Would a wider I-81 fit between downtown Syracuse buildings? | syracuse.comhttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/would_a_wider_i-81_f... IN YOUR COMMUNITY: JOBS AUTOS REAL ESTATE RENTALS CLASSIFIEDS OBITUARIES FIND&SAVE PLACE AN AD LOCAL BUSINESSES Sign in | Join Set Weather brought to NEWS BUSINESS SPORTS H.S. SPORTS ENTERTAINMENT LIVINGyou by: Business Crime Lottery Obits Opinion Politics The Post-Standard Special Reports State U.S. & World More News Sponsored By: (h /RealMedia/ads/click_lx.a /news/2013/06/would_a_ /L21/1983396069/SecSp /OCRRA06_SY_News_S /RES-0000_RFTR_Sprin /526346753646454f6961 (Gallery by Michelle Gabel | [email protected]) Print (http://blog.syracuse.com/news/print.html?entry=/2013/06/would_a_wider_i-81_fit_in_its.html) (http://connect.syracuse.com/user/teweaver/index.html) By Teri Weaver | (http://ads.syracuse.com [email protected] (http://connect.syracuse.com/user/teweaver/posts.html) /www.syracuse.com/new Follow on Twitter (http://twitter.com/TeriKWeaver) 81_fit_in_its.html/L21/17 on June 09, 2013 at 2:00 AM, updated June 09, 2013 at 12:01 PM /SYRACUSEONLINE/Pri /0609_300x250CTVTSY 1 of 26 6/12/2013 11:14 AM Would a wider I-81 fit between downtown Syracuse buildings? | syracuse.comhttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/would_a_wider_i-81_f... /526346753646454f6961 Syracuse, N.Y. -- New York's decision on the future of Interstate 81 in Syracuse won't just affect the highway and motorists. CNY lawmakers ask DOT commish to It could affect the stores, medical centers, rethink options for I-81 (http://www.syracuse.com apartment buildings and hotel that the elevated /news/index.ssf/2013/06 highway brushes past as it snakes through /cny_lawmakers_ask_dot_commish.h Syracuse. Dan Maffei's opinion on I-81 is just as I-81's pathway through Syracuse does not meet valid as editorial board's: Your letters (http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion current state and federal highway requirements /2013/06/dan_maffeis_opinion_on_i- (http://photos.syracu because, among other reasons, its shoulders and 81_is.html) /2013/06 median are too narrow. /su_basketball_acad Four things you can count on in SU Basketball A If the highway is rebuilt - or replaced with a Syracuse: Your letters (http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion volunteer at Th six-lane, street-level boulevard - it may require a /2013/06 (http://photos.s wider footprint, state and local officials say. /four_things_you_can_count_on_i.htm standard/2013/ /su_basketball "It's an assumption based on facts that the Would a wider I-81 fit between downtown Syracuse buildings? current viaduct doesn't meet current standards," See All Photo Galleri (http://www.syracuse.com said James D'Agostino, director of the Syracuse (http://photos.syracu /news/index.ssf/2013/06 /index.html) Metropolitan Transportation Council. /would_a_wider_i-81_fit_in_its.html) Syracuse and CNY P (http://photos.syracu That could bring I-81 even closer to the Toomey Interstate 81: Maffei's questions /syracusecom_photo about the project off target Abbott Towers, Syracuse University's steam Videos by The Post- (http://blog.syracuse.com/opinion station, Hutchings Psychiatric Center, the (http://videos.syracus /2013/06 /index.html) Crowne Plaza Hotel, Smith Restaurant Supply, /interstate_81_maffeis_question.html) the offices of VIP Structures, and Upstate Medical University's new cancer center - which is All Stories (http://topics.syracuse.com still being built. /tag/Interstate 81/posts.htm l) | All More News Top Photos (http://topics.syracuse.com It's too soon to say which, if any, structure might /tag/Interstate 81/photos.htm l) | All Videos be at risk, officials say. In fact, a top facilities (http://topics.syracuse.com Sean official for Upstate Medical University says he /tag/Interstate 81/videos.htm l) latest believes a wider elevated highway could fit in (http://w w w .s /RealMedia/ads/click_lx.ads/www.syracuse.com/news/2013/06/would_a_wider_i-81_fit_in_its.html/1114176053/StoryAd/SYRACUSEONLINE/default/empty.gif/526346753646454f6961594143673961) (http://ads.syracuse.com I-81's existing path. /kirst/ ) The state has selected Parsons Transportation Group to develop more detailed plans Opini for the two options for I-81 (http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf letter /2013/05/i-81_debate_narrows_to_two_cho.html). That report, to be (http://w w w .s completed in the next year, should include specifics about the space needed, /opinion/) environmental and traffic challenges and costs for each option. But as the massive project moves closer to reality, more residents and businesses CNY O owners are paying closer attention (http://www.syracuse.com 2 of 26 6/12/2013 11:14 AM Would a wider I-81 fit between downtown Syracuse buildings? | syracuse.comhttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/would_a_wider_i-81_f... /news/index.ssf/2013/05/plans_for_i-81_pushing_forward.html) to what (http://obits.sy might be in the way. /obituaries/sy Smith Restaurant Supply sits Most Com m ent almost directly under I-81 at the northeastern edge of 281 Rainbow flag ra downtown. If the elevated to celebrate gay (h ttp :/(http://syracus/sy racu see highway grows any wider, /new s/index.ssf /2013/06/2013/06 owner John Kuppermann says, /rainbow/rainbow_flag_r _flag_r the sixth-generation business com mcomments) ents) could be wiped out. Syracuse police 18 1 after it attacks p "I'm so close," said Will A Wider I-81 Fit? (h ttp :/(http://syracus/sy racu see /new s/index.ssf (h ttp ://videos.syracuse.com /post-standard /2013/06 Kuppermann. "The bypass that /2013/06 comes right past the building is /2013/06/w ill_a_w ider_i-81_fit.htm l) /sy racu/syracuse_poli se_policce Interstate 81's pathway through Syracuse does not meet current state comments) about 20 feet (away). I don't see and federal highway requirements because, among other reasons, its com m ents) shoulders and median are too narrow. If the highway is rebuilt - or how I'd avoid it." replaced with a six-lane, street level boulevard - it may require a wider It's official: Sou footprint, state and local officials say. 15 8 (h ttp :/Syracuse/sy racu seco sen Louis Fournier III, of Sutton (http://syracuse /new s/i/2013/06ndex.ssf Real Estate Company, has also been following the I-81 news and attending public /2013/06/its_official_sou meetings. His company owns and manages several buildings along the corridor, /its_ o fficial_sou com mcomments) ents) including the medical building at 600 E. Genesee St. that sits just beside the interstate's viaduct. Southern Baptis 14 3 policy on gays a (h ttp :/dies:/blog. Yoursyr lettea "You can't get any closer," Fournier says. /opini(http://blog.syron a /2013/06/baptist_reactio But he's not as worried as Kuppermann, at least not yet. "I haven't given it a lot of /baptist_reactio com mcomments) ents) thought," Fournier said. 10 7 Protesters call f Syracuse University can't wait for the state to decide I-81's future. The school's steam (http://syracuse (h ttp ://2013/06/sy racu se plant, which also provides heat to Upstate and Crouse Hospital, needs to be rebuilt. /new s/i/protesters_callndex.ssf /2013/06comments) Suspecting that most options for the highway will require a wider pathway through /protesters_call_ com m ents) downtown, SU is planning to rebuild its steam plant on Taylor Street 60 feet further from the highway than its current location. (http://w "It caused us to step back," said Timothy Sweet, the school's director of Energy Systems and Sustainability Management. When I-81 was young Five decades ago, the new interstate blazed a path past businesses and homes already firmly established. It swung over Pioneer Homes, built in 1937, one of the country's first housing projects. 3 of 26 6/12/2013 11:14 AM Would a wider I-81 fit between downtown Syracuse buildings? | syracuse.comhttp://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2013/06/would_a_wider_i-81_f... The highway went past a former Syracuse University building that now houses the McMahon-Ryan Child Advocacy Center. And it avoided the buildings now home to Smith Restaurant Supply, one of which dates back to the Erie Canal. But the construction of I-81 prompted the razing of storefronts along the Erie Canal, the Bethany Baptist Church and a few homes just southeast of the highway, according to Dennis Connors, the curator of history at the Onondaga Historical Association. Parts of the 15th Ward, the city's historic black neighborhood, came down too, though many of those decisions were made as part of a separate urban renewal plan, Connors said. In the 1950s, the highway's planners did threaten a Syracuse building that prompted a public outcry. The Weighlock Building, then a state Department of Public Works building, was in the path in the original I-81 plans. The Onondaga Historical Association and local residents put up a fight to save the only remaining weighlock building in the country. They won, Connors of the OHA said. By 1962, that building became the Erie Canal Museum. Concerns about plans Kuppermann's family opened up its restaurant supply at Erie Boulevard East and North Townsend in 1946. Last month, Kuppermann went to a public meeting at the Oncenter to hear the latest on I-81. He says a state DOT worker told him that buildings can't be within 400 feet of a new highway. That is not the case, said DOT spokesman Beau Duffy, who dismissed other rumors about federally-required set-backs or minimums to buffer any interstate from other streets or businesses. State and federal highway standards require "sufficient" right-of-way spaces along interstates, though there are no specific minimum required, according to Duffy. The only set-back requirement, Duffy said, involves the base of on- and off-ramps. There, other driveways, streets or access roads must be at least 100 feet from the ramp's entrance or exit.