BUFFALO, N.Y. (WBEN)......For the second in as many days, the City of Buffalo, has filed another lawsuit in its effort to halt construction on the now-controversial Seneca One Stop project that serves as a gateway into the Old First Ward.
Under the direction of Mayor Sean Ryan, the city's corporation counsel office, on Oct. 8. filed a federal lawsuit against the Department of Interior that centers on its 2023 approval that put the nearly four-acre vacant parcel at 5 Miami Street under restricted-fee status - a move that effectively declared the land as sovereign territory and not subject to local zoning or planning ordinances and approvals.
The lawsuit follows an Oct. 7 filing in State Supreme Court the city made against the Seneca Nation of Indians councillors for green-lighting the $10 million project.
Just hours before Buffalo filed its federal lawsuit, the Seneca Nation was successful in having the Oct. 7 filing shifted to federal court.
Now, in a case of legal double headers - both cases are expected to be heard in the Robert Jackson Federal Courthouse in downtown Buffalo. As of late Thursday, neither case has been assigned to one of the federal judges.
"Our strategy is to halt what we see as a harmful process," said Rosa Alina Pizzi, Buffalo corporation counsel.
Pizzi said Buffalo has issue with how the Department of Interior approved the designation.
"There is a pretty narrow criteria and we don't think the analysis was applied correctly," Pizzi said.
The Seneca Nation declined to comment on the case against the Department of Intertior.
Seneca Nation President J.C. Seneca has repeatedly said that every proper procedural step was followed in gaining restricted fee status for the Miami Street property.
Seneca and the Seneca Nation has provided series of approvals from the federal, state, county and city agencies that support his claim.
"The city, especially the Mayor simple don't get it," JC Seneca said in a prepared Oct. 7 statement. "This is Seneca land - now and forever."
Not so, Buffalo counters.
Deputy Corporation Counsel William Rossi said the Department of Interior's approval was a "rubber stamp."
"Protections were not put into place," Pizzi said.
Construction on the triangular, vacant parcel began with site prep work on Aug. 31.
Plans call for the complex to have 24 fueling stations plus two stations that will cater solely to vehicles who use diesel fuel.
Also planned is a convenience store, a small grocery and fast food outlet along with a cannabis dispensary. The project is modeled after a Seneca One Stop operation in Niagara Falls adjacent to Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino.
The new outlet is expected to open in July.
It is expected to employ at least 50 people, with an emphasis on City of Buffalo and Old First Ward residents, JC Seneca said.
Despite city efforts to stop construction, work continues.
A current Seneca One-Stop on Michigan Avenue - just a few blocks north of the construction site, will be converted to a cashless gas operation and the convenience store, on site, will be retrofitted into another use - maybe connected to Seneca Buffalo Creek Casino just across the street.
JC Seneca said he is miffed at how Ryan refers to the new project.
"He continually mischaracterizes our project as a truck stop," JC Seneca said.
Buffalo files second lawsuit against Seneca Nation project
Buffalo files second lawsuit against Seneca Nation project
