Big changes may be on the way as City Hall tries to better connect the Fruit Belt, the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus and Allentown. The subject was the topic of discussion at a Wednesday night meeting.
Both Allentown and the Fruit Belt are seeing big changes as the Medical Campus continues to grow. Fruit Belt residents are struggling with parking issues while Allentown is seeing something of a real estate boom as people move into a residential neighborhood so close to jobs on the Medical Campus.
Now, the city is looking for suggestions to make Allen Street more user-friendly.
According to Associate City Engineer John Bidell work is already underway on "a walk-way, path-way in the Medical Campus that runs from Washington to North Oak. The second is a streetscape larger project that runs from Main Street down to Wadsworth along Allen Street."
Planners, however, have stumbled into a problem with a plan to run Allen through what is now the Metro Rail station for a street connection between the Medical Campus and Allentown. But, Bidell says the UB Medical School plan changed that.
"Allen Street Station will actually be incorporated into the new UB Medical building and they will take care of the actual station and integration with the NFTA. We will be backing and fronting to each end of that."
Pedestrians will walk through the med school. Bidell expects an some arrangement will be made for bicycles.
