NFR fights back

Niagara Falls has been attempting to use eminent domain to take possession of a parcel at Falls and 10th Street for more than a year.

Mayor Robert Restaino wants to build an event center on the site.

An initial court ruling determined the city could use eminent domain to take the property but Niagara Falls Redevelopment has now moved in court to have that ruling vacated.

The crux of the suit is Restaino’s claim the city already owns the parcel because it was never properly alienated as parkland.

The parcel is the former site of a playground, gym and ball diamond.

In January, Restaino proclaimed via his weekly Youtube epistle that the faulty transfer occurred because the parcel in question was a park. A park can only be abandoned via home rule message through the state legislature which was never obtained.

Below is the motion from NFR