This week, the Office of Strategic Planning will be hosting a series of Open Houses for three ongoing Brownfield Opportunity Areas (BOA) in the City of Buffalo. At these meetings the project team will present three different development scenarios for each BOA to aid in understanding the characteristics of a preferred scenario forming the final master plan. Each presented plan isn’t necessarily an end result unto itself. Instead, the project team wants to hear from the public about what elements they prefer from each plan.
By providing technical and financial assistance, the Brownfield Opportunity Areas is a New York State program that enables communities to put strategies in place to return dormant brownfield sites back to productive use while simultaneously restoring environmental quality. Presently, there are three BOAs in the 2nd step of a 3 step process: Buffalo Harbor, Buffalo River Corridor and Tonawanda Street Corridor. The Step 2 Nomination Study will provide in-depth analysis of existing conditions, opportunities, and reuse potential for properties located in these three BOA areas and is anticipated to run from November 2011 to Fall 2012. This week’s open houses will focus on progressing these three BOAs to the 3rd step in 2013.
The City of Buffalo is a state-wide leader with BOA programs. The RiverBend Commerce Park project, located on the site of the now remediated former Republic Steel and Donner Hanna Coke facilities, is a component of the Step 3 Implementation Strategy of the South Buffalo BOA – the most progressed of Buffalo’s five BOAs. This plan lays out a land use and development strategy for the RiverBend site, a key element of the South Buffalo BOA that encompasses over 200 acres, and includes a Green Infrastructure Plan that is essential to transforming the site into a recreational, ecological and economic resource. The Riverbend project further builds on the success of Buffalo Lakeside Commerce Park, which set the bar very high with reactivating contaminated and dormant land in an environmentally and economically productive manner. A fifth BOA in the City of Buffalo, which will focus on East Side brownfields, is in the application phase.
Buffalo’s BOA programs are an integral part of the Buffalo Green Code project which – through the creation of a Unified Development Ordinance (UDO) – encompasses the future land use plan and zoning code for the City of Buffalo. The BOAs land use and master planning components will be incorporated into the UDO, forming the developmental foundation of a City that is embracing 21st century urban values on sustainability and place-based development.
Buffalo Harbor BOA Open House
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
From 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Herman Badillo Bilingual Academy (300 S. Elmwood Avenue)
Key Questions:
• Is your waterfront a green waterfront?
• An urban waterfront?
• A working waterfront?
• What will make it a special place for future generations?
Buffalo River Corridor BOA Open House
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
From 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Old First Ward Community Center (62 Republic Street)
Key Questions:
• What type of uses should line the river banks?
• How and where can public access be improved along the river?
• What community improvements should be considered?
• What will make our riverfront a special place for future generations?
Tonawanda Street Corridor BOA Open House
Thursday, June 28, 2012
From 6:00 – 9:00 p.m. at Riverside High School (51 Ontario Street)
Key Questions:
• What is the role of Tonawanda Street Corridor in the future of Buffalo?
• How can the corridor continue as an important manufacturing center while providing additional opportunities for a more diverse economy and improved neighborhood setting?
• How can the area capitalize on key assets, such as Buffalo State College?
A brief description of each of the three BOAs:
BUFFALO HARBOR BOA. Comprised of 1,039 acres of land, the Buffalo Harbor BOA is the largest of the three BOAs, stretching from the Erie Basin to the Lackawanna boundary. Having served as one of Buffalo’s most important destinations for heavy industry and maritime commerce, the study area contains approximately 50 potential brownfield sites located adjacent to the lake and resulting through the creation of land using industrial waste.
Recently, major public investments to Fuhrman Boulevard, Erie Canal Harbor, Outer Harbor Greenway and Gallagher Beach are changing the perception of the area and creating an environment desirable to private investment can. The mission for the Buffalo Harbor BOA is continue these enhancements, improve public waterfront access, restore watershed ecology, conserve waterfront heritage and create continued opportunities for new waterside investment.
BUFFALO RIVER CORRIDOR BOA. The 1,000 acre Buffalo River Corridor BOA contains approximately 40 known brownfield properties, including heavy industrial areas and within the mixed use residential neighborhoods that surround them. Encompassing the City Ship Canal, Kelly Island, Old First Ward a
nd Valley neighborhoods, the BOA is home to new parks and destinations such as Silo City and Riverfest and Mutual Parks and activities such as fishing and kayaking.
nd Valley neighborhoods, the BOA is home to new parks and destinations such as Silo City and Riverfest and Mutual Parks and activities such as fishing and kayaking.
While some industrial activity still occurs in the BOA, many of the properties and buildings are either underutilized or vacant, thus the long term goal for the BOA is to pursue both environmental enhancement and sustainable development including restoring watershed ecology and shoreline habitats, conserve industrial heritage, restore public waterfront access and expand recreation opportunities. The desired direction for the adjacent land parcels is to plan for and support new businesses and industries, attract new uses, create employment opportunities, increase the tax base and strengthen the residential communities while ensuring that development does not compromise the health of the River.
TONAWANDA STREET CORRIDOR BOA. The 514 acre Tonawanda Street Corridor BOA is comprised primarily under-utilized industrial brownfields in the City’s Black Rock and Riverside neighborhoods adjacent to the Niagara River and Scajaquada Creek. The area was selected to include a number of major heavy industrial and commercial parcels that together represent the City’s North Buffalo industrial rail corridor legacy from the turn of the 19th & 20th centuries. The project represents a significant opportunity to put in place a land use plan and a series of prioritized strategies aimed at transforming brownfields into uses that complement the economy, environment, and community, and tying together these distinct neighborhoods.
Through remediation and identification of new uses that can capitalize on the areas strategic assets, there is an opportunity to put in place a program aimed at repairing neighborhood edges that have been disproportionately impacted by industrial uses over time and creating new opportunities for working and living within the BOA. Strategies identified to enhance the area’s relationship to the Niagara River and Scajaquada Creek and restore the natural environment will help to create a reinvigorated setting for new investment while attaching the BOA to the City’s wider open space network.