— — Plans to extend Meadow Drive in North Tonawanda to serve the city’s mid-city business district appear to be on track despite wetlands designations that last year had threatened the project.

Aerial photographs taken by the Department of Environmental Conservation and other data had resulted in roughly 120 acres of newly protected wetlands in and around North Tonawanda cited for designation last year.

More than one section of planned protected state land (which cannot be built upon) fell between Meadow Drive’s dead end and Erie Avenue, smack dab in the middle of a long-anticipated $2 million project to extend Meadow.

Now, with the city council this week voting to schedule a public hearing on plans to update zoning along the planned extension, officials say amendments are being considered in Albany to give the project the green light, after all.

“The proposed map amendments are still under review in DEC's Albany office. However, preliminary indications based on field inspections are that there are less wetlands located in the area than initially identified, which would enable certain projects proposed by the City of North Tonawanda to move forward,” Megan Gollwitzer, of the DEC’s Buffalo field office, said.

North Tonawanda city officials had challenged the new designation of what was called Wetland TE-43 on the grounds that they didn’t meet the DEC’s own guidelines, which call for 12 continuous acres of land exhibiting wetland soil and plants, in order to designate a zone.

“The city had an engineering firm that stated that the Meadow Drive part should not be considered a wetland,” state Sen. George Maziarz, who hosted a public hearing on the mapping last year, said on Wednesday.

While the appeal is still under review, its success would be music to the ears of those in City Hall, though environmentalists and proponents of the new maps point out wetland areas trap and treat rain water to alleviate flooding common throughout the city and contribute to better water quality.

A meeting was held last month between representatives from the Department of Environmental Conservation and the city.

“We were told that it’s in Albany’s hands and they’re reviewing it,” North Tonawanda Mayor’s Assistant Bob Welch said.

City Engineer Dale Marshall has for years said the wetland designations threaten millions of dollars in storm sewers, sanitary sewers, roads and other infrastructure taxpayers have already paid for in the area. Marshall said furthermore, pending development projects had already been approved there by the DEC years ago, in the very areas now being reclassified. The infrastructure the city installed in the late 1970s, early 1980s and early 1990s was all approved by the state agency.

The new maps released last year suggested wetlands could soon be designated in five separate irregular-shaped areas between Ruie Road south to the canal.

Some of the concerns the city had from the beginning included that the mapping was conducted only by aircraft and existing soil maps and that the DEC’s own regulations spell out new areas must include the 12 contiguous acres.

The DEC could not comment Wednesday on what if any changes will be made regarding the rest of the wetlands preliminarily designated as part of the most recent soil study.

One such zone, TE 40, encompasses a private parcel approved in 1980 for what was supposed to be the Woodstream Subdivision. The project however, hasn’t taken shape in the years since.