Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown officially filed the city’s new zoning code and land use policies to the city’s Common Council earlier this month. The revamp of Buffalo’s 1,800-page, 62-year-old zoning code has been in the works since 2010. The document that could replace it, the Buffalo Green Code, clocks in at a mere 322 pages, nixes minimum parking requirements and encourages dense, mixed-use development.
The city’s existing zoning ordinance, written in 1957, aided sprawling, single-use development. Between 1950 and 2000, the Buffalo-Niagara area population remained stagnant while the urbanized metro area sprawled out to triple its original size. Since its adoption, Buffalo’s present code has become increasingly outdated and even challenging to interpret after dozens of amendments. Through fresh policies and accessible language, the Green Code aims to facilitate placed-based economic development in Buffalo, which has recently been on the upswing with slowing migration and steady job growth.
The overhauled code is a form-based plan, which emphasizes the scale and character of development over the type of development (commercial, residential, retail, etc.) to strengthen a diverse mix within a neighborhood. Prioritizing form over function will allow districts to retain their distinct identities and encourages density and walkability.
And the Green Code is aptly named: the ordinance ditches off-street parking minimums–for cars, that is. Meanwhile, bicycle parking minimums are established more concretely and throughout the city, rather than solely business districts. New development proposals will also be required to include transportation demand management strategies to reduce single-occupancy vehicle trips to the proposed site and promote walking, biking, transit and ride-sharing.
Buffalo residents already stand to gain from the Green Code. As recently as 2013, roughly 30 percent of Buffalo households did not have access to a vehicle. While only 0.9 percent of residents bicycle to work, the city has seen a 104 percent increase in bike commuting since 2000. Moreover, 6.6 percent of Buffalo dwellers walk to work, one of the highest rates in the nation.
Formal adoption of the Green Code is still a few months down the line, as it awaits the internal and public review processes by the Common Council.
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