Wheatfield’s ambitions to turn a former dumping site into a new public park have some more clarity.
The town is requesting $203,800 from the Niagara River Greenway toward construction costs of the planned 2020 River Road Trailhead project. The work would aim to turn the 4.59-acre parcel, the only municipally owned property that reaches the Niagara River, into a new park connected to the greater Niagara River Shoreline Trail.
“The project combines habitat restoration, climate-adaptive design, and nature-based shoreline improvements with exceptional recreational, educational, and scenic opportunities,” greenway documentation states.
Among the proposed amenities are a 200-foot-long fishing and observation platform, a shoreline trail kiosk, wayfinding signage, bicycle parking, and seating.
The entire development would cost $1.77 million, with other funding sources, including a pending $650,000 State Community Resilience and Flood Risk Reduction grant, a $425,000 EPA Brownfields Cleanup grant, and a $491,900 Local Waterfront Revitalization Program grant. The town approved its application to the greenway commission in July. Town Supervisor Don MacSwan previously told the Gazette that the project is dependent on getting the grants, some of which will not be awarded until next year.
The land was a former illegal dumping ground near the former 102 Street and Brzezinski landfills, where DEC documents stated industrial wastes like ash, cinders, firebrick, coal, and foundry sand were found. Other environmental testing found arsenic, lead, mercury, and beryllium at the site, with MacSwan also saying people have dumped concrete, blacktop, and oil too.
Plans to turn the area into a park date back to at least 2007, as a lack of funding and potential contamination from nearby areas has long put the project on hold.
Depending on whether Wheatfield is awarded the other grants next year, it will have a consultant team carry out the final design work and bid packaging throughout 2027 and 2028. After awarding the bid in late 2028, construction is eyed for spring 2029 and an opening the following fall, after which the town would maintain it.
This development has the written support of the Niagara County Legislature, the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council, Destination Niagara, State Representative Angelo Morinello, State Senator Rob Ortt, and U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer, among others.