BUFFALO - Preservationists are warning that plans to expand the plaza at one of the busiest bridges along the northern border will destroy a historic Buffalo neighborhood.

Representatives of the National Trust for Historic Preservation were in Buffalo Thursday to designate the neighborhood as one of the nation's 11 most endangered historic sites.

“This place matters,” said Wendy Nicholas, director of the National Trust's Northeast office. “We are here today to sound the alarm for the future of this place, this historic neighborhood which is urgently threatened due to the proposed expansion of the Peace Bridge border plaza.”

The Peace Bridge is the second busiest overall crossing along the U.S-Canadian border and third busiest commercial crossing, handling 1.8 million cars, trucks and buses each year.

Construction of a new bridge has been on the drawing board for years, along with plans to increase the number of inspection booths and modernize facilities at the adjacent plaza.

Preservationists object to plans to demolish 83 homes, some of which predate the Civil War.

“Our call is for meaningful exploration of the alternatives to the needlessly destructive current plan,” Nicholas said.

Peace Bridge Authority General Manager Ron Rienas took exception to claims the authority has been unwilling to explore other options.

“They know that other alternatives were thoroughly explored,” he said. “They know that we've tried to make changes to reduce the impacts on heritage. The whole press conference was about how the Peace Bridge Authority is going to destroy a neighborhood, when in fact what we're doing is actually trying to enhance the neighborhood.”

Rienas said the project will improve the area by re-routing truck traffic that now lumbers through the Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Front Park and that the park will be expanded. A better flow of traffic will improve air quality by reducing the time vehicles spend idling in line, he said, and facilities will be upgraded to meet the Department of Homeland Security's post-9/11 standards.

“The plaza is woefully inadequate,” he said. “The plaza itself doesn't meet any security requirement of the Department of Homeland Security. The traffic is a mess. It doesn't have adequate secondary inspection facilities. It doesn't have adequate X-ray facilities for the trucks. We don't have the proper waiting areas for people to be processed.”

Plans call for the number of inspection booths to increase to 25 from 18. The expanded plaza would cover about 38 acres.

Rienas said he did not believe the National Trust's opposition would affect plans, though the project must comply with the National Historic Preservation Act. Rienas said the authority has been working with the Federal Highway Administration, which will make that determination, as well as heritage experts.

He said a majority of the homeowners in line to receive fair market value for their homes, along with relocation costs, do not oppose the plans.

Those who do, however, include New York's Preservation League, which earlier this year listed the neighborhood among its “Seven to Save” endangered properties.

Tania Werbizky, the league's regional director, said up to two dozen businesses would be displaced.

“The ... neighborhood will lose its residential character to highway ramps, expanded surface parking lots, concrete walls, a multistory parking lot... and other features of a major commercial-scale transportation center,” Werbizky said.

“We are all concerned the plans will do irreparable harm,” she said.

Rep. Louise Slaughter has said the concerns underline the need to re-examine the concept of “Shared Border Management,” which would have located the plaza on the Canadian side of the Peace Bridge. The DHS pulled out of negotiations last year because Canada's charter of rights would not allow fingerprinting people who approach the bridge but choose not to cross.