Brownfield Redevelopment Study Planned
Buffalo’s past may be the key to its future. With thousands of acres of idle industrial land, the City is pushing to remediate and market reclaimed property to developers and end-users. Talked about for over two-decades, brownfield redevelopment in South Buffalo is moving forward. The City was recently awarded a NY State Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) grant to begin reuse planning for over 1800 acres of largely underutilized land in South Buffalo between Route 5 and Hopkins Street. According to the City, the South Buffalo BOA is “a project that is crucial to the renaissance of Buffalo, and important for charting the reclamation and redevelopment of these valuable lands.”
Under the Brownfield Opportunity Areas Program, the State provides financial and technical assistance to municipalities to complete revitalization plans and implementation strategies for areas affected by the presence of brownfield sites.
Brownfields are former commercial or industrial properties where real or perceived environmental contamination hinders reuse. Funding for environmental assessments and remediation for sites is also available through the State. The goal is to return dormant properties and areas back to productive use while restoring environmental quality.
With grant funding, the City will prepare an in-depth and thorough land use assessment, including an economic and market trends analysis of existing conditions, opportunities, and reuse potential for properties. An emphasis will be placed on the identification and reuse potential of strategic sites that are potential catalysts for revitalization. Based on the analysis and findings, recommendations for future uses and actions will be outlined.
To kick-off the effort, the City is holding an open house on Tuesday, March 11, 2008, from 6:00 – 9:00 PM at Southside Elementary School, 430 Southside Parkway. The meeting will include a project presentation and will allow the public and opportunity to view project displays, provide input and discuss the BOA initiative.
Get connected: John Fell, Office of Strategic Planning, 716.851.5035
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al-alo
its just terrible how the mayor named this after himself. im all for a healthy ego, but really, a "brownfield'?
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RisingDamp666
It's a good start, but I can't help but feel like there's a much bigger opportunity here...
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viking
For an immediate impact the city should use the money to create a transportation centers similar to the initiatives of other cities. This subject has been well documented and actually covered by this blog. Use the information already produced and actually do some thing. Pissing away grants on studies that give old information is not a good start. The area has a glaring need waiting to be filled, that is capable of producing economic results beneficial to regional considerations.
Partner with the Ambassador group, CXS and create a truck, rail crossing capable of supporting the trade being projected in the future.
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flyguy
Maybe its just me misinterpreting the comment but "brownfield" is a real term used to describe former industrial lands that often times need environmental mitigation for redevelopment. "brownfields" aare to industrial land as greyfields are to underutilized cash cow commercial areas that havent seen significant investment in many years.
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comptart_lws
flyguy: al-alo comments are frequently based on "humorous" word-play. Thus, your confusion that he misunderstood origin of term "brownfield". The "humor" doesn't always translate well in the reading.
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sbrof
How about we worry about the market later and focus on the REMEDIATION now. Nothing can happen until these lands are cleaned up and ready for development. Wasting money on a study of the market is putting the cart WAY before the horse.
Plus I really hope they update that plan for South buffalo. It sure looks pretty enough but what about the future? What happens when that land is filled at such a low density.. Then what? We need to come up with ideas that will give Buffalo the room to expand industry for 150 years not 20. Otherwise we are in no better situation than suburbs, always looking for that new Greenfield (brownfield) to develop. Sustainability isn't just about the environment. We can't expect to grow constantly at such a low density forever. We have set borders and more importantly a fixed amount of land to work with. Little orange industrial buildings scattered throughout the area without any rhyme or reason doesn't make for a good use of land.
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InformedOne
I agree with sbrof's concern about promoting low density development. i wonder if there are brownfield redevelopment opportunities within the core of the City of Buffalo in support of ongoing economic development activities currently underway? The look of "industry" now and moving forward is going to be a very different look than proposed in the Plan above. Making widgets is going to be replaced by the technology of research and information, the industry that prospers in the economy of the "flat-globe' will be small and driven by technology that advances in harmony with the environment. As sbrof mentioned this is compact development, where amenities such as theatres, shops and street-life abound. Economic development is often so hungry for "new-development" that we end up catering to the flavor of the month. For example this corn-based ethanol farce. Now farmers are devoting more effort to growing corn for ethanol (very fertilizer intense-petroleum based, harvested by large diesel machinery-petroleum powered) and hence the price of food is going through the roof (including BEER!). We should be using green-algae or other less-petroleum production dependent measures to address our oil dependent needs. But since there is money available and ethanol makes for good sound-bites, people have failed to look at the big picture.
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bison716
CONSTRUCT MORE HOMES! Gated Communities, with strategic neighborhood planning (Southern Style - Houston, Atlanta, etc.). Construct high-end homes between 100K - 180K, then make certain areas 220K and higher ( mansions). Create a new strip similar to Elmwood ( preferably associated with the "Elmwood Village" Community), with independent shops, restaurants bumped up to the curb, only this time make the buildings have some sort of theme in terms of style, and create more lofts (lots of them, reasonably priced to attract young professionals), and apartments in 2nd and 3rd floor structures. Create a hugh central park with public gardens, cafes, man-made ponds, with all sorts of jogging and bike trails. Incorporate the Tifft Nature Preserve as a major attractions for researchers, photographers, and students in school trips. Bring in a new elementary school, and build the neighborhoods around that family-based tone. That will bring more interest in commercial development along the outer harbor, and give Buffalo a boost in population! BUT FIRST... RESEARCH AND MAKE SURE THE SURROUNDING ENVIRONMENT IS SAFE.
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bison716
These are the type of homes and neighborhoods I envision for this area.
http://www.lennar.com/findhome/city.aspx?CITYID=HOU&BRANDID=ALL
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LastCall
flyguy, where is your sense of humor?!
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mbhxam
did anybody check to see if the bird men are occumpying these brownfields? who knows, the trucks may get there and the bird men may have a full blown farm, recording studio and printing press already built on the land...who needs grants and investment when you have the bird men!!!
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distas
Re-development sounds like a great idea! Except for the fact that these renderings look nothing more than an expressway to replace the skyway with a bunch of suburban development around it........then again if this is what we need to take down the skyway then maybe its not so bad after all.
As for Bison.....everything you said sounds like a great idea.........but how do you incorporate Southern gated communitities with an "Elmwood Village" like community. I really cant see something like that working since all those gated comminities are isolated and automobile dominated.
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linksfiend
WestCoast - Where did you get the graphic? Is there a higher resolution version available?
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brokeleg
Bison- are you kidding with this gated community shit? McMansions would look horribly out of place amongst grain elevators, just like all the ugly suburban houses along William east of Michigan. Leave the burbs in the burbs, urban and suburban space cannot mingle like that i dont care what anyone says. Them cityfolk dont hide behind gates. We shouldnt take any cues from the south. They have stretched themselves beyond their means. Watch how fast oil prices rise and how scarce freshwater becomes down there over the next 5-10 years and you will know what im talking about. We should focus our time and money on infrastructure. Clean the brownfeilds, fix the however many thousands of vacant homes, hire more police, and most importantly, WE HAVE TO REPLACE OR UPDATE OUR WATER SYSTEMS! Its bullshit that phoenix has cheaper water than we do, the reason being that their sewer systems are new and efficient. The city must take care of these housekeeping needs, the market will take care of development. The almighty market knows all.
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WCPerspective
Links- I found it online some time ago but can't seem to find it. PM me your email and I'll send it to you. The image is a concept plan prepared by DeLeuw Cather (now Parsons) back in 1997 or so.
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sbrof
I find it amusing how Paris, and other European cities have sewer systems that have been running for hundreds of years. Somehow i think we got value engineered into a shitty deal. A billion dollars investment every 50 years for running water. Maybe its time to build something with a little forethought. This plan and the city's best wishes for the site is far from that.
That plan is a chunk of a larger south buffalo redevelopment scheme that came out maybe years ago. There was a series of plans, one related to LaSalle Park, South buffalo and a couple other places.
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bison716
distas, it works well in Houston. There's plenty of communities in their city that are exactly what I explained up above. I know it sounds a little off, but once you see it with your own eyes, then you would understand that...DAM! This works over there, why not in BUFF! As for brokeleg,... you sound like you need to cool out and get some of that heat off your chest, and the way you speaking that nonsense.... anit gonna fly. Watch your language, just as I have.
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RisingDamp666
There are urban gated communities, or should I say, gated streets. St Louis famously built gated streets at the turn of the last century. The homes within were the finest at the time and can be found in the Forrest Park area. Not that I would ever envision that for this huge swath of land. It would be perfect for more industry, except that there are few industrials out there expanding in the U.S. and fewer still that would locate in tax-heavy Buffalo. This parcel does bear some characteristics of others around the globe with urban waterways and what one finds is that huge civic projects get built in them. A Bills Stadium, an outpost of the A-K, hotels, casinos, why not a tower akin to the CN? Anything's possible. The rail and other industrial infrastructure should be maintained for future uses, but I think that Post-Industrial Buffalo would do well to break free of the past here, and if done well, never look back.
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dixiechick
al-alo, please, give me a break, and Viking...Get the heck off the Ambassador band wagon. Are you on their payroll? And Damp, yes, perhaps there is a better, or more creative opportunity there. Indeed, anything is possible!
InformedOne, yes there are are brownfield redevelopment opportunities within the core of the City of Buffalo in support of ongoing economic development activities currently underway. Contact the GNPA in Black Rock for their project to do just that.
Bison, you have some good ideas there, such as incorportating theTifft Nature Preserve as a major attraction for researchers, photographers, and students in school trips (that is already being done, but needs more support) We should build and support our City's elementary and middle schools and teachers and invest in and build Those neighborhoods to support a family-based tone. But lets look at what happened to Atlanta and Houston. More sprawl. And believe me, less family-based neighborhoods and more drugs and crime in the 'best' of schools.
BrokeLeg, yes, especially about our water systems. There is a lot of things that we, as a city and community can do to aid in that area, and there are many more things that B'flo now has the opportunity to do in reference of what you speak of.
And, finally, WestCoast. I agree that Buffalo's past may be the Key to its Future. I'm not quite sure this is it, but I look forward, and invite all to see, exactly what is planned at the open house on 3/11. If we're gonnd talk about it, we should be there to check it out.
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