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After spending an alleged $90,000 on legal fees to seize it via eminent domain, the city of Niagara Falls has suddenly discovered the 10th Street park it ceded to Niagara Falls Redevelopment in 2004 does not belong to the land holding company.
The city council voted 4-1 last night to commence legal action to assert its ownership with only Donta Myles voting no.
Mayor Robert Restaino wants to use the parcel to build Centennial Park, a multi-use stadium adjacent to the casino a half-mile from the entertainment district.
Myles, always an outspoken advocate for all of the community, was mystified about why this was coming forth now.
“Two years later, after eminent domain, court cases, lawyer’s fees, we magically come up with this idea?” he said. “Who dropped the ball? Shouldn’t we have thought of this earlier? No one thought to research this before?”
NFR has held numerous parcels downtown for more than 25 years, mowing the grass and keeping boarded-up buildings plastered with posted signs but doing little else.
It has proposed a couple big hotels and a data center on the same site as Centennial Park but built nothing.
The parkland alienation process involves the municipality ceding ownership to an private entity which then petitions the state legislature for a home rule message which will allow the land to be rezoned and used for other purposes.
The same process is being used by Merani Holding prior to expansion of the DoubleTree by Hilton because a portion of the needed land was formerly Buffalo Avenue Park which was decimated by Robert Moses Parkway.
Another parallel exists in Buffalo where State plans to restore Olmsted’s Humboldt Parkway by burying a large portion of the Kensington Expressway in a tunnel are being challenged in court.
One of the suits alleges the Parkway was never appropriately alienated. The counterpoint is that the Parkway was never a park even if it was part of Frederick Law Olmsted’s original design.
It is also worth noting, for those still relying on the Niagara Gazette, that the news of the city claiming ownership was released a full two weeks before it hit the paper.
The mayor spoon fed the story to Rick Pfeiffer. Restaino then spoke about it on his weekly Youtube address where it was picked up immediately by the Express which was a full 10 newsdays ahead of the paper.
In other action during the meeting, Myles questioned forgiving back taxes on homes being turned over to NORLIC, a nonprofit government agency that will rehab and return them to private ownership. Habitat for Humanity does the same thing.
Myles said he was voting no because he wanted more accountability from the administration regarding how city-owned real estate is turned back to private ownership.
Arlene Doss of Niagara United Vision addressed the council about the administration showing favoritism to outfits NORLIC when her organization sent a letter to the city offering to buy 27 properties for redevelopment and never even received a response.
Doss also requested the parcel at Beech Avenue and Highland be turned over to Niagara United so a community park can be built with construction set to begin in the spring.
Resident Tanya Barone, who has become a regular speaker at council meetings, questioned how the park alienation law works and why it wasn’t applied to the planned dog shelter in Hyde Park.
She also wondered why the mayor has not had anything to say about Goodyear spewing carcinogens, a crisis that will result in a community meeting tonight. Here is a link to the DEC site which links to the meeting. https://dec.ny.gov/news/press-releases/2025/1/dec-to-hold-virtual-publi…
