The Buffalo Police Department will get a new police training facility in the city’s Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood.
The Buffalo Common Council approved a zoning amendment in a vote of 6-2 Tuesday, which allows the renovation of a vacant city-owned property at 379 Paderewski Drive for that purpose. The facility is expected to include classrooms, a gym and an indoor gun range to help train members of the Buffalo Police Department, and possibly other law enforcement agencies.
The plans have received mixed reactions from local residents. One neighborhood block club supports the proposal, while another group of residents along with a separate grassroots organization submitted separate petitions to oppose it.
The renovations are expected to cost approximately $5 million and will be paid for by bonds already signed off by the council according to Fillmore District Councilmember, Mitch Nowakowski.
"I did speak to the comptroller last month. This money has already been bonded out for. She already went to market. That then becomes liquid. This is the last municipal protocol that Buffalo police need to do before their training facility to happen,” Nowakowski said.
Council Majority Leader, Leah Halton-Pope, and University District Representative, Rasheed Wyatt, voted against the rezoning amendment.
Wyatt said he voted against the plans because he felt the city's cash could be better spent elsewhere on more "urgent matters."
"The money can be spent on housing and other areas that are desperately needed in our community," he said.
Ellicott District representative Halton-Pope told BTPM NPR she voted "no" after block clubs in her district adjacent to the Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood spoke out against the facility.
"This is representative government," she said, "So of course, I'm going to support my constituents and do as they ask. They don't support it, so I'm going to vote 'no'."
Councilmembers Bryan Bollman, Joseph Golombek Jr., Joel Feroleto, Mitch Nowakowski, David Rivera and Zeneta Everhart voted to approve.
The BPD does not currently have its own gun range, and Nowakowski estimates the department currently spends $175,000 or more annually to rent facilities in surrounding municipalities.
The property was built in 1948 and was originally an American Legion Post. More recently, it served as the Matt Urban Community Center.
