dispensary, it will model after the Seneca One Stop on Michigan Avenue across from Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino.
The Seneca One Stop in Niagara Falls does have a dispensary.
Seneca Nation President J.C. Seneca said the project will employ more than 50 construction workers and when it opens next summer have at least 50 workers - most of whom will be Buffalo and Old First Ward residents.
Critics - and there are many - say Seneca One Stop flies in the face of both private sector and public investments made in that stretch of the Old First Ward. The parcel also serves as a gateway into the Old First Ward.
Mayor Sean Ryan, on Sept. 28, sent what amounts to a cease-and-desist letter to J.C. Seneca and said if construction wasn't halted by 10 a.m. Sept. 30, the city may start legal action against the project.
Seneca said the project was moving forward and because it sits on sovereign territory, there was little Buffalo could do to stop the project.
Ryan said the city is considering a number of options.
"This is a very fluid situation," Ryan said.
Despite the headlines and chatter, Ryan said the dispute is "run of the mill."
"It is not unlike the many property disputes we (Buffalo) face," Ryan said.
Still, Old First Ward business owners like Santello and Patrick Lawson from B&L Sons truck repair on Chicago Street are grateful that Ryan and Fillmore District Councilman Mitch Nowakowski are taking an aggressive approach to the Seneca One Stop project.
"It is nice that they are listening to us,." Santello said.
Mound of dirt and fill blocks view of Mammoth Dispensary
Mound of dirt and fill blocks view of Mammoth Dispensary
