Bi-National Tourism Plan For Niagara Falls Proposed By UB Planners

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- University at Buffalo graduate students in the School of Architecture and Planning will present recommendations today (Wednesday, April 26) for the development of a bi-national tourism plan for the Niagara Falls region to a group of 15 Canadian and American business persons and government officials on whose behalf they conducted the project.

Among the proposals is the development of a bi-national "Niagara Park, North America" that would be jointly operated by the Province of Ontario and the State of New York. It would consist of the present Niagara Reservation operated by the New York State Department of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation, and portions of Ontario's Niagara Region Park System adjacent to Niagara Falls.

The press is invited to attend the presentation from 2-4 p.m. in 108 Hayes Hall on the UB South (Main Street) Campus.

Photos, overhead projections and charts will be used in the presentation and photographs will be available to the press.

The project was conducted by 11 graduate students in planning under the direction of Ernest Sternberg, assistant professor of planning and design. The interested business-government parties convened at the request of the Canadian Consulate in Buffalo to serve as a bi-national advisory board. The consulate also will help fund the publication of the project report.

Among the recommendations made by the students is the elimination of automobile traffic and the landscaping of the area to make it a more interesting and challenging tourist experience. Other recommendations include the eventual closing of the Rainbow Bridge to automobile traffic, creating, instead, a pedestrian link between the two sides of the park.

Students expect that such a project is going to be particularly feasible in the near future if the proposed North American customs union proposed by President Clinton during his recent visit to Canada come to fruition.

Sternberg adds that the Niagara River Treaty will be renegotiated within the next five years, offering another window of opportunity.

"Although the treaty is principally devoted to the issue of the diversion of water for hydroelectric power," he says, "Other elements may be introduced into the negotiations by either party. Certainly a bi-national park is one such possibility.

"There are other things are going on in the background that might favor its development, as well," adds Sternberg. "I understand that Bernadette Castro, the new state commissioner of parks, has a strong interest in making the state parks more business-oriented. Although that might be problematic in some contexts, in this case such an approach could be very appropriate."

Last fall, planning students of Sternberg and former state Sen. John Sheffer, now a UB senior fellow, developed a similar project at the request of the New York State Center for Hazardous Waste Management.

That study proposed methods by which to increase economic development in Western New York by improving production efficiency in manufacturing to the extent that pollution is decreased.

"Usually," says Sternberg, "this issue is dealt with by presuming antagonism between environmentalists and industries that pollute. We instead assumed -- correctly --- that the same kind of technology that makes for efficient manufacturing, many computer technologies, for example, can also reduce pollution.

"We found that in a significant number of cases there is a coincidence of interest between effective pollution control and competitive business practice," Sternberg adds. "The project report was published and distributed widely, exciting considerable interest among environmental agencies and businesses in New York and Pennsylvania and John Sheffer has been working to facilitate adoption of proposals by the State of New York."