Northland Corridor - Neighborhood Plan
While BUDC is focusing on redeveloping key properties along Northland Avenue, the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency is preparing a Neighborhood Strategy for the larger neighborhood. BURA studied the demographic, housing, and economic trends of the neighborhood from 2000 to 2013 to better understand the neighborhood. At the center of this effort is a comprehensive public outreach process in which BURA is engaging a broad reach of the Northland community, to include stakeholder meetings, establishment of a stakeholder's advisory committee, and multiple public meetings. The Northland project team understands the importance of two-way communication and collaborative problem solving with community members to achieve better and more acceptable decisions on the future of the neighborhood.
Download Northland Neighborhood Strategy - (PDF)
With the initial draft strategy, BURA's recommendations include:
Economic Development
Reinvigorating the economy of the Northland neighborhood is essential for stimulating the level of investment and wealth necessary to reduce poverty and unemployment in the neighborhood while creating the level of prosperity needed to enhance the standard of living of all people. This plan takes a three-pronged approach to accomplish this using recently established policies and programs.
- The first approach involves the redevelopment of the Northland Corridor to attract employers to locate jobs within the neighborhood while reducing blight from vacant industrial buildings and brownfields.
- The second approach is the creation of the Western New York Workforce Training Center to train neighborhood residents in the skills needed to access the jobs that are being created along the Northland Corridor and elsewhere in the region.
- The third approach invests in small, locally-owned businesses within the neighborhood as guided by the Better Buffalo Fund (BBF).
Housing
Housing is the core of every neighborhood and should be a focal point in any neighborhood plan. This plan understands three key actions to be taken with respects to housing in the Northland neighborhood:
- Rehabilitation of existing houses whenever possible.
- Demolition of select houses beyond repair.
- Infill construction of new houses on vacant lots.
- Vacant lot management needs to be coordinated and integrated within each of these actions, so that these lots become neighborhood assets and not concerns.
Infrastructure
A neighborhood's public realm is the common space belonging to everyone, affecting both living standards and commerce, while its aesthetic enhances quality of life. Investment in public infrastructure must be comprehensive, targeting each street at a time, to include street, sidewalks, and curbs. Supplementary improvements should include: utility lines, street lighting, trees, and community facilities such as playgrounds.