By Staff Reporter
BUFFALO — The Seneca Nation can keep building on Miami Street.
A New York state judge on Tuesday refused the City of Buffalo’s request to halt construction of the Nation’s $10 million Seneca One Stop development at 5 Miami Street, at the gateway to the Old First Ward, Spectrum News reported. The judge found the city had not shown enough immediate harm to justify stopping the work, and noted that the land carries federal restricted-fee status, according to Spectrum.
The ruling is the second time in a week a court has declined to stop the project. On Oct. 16, a federal judge sent the city’s first lawsuit back to state court and denied an emergency halt. Tuesday’s decision means the Nation’s crews can keep working while the larger legal questions are fought out.
For the Nation, the fight has never been about a gas station.
“For me, it comes down to our land and the Nation’s ability to do what it wants with its land,” Seneca Nation President J.C. Seneca said at an Oct. 1 press event across the street from the site, according to the Nation’s newsletter. “It’s about our sovereignty. It’s about our treaties. It’s about doing things on our land that’s best for our people. It’s not about building a gas station.”
How the land became Seneca land
The nearly four-acre parcel was placed in federal restricted-fee status by the U.S. Department of the Interior in 2023. That status means the Nation owns the land, but it is protected under federal law and not subject to city zoning or planning approvals.
The city did not object when the application was pending in 2022, under the previous city administration, Spectrum reported. The Nation has said it followed every procedural step and has pointed to a series of approvals from federal, state, county and city agencies, WBEN reported.
Mayor Sean Ryan’s administration is now trying to undo that. On Oct. 7 the city sued the Nation’s councillors in State Supreme Court; the next day it filed a federal lawsuit against the Interior Department challenging the 2023 decision itself. Deputy Corporation Counsel William Rossi called the federal approval a “rubber stamp,” WBEN reported.
“Our strategy is to halt what we see as a harmful process,” Corporation Counsel Rosa Alina Pizzi told WBEN. “There is a pretty narrow criteria and we don’t think the analysis was applied correctly.”
The city’s state lawsuit argues that site preparation “has already disturbed potentially contaminated soil and released soil and materials onto adjacent properties and into the Buffalo River,” Spectrum reported. It also argues the project would “reverse the trajectory of the neighborhood,” strain city infrastructure, burden Buffalo police and threaten environmental remediation, according to Spectrum.
What the Nation is building
Plans call for fueling stations, a convenience store, a small grocery, a food outlet and a Nativa cannabis dispensary, modeled on the Nation’s One Stop beside Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino in Niagara Falls, WBEN reported. The Nation expects at least 50 jobs, with an emphasis on hiring city and Old First Ward residents.
The Nation disputes the city’s description of the project as a truck stop. Its newsletter said the One Stop “has been mindfully designed by our developers and the neighborhood stakeholders.” Spectrum described it as a 28-bay truck stop and fuel depot; WBEN reported 24 fueling positions plus two for diesel-only vehicles.
Mr. Seneca said he invited the mayor to talk before the city went to court. Instead, a city inspector posted a stop-work order at the site, followed a day later by the lawsuit.
“The City, and especially the Mayor, simply do not get it. That land is Seneca Nation land – now and forever,” Mr. Seneca said in an Oct. 7 statement reported by WBEN. “Rather than dialogue, the Mayor wants to continue his public charade and attacks against our sovereignty.”
A call for talks, not lawsuits
Not every voice in the dispute is pushing for a fight to the finish. Braiden McElhaney, a Seneca citizen and Erie County Democratic Committee member, said he understood neighbors’ concerns but disagreed with the decision to resolve them through litigation.
“I believe this approach risks further straining the relationship between the City and the Seneca Nation at a time when constructive government-to-government dialogue is especially important,” Mr. McElhaney said, according to WBEN. “The sovereignty of the Seneca Nation must be respected throughout this process.”
That relationship is already strained on several fronts. Nearly three years of Seneca casino payments sit in escrow as the Nation and the state work toward a new compact, and the Nation has backed a bill from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand that would let Washington and the Nation end New York’s criminal jurisdiction on Seneca land.
What comes next
Tuesday’s ruling does not end the case. It decides only that construction can continue while the lawsuits proceed. The city’s federal challenge to the Interior Department’s 2023 decision is the more consequential case, because it targets the land’s status rather than the project.
That challenge could face a steep climb. Restricted-fee decisions are federal acts, and the city did not contest this one when it was made. Mayor Ryan’s administration will have to explain to a federal court why a decision the city let pass in 2022 should be reopened now, after the Nation has relied on it and started building.
For the Nation, the stakes run deeper than one corner of the First Ward. The question it has put to City Hall is whether land the federal government recognized as Seneca land stays Seneca land when a new administration objects to what the Nation plans to build there.
The Buffalo Chronicle is seeking comment from the Seneca Nation and the mayor’s office on the ruling and will update this story with any response.
Leave a Reply