Resident group files lawsuit to stop Kensington project in Buffalo

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A group of residents living near the Kensington Expressway has filed a lawsuit against the state of New York in hopes of stopping plans to plug a section of the highway and transform it into a tunnel.

The New York State Department of Transportation plans to spend $1 billion or more to cover just three-quarters of a mile of the highway and plant grass and trees on top of what would be a covered section of a currently underground section of the limited access highway.

The East Side Parkways Coalition is represented by Adam Walters of Phillips Lytle LLP.

“The suit seeks to require that DOT prepare an environmental impact statement first and foremost. If they do an environmental impact statement, one of the things they have to do is look at alternatives,” said Walters at WGRZ-TV.

The alternative residents demand in their lawsuit not only the removal of the tunnel, but also the complete elimination of the Kensington and the restoration by the state of Humboldt Parkway to the way it was before the highway was built 60 years ago, as the lawsuit notes, connect downtown Buffalo to the Cheektowaga Airport.

In the past, the DOT has rejected the idea of ​​removing the highway altogether, considering it impractical given that it is used by 75,000 vehicles daily.

“But would it be the end of the world if the Kensington didn’t run through downtown? » Walters asked. “When they built it, they thought Buffalo would have a population of a million people, and so the idea that it has to stay forever is just silly.”

The suit also claims the highway was built illegally in the first place, without state legislative approval to remove public parks, and is now a violation of the state’s Green Amendment which states that everyone has the civil right to purify air and water. and a healthy environment.

“It’s hard to do that with a highway running through your backyard,” Walters said.

The suit further claims that residents of nearby neighborhoods suffered deleterious health effects from the pollution, which caused “a frightening scale of illness” among them.