Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan wants the Seneca Nation to stop building a gas station near Ohio and Miami streets. The Seneca Nation says it has the right to develop the property without the city’s permission.
That disagreement is quickly becoming a larger fight over land, sovereignty and the limits of municipal authority in Buffalo.
The dispute centers on a Seneca One Stop project at 5 Miami St., in the Old First Ward near the Ohio Street corridor. The city says construction began without its approval and has demanded that work stop. Seneca leaders say the property is Seneca land and that the Nation’s authority over it was recognized through the federal process.
What the city is arguing
Ryan’s administration says the proposed project conflicts with Buffalo’s plans for the waterfront and with prior agreements between the city and the Seneca Nation.
In a Sept. 28 announcement, the city said construction crews had fenced off the property and started preparing the site for a 28-bay gas and diesel-fuel depot. The city also said it had not approved the project.
Buffalo Corporation Counsel Rosa Alina Pizzi challenged the Nation’s position that the property is outside city jurisdiction. The city’s argument is based partly on the Seneca Nation Settlement Act and partly on a 2006 agreement involving the city and the Nation.
Ryan has described the dispute as a property and jurisdictional matter. He has also objected to the project on planning grounds, saying Buffalo has spent years trying to transform Ohio Street from an industrial roadway into a waterfront neighborhood with housing, businesses, walking and biking infrastructure, and recreational destinations.
Fillmore District Council Member Mitch Nowakowski has also opposed the project, saying a large fuel facility does not fit the direction of the surrounding neighborhood.
What the Seneca Nation is arguing
Seneca Nation President J.C. Seneca has said the Nation will continue the project. The Nation’s position is that the Miami Street property qualifies as restricted-fee land under the federal settlement framework and is therefore not subject to the city’s ordinary land-use control.
The U.S. Department of the Interior previously determined that the Nation had met the requirements of the Settlement Act for the parcel, according to reporting by Buffalo Toronto Public Media. The department’s determination followed a review that included notice to local, county and state officials.
City tax records have also identified the property as an Indian reservation and treated it as nontaxable, according to that report. Ryan has said the city is reviewing the federal determination and has not accepted the Nation’s interpretation of the property’s legal status.
For the Seneca Nation, the issue is not simply whether Buffalo officials like the design or location of the project. Nation leaders have framed the dispute as a question of whether the city can control development on land the Nation says it owns and governs.
A dispute headed toward court
The city has demanded that construction stop and has questioned whether the Nation’s development plans comply with the gaming compact and previous agreements. The Seneca Nation has rejected the city’s demand and says construction will move forward.
That leaves the central question unresolved: whether the city has legal authority over the site, and whether the federal government’s restricted-fee determination settles that question.
The project also raises a separate planning debate. Even if the Seneca Nation ultimately prevails on jurisdiction, residents and city officials can still argue that a gas station and fuel depot are a poor fit for a corridor Buffalo has marketed for residential, commercial and waterfront redevelopment.
But opposition to the project’s design or location is not the same as legal authority over the land. The city’s case will have to establish more than that the project conflicts with Buffalo’s vision for the neighborhood. It will have to overcome the Nation’s claim of sovereignty and the federal determination supporting its property status.
For now, work at the site and the public dispute continue. The next major step is likely to come through negotiations or litigation, where the competing claims over Buffalo’s authority and Seneca sovereignty can be formally tested.
