NY: Supervisor, NFTA joust over whether light-rail extension would help, or hurt, Tonawanda

Town of Tonawanda Supervisor Joe Emminger says he has consistently voiced the opinion that extending Metro Rail service along Niagara Falls Boulevard would benefit Amherst far more than his town.

He said he has made this position clear to Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority officials, in prior meetings, and he took the same stance in a recent interview upon the release of an environmental impact study prepared by the agency, saying the report treated Tonawanda as an “afterthought.”

Someone at the NFTA has a long memory, however.

Metro Rail expansion

A view of Niagara Falls Boulevard looking north near Eggert Road on the Town of Tonawanda- Amherst border, where the NFTA is planning an extension to the Metro Rail that has been discussed for decades.

When a Buffalo News reporter asked NFTA Executive Director Kimberley Minkel to respond to Emminger’s concerns, another agency executive pointed to a comment Emminger made in an interview seven years ago touting the economic boost light rail would bring to the boulevard.

Emminger said he hasn’t changed his mind about the proposed route and its effect on Tonawanda.

NFTA officials, for their part, say the project will be a boon to the broader region, not just Amherst and the University at Buffalo.

“This is a transformative project that helps connect people to jobs,” Minkel said in a meeting last week with Buffalo News reporters and editors.

The project proposal will be the subject of a public hearing scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday in Sweet Home Middle School, 4150 Maple Road, Amherst.

The NFTA over the years considered several potential routes for a light-rail extension connecting the current system, which runs from downtown to the UB South Campus, to the UB North Campus.

A prior version would have run along Bailey Avenue before shifting over to Niagara Falls Boulevard and out to the North Campus.

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By 2018, however, the NFTA had shifted its focus to a route that would get to Niagara Falls Boulevard sooner after leaving the South Campus in Buffalo and would spend more time on the boulevard before turning onto Maple and heading out to the North Campus and beyond. It would reduce how long the route needs to run underground − saving money because aboveground construction is cheaper − and offer more opportunity for economic development along the well-traveled Niagara Falls Boulevard corridor, NFTA officials said.

This route option was pushed by leaders in Amherst and Tonawanda, who share a border along the boulevard, Minkel said in 2018.

“We’ve always taken the position we wanted it up on the boulevard sooner,” Emminger said in an article that November. “That stretch is in the Kenilworth neighborhood, and it’s a little tired. It needs a stimulus to create some development along that strip of the boulevard.”

“We’re looking for retail to go in there, and getting the light rail rapid transit up on the street quicker could cause that to happen,” he added.

In an interview earlier this month, however, Emminger highlighted the potential negative effect on the Tonawanda side of the boulevard, which is more residential and has more mom-and-pop businesses than the Amherst side of the thoroughfare.

Emminger said he told the NFTA nine years ago, and again two years ago, that the most direct and cost-effective route would run along Grover Cleveland and Millersport highways between the two campuses.

“They know our position, and they’re still going forward with this project going right down the middle of Niagara Falls Boulevard from Kenmore to Maple,” he said in the interview earlier this month. “And I just think it benefits Amherst far more than it does the Town of Tonawanda.”

When The News relayed these concerns to Minkel and other NFTA leaders at last week’s meeting, Chris Fahey, the agency’s director of consumer and governmental affairs, pushed across the table a printout of the 2018 News story with an Emminger quote highlighted.

“Supervisor Emminger, at that time, said, ‘I want it on Niagara Falls Boulevard,’” Minkel said.

She added, “I think in fairness to the supervisor, he’s concerned what it will do on property values,” but said an analysis shows new light-rail lines can boost property values along a route by 42%.

Study of Metro Rail extension to UB North Campus in Amherst in home stretch

An environmental study to extend Metro Rail to UB's North Campus in Amherst is expected to be completed in 2025. Construction could begin in 2028 if funding was in place, an official said.

Emminger, in an interview Monday, said he continues to believe the Tonawanda side of the boulevard needs stimulus but he’s not sure light rail is the best way to provide it.

“We’re totally different than Amherst,” he said. “It could benefit the Town of Tonawanda. I’ve never said it wasn’t going to benefit the Town of Tonawanda. I don’t think I ever said that. I think I said that it’s going to benefit Amherst more.”

Emminger said he continues to doubt how many Tonawanda residents will hop on a train on the boulevard to take it out to the UB North Campus or into Buffalo to the Medical Campus or another downtown stop.

But he said he learned recently a main reason the Grover Cleveland-Millersport route wasn’t selected is because it doesn’t directly link to the same number of retail and office destinations as the Niagara Falls Boulevard route. For that reason, Emminger conceded, the Grover Cleveland-Millersport route wouldn’t be rated as highly by the federal agency that makes the decision on which requests for public transit funding to approve.

“I understand why they’re doing it there,” Emminger said. “I still don’t think it’s a good idea.”

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