The image here shows essentially what the Buffalo zoning code thinks of the Elmwood Village - Buffalo's most popular neighborhood - the one with the fastest growing real estate costs in the city (perhaps in all of WNY). According to the city's stone age zoning code the current high density construction is an abomination from which we need to be protected. To make the neighborhood conform to this ridiculous code you would basically need to tear down every other house. Many of the remaining houses would still be too large for the doubled up lots and would need to be made smaller. Of course doing so would eliminate most of the character and charm that comes from that high density and the elegant houses that make it up.
The code basically mandates sprawl style low density development based on some irrational mid-century fear of density and/or a misguided attempt to remake Buffalo into a mythical bucolic suburb. While the code does not mandate that existing houses be torn down to comply, it would force anyone wishing to build new on any of the few open lots to either not build anything or buy its neighbor and tear it down to obtain the legal sized lot and set-backs. There is one other option. You can go to City Hall and beg for a variance which is what virtually every Elmwood village new build project ends up doing. Then your neighbors and every NIMBY in WNY gets to come out and complain about everything from the color of the shingles to the shrubs you choose. The effect of the code is to force people to ask for special city permission to build the way Elmwood Village already is - the way people love it - the way that has made it such a special and attractive place. Special permission to build the way Elmwood already is asinine. Mandating sprawl is asinine.
This existing crappy 1950s code can't be gotten rid of fast enough. I hope people will step forward and express, with forcefulness and urgency the importance of passing the new code in a form that is not watered down with carmaggedon stupidity and irrational density fear mongering.
You're talking about a zoning code from 1950. A code that's 62 years old, perhaps the oldest zoning code still in use by any American municipality. It's a code that just about everybody agrees is seriously flawed. I don't think anybody has defended keeping that old, legalese-filled wall-of-text that will soon be history.
Buffalo is soon going to be far ahead of the curve with it's form-based unified development code. I've written zoning codes myself, and from what I've seen, the Green Code is logical, comprehensible, respects the urban character of Buffalo, and like all FBCs, does a much better job at codifying the desired form of the built environment than standard codes. (Its sign regulations, though, will leave a lot to be desired, but thats one for another post.) I think it's got some advantages over the SmartCode, which many communities use as a template for FBCs.
We get it. The current zoning code, one that should have been replaced decades ago, sucks skunked Utica Club. Complaining about that abdomination, one that we'll soon be rid of, at this late stage in the game, is like launching a protest against the Vietnam War as the American embassy in Saigon is being evacuated.
I could not agree more with Dan. A constructive post would have focused on valuable criticism of the Green Code - the future. This backward-looking post is worthless.
Yes you get it. There are many who don't and many already screeching about lower parking amounts and higher density limits. I would not take this code as it is currently being developed as a done deal.
Exactly, the code still has to make it through final design and then approval by the Common Council without getting watered down by pressures from developers and others who prefer the status quo.
Articles like this explain exactly what's wrong with the current code and why the Green Code is important. It is important to make that case, because there will be others trying to make the opposite case later this year.
Buffalo's Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything (BANANA) crowd were in full force at the Lafayette High School meeting. All three of them!
"The current zoning code, one that should have been replaced decades ago, sucks skunked Utica Club. Complaining about that abdomination, one that we'll soon be rid of, at this late stage in the game, is like launching a protest against the Vietnam War as the American embassy in Saigon is being evacuated."
It's like complaining about disco in 1983.
Last I read, the Vietnam War ended about 35 years ago or so and the Buffalo zoning code from 1950 was still in force and affecting the way the city can be developed - that being the case I think it is entirely relevant to talk about this code in a Buffalo based web blog whereas the Vietnam War not so much.
As for disco - that could come back in some kind of crazed hipster nostalgia fad any day for all I know. Skinny Jeans out - white rayon bells in! That would kind of be the equivalent of keeping the current code.