Peace Bridge Plaza Gets a Step Closer

(Buffalo News – Jerry Zremski)

Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has decided against reopening negotiations with Canada over the possibility of moving the Peace Bridge truck plaza from Buffalo to Fort Erie. Napolitano’s decision, spelled out in a letter to local lawmakers, clears a key potential obstacle to construction of a huge and controversial truck plaza in a historic neighborhood on Buffalo’s West Side.

In the letter, Napolitano said “significant legal and sovereignty issues” stood in the way of building the plaza in Canada, while other improvements at the border crossing would solve congestion problems there long before the plaza could ever be moved.

“Implementing the proposed land preclearance framework would have required the United States to accept a lower level of security at a land preclearance crossing than at any other U.S. port of entry or required Canada to accept actions contrary to its Charter of Rights and Freedoms,” Napolitano said in the August 20 letter to Reps. Brian Higgins, D-Buffalo, and Chris Lee, R-Clarence. Read more here.