Vehicle safety, bike path access issues raised

Article and Photos by Karen Carr Keefe

Senior Contributing Writer

Much of the public comment at Monday’s Town Board meeting centered on safety concerns for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists on both the roads and bike paths on Grand Island.

Also, a public hearing drew favorable comments from residents on the town’s latest iteration of what has been informally referred to as “the warehouse” law. That public hearing remains open, pending further public comment and a review by the Erie County Department of Environment and Planning.

Bike path access

Jim Walters regularly bicycles across the north bridges to his landscaping jobs in Niagara County. Sometimes he brings his bike over on the bus, but he said there are days when there’s no room on the bus for another bike.

“We have no access to the bicycle path when they’re working on that bridge at the north side. I cannot get my equipment (across). … I do landscaping. I have a trailer behind the bike. … I came by there today and I ended up with two flat tires,” Walters said.

“Barely made it to work today. Tomorrow, I’m supposed to be taking the wagon back over the bridge. I’ve got to hire somebody now to go to help me. I shouldn’t have to do that when there’s a bicycle path that was built for us – not for them to blockade it. There is absolutely no access to ride off the north bridge at all.”

He said construction workers refused to move stones that are blocking the path.

“I asked them to move. They don’t want to move … so you ride over the stones, you get a flat tire,” he said. “I would like to see that bike path open as soon as possible because I’m not the only who rides a bike. My grandfather built those bicycle paths on the bridge. You guys must have built the paths going from the bridges, out.”

Walters also pointed out the bike path for the southbound South Bridge has been closed for four years: “That’s the one they should be working on – not the north bridge. The north bridge has nothing wrong with it.”

Walters also brought up the fact that he saw a downed Verizon wire on Stony Point Extension.

“That’s a power wire,” he told Supervisor Peter Marston, who said he would work to resolve the issue.

Marston also said he would send a message to New York state officials about bike path access.

Resident Nancy Killian commented, “When you contact them, please let them know that they are legally obligated to provide access to Grand Island for pedestrians. That’s in the enabling legislation – so it’s a law.”

Killian was referring to the 1929 state law creating the Niagara Frontier Bridge Commission that cited the right to access for vehicles and pedestrians – and by extension bicyclists – across the Grand Island bridges. The law enabled the building in 1935 of the bridges that would go from the Island to and from Tonawanda and Niagara Falls.

Signs at the foot of the Southbound South Grand Island Bridge note the route set for bicycle access to the bike path across the bridge, and illustrate that access from Grand Island is blocked by fencing.

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Vehicle safety at Baseline & Bedell

Rick Johnston’s concern was vehicle safety at Baseline and Bedell roads: “The Island is a land made up of single lane roads, often no sidewalks, and we have an epidemic here where we like to cross the white line and pass cars on the right.”

Johnston said he has worried for years that, if it isn’t stopped, somebody will get killed.

“We’ve got a real crisis here. People are passing on the right all the time and people are walking on the shoulders as the only place. I could see somebody coming down Baseline one day and turning on the right on the shoulder on Bedell and hitting somebody walking on Bedell towards Baseline.”

He suggested guardrails or a public awareness effort. Johnston suggested the issue be brought to the attention of the town and possibly referred to the town Traffic Safety Advisory Board.

Staley Road safety

Jim Daigler talked about Staley Road and the cost to fix it: “It’s a safety issue. It’s about the shoulders.”

He said he believes there has been a lack of routine maintenance and attention on Staley Road’s shoulders.

He said traffic hazards worsened with the expansion of the pharmaceutical companies at road’s end near the west branch of the Niagara River. Staley Road residents have, for years, expressed concerns that the heavy traffic makes it increasingly difficult for residents to safely walk, ride or drive down the road they live on.

Daigler said the cost of needed repairs had been cited in one report to be $9.7 million. He said an estimate from town Chief Engineer Robert Westfall in 2023 was closer to the right amount: $531,000 to fix the shoulders.

He termed as “incomplete” a town application to U.S. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand for $3.5 million in federal funds to fix Staley Road.

Daigler said that, after consulting with other knowledgeable people, he believes the entire Staley Road rehabilitation should cost no more than $1.7 million, including engineering, shoulder cut and fill, milling and full pavement, drainage and zone control.

“All I’m asking is this,” Daigler said. “It’s budget time. Can we take $550,000 … and get those shoulders on Staley Road in 2026?”

Amending zoning law

In the public hearing on the “warehouse law,” to amend zoning in M-1 and M-2 commercial zones, resident Cathy Rayhill recapped events since early 2021. That’s when the public first heard about the proposal to build a 4.2-million-square-foot warehouse.

“Over 2,000 Grand Island residents have raised their voices against building such massive structures and the huge negative environmental impacts that they pose for our community,” Rayhill said. She noted letters, protests and petitions ensued over the course of seeking a solution agreeable to residents, developers and county planners.

She said that, four years later, the Town Board still has not passed zoning reforms that would protect the community impacts of these structures.

She urged the Town Board to pass the current proposal that would set at 350,000 square feet the maximum size of warehouses and other large buildings allowable by special permit in M-1 and M-2 districts. The proposed law also would rule out distribution centers in the town’s commercially zoned districts.

“This version of the amended law would address most of the concerns cited by the county with the exception of distribution centers as allowable uses,” Rayhill said. “I think it is high time that this Town Board bring this proposed law to a vote, and I would hope that those who have campaigned on their support for such a change will have the courage to vote ‘yes’ on this newest version, even if Erie County Planning continues to reject it. They should not dictate how we govern our local community. Thousands of Grand Island residents have consistently voiced their support for this type of change for the last four years. Please make it so.”

Technical difficulties prevented one resident from addressing the proposed warehouse law via Zoom, which added to the Town Board’s reasons for keeping the public hearing open, likely until the July 7 Town Board meeting.