A judge of the Supreme Court of New York ordered the suspension of the 1 billion USD Kensington Expressway project in Buffalo because the State Department of Transportation (Nysdot) did not carry out any environmental impact declaration.
The project is to cover part of the Kensington Expressway below the class, which carries the Route 33 through East Buffalo and produces a tunnel and 11 hectares of park at the top.
However, around 100 local and state groups reject the project because it would increase air pollution at the entrances of the tunnels and disrupt asbestos containing asbestos at the location.
Several complaints submitted to force Nysdot and the Federal Highway Administration to submit an ice cream in line with the New York state environmental quality review Act (SEQRA).
Some groups are calling for the removal of the Expressway because in 1958 it was the majority of black quarters. You would like to restore the former Humboldt Parkway, a boulevard lined with trees that connected two parks in the district before the Expressway.
“I can't build a Tim Hortons”
After hearing the case, judge Emilio Colaiacovo decided on February 7 that the project was suspended until SEQRA is observed and created an ice cream.
“The ice is the only instrument that provides a fair and impartial analysis of all significant environmental impact, completely evaluate all alternatives and alleviate all possible effects that will occur,” wrote Colaiacovo.
“As the court found during oral argument, you cannot build Tim Hortons in West -New York without having an ice cream and have the right SEQRA classification. Why the state thought it could simply entertain a project of this size and not what else it ordered remains a mystery. “
The judge added: “Based on the records before this court, this project cannot have any negative effects on the community concerned.
“Otherwise, simply overlook the unrestricted facts in the files before this court. In view of the undisputed potential negative health effects, which result from greenhouse emissions, traffic, blowing and other associated effects in connection with strong industrial structure, the respondents have wrongly failed to carry out ice cream. “
The New York Civil Liberties Union was one of the groups that sued.
On the decision, the director of the racial equity center Lanessa Owens-Chaplin said: “Today's decision by the court is an important victory for the Humboldt Park quarter, which mostly lives near the project location. It sends a loud and clear message that this community should not be treated as subsequently by the Nysdot and the Federal Highway Administration. “
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