Posted Oct 22, 2007, 1:32 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Buffalo, NY
Posts: 139
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Okay, whats with the Buffalo News lately?
Vision for downtown goes underground Study addresses parking issues
Planners have proposed building a parking ramp under Niagara Square.
Imagine a sprawling underground parking ramp buried beneath the McKinley Monument in Niagara Square.
Or a similar subterranean ramp nestled beneath North and South Division streets near the Erie Community College City Campus.
The idea, planners say, is to place parked cars underground, in spots that can’t be put to more valuable and aesthetic uses, reducing the number of surface lots that dot the central business district.
These are just two concepts advanced in a new study that aims to create a long-term vision for downtown. The $60,000 study was financed by British developer Bashar Issa — owner of the Statler Towers — and by Empire State Development Corp., the state’s main development agency.
Another idea that even some planners admit could be a stretch, includes a new plan for the Niagara Section of the Thruway, which currently cuts off downtown from the waterfront. The study suggests making the I-190 a grade-level highway for cars, with a tunnel for truck traffic snaking beneath it.
Planners met with nearly 20 local leaders Friday to unveil the Buffalo Urban Design Plan, a six-month review that built on many themes advanced in previous studies.
Billed as a “work-in-progress,” the study prepared by Cannon Design hits on planning issues that range from regulating the heights of future buildings, to fostering the creation of more downtown green space.
But one of the key focus points involves hatching a longterm parking plan to accommodate what Issa and others believe will be significant growth in the downtown corridor.
Underground parking facilities at Niagara Square and near the ECC Campus were among the conceptual drawings that Harry L. Warren, design principal at Cannon, presented to Mayor Byron W. Brown and other local leaders.
The plan proposes demolishing one parking ramp adjacent to City Hall. While soil and rock issues would make it difficult to create more than three tiers of underground parking, the two facilities might be able to accommodate about 2,000 vehicles, Warren said.
Building underground parking can be up to twice as expensive as above-ground ramps, said Debra Chernoff, Buffalo Place’s manager of planning. But such costs can be offset by developing parcels that are being underutilized as parking lots, Chernoff and Warren said.
“That land is so much more valuable,” Warren said. “Surface [parking] lots become tears in the fabric of the city.”
The new study reiterates what many other studies and planners nationwide have asserted, Brown said.
Issa is “very interested” in pursuing land rights to develop underground parking structures in the downtown core, Warren said.
“He’s done the same kind of development in Manchester [England],” Warren added.
Issa could not attend Friday’s briefing, as he was in Cairo, Egypt.
The study borrows many concepts that have been successful in cities such as Toronto, Chicago and San Francisco, planners said. For example, Toronto has extensive underground parking in its downtown core.
Brown said that while some of the recommendations are “ambitious,” Buffalo needs to prepare for what he believes will be dramatic development.
Based on building permits, construction documents and blueprints, downtown Buffalo is expected to see more than $1.2 billion in new buildings. One such project involves Issa’s proposal for a 40-story mixeduse tower at the corner of South Elmwood Avenue and West Mohawk Street — the tallest, and at $361 million, the most expensive single structure ever proposed in the city.
No cost estimates are included for proposals contained in the new study. Warren stressed it could take years — or in some cases even decades — to achieve many of the objectives. But Buffalo Place Executive Director Michael Schmand left the meeting saying there’s nothing wrong with thinking big.
“You have to raise the bar and reach for it,” Schmand said. “If you don’t, you’re in trouble.”
Realty USA’s George W. Hamberger is a commercial real estate broker who has focused on downtown development for nearly two decades and is working with Issa on his local projects. Hamberger said the challenge now is to decide what short-term steps need to be taken to achieve the desired long-term results.
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