BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The New York State Department of Transportation held its final public meeting Tuesday night, with updates to its plans to make the Scajaquada more bike and pedestrian friendly, and also making it more aesthetically pleasing as it reconnects Delaware Park.

DOT Public Information Officer Susan Surdej says there were two main design changes made following the last public meeting in January. 

"A lot of comments we received wanted to see a narrower median. We were proposing a 12-foot median that was landscaped, and overwhelming comments wanted a more narrow median, so now you're going to see medians about 4 foot in width, and not with a landscape, but more of a meadow," Surdej said.

There will also be increased amenities for bicyclists and pedestrians, including five-foot shoulders and signalized intersections. The DOT boasts a combined 56 public meetings with residents and stakeholders during this process.

One of those stakeholders, the Buffalo Parks Conservancy, isn't happy with the latest iteration, which rejected their request to re-district the stone bridge over Delaware Avenue for bike and pedestrian traffic.

"The park was separated in the 1950s with the highway, and there is a way, there is a design solution that could heal the park and bring it back together so that pedestrians, bikers, everyone can safely get from the lake to the meadow," said Stephanie Crockatt, Buffalo Parks Conservancy executive director.

One resident agreed with the Conservancy, saying the DOT's plans are based too much on traffic flow.

"The main motivator has to be how do we highlight this incredible park system that we've got and the incredible beauty that the Scajaquada Creek can give to us in a restored Delaware Park," said Fr. Jud Weiksnar.

Isabelle Fritz has been to every public hearing. She says the DOT has an unenviable task, and that they've largely done a good job.

"I've seen changes, I think there's a lot of things they have to balance, so I think when you go too far one way or another, people are going to be unhappy for things they want, but I think they've tried to consider all possibilities from what I've seen," Fritz said.

Any additional comments the community would like to submit are due by August 22nd.

The DOT is hoping to have the final design approved in January 2018.

If that happens, the bidding process will begin in May, with construction beginning in early fall.