Expected for Approval Today: The New Buffalo Green Code

"The Unified Development Ordinance – better known as the Buffalo Green Code – is expected to pass the Common Council Tuesday, ushering in the first overhaul of the city code in 63 years," reports Mark Sommer.

"In doing so, Buffalo – which began the process back in April 2010 and included over 230 public meetings – will join only Denver and Miami in undertaking such comprehensive reform," according to Sommer. "City planning will now move from a suburban model of development to one considered progressively urban in its approach to green and smart-growth principles."

Sommer goes on to list some of the larger priorities of the new code, including support for walkable neighborhoods, mixed-use developments, the historic character of the city, environmental sustainability, and transit. More specifically, the Buffalo Green Code eliminates minimum parking standards, adjusts frontages for certain types of commercial buildings, and adds street reconfigurations into the planning review process, among other changes.