ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. — It’s a bittersweet feeling for Buffalo Bills fans, knowing Highmark Stadium will soon be coming down.

“I’ve been coming to the current stadium since about 1980 when I was a little kid, so I’m just kind of curious to see what the plans are for the upcoming years," Chris Gordon of Blasdell said.

That’s why Gordon, and other people with the same curiosity, attended a presentation held by Erie County officials Thursday. The public scoping meeting is part of the state environmental quality review act, or SEQR.

"There are a number of governmental agencies involved in the new stadium,” Adam Walters, Erie County representation, said. “Thus, the SEQR requires an assessment of potential adverse environmental impacts associated with the project before any governmental agencies make any binding decisions. For bigger projects like the stadium, involving more than one governmental agency, coordinated reviews are mandatory.”

Attendees heard from partners from Populus, the architectural firm that is designing the new stadium.

“We've used the term football first a lot first and foremost,” Scott Radecic, Populous senior principal and partner, said. “The building is about fans coming to watch football, and the proximity of those fans to the field of play and how close they can be, but also how we can protect them from some of the elements when it gets into some of the winter months.”

Consultants working on the project shared what areas of the new bills stadium they will report on for the environmental impact review. Those areas include the traffic and parking, water and ecological resources and public utility infrastructure.

Then the public had an opportunity to discuss what they hoped to see taken into consideration. A main concern expressed was having sidewalks to have safe access to the new stadium. Locals also brought up their concerns about people treating private properties near the stadium as restrooms.

“My whole yard is boxed with pine trees,” Ernie Dobies, of Orchard Park, said. “They come right through the pine trees and they’ll sit right in the middle of them. I have underwear leftover after the game and every other kind of thing imaginable.”

Attendees also asked the county to look into water pressure issues that they say places near the stadium have, traffic issues on big tree road, and better public transportation to the new stadium.

"I remember for years going to games, they used to have that ‘93 Ralph Wilson bus, the Metro, and they got rid of it and I never knew why and they never asked the fans how they felt about it,“ Mark Costello of Kenmore said.

The new stadium is expected to open in 2026.