Syracuse, NY - The long-awaited extension of Syracuse’s creekwalk is under way, but an Armory Square businessman says it’s costing him valuable parking spots.
John Butler, who owns the commercial and residential building at 402 S. Franklin St., has erected two signs protesting the government’s taking of 60 of the 75 parking spots he owned or leased off Walton Street west of the building and along the east side of Onondaga Creek. The spots were used by the residential tenants of his building and the public.
“It serves no useful purpose,” Butler said of the move. “I’ve contacted everyone you can think of.”
Butler said he offered an alternative plan that would have required losing only 12 of his parking spots, but the city rejected it.
The state Department of Transportation took 45 spaces by invoking its right of eminent domain. The city terminated its 20-year lease of 15 more spaces to Butler.
Gene Cilento, public information officer for DOT, said it was merely acting on behalf of the city because state funding for the creekwalk project came through the department. He said the city designed the creekwalk and was the one that determined that Butler’s land was needed.
Tim Carroll, director of operations for the city, said a big chunk of Butler’s parking lot was needed so the east bank of the creek could be graded outward from the waterway, providing the public with an improved view of the creek. Work started on the grading of Butler’s former property Dec. 1. The same thing will be done to a city-owned lot directly across Walton Street from Butler’s property, he said.
Butler’s alternative plan would have left the creek with a steep bank that would have required a retaining wall and a fence at the top of the bank for safety, Carroll said. It also would have provided a very restrictive view of the water below, he said.
Butler, who has owned the parking lot since 1973, said the public would be better off with the parking spaces than an improved view of the creek. Parking is in high demand in Armory Square, he said.
“They don’t have a handle on this place like the people who live, work and breathe down here,” he said.
He said the city has told him people can use the city’s parking garage on Washington Street about two and a half blocks to the north or a parking lot on the other side of the elevated train tracks south of his property. But Butler said both are too far for his tenants to walk, especially at night and in bad weather.
“Women don’t feel safe making the walk at night,” he said.
Butler’s building at Walton and South Franklin streets contains 15 apartments and a vacant 400-seat restaurant, occupied by Abrosia until July. Butler said he is looking for a new tenant for the restaurant space and was thinking about renovating other space in the building into 15 more apartments. The loss of the 60 parking spaces could make it harder to lease the restaurant and the apartments, he said.
While the taking of Butler’s property has been completed, the compensation he will receive has not been set. Carroll said the DOT offered Butler $238,780 for the land taken. Butler has not accepted the offer. If he and the state cannot agree on a price, one will be set by a judge.
The $6.7 million creekwalk extension is being built in two phases. The first will connect Armory Square north to Franklin Square. The second, scheduled for 2011, will expand the walkway from the Syracuse Inner Harbor north to Onondaga Lake. The city wants to eventually extend the walkway from Armory Square south to Kirk Park and then to the city’s southern border at Dorwin Avenue.