The Buffalo Green Code – Making the Comprehensive Plan A Reality
In 2006 the City of Buffalo formally adopted “Queen City in the 21st Century: Buffalo’s Comprehensive Plan,” an award-winning vision that aims to reposition Buffalo as one of the preeminent urban centers of the Great Lakes.
Today the City is taking the next important step toward making this plan a reality. Mayor Byron W. Brown recently announced the start of a comprehensive rewrite of Buffalo’s Zoning Ordinance, last updated in 1951, as the principal legal mechanism for implementing the Plan’s threefold objectives of smart growth, new urbanism, and sustainability.
“Our zoning reform effort will act as the foundation for the new place-based economic development strategy for Buffalo’s neighborhoods in every section of the city,” the Mayor said at an Earth Day 2010 press conference in the Larkin District. “The new Buffalo zoning ordinance will be known as the Buffalo Green Code. It will embody 21st century values about economic development, sustainability, and walkable, green urbanism.”
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“The new Buffalo Green Code will be the first opportunity Buffalonians have had in nearly sixty years to establish a new regulatory framework for the development of our neighborhoods,” the Mayor added. “Zoning is the tool by which we build our communities. It determines what gets built and where. It’s essentially Buffalo’s DNA. The process to re-imagine the city’s future and write a code that matches the community’s vision will be an exciting opportunity for the people of Buffalo. As this process gets rolled out, over a period we expect to take three years of serious work, I invite all citizens in every section of the city to participate and take an active role.”