BUFFALO, N.Y. — The Humboldt Parkway couple that is suing the New York State Department of Transportation over the $1 billion Kensington Expressway Project had their first day in court Wednesday.
The hearing took only a matter of minutes, and a new hearing was scheduled for March 7 at 10 a.m.
Erie County Supreme Court Judge Daniel Furlong granted a request made by the state's attorney to give more time to file their reply to the plaintiffs' response to a motion to dismiss the case.
According to the state's attorney, those documents were filed the night before Wednesday's scheduled hearing by plaintiffs Marcia Ladiana and Terrence Robinson.
Ladiana and Robinson, along with the East Side Parkways Coalition, have expressed concerns that the DOT is downplaying the environmental impacts of the approved plan to cap and tunnel the Buffalo expressway.
They claim that the NYSDOT has tried to circumnavigate its own environmental legal process called SEQR, or the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which they contend would show an increase in pollution levels at each end of the tunnel.
"What we want in regards to this project is an honest review according to New York State law. We have not gotten into the question of the final determinations but inevitably [we believe] no the tunnel will not be built because it is a bad design, it's a bad policy, it's a bad execution," said Robinson following Wednesday's hearing.
The NYSDOT and Federal Highway Administration (FHA) found the cap and tunnel plan would have no significant adverse environmental impact.
Robinson and Ladiana's lawsuit challenges that assessment and both believe if further review was conducted the current cap and tunnel plan could not move forward and a different plan would be required.
The Eastside Parkways Coalition supports restoring the Humboldt Parkway in its entirety and filling in the expressway altogether.