Eastside Parkways Coalition is looking to build on their February court victory, which halted the state Department of Transportation's, or NYSDOT, plans to transform the current Kensington Expressway into a tunnel while restoring the previous Humboldt Parkway on top of it.
Coalition attorney Alan Bozer has filed an appeal in court claiming the original Kensington Expressway project violated the public trust doctrine and wrongfully took away public park land.
"The people of the state of New York have rights in their park land," said Bozer. "It's called Public Trust doctrine, and that is that land that is dedicated as park land by the legislature, can only be alienated away from park land by the legislature."
Bozer further said the courts have a chance to change life here in Buffalo.
"The courts, every once in a while, get huge cases that completely changed the trajectory of law and life in America," he said. "Brown v. Board of Education, it took 80-70 years for them to correct a mistake that was made. Can the appellate division say that, yes, this was unlawfully taken? The answer is a resounding yes."
Pastor Steven Lane, an ESP spokesperson has further conveyed ESP's desire to work with Restore Our Communities Coalition, ROCC, another community group that is working towards the restoration of Humboldt Parkway. Unlike ESP however, they supported NYSDOT's plan to turn the Kensington Expressway into an underground tunnel with the restored Humboldt Parkway on top.
"They're the ones that started this whole issue of this parkway in 2009 and the issue and they settled in with that toxic tunnel solution, which most of the people rejected because it embeds this highway for another generation," said Lane.
Sydney Brown, who is a spokesperson for ROCC, has criticized ESP in the past for what they see as holding up progress, as well as believing they represent a viewpoint only a minority of residents hold.
ROCC is aware of the most recent comments from ESP but has not yet responded to BTPM NPR's request to comment.
Common Council Majority Leader Leah Halton-Pope, who has aligned herself with ROCC in the past, has previously mentioned she is open to compromise with ESP.
“If there is a way, we can figure out what the middle ground is, I would be more than happy to, I can tell you that the ESP came to me specifically and just said we want a resolution saying you'll support our idea, not a middle ground," Halton-Pope previously said. "That was not acceptable to me. So, my request was to sit down and try to figure it out.”
The appeal will be heard by the New York State Supreme Court Appellate Division in Rochester before the end of the year.
