In our weekly segment, "A Closer Look," we feature a story from a BTPM NPR reporter. This week, Assistant Managing Editor Ryan Zunner sits down with Reporter Holly Kirkpatrick to discuss a proposed new police training facility for the city of Buffalo.
Ryan Zunner: This week on “A Closer Look" we’re welcoming in reporter Holly Kirkpatrick. Hey Holly!
Holly Kirkpatrick: Hi, Ryan!
Zunner: Last week, before their August recess, the Buffalo Common Council held a public hearing regarding the re-zoning of a vacant property in the city’s Broadway Fillmore neighborhood. You reported on that hearing and found that property is slated to become a police training facility - what do we know about plans for the building?
Kirkpatrick: Yeah, so it’s a 1.2-acre site and a city-owned property that’s currently vacant at 379 Paderewski Drive in the city. Detailed plans for the project are not yet public, but the three-story building is expected to include classroom space, a gym and an indoor gun range to help train members of the Buffalo Police Department.
Zunner: The public hearing wasn’t necessarily about the police facility near the Central Terminal itself, is that right?
Kirkpatrick: Correct, it was a rezoning hearing rather than a discussion about police or policing in Buffalo specifically. The property is currently zoned for residential use only, which would mean those plans that the city had could not go ahead, so the city is trying to rezone the site to allow the renovations.
Zunner: What was said at the public hearing? How did it go?
Kirkpatrick: Just three residents spoke, two spoke out against the facility, and one spoke in support. Bear in mind that the hearing was during working hours. Fillmore District resident Matthew Austin spoke and questioned why the BPD needed to be trained in a residential zone. However, a group of residents who live close to the property support the project, according to a nearby resident and President of the Central Terminal Neighborhood Association, Chris Hawley, who’s also an urban planner with the city. He said in June, members met with the BPD to share suggestions about the site plans, including making sure neighbors won't hear noise from the gun range. It should be noted that this facility is planned for the Fillmore District, which Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski represents. Here’s what he had to say after the meeting
Mitch Nowakowski [Soundbite]: “I know that structure like the back of my hand. It's a clunker. To get someone in there, to be able to go in there, to adaptively reuse it would be a sheer magnitude of millions of dollars, and that's why the prior operator could not make it a use. It was a vacant, blighted city structure in our inventory. And where I am honing in the most is listening to the residents that directly live across the street from it, they are supportive.”
Zunner: The council now has to vote on this and will do so in September when they return from the August recess. But you’ve been speaking to people about this issue since that public hearing. What did they say?
Kirkpatrick: Yes, I have since spoken to residents on Paderewski Drive, a few blocks from the planned facility. Four residents I spoke to said they had not heard about these plans at all. They were disappointed with the lack of transparency from the city. They’re also against increased police presence, the people I spoke to. So much so, they’re actually petitioning against these plans. That’s on top of a separate petition gathered earlier this year of more than 2,000 signatures by a group called LOLA. They are organizing against this facility based on what residents have told them. In the absence of a city town hall on the issue, they are planning to host their own on August 23 so residents can voice their opinions.
Zunner: That’s reporter Holly Kirkpatrick. Thanks so much for joining us here on “A Closer Look.”
Kirkpatrick: Thank you.
Zunner: Holly has new reporting on this police training facility, as we’ve alluded to, that's slated for later this week. Stay tuned on-air and online at btpm.org/news for that. For BTPM NPR, I’m Ryan Zunner.
