November 23, 2008 - 5:00 AM | Comment
It was a new and controversial zoning concept when first introduced by New York City in 1961.
Provide incentives for private developers to build public amenities in exchange for the right to construct buildings that are taller than would normally be approved.
In the decades that followed, plazas, enclosed atriums and other public goods were paid for throughout Manhattan by developers who wanted to exceed height limits.
Modified versions of the bonus system have since been adopted in other cities across the country.
Now, Niagara Falls is considering taking a crack at incentive zoning.
A proposal to rewrite the city's comprehensive plan and zoning ordinances includes provisions that would create a tiered system of downtown building heights, with bonuses given to developers who add certain public amenities.
It would work like this: Add an underground parking lot, you can build taller. Add a public plaza with trees and a water feature, you can add even more stories to your building.
Critics of the plan say any downtown building restrictions are a bad idea in neighborhoods already desperate for development. Proponents believe the tiered bonus system will help guide the right type of development in downtown Niagara Falls.
You can read both the comprehensive plan and the proposed zoning ordinances on the city's Web site at www.niagarafallsusa.org.
Incentive zoning led to the development of more public amenities in New York City and in other large cities because developers wanted to build skyscrapers. In Niagara Falls, Ont., incentive zoning has helped pay for a new arena and other projects.
But can it work in Niagara Falls, USA?
- Denise Jewell Gee
November 16, 2008 - 5:00 AM | Comment
Joseph M. Anderson may face the prospect of federal prison time when he is sentenced next year to giving former Mayor Vince Anello $40,000 worth of no-interest loans the mayor was never asked to pay back.
Federal prosecutors say the "loans" violated the public's right to honest government because neither he nor Anello told City Council members about them when Anderson had business before the city.
That hasn't been the case since word of the loans first surfaced in the spring of May 2005. City and state leaders have continued to work with Anderson on tourism-related deals since, and Anderson tells The News Niagara Bureau he aims to continue his business pursuits despite his recent plea bargain.
"No matter what happens to me or in the court or anything, I'm still pro-Niagara Falls," the entrepreneur behind the Smokin' Joe's gasoline and cigarette outlets said. "I still want to build a Native American city. I still want a major, major attraction year-round, and a successful city, bring it back to being a thriving city."
City records show that companies registered to Anderson's Saunders Settlement Road business address on the Tuscarora Indian Nation own more than 20 properties in the downtown commercial area. Many of the properties are vacant, but the real estate holdings also include two hotels, a nightclub and a Third Street office building.
Anderson also is rapidly moving forward with a plan to build a synthetic ice rink and snow tubing hill on a prime Falls property two blocks from the Rainbow Bridge.
He also owns the former Wintergarden arboretum and is in the process of selling the glass-and-metal building and a lease for the adjacent East Pedestrian Mall to a state agency, USA Niagara Development Corp., for $1.6 million.
Anderson has had limited success in the city, but he also has built a reputation as one of only a few downtown landowners willing to invest in projects in a landscape of empty buildings and vacant properties.
It ought to be interesting to see how he newest deals pan out.
November 9, 2008 - 5:00 AM | Comment
Former Speaker of the House Thomas "Tip" O'Neill is famous for the line, "All politics is local."
Many Niagara County voters proved it last week when they voted for Niagara County sheriff. Some GOP-dominated municipalities, including Wilson and Lockport, went for the winner, Democrat James R. Voutour, who won the race with about 52 percent of the vote.
Republican Ernest C. Palmer, the Niagara Falls chief of detectives, carried the heavily Democratic Falls, as well as Lewiston, where he lives and enrollment is fairly evenly split.
"Palmer works in the Falls," Democratic Election Commissioner Nancy L. Smith said.
"Voutour's from this [eastern] end of the county. He has Wilson ties, his wife works in Barker."
"In Niagara County politics, people sharpen their elbows and it gets a little rough, but the
fact is, these are two gentlemen who for the most part conducted themselves well. I thought it
was very refreshing," County Democratic Party Chairman Daniel Rivera said.
County Legislature Chairman William L. Ross agreed. He said at Wednesday's Legislature meeting, which Voutour attended, "That race will go down in Niagara County history as the fairest and best race ever."
What do you make of the close finish. Who did you vote for, and why?
November 8, 2008 - 5:46 PM | Comment
Mike Kurilovitch tells us in his restaurant review today that some things just don't fit in with their surroundings, and that Wine on Third might be among them.
The point he looks to make: “Luxury dining smack dab in the heart of the bar - I mean, entertainment - district? Was there no place else available?"
The state has plowed hundreds of thousands of dollars into Third Street during the fast few years, but some early morning bar fights and slow development of several vacant storefronts still give the nightlife district an uneven feel.
Kurilovitch tells readers that Wine on Third is just the kind of place the Falls sorely lacks and desperately needs, a classy place that serves upscale dishes like soy-chili glazed steak skewers, wine ice cream, and sauteed shrimp with aioli sauce.
Maybe this is just the kind of place Third Street needs more of. What do you think? And while we’re at it, how can Third Street and the entire downtown restaurant scene be improved?
November 6, 2008 - 5:49 PM | Comment
Marcy L. Cole, a Lockport fourth-grade teacher, was arrested four times in 14 months for drunken driving. She repeatedly kept driving drunk despite a revoked license. She lost her teaching job for being drunk in class Jan. 8.
The record shows Cole, 35, drove drunk at 90 mph last October, with a friend's 10-year-old daughter as a passenger. She repeatedly drove despite license revocations and refused to take a breath test all four times she was arrested for DWI.
One breath test she didn't refuse, shortly before her guilty plea in September, was administered by a probation officer who visited her home as part of a pretrial services program. Cole denied she had been drinking, but the .16 percent Breathalyzer reading, the three empty rum bottles, the empty bottle of hard lemonade and the empty beer can tended to bring the denial into question.
So did her arrest for being drunk and disorderly later the same day on a Gasport street.
Her bail was revoked and shortly thereafter, she pleaded guilty to two felony counts of driving while intoxicated to settle the various charges against her.
Today, Cole said she has a new attitude and will take treatment seriously. The judge said she has her doubts. Meanwhile, Cole's lawyer said she's received "hundreds of cards and letters" of support from strangers, including two from employers willing to hire her, although not as a teacher; the attorney wouldn't give details.
This morning, Cole was sentenced by Niagara County Judge Sara Sheldon Sperrazza to one to three years in state prison; she could have received a total of two and two-thirds to eight years for the two felonies. The probation officer recommended five years' probation with a six-month local jail term.
You be the judge.
- Thomas J. Prohaska
November 6, 2008 - 5:00 AM | Comment
Some of the conversations at the dinner table - or at least in the local restaurants and taverns - must have been pretty interesting across Niagara County in recent weeks as the presidential election neared.
That was evident when the dust cleared late Tuesday and the final results came in from the county's voting machines. Barack Obama had beaten John McCain by 357 votes, out of 87,853 cast for the two men in the race.
There are still about 5,000 absentee votes to be counted, so Obama's lead in Niagara County isn't all that safe.
Eat your heart out Florida - although in this case, Obama won't be losing any sleep, what with his margin of victory nationwide in the Electoral College.
Still, what a close race in Niagara.
There are 55,590 registered Democrats in the county and 44,439 Republicans. There are 8,327 voters registered in other parties or in no party at all.
With that in mind, are the Niagara County results surprising?
Who did you vote for, and why?
- Niagara County Bureau Chief Scott Scanlon
November 2, 2008 - 5:00 AM | Comment
Tuesday's election is supposed to be the farewell to the old lever-operated voting machines in Niagara County, and indeed across all of New York State.
New York is the last state in the nation to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act, which was supposed to prevent fiascos such as the Florida recount in the 2000 presidential election. Starting next year, New York elections are supposed to use all paper ballots, which will be scanned by a machine installed at each polling place. The machines, which also have special screen and audio functions for disabled voters who don't want to vote absentee, will be on hand at all polling places Tuesday, although they will be used only by the disabled. The county spent $1.4 million to buy 125 of them.
Because of the extra space needed for these scanners, and for tables and partitions to be set up to maintain privacy while people fill out their paper ballots, Niagara County has abandoned many of its longtime polling places, moving as many as possible to fire halls and other large buildings. The Board of Elections decided on a two-year process, so the moves in the 12 towns were made this year, while next year the city polling sites will be altered.
The purpose of paper ballots is so that the most accurate possible recount can be carried out. A recount of a machine vote merely tries to correspond the total votes reported to the number of people who showed up to vote. There's no way to really determine if every single vote was tabulated correctly by a lever machine.
Meanwhile, some people in the towns have been complaining about the new polling sites, saying they might have to drive as far as five or six extra miles to vote. The Board of Elections made changes after the primary, relocated polling sites in Lewiston, Royalton and Wheatfield. There's no doubt some people who didn't take note of the postcard they received in the mail will go to the wrong place Tuesday.
Is it worthwhile to change the traditional election process? Would you rather pull a lever or fill in a paper ballot?
- Thomas J. Prohaska
