BUFFALO (WBEN) - Monday evening, roughly 40 people from various environmentalist groups gathered at the Outer Harbor to hold a “prayer vigil of protection" and again called on the Buffalo Common Council to deny the special use permit requested by ECHDC for an amphitheater.
Last month, the Buffalo Planning Board approved plans to turn the former Terminal B site at the Outer Harbor into a concert and entertainment venue.
The Erie Canal Harbor Development Corporation plans to rehabilitate the 100,000-square-foot building after it has sat vacant for more than a decade. Plans include a space for large-scale events and programming, as well as storage, offices, and public restrooms.
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"We're here today in our concern that the use of this piece of property not be for some commercial event because we have a lot of that already, and the community, which is larger than the City of Buffalo...that they might have a place that is just nature," said Rev. Merle Showers, who is also a member of the Interfaith Climate Justice Community.
These environmentalists aren't alone in their staunch opposition to the amphitheater. Some local officials, most notably State Senator Sean Ryan, has several times called on the ECHDC to reconsider the development.
"We need to give the public a real chance for input and allow the public to vet these plans," said Ryan back in early July. "The amphitheater project will cost $10 million of public money, taxpayer money.
"It will divert business from other venues - it's not good economic development," he continued. "More important than that, it's not what the public is looking for out here - the public has been very clear about what they want out here, and they want a park-like atmosphere. Nobody would dream of putting an 8,000-person amphitheater at Chestnut Ridge Park."
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"Interfaith Climate Justice, which includes Christians, Buddhists, Hindus, Native American, Muslim, and Jewish faiths, we're all concerned with this land being used in a way that brings honor to our faith and not just profit-oriented or business in some other way," Showers added. "I'm from the Christian faith, and throughout the Bible...it's talking about nature - what God gave to us and how we're supposed to protect, how we're supposed to be good stewards of the things that God has given to us to use, so we need to begin to do that as opposed to what we have done in the past."
"The ecologically significant coastal buffer provided by the Outer Harbor should not be further compromised by an inappropriate, non-water dependent development like the amphitheater project," added John Whitney of the Western New York Environmental Alliance. "This project will impact much beyond its place. What about traffic and parking impacts? What about the economic and social justice impacts? What about the impacts on other existing music venues in the region? What about runoff impacts? What about impacts on migratory and resident wildlife? These kinds of questions should have been address in an EIS with opportunities for thorough public input."
