Newspaper seeks public release of Centennial Park feasibility study

Yahoo

8 hours ago

Niagara Falls City Council Chairman Jim Perry has talked with Mayor Robert Restaino about the unreleased feasibility study for the proposed Centennial Park arena and events campus and said he's encouraged by what he's been told about it so far.
In response to questions from the Niagara Gazette on Thursday, Perry did not say whether he would support releasing the study to the public in response to a Freedom of Information Law request filed by the newspaper.
Instead, Perry said he spoke to city attorney Tom DeBoy who acknowledged receipt of the newspaper's formal request for the document and was assured that the city's legal department is working on it.
'I'm not part of that process, but (DeBoy) assured me it's being done,' Perry said on Thursday.
Restaino confirmed in an interview with the members of the local press on May 13 that he received what he described as an incomplete version of the study, which was prepared by the private Florida-based consulting firm Sports Facilities Advisory, LLC at a cost of $140,000, plus expenses.
While he has since indicated that the study results support the city building Centennial Park, he has declined to release the contents publicly. In an interview with the Gazette earlier this week, Restaino said he intends to do so by the end of the month after the results are shared with 'stakeholders,' namely representatives from New York's lead economy development agency Empire State Development Corp. and National Grid, the two entities that covered the city's cost for the study.
'One of the things we will do is meet with the stakeholders who paid for the study and show it to them,' Restaino told the Gazette in an interview earlier this week. 'And then we'll release it to the public. This month everything is going to be out in the open.'
During an appearance on Monday on 'Your Community Accountability with Sam and Jon,' a Falls-based social media program aired on Facebook and YouTube, Perry said he has had a 'lot of discussions about it' and that it 'looks positive.'
On Thursday, Perry told the newspaper he hadn't seen the study but had talked to the mayor about it.
'I can't share everything because this will be up to the mayor to unveil, but this project should be one of the more positive advancements to our local economy I've seen in my 70-plus years here in the city if everything falls into place,' Perry said.
On Thursday, the newspaper filed a formal Freedom of Information request with the city's legal department and clerk's office, requesting a copy of the study from Restaino's administration. The newspaper's request cited two opinions from the New York State Committee on Open Government that indicate state law allows public agencies to release documents in their possession even in instances where they are considered to be drafts or incomplete.
'Draft records are subject to FOIL,' said Paul Wolf, a Williamsville attorney and founder of the government transparency group, the New York Coalition for Open Government.
The city clerk's office acknowledged the newspaper's request on Thursday afternoon. Under state law, public agencies are allowed up to 20 business days to either grant or deny requests for information. In its initial response, the city clerk's office indicated that should 'circumstances arise' that prevent the delivery of a response within 20 business, the newspaper would be contacted with a 'new response date.'
'Examples of circumstances that may lead to extended response times include staff shortages, requests for a large volume of records and requests that require significant document redaction and/or seek documents that are not maintained electronically,' the response from the clerk's office notes.
The results of the feasibility study are expected to more clearly define elements of the Centennial Park project and shed light on whether it would, as proposed, be viable in the Falls.
A previous arena study, commissioned by Niagara County in 2017, concluded that the city lacked a sufficient number of hotel rooms needed to support such a project at that time.
City officials, including Restaino and Perry, are seeking to acquire, using the city's power of eminent domain, 10 acres of land currently owned by the private firm Niagara Falls Redevelopment for the purposes of building Centennial Park. The courts have sided with the city's argument that it has the right to forcibly acquire the property — located off John B. Daly Boulevard at the intersection of 10th and Falls streets — for the purposes of developing the 'park.'
The city is currently engaged in litigation, arguing that 5 of those 10 acres are actually still owned by the city as NFR failed, more than a decade ago, to properly obtain permission from the state to annex what was at the time public parkland formerly known as 10th Street park. NFR is disputing the city's position in court.
The company also insists it intends to use the 10 acres for the first phase of a project of its own, a proposed $1.5 billion data center it says it intends to build in partnership with the Canadian firm, Urbacon.
During his interview on Sam Archie's social media program on Monday, Perry backed the city's position that the city, not NFR, owns the 5 acres because it was formerly public parkland that was never properly acquired by the company. He said he agrees with the city's position based on maps and other documents that show the area in question was a public park dating back to the 1940s.
'A park is a park forever until you get that it is no longer parkland by permission from the state,' he said.
'When it was transferred over, those papers were never filed,' he added. 'You can argue all you want, that is still a park. Unless it's done legally, there is no claim to it.'
As to NFR — a company owned by the Milstein family of real estate developers in New York City — Perry said the city has heard 30 years of promises and stories from the company with no tangible results. He also said there 'is no two solutions,' a reference to what some residents and officials have suggested could be a compromise that would allow both projects to happen.
'The convention center is real,' Perry said, referring to Centennial Park, 'and I know that because I've been working on issues and I've been talking to people. The data center, to me, is another pie in the sky.'
'If we gave this fight up tomorrow, (and said), 'OK, you guys can have the park, we'll do the paperwork and turn it over to you.' Let them have it, turn it over to NFR, all the stuff, you know what's going to happen? They are going to say, 'Well, you took so long Urbacon's not interested in it anymore' because that's the M.O.'
Perry did concede in his interview with show host Sam Archie that, if the city is successful in its claim for the 5 acres, it may be required to reimburse NFR for taxes paid on the property in the past.
'I would assume that is correct,' Perry said.