Queen City Hub Plan

In 2005, the American Planning Association (APA) awarded The Queen City Hub: A Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo the Outstanding Planning Award for a Plan. APA is a nonprofit public interest and research organization committed to urban, suburban, regional and rural planning. The award is the highest honor a plan can receive from this prestigious association of professional planners.

The winning of the “Outstanding Planning Award” by the Queen City Hub is just the latest in a string of positive developments occurring in Downtown Buffalo. New residential development has been completed or is continuing at The Belesario, The Sidway Apartments, Ellicott Lofts, IS Lofts, Granite Works, The Lofts at Elk Terminal, Holling Place Apartments and the Pierce Building. The upscale Washington Market has opened and new construction projects are underway or have been announced with the expansion of Erie Community College and the $100 million headquarters for HealthNow New York. Public concerts and events continue to draw huge crowds and national attention, including the ever popular Thursday at the Square Concert Series and Taste of Buffalo. Work is progressing on the Erie Canal Harbor Project. During this decade Downtown will enjoy $1 Billion in new investment, with $400 million already completed or under construction. We look forward to helping to spur more positive development in 2007 and working together with all of our partners to produce a more vibrant, prosperous and vital Downtown Buffalo.

The action plan provides discrete recommendations within nine topic areas. These nine areas are organized into activities and the principles that guide those activities. The activities for Downtown are living, working, shopping, and visiting. The principles that will guide the activities are access, urban design and management, preservation, energy and green design and image. Support for The Queen City Hub implementation has come from the private sector, state and local government and the academic community. This important and innovative plan will guide Downtown for many years to come. The Board of Directors and staff of Buffalo Place Inc. would like to take this opportunity to thank and recognize our partners the City of Buffalo and the Urban Design Project of the University at Buffalo for their hard work and commitment to Downtown Buffalo. To download a version of the Queen City Hub Plan, click here for Volume One and click here for Volume Two. For a Queen City Hub Summary click here for Poster1 and click here for Poster 2.

What’s in a Plan? A Plan is more than just ideas and words. It’s a course of action, based on quantifiable research, that is the crucial first step in spurring development and creating long term, substantial growth. Without a plan, there can be no coordinated development. The Queen City Hub Plan was a collaborative effort and included the input and participation of dozens of public and private sector constituents in our Implementation Council and literally thousands of citizens and stakeholders in plan development and review. With the publicity and recognition that follow the awarding of the industry’s leading planning award, the dream for a new Buffalo is one step closer to becoming a reality.

Access & Infrastructure

Access: The Planning Department at Buffalo Place manages the implementation of Downtown access projects through the Access Infrastructure Task Force. This multi-agency task force including the NFTA, City of Buffalo, BCAR, GBNRTC, BNMC, ECIDA, and interested Downtown advocates continues to meet monthly to work towards completion of an agreed upon work plan. Access Task Force members have evaluated and prioritized the tasks remaining from the Destination Downtown Buffalo 2002 report and new access projects identified in the Queen City Hub plan. Buffalo Place initiatives on the task list include:

Pedestrian Improvements at High Volume NYS Highway Streets: The Queen City Hub planning process identified the problem pedestrians have crossing busy NYSDOT highway streets Elm, Oak, Tupper and Goodell and how these streets have become barriers between Downtown and nearby residential areas. A committee including representatives from nearby businesses, the City of Buffalo, BNMC, GBNRTC, ECIDA and NYSDOT identified the specific issues on these streets and outlined a process to develop recommendations to be submitted to NYSDOT for consideration.

Two-Way Streets: The Planning Department continues to act as a liaison for communication between the City of Buffalo, property owners and building tenants during the conversion of one-way streets to two-way traffic. New two-way streets have made Downtown more user friendly for businesses and visitors while improving security by increasing the number of cars and eyes on the street. In 2004 Washington Street between Goodell and N. Division became two-way. Next, the northern portions of Ellicott and Washington between Downtown and the BNMC will be converted and feasibility work will start to consider if Pearl, the 700 block of Main Street and Goodell should be changed to two-way.

Urban Design: Urban Design has become one of the priority action areas of the Queen City Hub, with the development of a work plan, prioritizing action items and conducting preliminary research. The Operations Committee of Buffalo Place has adopted this topic. A subcommittee has been established to work on creating Urban Design Guidelines for Downtown, in particular to support the 700 block of Main Street as a residential focus area

On & Off Street Parking

On-Street Parking: Throughout the past six years, Buffalo Place has worked to reprice meters and change parking regulations to make better use of curb parking in Downtown.

Buffalo Place provided a staff person to work directly with the City Division of Traffic Engineering to repeal and install new parking meter regulations. To date, 530 Downtown meters have been installed or repriced with appropriate signage to reflect the changes on street and 1,100 more will be completed soon. The Division of Parking Enforcement continues to change prices at the curb and install new meters where possible. The plan calls for creation of some 500 all day meters and free parking in areas that do not attract short-term parkers. Short-term rates priced at $0.50 and $1.00 an hour are distributed based on parking demand throughout Downtown.

Off-Street Parking: As part of our ongoing mission to improve access, Buffalo Place created and maintains a comprehensive database of commercial and non-commercial parking facilities. Collected data includes lot ownership, number of spaces, price, peak hour occupancy and contact information. This information is used to inform Downtown users of the location, price and convenience of parking options. CLICK HERE to access our Downtown Publicly Available Parking Map

Return of Vehicular Traffic to Main Street

Updated Project Information: The City of Buffalo will post current Preliminary Engineering Information on their website including design products and Advisory Committee minutes. Click here to open the City Cars Sharing Main Street WebPage in another window.

Preliminary Design: Buffalo Place Inc. is pleased to be working with the City of Buffalo and NFTA to return vehicular traffic to Main Street in Downtown Buffalo. In 2005, the City awarded a contract to DiDonato Associates for the Preliminary Engineering Design work. NFTA and Buffalo Place are working with the City as project sponsors. DiDonato Associates, located in the 600 block of Main Street, created a consultant team including: Foit-Albert Associates, from the 700 block of Main Street, URS Corporation, also located in Downtown Buffalo and Mathews Nielsen, a landscape architecture firm with several years of experience on the Erie Canal Harbor project. This ten month project will determine how automobiles will be integrated onto Main Street between Edward/Goodell and HSBC Arena.

The Preliminary Engineering Design phase includes the design and location of the Metro Rail stations, the design of an attractive pedestrian-scale streetscape, how traffic signals and curb parking spaces will be incorporated and coordinate with developments in lower Main Street. The consultants have collected base information, completed an engineering survey, designed a computerized traffic model to forecast vehicle and Metro Rail car behavior, and developed concepts for redesigned Metro Rail Stations and the streetscape. Final design of the first phase of construction, the Theatre District, will start in 2007.

Capital Funding: The New York State legislature approved an $8 million appropriation for the lower Main Street phase of construction expected to occur in 2008. Buffalo Place is most appreciative of the efforts of our State Assemblymen and Senators.

Thank you to our Western New York Federal Delegation for securing $6 million to build the first construction phase in the Theatre District. The City of Buffalo is working hard to accomplish the goal of starting this construction next year. Buffalo Place would especially like to thank Congressman Brian Higgins for securing $4 million and Senators Hillary Clinton and Charles Schumer for contributing an additional $2 million. Over the next few years, the Western New York community will have to work together with our State and Federal officials to obtain funding to complete construction.

Environmental Review: The environmental review of the Main Street Multi-Modal Access and Revitalization Project under SEQRA was completed in early 2003. Buffalo Place participated as a project sponsor with the City of Buffalo, NFTA, Erie County, The New York State Department of Transportation and the GBNRTC. A preferred alternative was selected following the previous year of detailed consideration of alternatives and their impacts on the economic and environmental health of Downtown. The Downtown community was involved through numerous public meetings, web postings, email status reports and review by Downtown advocacy organizations. Buffalo Place was involved with outreach to property and tenant contacts as well as Downtown community advocates.

The preferred alternative is for vehicular traffic to share the trainway with Metro Rail. Sufficient sidewalk width (20-26’) remains to retain the landscaping, benches and amenities that make Main Street a “Pedestrian Street” but the scale can be reduced to a more comfortable level. Two lanes of vehicular traffic, narrowed Metro Rail stations and 150 curb parking spaces will add vitality during those off-peak hours that now appear desolate due to excessively wide sidewalks. ERM Associates, the Environmental Review consultant, determined significant economic benefit from increased accessibility and visibility of Main Street properties.

The City of Buffalo, as the lead agency for the State Environmental Review Process, made the official determination of “No Significant Impact.” A four-year implementation schedule developed with preliminary engineering design for the length of the transit mall to be done in the first year, followed by three phases of construction, per available funding. One of the major conclusions is that each construction phase must be completed during one construction season so that businesses are not unnecessarily impacted.

Federal Environmental Review under NEPA is being conducted by the Federal Transit Administration and is ongoing.

Current work on Returning Vehicular Traffic to Main Street is the preliminary engineering design between Edward and Scott Streets. Funding for this work was provided by the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), thanks to an allocation by former Congressman Jack Quinn, NYS DOT, the City and NFTA. The goal is for design and construction of the first phase, the Theatre District, to follow the next year. Buffalo Place will inform our constituents of the status of the project, request advocacy for funding when needed and work to communicate design and construction issues

Geographic information Systems

Geographic Information Systems, better known as GIS is a computer mapping program that allows maps to be easily created and altered. Buffalo Place uses GIS to display and analyze data we have collected or originated for the use of property owners, decision- makers, realtors and the general public.

Maps have been created for Planning Department analysis and reports, as well as for other Departments, agencies, companies and citizens. Some of the information that has been mapped includes housing locations, on-street parking regulations and off-street parking locations. Buffalo Place owes a debt of gratitude to the various agencies that also use GIS and share data and knowledge with us. These partners include Erie County Department of Environment and Planning, City of Buffalo Office of Strategic Planning, NFTA and the GBNRTC