Imagine a city - walkable and dense where the principles of good urban design are embodied and historic structures are re-purposed and not demolished - a place where we work and live. With the complete over-haul of the City's zoning code in the cross-hairs of Mayor Byron Brown's second term, that reality, took a giant leap forward yesterday with the Mayor's announcement of "Buffalo Green Code".
Mayor Byron Brown, Brendan MeHaffy and Howard Zemsky
At the center of this is Mayor Byron Brown's totally genius decision and recent appointment of Brendan Mehaffey as the Executive Director of the City of Buffalo’s Office of Strategic Planning. Brendan will be leading the zoning code re-write along with renowned Chicago planning firm, Camiros, which is partnering with Boston-based Goody Clancy. Here's a link (mp3 after the jump) to a short podcast of yesterday's events.
Local form-based code advocate Chuck Banas has created an authoritative resource to help us understand the new code's guiding principles. His project was completed with support from the New Millennium Group and the Western New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects.
The event took place on Earth Day in the Hydraulics, the site of the City's first industrial neighborhood. The Hydraulics is home to developer Howard Zemsky's new transformative vision - Larkin Development. Learn more about this neighborhood at The Hydraulics Press, a Buffalo based blog.
Here's the podcast.
Here's the podcast.
Buffalo Rising covered the story - here.
Related posts:
- Pics of yesterday's event
- Smart Code in the City (11/24/08)
- City's Action Plan (4/15/07)
- Press conference video, here - courtesy of WNYmedia.net
- Business First covered the story - here.
- WBFO has this story.
Update - 4/4/12
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This could actually happen with Brendan working on it!
Hope this comes to something.
Off topic, David you might look into adding sharethis or addthis or addtoany (my personal favorite) to your blogger template, it's very easy and would let people easily tweet and share on facebook etc... which is what I was going to do (and still will, the hard way)
It's a shame that this hasn't gotten more attention from the general public. The shamefully antiquated zoning code in this city is blocking a lot of growth and revitalization. We'll probably never know how many small businesspersons and potential homeowners took one look at how hard it is to change a building in this city, threw their hands up, and fled to the burbs.
Zoning isn't sexy, but it's necessary to facilitate things that are. Everyone who lives in the city should follow this closely and turn out to the public hearings. Be part of the process, don't let them drag their feet or play politics, do your part to keep this crucial issue in the forefront. I will see you on the front lines of making this happen.