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Questions and Answers

Q. What’s in the Corridor?
A. All of the Buffalo waterfront from Vulcan Street to the Lackawanna line is in the Corridor, including the Buffalo River, Cazenovia and Scajaquada creeks, and nearby neighborhoods.

Q. With all the financial trouble the City is in, how can we afford a project like this?
A. We really can’t afford not to do it. First of all, The Buffalo Waterfront Corridor Initiative won’t be paid for primarily out of local tax monies. It is funded by a grant from the Federal government under the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century – better known as TEA-21. The City will provide a modest match. Second, the work we do will make it possible to apply for capital money from Federal and other sources in the future.

Q. The City has been promising to do something about the waterfront for years now. What’s going to be different now?
A. What’s different is that the Initiative will bring together all the other relevant agencies – Federal, State, and local – with key members of the business community, and citizen and neighborhood groups to set priorities and make things happen. That’s not business as usual. And, again, it’s a TEA-21 project. That means there will be more Federal money later on for implementation.

Q. Who set these goals?
A. The public did – over and over again. Everything Buffalonians have been saying for at least thirty years points to these goals – economic development, waterfront access, neighborhood revitalization, environmental quality, and an international gateway. More than that, nearly all of the plans that have been created over those same years are aimed at achieving those goals.

Q. Will the public have a say in the priorities that are set?
A. Of course. The Initiative will convene an extensive series of meetings in Spring 2002 to let waterfront stakeholders, political leaders, agency officials, citizen groups, neighborhoods and the general public help set the priorities.

Q. Who’s on this Implementation Council?
A. The only qualification for membership is to run an organization – public or private – that can directly help get the priority projects done. This will include funding agencies, regulatory agencies, private developers, and others. The specific members of the Implementation Council won’t be set until the priority projects are set.

Q. That sounds like just a bunch of big-wigs. What about public representation?
A. Only if they can help get projects done. It’s important to remember, the Implementation Council doesn’t set policy and they don’t choose projects. The public review process does that. All the Implementation Council does is work on making sure that public priorities become tangible realities. That’s their only job.

Q. So, who makes policy after the initial priorities are set?
A. An Advisory Council will also be created, which will represent the entire span of interests and constituencies that were part of the first round of reviews – government, business, community, environment and others. As projects are completed, the Advisory Council will help choose new priority projects for action.

Q. How does the Implementation Council work?
A. Partly, it’s through cooperation. Big projects are complicated and usually involve multiple parties, public and private. When there’s a problem the Implementation Council provides a way for partners to get together and solve it and keep projects moving. Partly, it’s peer pressure. Members of the Implementation Council are accountable to each other. When their colleagues are watching, those members will be very eager to deliver what they’ve promised.

Q. What’s the relationship between the Initiative and the LWRP?
A. Buffalo’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan (LWRP) will be the City’s state-sanctioned policy framework for the waterfront. Within the LWRP boundaries, every project has to abide by those policies. The Buffalo Waterfront Corridor Initiative will be guided by the LWRP.

Q. What about the City’s new Comprehensive Plan?
A. The priority projects set by the Initiative will be put forward for inclusion in the Comprehensive Plan. When the Comprehensive Plan is adopted, those projects will become the law of the City. Until then, the Initiative will work closely with the Community Planning Councils of the Good Neighbors Planning Alliance as we set priorities and review progress.