The Buffalo News: Business park project at Bethlehem Steel site tops wish list for regional agenda
Former Bethlehem acreage among leaders’ initiatives
on January 8, 2015 - 6:31 PM
, updated January 8, 2015 at 6:43 PM
Turning a portion of the former Bethlehem Steel complex into a 400-acre business park, with new roads and rail lines, tops this year’s wish list from the Buffalo Niagara region’s business and political leadership.
Along with initiatives to enhance the truck pre-inspection program at the Peace Bridge and a renewed effort to get Albany to pass a long-term extension of the soon-to-expire Brownfield Cleanup Program, the wish list backs state-supported workforce-training initiatives and seeks new rules to allow for liquefied natural gas storage, transportation and sales in New York.
The wish list puts a heavy emphasis on projects to improve the region’s transportation and infrastructure, while also backing smart-growth initiatives and a number of programs to promote tourism and growth in the region’s education and medical capabilities.
A regional agenda, developed with Erie and Niagara counties and the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, has been prepared for the last 14 years to coordinate influence of political and business interests.
“The idea is that when we go to Albany and Washington, we can talk in one voice,” said Dottie Gallagher-Cohen, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, which spearheads the regional agenda.
Along with perennial projects, such as the extension of the Route 219 expressway, local business and political leaders also are throwing their support behind key parts of the economic-development initiatives from Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s Buffalo Billion investment plan. That includes the state’s efforts to build a workforce-training center and the creation of the Buffalo Manufacturing Works facility to help local businesses access costly equipment and research that they might not otherwise be able to use in their attempts to develop new products and processes.
Most of the 2015 regional agenda is focused on four areas – transportation and logistics, smart growth, tourism and the education and medical sector.
It also identifies seven top priority projects:
• Site acquisition, rail reconstruction and construction of a new main access road for a 400-acre business park proposed for the former Bethlehem Steel site in Lackawanna.
“These lands have tremendous infrastructure built into them and can be redeveloped,” Gallagher-Cohen said.
• A long-term extension of the Brownfield Cleanup Program, set to expire at the end of this year, that provides tax credits to developers for projects that decontaminate and redevelop polluted sites. Cuomo vetoed an extension of the program late last month – a move that Gallagher-Cohen said left her “terribly disappointed.”
• Support efforts by the state Department of Environmental Conservation to develop a site permit program that would allow liquefied natural gas to be stored, dispensed and transported in New York.
• Support for the Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, with an emphasis on retaining the 914th and 107th Airlift Wings, as a federal military base-closing commission comes up with recommendations either this year or in 2016.
“We need not only to keep the base open, but push for an expansion of operations there,” Gallagher-Cohen said.
• Efforts to enhance the cargo pre-inspection program at the Peace Bridge by encouraging the federal Department of Homeland Security to provide adequate staffing to make the program permanent.
• Support for the state’s Buffalo Billion initiatives to build a regional workforce-development center and create a Buffalo Manufacturing Works facility near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
• Finding ways to make a smooth and orderly transition from the federal Workforce Investment Act to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, which streamlines and modernizes federal workforce-training programs.
email: drobinson@buffnews.com
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