Change Buffalo PAC Committee Report | October 17, 2026
The Situation
The future of the Kensington Expressway (NY Route 33), and with it the chance to restore Frederick Law Olmsted’s Humboldt Parkway, is back at the starting line.
Between 2022 and 2024, the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) studied a plan to rebuild Route 33 between Dodge and Sidney streets as a six-lane tunnel covered by a tree-lined parkway. That project was challenged in State Supreme Court in Erie County, and NYSDOT was directed to prepare a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (NYSDOT Queen City Forward).
NYSDOT’s response is Queen City Forward, a restarted process it describes as “a fresh look at all options.” Key points from the project website:
- All options are on the table, and the new project “is not limited to options considered in previous studies.” Project limits may extend to a larger portion of Route 33.
- A traffic study will examine a potential “fill-in” option, including where traffic would be rerouted and the effects of that rerouting.
- Timeline: NYSDOT estimates about one year of preparation and outreach before filing a Notice of Intent, then a Record of Decision about two years later.
- Scajaquada: Because of the Route 33 EIS, a study of the Scajaquada Expressway corridor did not begin in 2025 as planned. NYSDOT says it remains “a potential future project.”
When NYSDOT announced the reset in September 2025, a department official said federal law requires starting from the beginning and that the EIS “will likely take up to three or more years of work to complete before construction can even begin.” He also described an in-depth analysis of where the corridor’s roughly 75,000 daily vehicles would go under a fill-in, and said the Kensington is the department’s priority ahead of the Scajaquada (WBEN). Since then, NYSDOT has held a series of public listening sessions, with more “to be posted as scheduled” (NYSDOT).
What It Means for the Change Buffalo Agenda
This is a real opening. For years the debate was framed as a single design. Now NYSDOT has committed to studying all options, including a fill-in. That makes room for the outcome we advocate in our Restore Humboldt Parkway campaign and our Humboldt Parkway plan: a restored, tree-lined, at-grade boulevard that reconnects East Side neighborhoods, paired with new homes on nearby vacant lots.
What matters most is the scope. An EIS can only choose among the alternatives it seriously studies. The decisive step is NYSDOT’s purpose-and-need statement and formal scope. If a full fill-in alternative is studied thoroughly, covering traffic, air quality, neighborhood investment and cost, the public will get a fair comparison. If it is treated as a sideline, the outcome will be narrower. Our regional agenda argues for turning urban highways back into city streets where it makes sense, and our Citizen Power page calls for exactly this kind of early, real public participation.
The Scajaquada is now linked. NYSDOT has said the Scajaquada study waits behind Route 33. Every year of delay on the Kensington is a year of delay for Reconnect Delaware Park and our Scajaquada plan. A well-run, timely Route 33 process is in the interest of both corridors.
Predictability is the long-term lesson. Starting over after years of study leaves residents and property owners waiting longer for an answer. The Regional Corridor and Waterfront Compact we propose would set firm decision deadlines and public participation from the start for projects like this.
What Members Can Do
- Submit a comment through the Queen City Forward website and sign up there for email updates. Ask that a full fill-in alternative be included in the formal EIS scope, studied with the same depth as any other option.
- Visit or contact the outreach office: Queen City Forward Outreach Office, 630 Humboldt Parkway, Buffalo; open Wednesday through Friday, noon to 4 p.m.; (716) 370-0071; QueenCityForward@dot.ny.gov (NYSDOT).
- Attend the next listening session. NYSDOT says more sessions will be posted; check the project site and bring neighbors.
- Speak for both parks. In your comments, ask NYSDOT to keep the Scajaquada corridor study on a defined schedule once the Route 33 scope is set.
- Get organized. Join our Neighborhood Captains on the East Side or along the Scajaquada, sign up through our Get Involved page, or contact us for campaign talking points.
