Buffalo Rebooting its Code

"'We’re in the home stretch,' explains Chris Hawley, a planner with the City of Buffalo who has been instrumental in writing a new form based code for the city, due to be implemented as early as the end of 2014," according to an article by Sam Newberg.

"Dating from 1953, the city is taking the unusual step of throwing the old code out in its entirety."

"It is not business as usual in Buffalo, which has suffered not only from years of overall decline but also from a zoning code that promoted disinvestment in the city. Hawley notes that in recent years pretty much everyone agreed the zoning code is problematic, particularly those trying to do mixed-use projects in the city. As a result, significant bureaucracy impediments that used to exist have given way to a sense that the government should get out of the way."