By Nate Neuman:
Buffalo has been criticized countless times for being a City with a confusing and antagonistic development process, a process that punishes those who desire to invest in Buffalo and further its post-industrial transition into a vibrant, knowledge-intensive city. The legal mechanisms of City Hall have convoluted this process chiefly through having a zoning code that is not only obsolete by today’s values of urbanism – it was written in 1951 – but, as one architect said: “takes a team of lawyers to sift through to fully understand what is being required and prohibited”.
The Buffalo Green Code project was launched last fall with a mission to eliminate these barriers. It seeks to rebuild our City through two approaches: first, use a place-making strategy to guide the future development of our City’s neighborhoods and second, to implement the place-making strategy, create a form-based zoning code that is clear, visual and predictable. Both build on Buffalo’s existing strengths as a City with exceptional urbanism that began with Joseph Ellicott’s innovative radial street plan that created great public places by uniting streets at key points, while emphasizing the urban center, and Olmsted’s golden necklace of parks and parkways that connected neighborhoods with beautiful public places rarely seen in an industrial city. Although that urbanism was wounded by the insensitive and condescending planning decisions of the 20th century, it is still largely intact and can be easily healed through the right policies.
The Buffalo Green Code is the continuation of Buffalo’s existing planning framework – Queen City in the 21st Century: Buffalo’s Comprehensive Plan – the master document for all policy and investment decisions in the City. The Comprehensive Plan positions the Green Code advantageously as it outlines four fundamental principles to guide Buffalo’s rebirth: fix the basics; build on assets; implement smart growth and embrace sustainability. As a result, the Green Code will do more than eliminate barriers; it will embrace the most innovative and progressive planning and development policies that have proven to revitalize cities throughout America. On top of this, a thorough and comprehensive public outreach process was conducted that allowed community members to direct, literally parcel-by-parcel on maps of their neighborhoods, the development character they desire for their communities.
At present, the City of Buffalo is nearing the halfway point of the Green Code project with the unveiling of the City’s draft Future Development Plan at ‘Planning Day in Buffalo’, today, Saturday, October 29th from 9a.m. to 3p.m. at the City Campus of Erie Community College. Planning Day in Buffalo will allow all members of the public to view, learn and offer commentary on the Plan. The open house will include a presentation by the project team and various breakout stations where the public can learn more about specific components of the plan and provide direct feedback. This is your opportunity to have your voice heard!