BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Only four people took advantage of the Buffalo Planning Board's comment session Monday when it came to the future of the old Freezer Queen building.
“The Buffalo Preservation Board found at their meeting last week that this building meets approximately seven of the nine criteria that they use for listing,” said Preservation Buffalo Executive Director Jessie Fisher.
Property owner Gerry Buchheit was ready to dismiss each argument.
"That's a concrete block building. I've been to other cities where things deserve to be preserved. That's bologna. It just is," Buchheit said.
Buchheit and his team also answered community members' questions about the environmental impact of his proposed 23-story apartment complex, but perhaps the largest resistance to the project is the Planning Board deciding how to act without a playbook when it comes to development on the Outer Harbor.
"ECHDC does not yet have an embraced, approved upon plan for the Outer Harbor. We don't have an LWRP, it needs to go to coastal review obviously for the restricted use permit from Common Council, we've got a green code that's floating out there that, if I am correct, could max out buildings at six stories for waterfront development," says Buffalo Planning Board Member Cynthia Schwartz.
But Buchheit says he shouldn't be expected to wait around for all of that to be put in place.
"Somebody's got to be the pioneer out there, and I'm sticking my neck out and moving forward to try to do something about the waterfront," Buchheit said.
There will be another public comment period Tuesday in front of the Buffalo Common Council. Buchheit will then have another proposal before the Planning Board on May 31. He says he remains confident that the project will meet his deadlines.
"We hope to demolish by middle summer and hope to be completed by the end of 2017," Buchheit said.