King Urban Life Neighborhood Transformation Plan “A Neighborhood of Choice, The King Urban Life.”

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King Urban Life Neighborhood Transformation Plan “A Neighborhood of Choice, The King Urban Life.”

URP582 Final Report Fall 2017

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Prepared for: The King Urban Life Center Buffalo, New York Fall 2017

Center For Urban Studies 330 Hayes Hall University at Buffalo Buffalo, NY 14214-0832 www.centerforurbanstudies.ap.buffalo.edu

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Table of Contents Acknowledgements v Project Team vii List of Acronyms viii Glossary x Executive Summary xv Introduction 2 The Role of the King Urban Life Center 6 Methodology 6 Part I: The Challenge 9 Introduction 10 The Planning and Development Context 14 Relationship of the Neighborhood To These Developments 16 The People of King Urban Life Neighborhood 17 Education 19 The World of Work 21 Income 23 Households 26 House Values 30 Conclusions 31 The Neighborhood Design Challenge 33 The Neighborhood Visual Landscape 33 Unbuilt lots 34 Abandoned Structures 37 Connectivity of streets 38 Sidewalk Conditions 40 311 Call Analysis 41 The Housing Challenge 43 Rental Housing 44 Rental Housing & The Neighborhood Image 44 Home Maintenance 45 Housing Burden 46 Control Over Neighborhood Development 47 Ownership of Unbuilt Land by City of Buffalo 48 Ownership of Rental Units by Outside Interests 49 Transportation Linkages 50 Private & Public Transportation 50 Pedestrians and Bicycles 51 City Planning and Zoning Context 53 The Buffalo Green Code 53

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The Neighborhood Asset Base 56 The King Urban Life Center 56 Martin Luther King, Jr. Park 59 Buffalo Museum of Science & Magnet School 60 East High School 62 Wilson Street Urban Farm 63 Part Two: The Neighborhood Transformation Plan 66 The Planning Process 66 Neighborhood Design 68 Mixed-Use, Walkable Neighborhoods 68 Complete Streets & Streetscapes 69 Public Art 71 Reuse of Unbuilt Lots 76 Native Ground Cover 77 Recommendations: 77 Rain Gardens 79 Recommendations: 79 King Urban Trail System 81 Recommendations: 81 Food Trailers 86 Community Gardens 87 Recommendations 87 Commercial Infill Development 92 Gathering Spaces 95 Playgrounds 95 Housing Planning 96 Existing Homeowners 96 Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency 97 City of Buffalo Emergency Repair Program 98 Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services 98 U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) 98 Renters 99 Strategy One: From Renting to Owning 99 City of Buffalo Office of Strategic Planning 100 Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America 100 HUD Reverse Mortgages 100 Strategy Two: Improving Existing Rental Units 101 Bolstering the Neighborhood Visual Image 101 New Housing Options 103 Cohousing 103 Multigenerational Housing 103 Potential Sites 104

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Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives 105 Funding Opportunities 106 HOME Investment Partnerships Program 106 HOME Program 106 The Public Policy Framework 107 Community Land Trust 107 Land Trust Models 110 Volunteer Building Code Inspectors 116 Community Brigades 118 The Youthbuild Program 119 Neighborhood Districting 120 Neighborhood Improvement Districts 120 Tax Increment Financing Districts 122 Financing Redevelopment 124 Funding for Affordable Housing 124 Energy Efficiency 126 Funding for Mixed Use/Commercial Projects 127 Brownfield Redevelopment 129 Funding for Community Gardens 131 Funding for Temporary Reuse of Land 133 Monetization of State Tax Credits 134 Community Building 135 Reactivating and Regenerating Block Clubs 135 Organizing Community Events 138 Part III:Implementation 143 Phase 1: Development Zone A [Years:1- 5 ] 146 Activity One: Ground Covering of Unbuilt Lots owned by the City of Buffalo 147 Activity Two: Neighborhood Volunteer Outreach Campaign 147 Activity Three: Policy steps 148 Activity Four: Infill Development 149 Phase 2: Development Zone B [Years:4- 7] 150 Catalyst Project: 207 Guilford Street Warehouse Acquisition & Redevelopment 150 Activity One: Community Brigade 150 Activity Two: Infill Development Projects 151 Phase 3: Development Zone C [Years:7- 10 ] 154 Catalyst Project: Commercial development at 630 Genesee Street 154 Performance Indicators 160 Bibliography 162

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Acknowledgements The King Urban Life Neighborhood Transformation Plan wouldn’t have been possible without the collaborative efforts of individuals and organizations passionate about the undertaking of community transformation. The value of knowledge gained through interviews, meetings, and extensive conversation did not go unnoticed while forming strategies to bring back an iconic neighborhood.

First and foremost, thank you to the King Urban Life Center for fostering an ongoing partnership with us at the University at Buffalo. Your presence as the major stakeholder and asset within the neighborhood underlies all suggested policy and implementation recommendations in this plan.

The residents of the neighborhood and their feedback regarding improvements or recommendations were a major driving force behind our efforts.

Thank you to Camden Miller and Pascal Buggs, who have guided the studio team with wisdom, knowledge, and constant encouragement as Teaching Assistants. For your insight, thank you also to Susan Cotner, Executive Director of the Albany Community Land Trust; Jenifer Kaminsky, Housing Director of the Buffalo Neighborhood Stabilization Company; Jocelyn Gordon, Executive Direction of the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corporation; Sarah Wooten, Policy Analyst at the Partnership for the Public Good; Zaid Islam, Fruit Belt Resident and member of the Community First Alliance; and Richard Rogers.

Finally, a very special thank you to Dr. Henry L. Taylor, Jr., the Professor of our studio and a driving force behind the King Urban Life Neighborhood Transformation Plan. Your extensive knowledge, passion, and dedication to the neighborhood and systemic change for development have shaped this plan to its full potential. As both students and future planners, we have deep gratitude for your hard work.

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Project Team Dr.Henry Louis Taylor Jr., Professor Pascal Buggs, Teaching Asistant Camden Miller, Teaching Assistant

Neighborhood Design Team:

Kathleen da Silva, Jacques Garcia, Juweria Dahir,Jim Cielenski

Housing Team:

James Quinn, Emma Phillips, Joy Resor

Finance & Policy Team:

David Riley, Darnell Rivera, ,Tim Hurysz

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List of Acronyms AARP - American Association of Retired Persons ACS - American Community Survey AHOD - Affordable HomeOwnership Development Program AMI - Area Median Income BENLIC - Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corporation BNMC - Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus BOA - Brownfield Opportunity Areas BURA - Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency CDBG - Community Development Block Grant CDE - Community Development Entities DEC - New York State Department of Environmental Conservation DOE - Department of Energy DPCC - Down Payment and Closing Cost Assistance EPA - U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ESD - Empire State Development ESNMC - Empire State New Market Corporation HCR - New York State Homes and Community Renewal HOME - HOME Investment Partnerships Program HUD - Housing and Urban Development KULC - King Urban Life Center KULN - King Urban Life Neighborhood KUTS- King Urban Trail System LISC - Local Initiatives Support Corporation MSA - Metropolitan Statistical Area NACA - Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America NYSERDA - New York State Energy Research Development Authority PJ - Participating Jurisdiction PUSH - People United for Sustainable Housing UB - University at Buffalo WAP - Weatherization Assistance Program

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Glossary Abandoned Structure - a vacant building or residence, typically a tax-delinquent property Accessibility - the ability for anyone to get from one area to another without difficulty; accessibility most often refers to differently-abled individuals and their ease of movement in an area Affordability - the cost of something compared to the amount of money someone has; housing affordability in a city or region is the cost of a house or rental unit in comparison to the area median household income American Community Survey - An ongoing survey by the United States Census Bureau that continually gathers data on population, housing, ancestry and employment Beautification - making aesthetic or visual improvements to an area Blight - decline, dilapidation, or economic downturn in a neighborhood Block Club - An association or group of residents within the same block who work together for the common goal of safety and well being Block Group - the smallest unit of measure used by the U.S. Census Bureau when tracking census data; the measure is a fraction of the households within a census tract; provides scaled down data within a census tract to focus on a specific area Buffalo Green Code - A place-based development strategy by the city of Buffalo by using a Land Use Plan to guide physical development Canalside - An economic and recreational center in the city of Buffalo that spans across the Inner Harbor Census Tract - a unit of measure used by the U.S. Census Bureau, a tract is made up of block groups and is about the size of a neighborhood, encompassing around 2,500 to 8,000 households Cohousing - A intentional, private community of homes or apartments clustered around a shared space with a focus on interactions and relationship building Commercial - concerned with finance and profit Common Council - the legislative branch of government that is made up of representatives from different districts of a city; in Buffalo, the Common Council representative assembly is comprised of nine delegates from the city’s nine districts

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Community Brigade - A group of individuals working together towards improvements in their neighborhood Community Garden - a garden that is owned and maintained by a community, allowing them control over what is grown in the area Community Land Trust - a swath of commonly owned land in a city or region that supports affordable housing for stakeholders of the land Complete Streets - Streets designed for safety of all users including pedestrians, motorists, bicyclists and public transit riders usually incorporating adequate crosswalks, bike lanes and bus stops.

Connectivity - the ease of flow throughout an area using streets, paths, and sidewalks; the ability to get from one part of an area to another quickly Food Trailer - a restaurant on wheels that provides food typically at a lower cost than a brick and mortar store Ground Cover-Plants that cover a vast amount of area Housing Burden - When one’s mortgage or rent exceeds 30% of their total monthly income Housing Security - the relative comfort that residents feel living in a home; typically measured by housing tenure, housing affordability, and other factors Housing Stock - the number of houses within a housing market; this can extend locally, regionally, and nationally Infill development - The process of new builds on unbuilt parcels Intergenerational - Involving multiple generations working within a common activity or place Landscaping Brigade - A group of individuals within a neighborhood who assist one another and those in needs with front yard landscaping and maintenance Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives - A member-owned group that has control over the land, buildings and common areas in which they live Market Control - manipulation of the market in order to cause a specific economic outcome

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Millennial - The demographic cohort following Generation X. Birth dates range from late 80’s to early 90’s and stop in the early 2000’s.

Mixed-Use - Pedestrian friendly development that blends and incorporates two or more of the following: residential, commercial, industrial, cultural, institutional Multigenerational - Involving multiple generations Municipality - A city or town that has corporate status and a local government Neighborhood Improvement Districts - an area of public investment within a city or region that is balanced out by assessments against properties within the area in order to repay the public money Nonprofit - A tax-exempt organization formed to dedicate its purpose of working towards a social cause Parcel - A lot or tract of land owned by an individual or local government Per Capita Income - The average income earned per person in a given area for a specific year. Calculated by dividing the areas total income by its total population Performance Indicator - a measurement that demonstrates how effective an organization, a plan, or a group is at achieving their goals Poverty - lack or scarcity of resources, mostly used to describe financial status Rain Garden-a planted depresson that allows rain water runoff the opportunity to be absorbed.

Rehabilitation - the process of repairing or restoring an old, dilapidated, or abandoned structure in order to improve its value Rust Belt - Region within the United States clustered in the Midwest and surrounding Great Lakes that went through a period of economic decline, along with population loss due to the shrinking of the industrial sector Smart Growth-Planning strategy that seeks to foster community design and development that serves the economy , community, public health, and the environment.

Social Capital - a network of social relationships that are interwoven throughout a community that allow that society to function and thrive Squatting - residing in a structure or on land that is not owned or rented by the person living there

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Stewardship - The act of taking care of or supervising a place, Streetscape - the design of a street, similar to landscape, that dictates the visual imagery of an area Studio Apartment - A small living space consisting of one main room with no barriers Tax Credit - the amount of money that a taxpayer can deduct from their annual government-owed taxes Tax Delinquent - Taxes that are unpaid past their due date Tax Increment Financing Districts - an area which receives a public subsidy for redevelopment of the neighborhood, infrastructure improvements, and other community-based projects Thoroughfare - A highly utilized main road connecting two major locations Unbuilt lots- Lots that previously contained built structures that are currently .

Underdeveloped - having the potential for growth but lacking the proper investment Urban Farm - an agricultural area set within a city or metropolitan area that sells and distributes food to residents U.S. Census - a nation-wide survey performed every ten years by the U.S. Census Bureau to collect population information from individual households; the survey evaluates a number of different factors, including income, race, gender, age, etc. in order to track population change Vacancy - an empty or unoccupied area, building, home Vandalism - deliberate destruction or damage to property, including public or private property Walkable - An area that is suitable and safe for pedestrians travelling by foot Zoning - Dividing land within a municipality into categories that allow or prohibit certain activities

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Introduction

Executive Summary

The King Urban Life Neighborhood (KULN) Transformation Plan is a place-based strategy to transform the KULN into a vibrant, energetic, and prosperous community of choice for its existing residents, as well as future ones. The Plan rejects the common narrative that nothing can be done to redevelop this and other predominantly Black communities on the East Side of Buffalo, and instead adopts a resident-driven approach to neighborhood development. The Plan is built upon a vision for a walkable community with a high quality of life and desirable housing for both owners and renters, embedded in a visually attractive landscape with transportation connections to all parts of the region.

The King Urban Life Center (KULC) and community residents will implement the Plan, which is shaped by six guiding principles: A neighborhood unit approach to development that addresses the entire neighborhood’s challenges in stages; empowering residents to control and manage the planning and neighborhood development process; engaging residents in the planning and implementation process; collaborating with both internal and external partners; building green infrastructure to help make the KULN a healthier community; and building a policy framework to enable residents to implement the Plan and to control market dynamics that would undermine it.

To achieve these goals, the Plan consists of three interrelated parts. The first is an in-depth analysis of existing conditions, challenges, and assets in the KULN. The second part presents the neighborhood transformation plan, which has five areas of emphasis: Neighborhood design, housing planning, a public policy framework, financing options for redevelopment, and community building.

The third and final section provides an implementation strategy for the Plan, which is divided into three geographical areas and three separate phases that build on one another.

Part I: The Site, Situation and Challenge The KULN is a majority Black, mixed-income community that is dominated by low-income groups. It is located in the predominantly Black Lower East Side community of the City of Buffalo.

The neighborhood incorporates Martin Luther King, Jr. Park and is a short distance from downtown Buffalo and numerous major developments, including the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.

The neighborhood draws its name from the KULC, which is located in the St. Mary of Sorrows Church at Genesee and Rich streets. The neighborhood is bordered to the west by Jefferson Avenue and the Kensington Expressway; to the north by Girard Place and Fougeron Street; to the east by East Parade Avenue and Fillmore Avenue; and to the south by Broadway.

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This is a low-density, extreme housing loss neighborhood that continues to lose both population and housing units. Both the city and region also continue to lose population, but the KULN is shrinking at a faster pace. The KULN’s population decreased 33.9% from 2000 to 2011-2015, a loss of more than 1,700 people. This dynamic has led to the prevalence of unbuilt lots, abandonment, and blight, all of which present serious concerns for the KULN’s future. At the same time, outside interests control much of the land in the KULN, including the City of Buffalo and absentee owners.

Residents will need to regain control of city-owned parcels to restore power over their community.

Other challenges include poorly-maintained rental housing, streets, and sidewalks, as well as inadequate street lighting.

These problems combine with unbuilt lots and abandoned structures create a dilapidated and foreboding visual landscape and a disjointed neighborhood design. Abandoned buildings and unbuilt lots also lead to depressed home values, the decline of community and business assets, and safety concerns. Adding to these problems, residential streets are characterized by long and narrow blocks that are subdivided by high-traffic arterial roads, promoting isolation of neighbors instead of inclusiveness and interaction. Transportation options are limited, as most bus stops are uncovered with nowhere to sit, and conditions for pedestrians and cyclists are inadequate.

The neighborhood faces significant housing issues as well. The number of occupied housing units in the KULN declined 25% between 2000 and 2011-2015. The KULN’s median household value dropped $10,000 during the same period. Slightly more than half (51.1%) of neighborhood residents rent their homes, while 48.9% are homeowners. Each of these groups faces challenges.

Renters face relatively high gross rents and significant issues with unkept, poorly maintained rental properties whose owners often live in other parts of the city, state, and country. Meanwhile, homeowners often have difficulty maintaining the KULN’s relatively old housing stock and lack access to financial assistance to make necessary repairs. Overall, 69% of KULN residents also are “housing burdened,” meaning that they spend 30% or more of their total household income on rent or mortgage payments.

Despite these challenges, the KULN is rich with assets that make up a strong foundation for neighborhood planning. These include the KULC, the Buffalo Museum of Science and Magnet School, East Community High School, Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, and Wilson Street Urban Farm.

Part II: The Neighborhood Transformation Plan The KULN Transformation Plan builds on previous plans and research about the neighborhood, including earlier work by Professor Henry L. Taylor, Jr., his graduate students and the University at Buffalo Center for Urban Studies. The planning team also used focus group transcripts to gain an understanding of KULN residents’ hopes and concerns, which are central to the Plan. The planning team then conducted neighborhood walkthroughs and informal interviews with residents; analyzed data from the U.S. Census Bureau and City of Buffalo’s 311 call system; studied existing neighborhood conditions and potential interventions; and identified programs and policies that could bring these interventions to fruition.

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The Plan’s neighborhood design recommendations focus on creating a framework to improve the KULN’s physical environment in both functional and visual terms, at both the block and neighborhood scales. This includes planting native ground covers on unbuilt lots as a low-cost, effective, and aesthetically-pleasing strategy to improve the KULN’s overall image until further uses are identified for unbuilt properties. Ground cover should be colorized and applied thematically to distinguish different parts of the neighborhood and contribute to placemaking.

Rain gardens also can aid in beautification while capturing and filtering stormwater runoff; a trail system with stone walkways, distinguished by plantings of perennials, can foster community by providing connections between blocks while also contributing to beautification and placemaking.

Public art also can be used to bolster an increased sense of community and identity, while also acting as a traffic calming intervention. Major thoroughfares will be converted into “commons,” or public spaces for residents to gather. Longer-term options for reuse of unbuilt lots include strategic infill development, community gardens, playgrounds, and sites for food trailers to do business. The Plan recommends an overall “Butterfly District” theme for the KULN, emphasizing positive transformation and growth.

The housing section of the Plan seeks to correct the problems of population decline, poor housing quality, and housing burdens by improving the quality of existing housing, improving the visual image of all housing units, making housing more affordable, and developing new housing options.

This approach requires addressing the needs of both renters and homeowners. The Plan seeks to connect KULN homeowners with programs and services that can assist homeowners with improving their houses, while also helping eligible renters to purchase their own homes. In addition, the plan recommends training residents to identify and report building code violations for enforcement.

To improve the visual image of the neighborhood, gardening and landscaping should be promoted throughout the KULN, in part by establishing a brigade of volunteers who can help homeowners with landscaping tasks. To stabilize the population, increase affordability and improve housing quality, new housing options also are needed. The Plan recommends multigenerational homes, which would be targeted in part to Black and Asian residents; cohousing targeted to new residents; affordable multifamily housing that would provide families easy access to the Head Start and after-school programs at the KULC; and studio apartments for a relatively high population that lives alone. Wherever possible, a limited equity housing cooperative model should be used to encourage collective ownership and responsibility while increasing affordability.

The public policy framework establishes new initiatives and legislation that would be required to implement the Plan. The most critical vehicle to ensure that residents are positioned to control and direct the development process in the KULN is the formation of a community land trust. This nonprofit entity would be able to acquire, own, and manage land on behalf of the community.

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The land trust would enable the KULN to control market dynamics and promote forms of collective ownership and democracy in the neighborhood; it also would serve as a vehicle for maintaining housing affordability. Second, the Plan recommends the formation of several community groups, including the volunteer code inspectors described above and a community brigade made up of high school students who would be trained in the building trades and be able to assist residents with basic repairs and maintenance work. The Plan also provides options for a neighborhood improvement district or a tax increment financing district, which ultimately could be vehicles to capture revenue generated within the KULN to reinvest in neighborhood programs and services.

The Plan details a variety of potential funding sources, including local, state, and federal funds, to finance redevelopment. Finally, the plan provides strategies for community building through the reactivation of block clubs and organizing community events such as a Clean-A-Thon.

Part III: Implementation To facilitate implementation, the Plan recommends dividing the neighborhood into three Development Zones. The first, Zone A, will extend from Girard Place and Fougeron Street, just of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park, to Genesee Street. Development Zone B will extend from Genesee Street to Sycamore Avenue and will be bounded on the west and east by Jefferson and Fillmore Avenues.

Development Zone C will extend from Sycamore Street to Broadway, with the zone bounded by Jefferson and Fillmore Avenues. The project also would unfold in phases corresponding to activities within each of the three zones, with catalytic projects attached to each phase. This multi-step approach is designed to build momentum and support for the Plan, while also providing opportunities to identify successes and obstacles as they arise.

Phase 1 (0-5 years) focuses on Development Zone A. Its main strategy is to consolidate community support for the Plan, bolster community engagement, and start the implementation process.

At this stage, the Plan should be presented to neighborhood residents and stakeholders for input, revised accordingly, and presented again to residents at a Neighborhood Fair before the document is finalized. A volunteer outreach campaign also would be critical to building engagement, along with efforts to identify partners to start linking residents with programs and services to make home repairs or rehabilitations.

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Implementation would focus on improving the KULN’s visual image, launching the housing strategy, and building the policy framework. Starting on Rich and Guilford Streets and working outward, the neighborhood should begin negotiating with the City of Buffalo to access unbuilt lots, begin planting low-maintenance ground cover on them, and launch a small-scale community garden that could be maintained by youths involved in KULC programs. Targeted infill on Rich and Genesee Streets should focus on affordable multifamily housing and mixed-use development with apartments, respectively. The policy work must include establishing a community land trust board, articles of incorporation, and bylaws, and exploring partnerships with potential partners for the operation of the land trust and/or redevelopment projects.

Phase 2 (4-7 years) would include the first major acquisition of the land trust in Zone B. The Plan recommends acquiring a warehouse at 207 Guilford Street, which is tax delinquent and could potentially be rehabilitated into cohousing or a mixed-income apartment complex. At this stage, the neighborhood also should establish a community brigade, potentially through a partnership with the Buffalo chapter of YouthBuild and East Community High School. Continued housing infill should be targeted for Guilford Street, where a City-owned could be developed for multifamily apartments, and Sherman Street, where a site across from an established park provides an opportunity for mixed-income studio apartments. Work to plant ground cover would continue throughout Zone B, along with trail development. Wherever possible, collective ownership models should be used for housing development projects to encourage shared responsibility and affordability.

Phase 3 (Years:7-10) would see construction of cohousing and studio apartments on additional sites on Sherman Street, as well as the creation of limited equity cooperatives. The first major commercial development should be targeted to Genesee Street near its intersection with Jefferson, where a large area of unbuilt land provides convenient access to the Kensington Expressway. The Plan provides a conceptual proposal for an Upcycling Recycling Center (URC), a unique type of recycling business that would focus on collecting and finding new uses for hard-to-recycle materials.

Ground cover plantings and trail development would continue throughout Zone C. Performance indicators The Plan provides performance indicators to track progress on the neighborhood transformation plan, including metrics for improvements in housing quality, upgrades to street infrastructure, and implementation of policies and initiatives. Overall, the Plan envisions a 10-year implementation period, with some flexibility for additional time as needed.

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Introduction

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Introduction The King Urban Life Neighborhood (KULN) is a predominantly black neighborhood, located in the central part of the city to the east of Main Street, which divides Buffalo into western and eastern sectors.

The neighborhood is ideally situated near the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, Inc., a consortium of medical care and health science research centers, including the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Buffalo General Hospital and the University at Buffalo, and downtown Buffalo. This site places the KULN within orbit of Western New York prime arc of development and ground zero of a resurgent rustbelt city, which has adopted Buffalo Rising as its slogan. The challenge is while Buffalo is rising, many of the city’s African American and Latinx neighborhoods are not. The City of Buffalo is formulating a market-driven housing strategy to inform its housing investment strategies (City of Buffalo, 2017).

Toward this end, it has developed five market types of neighborhoods and residential areas: Highest Demand; Moderate Demand; Soft Demand; Low Demand; and Lowest Demand [See Map 1].

Map 1. Housing market demand in Buffalo. Source: City of Buffalo, 2017.

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This approach to neighborhood development embeds the KULN in the lowest demand sub housing market in Buffalo and the metropolitan region. Particularly disturbing, this approach uses the fronting block as the prime redevelopment unit, then deploys a market- and developer-driven approach to revitalization. Using this methodology, the City’s housing reports says, “in many respects, the housing market has collapsed and is unresponsive to stimulation or correction” (City of Buffalo, 2017. 20). Therefore, the housing strategy suggests that nothing can be done to redevelop such communities until market demand sparks developer interest in the community. Until that happens, the plans suggest that you “clean and green areas adjacent to key assets” and identify other people based initiatives, while ignoring investments in the physical environment (City of Buffalo, 2017. 38).

The KULN Transformation Plan rejects this narrative and the prime assumption upon which it is based. Anchoring this City’s proposed housing strategy is that neighborhood intervention should be market and developer driven and should occur at the block scale. We believe that neighborhood development can also be resident-driven and should occur at the neighborhood scale, where boundaries are carefully delineated. While some targeted activities should occur at the block scale, other activities can occur at a larger neighborhood scale. Regardless, the neighborhood unit should be the planning unit and it should be driven by a carefully developed plan.

The KULN Transformation Plan intends to change this narrative by turning the KULN into a vibrant, energetic, and prosperous community for the actually existing residents, as well as future ones. Our vision is to create a walkable community with a high quality of life, anchored by desirable housing for owners and renters embedded in a visually attractive landscape; a place that offers residents multiple opportunities for enjoyable encounters with neighbors in a wholesome, nurturing environment and transportation connections to all parts of the region.

This vision captures our desire to recreate the KULN as a neighborhood of choice. People live in this community because it is a desirable place to reside, work, play, and raise a family. In most of Buffalo’s underdeveloped neighborhoods, people believe that the only way to improve their lives is to move to other locations. In the KULN, along with many other East Side neighborhoods, the community has been losing population. This plan intends to change this scenario by employing a place-based strategy that produces a safe sustainable community with healthy homes embedded within a welldesigned neighborhood setting. Implementation of the KULN Transformation Plan will be led by the King Urban Life Center (KULC) in partnership with community residents, and there will be six guiding principles that shape development of the plan and its successful implementation.

1. The Neighborhood Unit Approach to Development

Intervention strategies based on individual parcels or blocks are bound to fail unless they occur in moderate to high demand communities where higher-income whites are overrepresented and market activity is robust. Outside of such areas where forceful market dynamics are not driving the market, development should be a conscious and intentional process, which uses the neighborhood as the prime

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planning unit. This approach makes it possible to understand the challenges facing the entire neighborhood and then forge a staged approach to development, which evolves in a protracted and systematic approach that may occur simultaneously at the parcel and block scale, as well the larger KULN as a whole.

2. Control over Neighborhood Development The neighborhood should belong to the people who live in and experience it on a daily basis.

They have a right to shape and develop it in a way that meets their needs and values. This is our point of departure in the neighborhood development process. Community needs should therefore outweigh all other needs in the recreation and regeneration of the KULN. This necessitates empowering residents to control and manage the planning and neighborhood development process.

Concurrently, much of the land in the KULN is owned and controlled by non-residents. Central to the neighborhood planning process, then, is acquiring the capacity to guide and direct neighborhood regeneration down a development pathway that is desirable and beneficial to the current and future residents. This approach to planning will enable residents to control market dynamics, thereby ensuring that the neighborhood evolves in a manner desirable to the actually existing community.

3. Resident Engagement

Resident engagement is integral to the neighborhood control of development value. The KULN Transformation Plan must therefore be anchored by the active involve of residents in the planning and implementation process. The development and implementation of this plan is a process, not an event.

For the plan to be successfully implemented, residents must be organized and engaged in aspects of the planning and implementation process. Without their active participation, the plan will not become a living document capable of driving the recreation and regeneration of the community. Toward this end, resident engagement must be institutionalized and based on values, inclusiveness, capacity building, equity, and mutual respect. The community must be active in the planning process, which requires establishing a well thought-out and meaningful relationship with the community. Resident engagement is not automatic, but must be catalyzed by the lead neighborhood planning organization, the KULC. 4. Collaboration The KULC is part of a larger network of neighborhoods and communities comprising metropolitan Buffalo. The successful transformation of the community will therefore require building a partnership with organizations, institutions and businesses inside and outside the neighborhood. This collaboration will help to leverage the existing assets and partner organizations to design and implement a wide spectrum of solutions to the challenges faced by the residents or the KULN. In particular, the development and implementation of this transformation plan will require interaction and cooperation with local and state government.

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5. Neighborhood Green Infrastructure The KULN is laced with major arteries that enable thousands of vehicles to pass through a daily basis.

These are cars, buses, and trucks and are polluters that diminish air quality in the community. This combined with other urban environment issues, such as stormwater management, indoor air pollution, and the heat island effect demands the building of a neighborhood green infrastructure to bolster the urban ecosystem, improve energy efficiency, and transform KULC into a healthy community.

6. Development of a policy framework The regeneration of the KULN will require the development of new community building organizations and the establishment of a legal framework enabling the residents to achieve its development goals and to control market dynamics. At the core of this value is that housing affordability and quality are public policy issues, and local government has a responsibility to ensure that residents live in quality housing that is affordable. Low-income is a veritable concept that is based on the cost of living in any given region.

Hence, low-incomes in New York City are not the same as low-incomes in Rochester, Binghamton, or Buffalo. Thus, public policies must be pursued that create a framework that enables low-income groups, including those with extremely low-incomes to live in healthy and affordable neighborhoods.

Figure 1. Guiding Principles for KULN Development

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The Role of the King Urban Life Center The KULN is a community with challenges; however, it is a community with the potential to become an iconic neighborhood in the City of Buffalo. Indicative of its strength and importance to the community, the KULC has transformed the St. Mary of Sorrows Roman Catholic Church into a neighborhood anchor institution, with its programming centered on the delivery of educational services. The KULC is not only a major asset, which is housed in a historic landmark, but it will be the lead organization in the implementation of this transformation plan. It will be responsible for engaging residents, building the network of collaborators, and solving the problems associated with the ongoing plan development and implementation process. Within the KULC’s organizational framework, its Neighborhood Development Committee will be playing the leading role.

Methodology The KULN neighborhood plan uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods, relying on a variety of secondary data sources. Much of the foundational research was conducted in the neighborhood by the U.B. Center for Urban Studies, Professor Taylor’s Spring 2015 and 2016 class on Race, Class, and Gender in the City. Camden Miller’s Master’s Thesis, The Martin Luther King Jr. Neighborhood Development Initiative: The Challenge of Renters and Homeowners in a Shrinking, Underdeveloped Neighborhood. Based on the limits of time, the studio planning team did not engage the residents collectively, but they did rely on focus group transcripts from owners and renters, and about 30 house to house surveys completed in 2016.

Additionally, the planning team had the opportunity to study Buffalo Housing Opportunity Strategy prepared by czb LLC, the consultants hired by the Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency (BURA).

The planning team did fieldwork in the neighborhood, where assessments were made of the condition of all residential properties in the KULN, including renter and owner-occupied houses, and sidewalks.

During the assessment, counts of abandoned buildings, unbuilt lots, and vacant commercial buildings were tracked by street and block. Additionally, the planning team made field trips to observe everyday life and to speak informally to residents. Analyzing and synthesizing the findings from this data played a crucial role in understanding current conditions and identifying unmet needs. Finally, data from the City of Buffalo 311 Call Center was used to evaluate citizen complaints for the KULN. This plan also uses data from the U.S. Census, both the 2000 Decennial Census and American Community Survey 2011-15 (5-year estimates) to gain insights into demographic and socioeconomic trends in the neighborhood and to compare the KULN to other residential areas in the city and in Erie County. Additionally, this plan examined the KULN at the block group scale to gain insights to the internal dynamics of the neighborhood. This microscopic view of neighborhood life allows us to prioritize the neighborhood in terms of development.

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Due to a shift in census tract classification in between the 2000 Decennial Census and the 2011-2015 American Community Survey (5-year estimates), we needed to adjust the boundaries of the KULN to fit the changing census tracts and block groups. In 2000, the neighborhood was comprised of Block Groups 1 and 2 in Census Tract 26, Block Groups 1, 2 and 3 in Tract 27.01, and Block Groups 6 and 7 in Tract 35. In the change, Tracts 26 and 27.01 were combined to create Tract 166 for the ACS 2011-15 (5-year estimates). The two block groups that comprised Tract 26 became Block Group 4, Tract 166. Block Group 1, Tract 27.01, became Block Group 2, Tract 166; Block Group 2, Tract 27.01, became Block Group 1, Tract 166; and Block Group 3, Tract 27.01, became Block Group 3, Tract 166.

In Tract 35, Block Groups 6 and 7 combined to become Block Group 4, Tract 35.

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Part I: The Challenge

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Introduction The goal of this section is to identify the housing and neighborhood needs of the residents of the KULN and to determine assets and weaknesses in the community. Using the insights gained from the research, this transformation plan will use Part 1 as a guide to design a housing and neighborhood strategy and develop a set of programs and services that will help the residents meet the challenges they face, thereby making positive outcomes achievable for the residents of the KULN. The Site and Situation KULN is located in the predominantly Black Lower East Side community of the City of Buffalo. The neighborhood incorporates the 156-year-old, Frederick Law Olmsted-designed Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. The Kensington Expressway, or State Route 33, separates KULN from the Fruit Belt and Masten Park neighborhoods immediately to the west. KULN is roughly 1 ½ miles from Lafayette Square in downtown Buffalo.

KULN draws its name from the St. Mary of Sorrows Church, which is the central point in the planning of the KULC at Genesee and Rich streets. The neighborhood is bordered to the west by Jefferson Avenue and the Kensington Expressway. Its northern edge runs along Girard Place and Fougeron Street, both of which are two blocks north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park (Map 3 & 4). The eastern border cuts down East Parade Avenue and Genesee Street before proceeding along Fillmore Avenue to Broadway, which forms the southern border of the neighborhood.

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Map 2. Buffalo Neighborhoods

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Map 3. King Urban Life Neighborhood Census Block Group

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Map 4. Boundaries of King Urban Life Neighborhood

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The Planning and Development Context Despite being a neighborhood with significant challenges, the KULN still has potential to be a vibrant mixed- income community. The KULN is situated near numerous developments that have stimulated further investments Downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. The Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (BUDC) reports $5.5 billion dollars of economic activity is currently underway Downtown (Buffalo Urban Development Corporation, 2016). For instance, the development of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus (BNMC) directly West of the KULN on the other side of the Kensington Expressway seen in Figure 4 below.

The BMNC is a conglomeration of medical institutions and organizations such as the Buffalo Medical Group, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, University at Buffalo, Kaleida Health, and the new John Oishei Children’s Hospital (Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus, 2016). The construction of the BNMC has been catalytic to further investments Downtown and has raised the value of property all around the Campus. In addition, developments in the Central Business District and Canalside to the South West seen in figure 4 have drastically changed the direction of the City’s economic development.

Downtown Buffalo has become a place for people to shop, play, and even live as a result.

Much like Downtown, MLK Jr. Park within the KULN has had improvements to its facilities including established bike lanes making it more accessible inside and out. Economic momentum has been taking shape over the past decade in the City of Buffalo. Inner city neighborhoods like the KULN will inevitably be affected by the increased investments and property values Downtown.

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Map 5. Downtown Development Area

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Relationship of the Neighborhood To These Developments Buffalo has witnessed significant development downtown and has created feelings of pride and optimism among certain residents. However, this feeling is not shared by everyone in the City of Buffalo, and the momentum of economic development has not been distributed equally. For instance, Buffalo’s East Side has had few if any such developments, what are designed to improve the quality of life for the actually existing population.

The City still has not addressed its dark history of structural racism. In the mid-20th century, inner cities in the U.S. went through a dramatic shift in population largely because of urban planning and urban renewal policies. During this period, “zoning laws, rise of mass homeownership, development of the amortized mortgage and state sponsored white suburbanization forces combined with economic change to force blacks to live perpetually on the cheapest and most undesirable residential lands in the metropolis” (Taylor, 2001, 3). A combination of these developments transformed the East Side into a predominantly black community situated in a landscape of unbuilt lots, abandonment, and zombie properties (Taylor, 2001).

Buffalo Rising has changed the planning and development context facing the KULN. The West Side and Downtown Buffalo are reaching the limits of development, which makes the East Side next developmental frontier. The KULN is situated near BNMC, the lower East Side, and Downtown, which places it just beyond the City’s prime arc of development. This positionality presents the KULN with both threats and opportunities.

The threat stems from the dangers of unbridled market dynamics, which include land speculation, deferred maintenance on rentals, displacement and gentrification. The opportunities stem from the possibility of recreating and redeveloping the neighborhood for the actually existing population. The KULN has numerous locational advantages and community assets, including the MLK Jr. Park and the Buffalo Museum of Science, so it has the possibilities of becoming a desirable neighborhood in which to live and work.

This plan lays the groundwork for launching a neighborhood driven and controlled transformation plan, so that the KULN becomes a vibrant neighborhood of choice for existing residents and newcomers to the community. In this context, the KULN is a low-density extreme housing loss neighborhood, which is still shrinking. This means that the neighborhood has the capacity to improve the quality of life for existing residents, while accommodating an influx of newcomersAt the same time, this has to be carefully managed. Real estate optimism can open a Pandora’s Box of market activities that can spawn undesirable change, even in shrinking neighborhoods characterized by extreme housing loss.

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The People of King Urban Life Neighborhood The KULN is a predominantly Black neighborhood. Black residents made up 94.7% of the population in 2011-2015, up from 93.6% in 2000. The White share of the population dropped during the same period, from 4% to 2.5%. Asian residents and multiracial people each represented slightly more than 1% of the KULN’s population in 2011-2015. There is an Asian population clustered in Block Group 1, Tract 166, where Asian residents represent 5.1% of the population. In contrast, in Block Group 2, Tract 166, Black residents made up 100% of the population.

Overall, the KULN is a shrinking community within a city and county that are losing population as well (Chart 1). The overall population of the neighborhood declined 33.9% from 2000 to 2011-2015 (from 5,119 people to 3,382). Population losses were not consistent throughout the neighborhood.

The largest decrease occurred in Block Group 3, Census Tract 166, where the population dropped 55.6%. By contrast, Block Group 4, Tract 166 declined only 2.7%.

Chart 1. Population of King Urban Life Neihgborhood

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The neighborhood’s population loss was consistent with an overall 27.2% decline in the larger Lower East Side neighborhood area, which includes the KULN. While all neighborhood areas on the city’s east side lost residents from 2000 to 2011-2015, the decline was greatest in the Lower East Side. The KULN’s population loss was greater than any large neighborhood area in Buffalo except Black Rock, which lost 56.9% of its population during this period. Meanwhile, during this period, neighborhood areas on the western side of the city gained population. The West Side area more than doubled (145%), from 18,324 residents to 44,885. Buffalo’s overall population declined 11.3% during this period, while Erie County dipped 3%.

While not nearly as prevalent as in the KULN, Black residents also made up the largest racial group in the Lower East Side (48% Black, 41.7% White). From 2000 to 2011-2015, the large west-side neighborhood areas generally gained White residents, with the exception of Black Rock, while eastside neighborhoods lost White residents. During this period, Buffalo lost 17.1% of its Black residents and 5.9% of its White population, while its Hispanic population grew 7.1%. Erie County’s Black population was flat, while its White population fell 3.5% and its Hispanic population grew 3.6%.

There were noteworthy shifts among age groups in the neighborhood as well. Children under 18 declined from 1,477 in 2000 (29% of the population) to 721 in 2011-2015 (21.3%). Much of the decrease was among school-age children (ages 5-17), who dipped from 1,144 (22%) to 400 (11.8%).

The working-age population (18-64) dropped in raw numbers, from 2,846 to 2,086, but became a larger percentage of the overall population, rising from 55.7% to 61.8%. The population over 65 declined from 796 to 575, but also became a slightly larger proportion of the population, increasing from 15.6% to 17.1%. Among adults, the Young Adult population (18-24) was flat in raw numbers, at 416 in 2011-2015, and increased slightly as a percentage, from 8% in 2000 to 12.2% in 2011-2015.

Millennials (25-34) declined, from 556 to 490, but due to losses in other age groups, they became a larger share of the population, rising from 10.9% to 14.5%. In 2011-2015, Midlife residents (ages 35 to 54) made up 24% of the population.

Within the neighborhood, Block Group 1, Tract 166, had the largest percentage of children under 18 (29.8%), while Block Group 3, Tract 166 had the smallest (9.7%, with no preschool-age children).

Block Group 3, Tract 166 had the largest percentages of working-age residents (60.3%) and people over 65 (26.2%). The overall neighborhood had a slightly smaller percentage of children (21.3%) than Buffalo (22.8%), but was similar to Erie County (21%) (Figure 2). The preschool-age cohort, however, was larger in the KULN (9.5%) than in the city (6.6%) or Erie (5.4%). The neighborhood had a larger percentage of Elders (75 or older), at 10.4%, than Buffalo (5.6%) or Erie (7.8%). The neighborhood’s Millennial population (25-34) was slightly larger than the Lower East Side, but less than many of the western Buffalo neighborhood areas.

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Chart 2. King Urban Life Neighborhood, City of Buffalo, and Erie County Age Breakdown

Education Education is critical to accessing a good job or career. Overall, far fewer KULN residents in 20112015 had college degrees (8.6%) than Buffalo overall (24.6%) and Erie County (24.6%). In 20112015, 40.4% of KULN residents had a high school degree, compared to 25.8% with some college and 25.2% who did not graduate high school. Since 2000, the share of the KULN population with no high school diploma decreased, along with the population with some college. During the same period, the share of the population with high school diplomas or college degrees increased slightly.

There are disparities in educational levels among men and women in the KULN. In 2011-2015, far more women had attended some college (32.1%) compared to men (18.3%). While 12% of women had earned a college degree, only 4.5% of men had. Far more men had a high school diploma (54.1%) than women (28.8%), and slightly more women lacked a high school diploma (27.1%) compared to men (23.1%).

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Chart 3. King Urban Life Neighborhood Educational Attainment

Within the KULN, education levels vary widely (Chart 3). In Block Group 4, Tract 35, 11.9% of residents had college degrees, compared to 1.4% in Block Group 1, Tract 166. In the latter blockgroup, people with no high school degree were the largest group (42.2%), while 63.4% of residents in Block Group 2, Tract 166, had high school diplomas.

The KULN had a lower percentage of residents with college degrees than most city neighborhoods (Figure 9). The overall percentage of people with a college degree in Buffalo, Erie County and all city neighborhood areas increased from 2000 to 2011-2015, with the exception of the Black Rock neighborhood and the Upper East Side. The largest increase came with the Upper West Side neighborhood area, 21%, and the West Side, 18%. That is three times the rate at which Erie County and Buffalo increased in higher educational attainment.

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Chart 4. Population 25 & Over with a College Degree

The World of Work Overall, 41.5% of KULN residents were employed in 2011-2015 (or 1,124 people), while 6.9% were unemployed (or 187 people). This was an improvement over 2000. The percentage of employed residents was up from 34.9%, while the unemployed percentage was down from 9.3%.

Slightly less than half (48.5%) of KULN residents, however, were active participants in the workforce, suggesting a major need for job opportunities in the neighborhood (Chart 5). Slightly more than half (51.7%) were not considered part of the labor force, meaning that they were not working or actively seeking a job. This may partially be explained by the fact that 38.4% of the population was under the age of 18 or over 65, and therefore too young for a full-time job or approaching retirement age. This said, labor force participation had improved from 44.2% in 2000. The overall dependent population of the neighborhood, or the proportion of people over 16 who were not working or retired, was 58.6% in 2011-2015, or 1,588 people.

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Chart 5. Labor Force Population 16 & Over

Broken down by gender, more women (54.2%) were participants in the labor force in 2011-2015 than men (47%). Within the neighborhood, labor force participation in 2011-2015 was lowest in Block Group 4, Tract 35 (40.8%) and Block Group 1, Tract 166 (42.4%), and highest in Block Group 4, Tract 166 (57.5%).

A smaller percentage of the working-age population was part of the labor force in 2011-2015 in the KULN than in Buffalo as a whole (59.3%, up from 58.4% in 2000) and in Erie County (63.1%, up from 62.4% in 2000).

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Income The KULN is one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in Buffalo and Erie County, and its income has been falling since 2000. Its median household income in fell 14.7% between 2000 and 2011-2015, from $23,941 to $20,428 (after inflation). In 2011-2015, Block Group 2, Tract 166 had the lowest median income in the neighborhood ($13,846), followed by Block Group 4, Tract 35, at $17,625.

Block Group 1, Tract 166, had the highest median income ($28,983), a sharp increase of 56.9% since 2000.

The percentage of families with incomes below the poverty line changed little in the overall KULN from 2000 to 2011-2015, increasing slightly from 31% to 31.7%. Within the KULN, the family poverty rate was highest by far in Block Group 2 of Tract 166, at 57.7%, followed by Block Group 4 in Tract 35, at 41.6%. Poverty was lowest in Block Group 3 of Tract 166, at 10.9%.

The neighborhood’s poverty rate in 2011-2015 was higher than the Lower East Side (29%), but lower than Black Rock (36%), the Lower West Side (35.6%) and the Middle East Side (37.2%) (Figure 7). The lowest poverty rate among the large neighborhood areas was 6.3% in the Upper West Side.

The poverty rate in the KULN is higher than both Buffalo as a whole and Erie County. Since 2000, Buffalo’s poverty rate increased from 23% to 26.2%. The county’s poverty rate in 2011-2015 was 10.9%, up from 9.2% in 2000.

Chart 6. Families with Income Below Poverty Neighborhood Level

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The overall neighborhood’s median household income was less than any large neighborhood area in Buffalo (Figure 8). In the Lower East Side, which includes the KULN, the median income in 20112015 was $24,913. The Middle East Side had the lowest median income in the city ($21,955), while the Upper West Side had the highest ($53,760). During this period, both Buffalo and Erie County had declines in median household income, but they were not as pronounced as in the KULN. Both Buffalo and Erie had higher incomes than the neighborhood. Buffalo’s median income fell 8.6%, from $34,914 to $31,918. Erie County’s median income declined 6.6%, from $54,880 to $51,247.

Chart 7. Buffalo Neighborhoods’ Median Household Income

The neighborhood’s median household income is 30% of the area median income (AMI) for the Buffalo-Cheektowaga-Niagara Falls metropolitan area, which is $68,200. By the definition of the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), this puts the KULN on the borderline between being considered a very low-income neighborhood (30-50% of AMI) and an extremely low-income neighborhood (0-30% of AMI).

By other measures of income, the KULN lags behind the city and region. The neighborhood’s per capita income in 2011-2015 was $14,500, similar to 2000 ($14,588 after inflation). This was lower than the overall City of Buffalo ($20,751) and Erie County ($28,879). While mean household income of quintiles was not available at the block group level in the 2011-2015 data, mean incomes for each quintile in Tract 166 lagged far behind those of Buffalo and Erie County (Chart 7).

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Chart 8. King Urban Life Neighborhood, City of Buffalo, & Erie County Mean Household Income of Quintiles

The KULN’s aggregate household income in 2011-2015 was $46.7 million, down 10% since 2000.

During the same period, Buffalo’s aggregate household income increased 20%, from $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion, while Erie County’s increased 37%, from $19 billion to $26 billion. While shares of aggregate household income were not available at the block group level in 2011-2015, the data for Tract 166 shows that the third and fourth quintiles were responsible for slightly larger shares of aggregate income than in the city, while the fifth quintile was responsible for less. This shows that working and middle-class people produce the bulk of earnings in the KULN, while upper classes generate more income at the city and county level.

The Gini index of income inequality also was not available at a block group level, but the index for Tract 166 in 2011-2015 was .46, similar to Erie County (.46) and slightly lower than Buffalo (.5). This suggests that even within the relatively low-income KULN, income inequality is an issue to address.

In 2011-2015, a larger percentage of households in the neighborhood received retirement income (27.6%, or 446 households) than in Buffalo (15.7%) or Erie County (21.6%). This suggests there are more retirees living on fixed incomes in the KULN. Within the neighborhood, the percentage was highest in Block Group 2, Tract 166 (36.8%) and Block Group 1, Tract 166 (32%), and lowest in Block Group 4, Tract 166 (19.9%).

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Households Housing units within the KULN decreased from about 3,600 to 2,600 units within a 15-year period (Chart 9). This is means about 72% of the original housing starting from the 2000 Census remains, or a 28% reduction in units available for residential use. This could be due to vacant housing in poor conditions that resulted in repeated use of demolitions, and a lack of new builds. This has contributed to unwanted uses for land and triggered market effects for lowering home values located within the neighborhood.

Chart 9. Number of Housing Units in King Urban Life Neighborhood

Other types of vacancies within the neighborhood has decreased from 2000 to 2011-2015, as opposed to structures on the West Side, Upper East Side, and Middle East Side, which increased in other types of unbuilt structures. As a percentage of all vacancies, however, other vacancies increased in KULN(Chart 10).There could be several reasons for year-round units that are vacant, such as households that need repairs, abandoned homes, foreclosures, renovations and legal proceedings.

The decrease in homes could not necessarily be a positive, as these homes could be demolished and therefore are no longer counted. The rise in other types of vacancies in correlation with the high

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increase in median house values on the west side could mean an uptick in home renovations there.

(Chart 10). There could be several reasons for year-round units that are vacant, such as households that need repairs, abandoned homes, foreclosures, renovations and legal proceedings. The decrease in homes could not necessarily be a positive, as these homes could be demolished and therefore are no longer counted. The rise in other types of vacancies in correlation with the high increase in median house values on the west side could mean an uptick in home renovations there.

Chart 10.Vacant Housing Units not for Sale or Rent in Buffalo Neighborhoods

The percentage of population by housing tenure is necessary for observing the dynamics between the renter class and homeowner class over the last 15 years (Chart 11). In 2000, we observed a 60% owner presence in Block Group 1, Census Tract 26 and 50% in Block Group 2, Census Tract 26. In 2011-15, these block groups merged to form Block Group 4, Census Tract 166. In 2011-2015, owners made up only 30% of the population in Block Group 4 – a significant drop compared to 2000. In the same time, the renter population increased from 40% in Block Group 1, Tract 26, and 50% in Block Group 2, Tract 26, to 70% in Block Group 4, Tract 166. The gain in renters coincided with the decrease among Homeowners for the same area.

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Chart 11.Vacant Housing Units not for Sale or Rent in Buffalo Neighborhoods

Differences in the median household income based on Tenure are important to understand quality of life differences between renters and homeowners. Block group-level data within KUL Neighborhood was unavailable for this indicator. Census Tracts 26 and 27.01 (Census Tract 166 in 2011-2015 ACS) show homeowners’ median household income around $27,000 in the 2000 U.S Census. Renters earned less than half as much as homeowners do, at about $13,000 median household income in the 2000 U.S Census. In the 2011-2015 American Community Survey, homeowner median incomes increased slightly, by 1.3%, or $7,000.

During the same time period, renters’ median income decreased by 1.1%, or a loss of $2,000.

Effectively, incomes have modestly improved for owners and decreased for renters. As a result, renters needs and owners needs should be approached differently. Housing options should be be geared towards affordability, being 30% or less of area median income in order to address current housing burdens.

Gross rent as a percentage of household income reflects the amount of renters’ income that is paid toward rent (Chart 12). This reflects the level of need and quality of choice renters can make on other necessities, such as food, child care, car fuel, heating fuel, car notes, insurance and overall quality of life. Affordability is considered no more than 30% of your annual income. However, 69% of renters in 2015 spent 30% or more of their income on rent. In 2000, this was 53%, of renters, which reflects a variety of quality of life issues and ultimately a lack of choice on necessities and luxuries.

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Chart 12.Gross Rent as a Percentage of Household Income for King Urban Life Neighborhood, Buffalo, & Erie County

Monthly owner cost as a percentage of household income show a higher percentage of KUL homeowners without a mortgage spent less than 30% on owner costs in 2015 than in 2000. For homeowners with a mortgage, there is a smaller percentage in 2015 that spent 30% and 50% or more than 2000 homeowners with a mortgage. This percentage outpaces the 1.3% rise in increase owner median income. This reflects a higher probability of accessing necessities and a good quality of life.

Comparing median gross rent in 2000 in the KULN to 2015 shows increases in rent from $585 to $630, a $45 increase despite a drop in median household income amongst renters (Chart 13). However, this follows the trend among a majority of neighborhoods, with an increase in rent from 2000 to 2015. The greatest increase in rent is in the West Side, with only the Black Rock community experiencing no difference in rent. The West Side increase matches the increase in median house values and the percentage of residents with higher levels of education present.

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Chart 13.Median Rent in Buffalo Neighborhoods

A closer look at the KUL neighborhood shows the changes in the percentage of renters that pay gross rent ranging from under $300 to $1,500 a month in rent. In 2000, there was a higher concentration of renters (80%) that payed less than $300 to $599 a month. Fifteen years later, over 52% of renters paid $600 to $999 in rent per month reflecting a $300 increase in rent. Additionally, there is a small group, 3%, that can afford to pay $1,250 to $1,499 a month, values that were not paid in the 2000 Census. This indicates a small migration of renters with higher income into the KUL neighborhood.

House Values Our King Urban Life Neighborhood has decreased in median house value by about $10,000 (Chart 14). Within the neighborhood, there is a large renter population. Census Tract 26, Block Group 1 had the highest rate of homeownership in 2000, at 60%. All other block groups have a close to majority, or just as much representation within the neighborhood. Block Group 3 Census Tract 27.01 and Block group 6 Census Tract 35 have even representation of homeowners and renters.

Median house values have increased by the highest percentage in all three west-side neighborhoods.

The highest median house values are on the Lower West Side at nearly $200,000, an increase of just over 100% since 2000. In the same amount of time, East-side neighborhoods have lost value in general. The northwest neighborhood of Black Rock dropped by nearly 50% within the same period.

This lost in value is due to numerous unbuilt and poorly maintained lots in addition to abandoned and zombie properties within the community as a result of excessive demolition.

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Chart 14. Median House Value for Owner-Occupied Housing Units for Buffalo Neighborhoods

Conclusions KULN is a mostly Black, mixed-income community that is dominated by low-income groups. There is, however, a cluster of Asians and multiracial groups in block group 1 (Tract 166), which could make the community desirable to larger groups of immigrant and refugee groups in Buffalo. Regardless, the KULN is an extreme housing loss neighborhood, and it is continuing to lose population and housing units at faster rate than any other community in the metropolitan Buffalo. This is a serious concern for the neighborhood’s future.

Its decline in population from 2000 to 2011-2015 was three times greater than that of the city and 10 times greater than the county. Within the neighborhood, Block Group 3, Tract 166 lost more than half its population, while Block Group 4, Tract 166 was essentially stable. Although some sections of the neighborhood lost more population than others, it is still a source of serious concern. Chronic population decline implies the loss of housing units as well.

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Housing unit loss is problematic because it increases the prevalence of unbuilt lots, abandonment, and blight, which will continue to make KULN and undesirable community. Thus, stabilizing the population should be a prime objective.

One particularly disturbing trend is the loss of higher-income residents between 2000 and 20112015, given declines in the overall neighborhood’s median household income and aggregate household income, and its comparatively low per capita income. The overall decline in income implies that social problems will likely increase and the neighborhood development challenge will grow.

This concern is amplified by the large number of families with extremely low incomes. Nearly a third of families in the KULN live below the poverty line, a significantly higher rate than the overall city or county. These low incomes could impact housing quality, as there is an association between income and the quality of housing units. In KULN, most renters have extremely low income. Most renters are already housing burdened and will not be able to pay the higher rents that landlords might want to change if they improve housing quality.

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The Neighborhood Design Challenge The Neighborhood Visual Landscape The KULN is an extreme housing loss community, which is characterized by numerous unbuilt lots, as well as abandoned and zombie properties. Since 1970, the KULN has lost about 18,000 residents, which spawned the loss of more than 3,125 (52%) of the community’s housing units (Map 6). The loss of this housing was randomly distributed, thus causing unbuilt lots to be interspersed with homeowner- and renter-occupied housing. These conditions are exacerbated by poorly maintained rental properties, streets, sidewalks, and unbuilt lots, along with inadequate street lighting. These elements are combined with limited green infrastructure to produce an unkempt and blighted environment that projects a dilapidated, dismal, and foreboding visual landscape and disjointed neighborhood design.

Map 6.King Urban Life Neighborhood Landscape Source:Google Maps

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Unbuilt lots One of the greatest challenges facing the KULN is the large number of unbuilt lots (Map 7). These lots weaken neighborhoods as neglected properties, reducing the desirability of the neighborhood while also harming housing values and contributing to blight (Photos 2-5). With over 93 acres of unbuilt residential land, accounting for 82% of unbuilt properties in the KULN, it is important that over the long term, infill development maintains the original look of the neighborhood by lot size, setbacks, and other regulations in the Buffalo Green Code. However, until market control has been gained through a community land trust, the KULC should seek opportunities to gain access to unbuilt lots and encourage residents to keep and maintain them, create gardens and plant trees, have community events, and manage this unbuilt land as a way to stabilize the neighborhood.

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Map 7. King Unbuilt Parcel Neighborhood Landscape

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Photo 1.KULN Unbuilt Lots Neighborhood Landscape

Photo 3.KULN Unbuilt Lots Neighborhood Landscape

Photo 2.KULN Unbuilt Lots Neighborhood Landscape

Photo 4.KULN Unbuilt Lots Neighborhood Landscape

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Abandoned Structures Abandoned buildings create major concerns for the KULN by weakening the community’s sense of place, which leads to depressed home values, the decline of community and business interests, and a possible final stage of demolition by neglect (Photos 5-8). The community faces widespread abandonment of homes and commercial buildings that foster safety concerns, cause blight, attract and enable crime, increase opportunities for vandalism and graffiti, and increase squatting and trespassing issues.

Photo 5.KULN Abandoned Structures

Photo 6.KULN Abandoned Structures

Photo 7.KULN Abandoned Structures

Photo 8.KULN Abandoned Structures

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Connectivity of streets The street network in the KULN promotes automobile dependency while reducing the neighborhood’s ability to be inclusive, build community, or allow interaction. The residential streets are characterized by a rigid grid of north/south-traveling residential streets which are crisscrossed by northeast/southwest-traveling arterial roads. This arterial pattern penalizes people walking southeast because the most direct route involves having to travel back north to get to another street that will go directly south. This street pattern creates long and narrow residential blocks subdivided by the arterial roads turning each block into sub-communities inside the larger neighborhood. Rather than inclusiveness, interaction, and community, the street network only promotes isolation and siloism.

While the internal street network hinders east and west travel (Map 8), there are connections to strong medical and technological employment centers within the region. Although the Kensington Expressway nearly divides the KULN from the Fruit Belt, where the dig Innovation Center and Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus are located, there are two east and west-traveling streets that provide a direct connection from KULN to these hubs of activity, including High Street.

Map 8. Long blocks create limited east-west connectivity in the KULN.

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To the north, Fillmore Avenue connects the neighborhood to the Erie County Medical Center and the Northland Beltline Campus, including the Workforce Training Center (Map 9). Both represent significant opportunities for training and employment, especially the Workforce Training Center, “which will focus primarily on training for careers in the advanced manufacturing and energy sectors�

(BUDC) for residents on Buffalo’s East Side. Travel to each is limited due to poor street conditions for walking and bicycling and limited public transportation options from the neighborhood. They represent strong and potentially important neighborhood assets The relatively poor street conditions are another street connectivity issue observed in the KULN. Main thoroughfares were found to be particularly hazardous concerning average daily traffic volume. It was found that in 2015, volumes were relatively high compared with the rest of the City of Buffalo with 9,445 vehicles daily (GBNTRC, 2015). The Kensington Expressway and high-volume traffic on thoroughfares cause connectivity challenges for the neighborhood, especially residents without access to an automobile. Street condition upgrade solutions should be designed for all pedestrians, cyclists, and automobiles to better enhance connectivity and the overalls sense of place in the KULN.

Map 9. KULN is in close proximity to major employment centers.

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Sidewalk Conditions Sidewalks conditions factor greatly in the connectivity of residents to neighbors, bus routes, or stores.

Conditions vary from relatively new to dated, with most being broken, cracked, or uneven (Photo 10).

Overgrown plants block some sections. The dated width only allows enough room for single file walking. These conditions often force residents to choose walking in the street over the sidewalk. Winter weather makes maintaining the deteriorated sidewalks more difficult, forcing more residents into the streets.

Photo 10: Poor sidewalk conditions on Sycamore Street in the KULN

Abandoned and unbuilt lots create safety concerns, cause blighting issues, attract and enable crime, increase opportunities for vandalism and graffiti, and increase squatting and trespassing issues. At night, safety issues are multiplied even with streetlights functioning, due to large stretches of unbuilt lots missing the additional light from residential properties. Streetlights work best when they are accompanied by light from these homes, creating the sense of safety and security.

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311 Call Analysis We analyzed 311 data from the City’s Call and Resolution Center from January 2012 through to September 2017. The purpose of the 311 analysis is to reinforce what residents are saying about the conditions inside the neighborhood. It will give us a rich understanding of what this means both in terms of service requests and civic engagement. In addition to that, 311 data sets that pertained to quality of life were used in the following analysis. The data indicates that a fairly high number of calls come from the KULN, averaging over 1,677 between 2012 and 2017, suggesting that residents feel a civic duty to let their elected officials know about the conditions of their neighborhood.

Housing conditions have been a major problem for concerned citizens, with 62% of calls relating to housing violations from the neighborhood. Housing violations reflect the dilapidated housing conditions such as exposures to lead, damaged roofs, unsafe railings, etc. Such violations do not comply with City or other applicable laws in the district. As a result, it can prevent an owner from selling or refinancing their home, receiving a fine and a letter of violation from the City. The city has several grants and housing rehabilitation programs to support eligible residents for financial funds to rehab their properties. In addition, there are neighborhood improvement programs such as Clean Sweep, which addresses approximately 6,200 properties each year by providing much needed social services, removing graffiti and debris, filling potholes, mowing overgrown lots, repairing street signs and street lights, and sealing unbuilt properties in order to make strides in improving neighborhoods quality of life (Chart 15).

Chart

15. Buffalo 311 calls by call type. Source: City of Buffalo Division of Citizen Services

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The 311 data also tells us that residents’ second major concern was rodents in their neighborhood, which represented about 10% of the calls. Other frequent call types were about safety concerns, such as street lights. Illegal dumping (about 1% or less) and general quality of life complaints (1%) were among the least common call types. Such data can provide insight into the civic responsibility the KULN residents feel. Many of the calls, however, indicate that housing violations are taking place in the area on a large scale.

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The Housing Challenge Prior to the Housing Act of 1949, the KULN was a thriving and dense neighborhood. The challenges of extreme housing loss that are present today are due to the failed policies of urban renewal and continued disinvestment. Today the KULN is facing significant population loss, high vacancy rates, low household value, and blight, which have all contributed to a large number of unbuilt lots, abandoned structures, and zombie properties (Photo 11). Between the years 2000 and 2015, the KULN has seen a total population loss of 33.9%. In the same amount of time, median household value in the KULN has dropped $10,000. In a comprehensive housing assessment of the KULN, the analysis found that entire residential blocks had unbuilt lots and a significant amount of the existing occupied housing was in desperate need of repair. These challenges have yet to be answered by the City of Buffalo and continue to perpetuate a cycle of blight and disinvestment.

Photo 11: Homes in poor condition on Reed Street in the KULN.

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Rental Housing The rental housing population in the KULN is relatively high compared with the rest of the city. The ACS 2011-2015 (5-year estimates) data shows an almost even split in the population between property renters and property owners. Of the 1,617 occupied housing units in the neighborhood, homeowners make up 48.9% of the housing tenure, while renters make up 51.1%. In addition, the number of occupied units has decreased from 2,167 occupied housing units, indicating that residents are moving out of the area since 2000. Despite being the majority group in the KULN, renters face many challenges in the local housing market in terms of affordability, quality, and other factors. As mentioned previously in the demographic analysis, gross rent in the KULN remains high despite low median property values and maintenance issues. Renters in the KULN have strongly expressed that rents remain high and are unaffordable (KULC Focus Groups, n.d.).

Rental Housing & The Neighborhood Image Many of the rental homes in the KULN are owned by absentee property owners living in different parts of the city, state, and country, with some landlords living abroad. One reason for the deferred maintenance is that the housing calculus for low-income renters do not work without subsidies. For example, for the typical owner to make a profit on their rental unit, they have to charge rents high enough to cover the cost of maintenance, upgrades, fees, and taxes. When the rent does not cover these costs, property owners usually cut back to make profits, typically starting with maintenance costs.

When property owners live outside the neighborhood, they are more likely to intensify their cutbacks in maintenance and upgrades, especially items such as lawn maintenance and exterior painting. Moreover, they are slower to fix repairs, make improvements, or invest in their properties. These unkept rental properties become burdens for their residents, contribute to the blight in the neighborhood, and devalue all properties.

Property owners in the KULN have lost out on increasing their wealth through housing equity. Housing value in the neighborhood has decreased from $46,434 in 2000 to $35,602 per the ACS 2011-15 (5-year estimates). The current housing value is half the city-wide average ($68,800,) according to ACS 2011-15 (5-year estimates). Due to decreasing property values, the incentive for property owners to make improvements to their units is extremely low, as they likely won’t see any return on investment once they sell. Renters suffer the consequences, however, as they end up taking on basic maintenance costs. Lack of investment in the neighborhood properties also contributes to blight in the neighborhood and an overall sense of helplessness and disinvestment among community members (KULC focus group, n.d.).

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Home Maintenance As previously mentioned, homeowners make up a slightly smaller portion of the neighborhood population (45.1%). Many residents who are able to own a home have moved out of the neighborhood because a large portion of the previously existing housing stock has been demolished due to urban renewal. The homeowners that remain have difficulty keeping up with the maintenance of their homes (Photo 12) due to the relatively old age of their homes. These homeowners are invested in the future of the neighborhood and therefore, would like to improve their homes, but simply do not know of or don’t have access to financial assistance to repair their homes. Additionally, it is difficult to become a homeowner in the KULN because of a complex housing market and the inability to build home equity due to the forces of blight and disinvestment.

Photo 12: Well-maintained homes in the KULN.

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Housing Assistance for Homeowners For many residents of the KULN, accessibility to housing assistance is low. Many residents are unaware or just unclear of the current services that are available to them so that they could make necessary improvements to their homes (KULC focus group, n.d.). 311 reports a majority (61.5%) of 311 calls were for housing violations. Given this information, it is clear that there is not only a blight issue, but an accessibility to services issue in the KULN. Housing Burden The federal standard for housing affordability in the U.S. dictates that households should pay no more than 30% of their income in housing costs. If households spend more than 30% of annual income on housing, they become “housing-cost burdened” (Schwartz & Wilson, 2008). If a household spends between 30% and 49% of their income in housing costs, they are “moderately burdened”, while paying more than 50% of their annual income in housing costs results in a household being “severely housing-cost burdened” (Schwartz & Wilson, 2008). Spending the majority of a household’s income on housing means there is little left over to allocate for necessities such as food, education, clothing, health care, transportation, and other expenses.

The median household income in the KULN is $20,248 according to ACS 2011-15 (5-year estimates).

Income has decreased since the 2000 Census when median income was $23,941, which reflects overall loss of wealth in the neighborhood. Using the 30% margin of affordability, a household making close to the neighborhood’s median income should pay no more than $6,074 annually in housing costs, which translates to $506 a month. Unfortunately, reports from the ACS 2011-15 (5-year estimates) show that residents spend closer to 40% of their income on rental costs. If the standard for renters is being “moderately housing-cost burdened,” than the neighborhood is already operating at a disadvantage.

In the KULN, 69% of residents are experiencing housing burden, according to the ACS 2011-15 (5year estimates). The U.S. Census Bureau defines “housing burdened” as spending 30% or more of total household income on housing costs in some way whether it be mortgage payments or monthly rent. Historically, expenditures over 30% are an indicator of a housing affordability problem within an area. The maximum percentage that determines burden has fluctuated throughout the 20th century up until 1981, where the threshold reached 30% of total income. Before that, it has been as low as 2025% of a family’s or individual’s income (Schwartz & Wilson, 2008). The last measure in 2013 showed that over 1 in 4 renters (11.2 million renter households in the U.S.) were burdened by rents that took up to 50% of their incomes. Between 2015 and 2025 the adult population in the U.S. will rise by 24.6 million which translates to the need for more housing for both renters and owners entering into a new stage of their lives. From 2004 to 2015 the number of households opting to rent is the highest the U.S. has seen while homeownership has decreased from 69.2% down to 63.4%, the lowest levels since 1967 (Schwartz & Wilson, 2008).

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In a scenario where both rents and incomes grow along with inflation, renter burdened households will continue to increase up to 11% (Charette et. al, 2015). According to the Center for Housing Policy’s Housing Landscape in 2015, working households that have a non-white head of household have a significantly higher rate of experiencing “severe housing cost burden.� The same goes for Millennials due to entering the job field following the Great Recession with some of the highest unemployment numbers in decades. Low wages and high numbers of unemployment create risk for housing burden due to less wealth being accumulated which may create a higher number within the renter class.

On the other side of the spectrum, the greatest growth will be among those 65 and older. The U.S. 2014 National Population Projection estimated that those aged 65 and older is expected to increase to 74 million by the year 2030, an overall growth of 33 million in less than two decades (Charette et. al, 2015). This becomes a problem due to the possibility of having little to no wealth accumulated when they retire resulting in a higher housing burden. This creates a tough situation when being able to find affordable housing in a desirable area where people want to live their day to day lives without unnecessary stress due to financial pressures (Leopold et. al, 2015).

The private sector often responds to the housing market as opposed to community residents and therefore, their needs and priorities are rarely met. When the private sector has complete control of development, issues arise from gentrification, siloed dwellings that do not fit the demographics of the community, and rents that are too high. Creative opportunities to decrease or eliminate housing burden and make affordable housing the norm is now necessary within communities that are losing populations faster than new populations are coming in. Affordable and appropriate types of housing have significant potential to maintain current community members while also attracting and integrating individuals from other neighborhoods where density and rent levels may become too high and thus grow the neighborhood.

Control Over Neighborhood Development One of the major challenges in KULN is the fact that a large portion of the land is not owned by the community. Map 6 below shows that the neighborhood is largely owned and controlled by outside interests, including the City of Buffalo and absentee property owners. The community should focus on acquiring unbuilt parcels in order to regain ownership over the land.

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Ownership of Unbuilt Land by City of Buffalo One of the largest landowners in KULN is the City of Buffalo. Map 10 shows all of the unbuilt parcels of land owned by the City. These parcels include land that is zoned for both residential and commercial purposes. City-owned land is an opportunity for the neighborhood as well as a threat. Developers from outside of the community are free to buy this land from the municipality, allowing them to dictate the future of KULN. The community should focus on acquiring city-owned parcels of land in order to restore power over their community.

Map 10. Unbuilt lots owned by the City of Buffalo. Source: Erie County Real Property Information.

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Ownership of Rental Units by Outside Interests Map 11 depicts land that is owned by individuals outside of neighborhood. Absentee landlords have contributed to the overall feel of a lack of investment in KULN (KULC Focus Group, n.d.). The majority of absentee-owned properties are concentrated in the eastern half of the neighborhood. Unsurprisingly, that part of the neighborhood has worse housing stock than the western side as assessed by the Housing Condition Index. Money from these properties is not being reinvested in the community because the units are not owned by community members. Absentee landlords are less likely to invest in their rental properties if they do not see a financial benefit to do so (Dubin, 1998).

Map 11. KULN properties with out-of-town owners. Source: Erie County Real Property Information.

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Transportation Linkages Private & Public Transportation Just over half the working population uses private transportation to work. The KULN is in a premier location, surrounded by large employers such as Roswell Park Cancer Institute to the West and Erie County Medical Center just North of the neighborhood. Thousands of workers from other communities utilize the major thoroughfares of the KULN to reach these areas of employment. Additionally, downtown is within 2 miles, supporting a variety of occupations with a variety of income levels. Thirty percent of residents utilize some form of public transportation. The area is currently accessible to 3 metro stations: Summer-Best Station, Allen-Medical Campus, and Fountain Plaza Station. Map X3 indicates 8 bus routes serving the King Urban life area: Route 18 Route 6 Route 102 Route 23 Route 112 Route 4 Route 24 Route 22

Jefferson Avenue Sycamore Street Bailey & East Avenue Fillmore & Hertel Avenue Grant & North Avenue Broadway Genesee Street Porter & Best Street

Table 1: List of Bus Routes in KULN

Metro Stations are not serving the growing walking resident population. Stations are outside of walking distance, but attainable by bus. Eleven percent of walkers who are seeking alternate forms of transportation to work during winter months experience bus routes that can be up to a 30-minute wait due to winter conditions. It is important to note that among renters, just over 50% utilize public transportation. In some areas, it may be faster to walk to places of employment, but conditions are or feel unsafe. Bus stops lack proper covering against weather elements.

There are no heated stops. Many of the stops are only signs on the sidewalk (poor condition) rather than a seated area. This limits usage by all persons such as the elderly, parent(s) with accompanying children, handicapped person(s), and pregnant women. This further limits access to services such as laundry, prenatal care, child care, grocery stores, clinics, and shopping centers.

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Map 12. Bus routes in the KULN. Source: Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority

Pedestrians and Bicycles The KULN lacks neighborhood activities. It generates minimal community interactions within the neighborhood and has few opportunities for passersby to patronize businesses in our area. Major thoroughfares are: Best Street, Fillmore Avenue, Genesee Street and Sycamore Street. There is no reported presence of bicycling within the community (Chart 16). However, there is an increase in residents who walk to work, more than doubling from 5% in 2000 to 11% in 2015. The lack of cycling is likely due to a lack of bicycle-friendly lanes. Only a portion of Fillmore Avenue is bicycle-friendly (Map 13). Our target area has numerous sidewalks in poor conditions along neighborhood streets. An increase in bicycle-friendly roads, including the major thoroughfare lanes, along with improvements to current sidewalk conditions will accommodate the rising walking to work group.

Through neighborhood observations of traffic patterns in the KULN, it is noted that traffic speeds along our major thoroughfares is fast. In addition, the lack of neighborhood stores and amenities negatively affect the pedestrian and cyclist experience of traveling through the neighborhood.

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Chart 16: Means of transportation to work in the KULN.

Map 13. Major thoroughfares and bike-friendly roads.

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City Planning and Zoning Context The Buffalo Green Code The Buffalo Green Code is a zoning ordinance adopted by the Buffalo Common Council on December 27, 2016.

The Buffalo Green Code replaces the previous zoning ordinance, which had been in effect since 1953. This zoning ordinance was known for focusing primarily on suburban development in the City of Buffalo. This was also known as an era in which people were moving from central cities to first-ring suburbs throughout the county. After several years of amending the Buffalo Green Code, it took effect as the official zoning ordinance. It focuses on mixed-use and urban development, and less suburban-like development. The Buffalo Green Code breaks down residential, commercial, industrial, and green zones into specific categories with specific uses seen in Map 14 .

According to the Buffalo Green Code, the majority of the KULN is zoned as an urban neighborhood. The majority of the neighborhood is zoned as N-3R, which .allow for the construction of single and multifamily housing... with zoning around major thoroughfares zoned as N-3C. Areas zoned as N-3R . Areas zoned as N-3C are mixeduse centers located on high frequency bus lines. This zone type is located mainly along the major thoroughfares; specifically Broadway, Genesee Street, and Fillmore Avenue. Areas zoned as N-3C can be used for potential mixed use development which can be used for a potential source of revenue for neighborhood maintenance if those dollars are invested in King Urban Life Neighborhood. Minor areas are zoned for commercial use mainly near State Route 33. These areas can also be used for potential business investment where the money can be used for a source of revenue.

A part of the Buffalo Green Code is the Unified Development Ordinance. This document outlines specific uses that are allowed in each zoning type. Either a particular use is permitted, or either there must be a special use permit. Below is a list of uses that are either permitted or need a special use permit in an N-3R zone. N-3R is a general residential classification for residential areas, allowing mixed housing types and existing commercial uses (typically on corner lots).

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Map 14: Buffalo Green Code. Source: City of Buffalo Office of Strategic Planning

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Figure 3: Buffalo Green Code. Source: City of Buffalo Office of Strategic Planning

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The Neighborhood Asset Base This plan’s mission is to transform the KULN into a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family for the existing population and future residents. The vision is for the KULN is to be a neighborhood of choice -- a beautiful and comfortable place for current residents and newcomers. The challenge is to effectively utilize and leverage the existing assets to drive the KULN development process. Despite being underdeveloped, the KULN is rich with assets that will make up a strong foundation for this neighborhood revitalization plan. The assets that are highlighted in this plan are the existing institutions, landmarks, and developments (Map 15). Leveraging and supporting these assets gives residents of all ages within the KULN choice and opportunities while being in a livable neighborhood with a robust sense of place. Having strong institutions, landmarks, and developments give neighborhoods stability and a sense of identity. This plan seeks to support and connect these assets into a collective conscience. In other words, this plan aims to create partnerships, leverage resources, and connect destinations giving the KULN a cohesive system of assets that make the neighborhood a desirable neighborhood of choice.

The King Urban Life Center The KULC is a nonprofit organization that a series of educational, social, and cultural programs targeted for mostly neighborhood residents, although it serves populations from underdeveloped communities across the City (KULC, 2016). The building that the KULC is housed in the St. Mary of Sorrows (Photos 13 and 14) and is a prime example of architectural reuse within a historically preserved building. The KULC functions as the neighborhood’s central place and is the hub around which the community is structured. The education programs function as the anchor of all services, and it includes the Parent-Child Home Program, the Community Action Organization Head Start program, and an after-school program (KULC, 2016).

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Map 15: The distribution of neighborhood assets in the KULN.

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Photos 13 and 14.The KULC at St. Mary of Sorrows Church.

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Martin Luther King, Jr. Park Perhaps the oldest asset within the KULN is Martin Luther King, Jr. Park (Photo 15). This park was of Frederick Law Olmsted’s design and was built in 1871 (Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, 2017). At that time, the park was known as The Parade, where its purpose was for military exercises only to be redesigned by Olmsted’s son, John Olmsted, in 1896, where it was renamed Humboldt Park. Not until 1977 would it be renamed to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park (Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, 2017). Originally, the park was connected to Delaware Park by a green Humboldt Parkway, also of Olmsted’s design. Parkways such as Humboldt were prominent features in the world’s first park system in Buffalo. In 1960, Humboldt Parkway was destroyed to make way for a six-lane below-grade expressway known as State Route 33 or the Kensington Expressway (Buffalo Olmsted Parks Conservancy, 2017). What was once an established core asset to the working-class communities on the East side, is now a barrier to amenities, employment, and neighboring communities within the city. Today, the park stands alone, but remains the heart of the KULN and is a vital asset to the community. Martin Luther King, Jr. Park provides recreational and leisure activity, providing an area for chance encounters of neighbors and friends, which furnishes social capital for the surrounding neighborhood. The park’s namesake is an important part of the KULN’s identity and if the City of Buffalo is seeking to honor the legacy of Dr. Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., the City should not subject the working-class black neighborhoods surrounding the park to underdevelopment and disinvestment.

Photo 15: Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.

Photo 15. Martin Luther King Jr. Park

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Buffalo Museum of Science & Magnet School Within the KULN, there is Buffalo’s own Museum of Science. The Buffalo Museum of Science began in 1836 as a humble collection of specimens, minerals, fossils, shells, insects, pressed plants, sea weeds and various paintings and articles of historic value (Buffalo Museum of Science, 2017). In 1861 the collection grew so large that a committee was necessary for its stewardship and was formed from the Young Men’s Association to the Natural History Society. After several moves and temporary locations, the Natural History Society opened their doors to the Buffalo Museum of Science in January 1929 with the City of Buffalo’s blessing. Today, the Buffalo Museum of Science is home to a wide variety of exhibits of science such as anthropology, botany, entomology, mycology, paleontology and zoology (Buffalo Museum of Science, 2017). The Buffalo Museum of Science is an integral asset to the KULN that has recreational as well as educational value for the community.

The Buffalo Museum of Science (Photo 16) also houses the Dr. Charles R. Drew Science Magnet School. The school has two sites; one at an annex on A Street, which serves Kindergarten to 2nd grade, and the other is in the Museum, which is 3rd grade to 8th grade (PS 59 Dr. Charles R. Drew Science, 2017). Students at the school have direct access to the Museum and its resources to the natural and social sciences. This makes the school a unique and practical asset to the KULN and vital part in the community’s education pipeline. Furnishing the educational pipeline in the KULN is crucial for the vitality and wellbeing of the neighborhood. Having strong education options in the KULN is a critical part of growing educational attainment and human capital in the neighborhood.

When the community has strong education options for young children, the community is thus more attractive to new residents and young families. The Buffalo Museum of Science being both a school and an attraction results in it being a two-fold asset for the community. The Museum itself is an asset in that it is a destination to the entire Buffalo Niagara region which attracts activity and events that take place within the KULN. The Museum and the School are both assets and attractions that enhance the livability of the neighborhood.

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Photo 16: The Buffalo Museum of Science.

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East High School The KULN is anchored by PS 309 East Community High School on Northampton Street, just north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park (Photo 17). The school is reported to have 362 students enrolled, roughly 39 full time teachers, with a 9:1 student-teacher ratio as of Fall 2017 (Buffalo Public Schools, 2017). East High is part of the East Side community school network, which also includes Hamlin Park Academy, Harvey Austin Elementary, and Marva J. Daniels Futures K-8th grade schools. As a community school, East High seeks to create interactive connections between the school and the larger community. It houses a Parent and Adult Education Center, after-schchool and Saturday programs, helps to connect students and families to a range of supportive services, and seeks to build mutually beneficial partnerships with its surrounding neighborhood.

Photo 17: East Community High School on Northampton Street.

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Wilson Street Urban Farm Wilson Street Urban Farm is a family-operated urban farm that aims to involve the community in naturally growing fresh produce (Wilson Street Urban Farm, 2016). Wilson Street Urban Farm invites members of the neighborhood to take part in the entire process from planting to harvest, which gives valuable skills to people who wish to grow produce on their own or wish to interact more with their community (Wilson Street Urban Farm, 2016).

This urban farm (Photo 18) is a unique asset for the KULN because not only does it provide a gathering place for frequent social interaction and engagement, but it also helps fill the gap in affordable healthy food for residents of the East side. The Wilson Street Urban Farm is one successful model of how unbuilt lots can be re-integrated into the neighborhood design. Urban farms allow a community to grow, produce, and even sell their own food without the forces of the free market and have limited government regulation. Having urban farms like Wilson Street Urban Farm plays a role in giving residents of the KULN control over their food accessibility.

Photo 18: Wilson Street Urban Farm, which is located between Broadway and Sycamore Street, in the KULN.

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Part II: The Neighborhood Transformation Plan

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Part Two: The Neighborhood Transformation Plan The Planning Process The KULC is the driving force for this neighborhood transformation plan. Its Board of Directors provided valuable feedback early in the planning process in the Fall of 2017. Professor Henry L. Taylor, Jr., a KULC board member, was the main advisor, teacher and mentor to the planning team.

The work started with a review of previous plans for the KULN, as well as plans for similar neighborhoods in Buffalo’s East Side community. This was followed by neighborhood walkthroughs and informal conversations with residents. The team built on previous research by Professor Taylor and his graduate students, and used transcripts from focus groups to incorporate the views of residents into the Plan. To deepen understanding of residents viewpoints, we analyzed 311 data from the City. The team also studies City of Buffalo documents, along with U.S. census data.

Following this foundational work, the planning team divided into three teams tasked with studying housing and neighborhood design in KULN, along with program and policy options. The housing and neighborhood design teams produced in-depth analysis of existing conditions and identified potential interventions, while the policy team worked to identify programs and policies to bring these interventions to fruition.

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Former KULC Plans Prior to producing our own development and intervention strategies, our planning team analyzed previous neighborhood plans for the KULN (Figure 4). By gaining insights into prior planning processes for this neighborhood, our team can incorporate previous strategies and develop new ones to transform the KULN into a neighborhood of choice for current and future residents to work, play, and raise a family. Several common themes emerge: the need for street and infrastructure improvements; the need for KULC to play a larger role as a community leader; the importance of infill development; and the necessity for the community to acquire KULN land and guide its development.

Figure 4. Highlights of previous plans for KULN.

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Neighborhood Design The neighborhood design aims to reimagine the KULN by creating a framework that will shape a better physical environment in functional and visual terms at the block and neighborhood scales. It is concerned with the visual effects of owner- and renter-occupied housing, unbuilt lots, and abandoned structures, as well as sidewalks, streets and major thoroughfares. It intends to set the framework for the physical, spatial and visual development of the community.

Mixed-Use, Walkable Neighborhoods Mixed-use, walkable neighborhood design combines both vertical (Storefront with housing above it) and horizontal (Storefront and Residential adjoining) mixed-use development. Mixed-use development is characterized by “pedestrian-friendly development that blends two or more residential, commercial, cultural, institutional, and/ or industrial uses. Mixed use is one of the 10 principles of ‘Smart Growth,’ a planning strategy that seeks to foster community design and development that serves the economy, community, public health, and the environment” (University of Delaware, n.d).

Mixed-use development is ideal for the KULN because it has an established neighborhood center and meeting space in KULC. This type of development aligns with the city’s recent change to a form-based code. By bringing residents closer to amenities and the services they need, we can reduce the need for car use and bus trips outside our target area. Thus, we can create a self-sustaining neighborhood that will circulate income within our neighborhood and produce income for reinvestment (Photo 19). In the previous research, interviews and focus groups with KULN residents, their greatest concerns were geared toward a lack of places that serves everyday needs, and areas that enhance residents’ quality of life.

Photo 19: A mixed-use neighborhood in Washington, D.C. Source: http://www. stoverandassociates.com/fiscal-and-economic-impact-analysis

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Complete Streets & Streetscapes The current roadway design, construction, and planning practices have left our streets incomplete by falling short of providing necessary facilities and services to non-motorized and transit users. Focusing solely on accommodating high-speed traffic undermines the safety of our towns and the wellbeing of the individuals living in them.

For these and so many other reasons, we need to complete our streets (Chaplin, 2012). A Complete Streets policy would require the city to consider all users, including cyclists and pedestrians, when upgrading streets. Public art initiatives also play a role in completing streets by slowing down traffic, and helping to provide greater equality to different forms of transportation.

It is important to slow down traffic in the neighborhood, including Genesee, Sycamore and Best Streets, and Broadway. This will help to benefit the community in providing greater access to the space and where they live, in addition to a greater economic impact from the increased foot traffic. It also aids in walkable, healthier environments that can contribute to healthier lifestyles in the community. It will increase levels of bicycling within the neighborhood due to its greater accessibility, by creating bicycle lanes along the major thoroughfares.To ensure its success, this policy will need to be followed throughout the implementation of this plan, and needs to apply to both new and retrofitted projects. Including performance standards with measurable outcomes will also aid in ensuring streetscapes are healthy.

As briefly mentioned prior, another element for KULN to consider is traffic calming, or designing streets that encourage people to drive slower. Visual cues will used to modify drivers travel habits along Genesee, Sycamore and Best Streets, and Broadway (see Public Art). The design of the roadways will result in increased safety without relying on compliance with traffic control devices such as signals or signs, and without enforcement.

Placement of good quality lighting also can aid in safety and comfort in a neighborhood. Without sufficient overhead lighting, motorists may not be able to see cyclists or pedestrians. Lights also aid in increasing foot traffic at night, which can be used as a public art installation (see Public Art). These are recommended along the major thoroughfares, to not only aid in safety, but act as the windows to the neighborhood. Increasing lighting on Genesee, Sycamore and Best Streets, and Broadway, is recommended for the betterment of the KULN. Taking on this challenge will allow for greater quality of life within the neighborhood, improved health, and a neighborhood where people want to live. As stated by Chaplin, “It is best to place streetlights along both sides of arterial streets and to provide a consistent level of lighting along a roadway. Nighttime pedestrian crossing areas may be supplemented with brighter or additional lighting. This includes lighting pedestrian crosswalks and approaches to the crosswalks. Pedestrians and cyclists are more acutely affected by substandard, dirty, or snowy surface conditions than motorists. What may hardly be a distraction to the motorist can prove extremely hazardous to cyclists on the roadway or pedestrians on a sidewalk. Debris on road shoulders, longitudinal cracks at a road’s edge, uneven sidewalk surfaces and low hanging, encroaching shrubbery all pose hazards. Well maintained facilities will also serve the public longer and more economically” (2012).

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Recommendations: KULC can create complete streets with the above recommendations; however, it will be best to advocate for the City of Buffalo to utilize its Complete Street Policy in the neighborhood. Below are steps that would be helpful in beginning this process. However, a partnership with the City of Buffalo will yield the best results when looking to create complete streets in the KULN.

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Public Art The KULN lacks uses in its unbuilt lots. Art is an inexpensive and powerful way to create connectivity within the neighborhood. The KULN plan’s art recommendations will bolster an increased sense of community and identity throughout the neighborhood. It is necessary to allow art to reimagine what the neighborhood can be for current and future residents in respect to where the neighborhood has come from. Performance of these activities can be a powerful opportunity for intergenerational connections among the community’s youth, working-age adults and the elderly in partnership with institutions such as the Albright Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo Arts Commission and local artists.

The community art projects will focus on the major thoroughfares in the KULN, which are Best Street (Photo 20), Fillmore Avenue, Genesee Street, Sycamore Street, and Broadway. During neighborhood observations, Best Street’s vehicular traffic consistently drove faster than the other streets at an approximate rate of 10-15 miles per hour above the speed limit. Using a Neighborhood Street Art Project as a traffic calming intervention can slow automobile traffic through major thoroughfares as a way to grab drivers’ attention and perhaps draw them back to the neighborhood as an attraction rather than simply using it for commuting purposes (Photos 21 and 22).

Photo 20. Best Street at Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.

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Photo 21: Crosswalk art in Santa Monica, California. Source: https://www.here.la/pilot-projects-tactical

Photo 22: A sidewalk treated with art that is revealed when it rains. Source: https://rain.works

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This approach will fit into the larger neighborhood by connecting neighborhood streets, sidewalks, and the major thoroughfares connected by the theme of butterflies effectively known by the community as the Butterfly District. The goal of this will be to reimagine and notify passersby entering the KULN as a wayfinding tool. Tree art, or decorating trees with different colors, garments and textiles, is encouraged as a wayfinding tool and annual community Fall or Winter activity (Photo 23). This is a key intergenerational community activity as knitting design materials is an opportunity to pass on skills between the older and younger community.

Photo 23: A possible tree design along major thoroughfares. Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/722968546402619201/

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Abandoned buildings are burdening the KULN by creating widespread blight that inevitably leads to neighborhood decline. However, abandoned homes and commercial buildings create potential opportunity for reuse through public art initiatives that can attract interest and investment to the neighborhood.

The public art movement through the use of mural projects has emerged throughout Buffalo. In fact, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery commissioned the Welcome Wall on Fillmore Avenue at Broadway.

KULC should capitalize on this asset by clustering other mural projects on abandoned buildings throughout the neighborhood as a way to decrease blight and attract visitors to the area. Utilizing proposed locations along the major thoroughfares, they act as windows into the neighborhood.

Creative reuse adaptation through public art of abandoned buildings in the KULN faces some challenges. Each project requires three needs: Funding Artist Location For KULC, the most difficult task will be finding locations for murals.

In past projects, Albright-Knox Art Gallery required the building owner to sign a 10-year maintenance lease to ensure long term integrity of the project. (Ott, 2017) The wall integrity is essentially to the health of the project.

Wall must be repointed and stabilized prior to art application.

Roof and gutters will need to be maintained to eliminate potential deterioration from weather related elements.

If located on a business, the nature and character of the business plays a factor in mural choices according to Albright-Knox. Locally owned and character type buildings are the target sites for murals.

Securing the artists is the second most difficult task facing KULN. Due to scheduling and time frame concerns, it will be wise to seek multiple artists. Buffalo has a burgeoning public art scene that will inevitably grow larger in the coming years. This growth will give new opportunities for artists to think beyond some of the constraints listed above.

Another option is painting the window frames for abandoned structures, further reducing blight in the neighborhood. This allows the neighborhood to get involved in the project, building community, and reintegrate these buildings back into neighborhood design. For greater success of the public art initiative, KULC should partner with Buffalo Arts Council, East High School, and others.

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Recommendations: The KULN’s largest issue with using abandoned buildings for public art is that the neighborhood does not have many options for long-term, stable, and unique buildings suite for adding murals. Due to the nature of abandoned buildings (Photo 24), it may not be feasible to use public art on current buildings in the neighborhood.

]

Map 16: Potential Art Sites the KULN.

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Photo 24: A boarded-up building on Genesee Street.

Reuse of Unbuilt Lots Unbuilt lots are prevalent in KULN. These parcels contribute to blight, disinvestment, and abandonment in the KULN. As a result, it is important to consider various short and long term solutions for integrating the lots into the neighborhood design.

Temporary uses can vary widely in purpose and duration; their viability depends on local market and regulatory conditions in addition to the work of entrepreneurial project initiators and their supporters (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, 2014). This includes the important distinction of activities that will occur on main thoroughfares, including Best and Sycamore Streets, as opposed to other neighborhood streets. Increasing foot traffic on main thoroughfares is a main priority to help change the outlook of the neighborhood, while providing a better quality of life in other neighborhood streets. It will create walkable, clean neighborhoods with access to green space, activities, and opportunities for residents. Below are various activities and actions that will be taken to improve the community.

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Native Ground Cover Recommendations: Planting native plants and ground cover for the area is a proposed development that will add to this neighborhood’s theme, and help to improve its overall image. Colorization should be utilized and associated with the unbuilt lots in the area. This will help to distinguish the neighborhood and contribute to placemaking in the KULN. There are various options that would work for potential ground cover. The community should work with local artists, landscapers, KULC, and volunteers to aid in attractive landscaping and protecting water quality. Unbuilt lots negatively contribute to blight in the neighborhood, but by providing a lowcost, effective, and an aesthetically pleasing way to reimagine the neighborhood, this approach allows the community to be reconstructed into a neighborhood of choice. Most of the unbuilt lots will be covered with ground cover, which will allow the neighborhood to be beautified and purposeful, until further uses are identified.

Proposed plants are indicated for this area (Photos 25-28): Ground Cover:Wild Ginger, Bunchberry, Eastern Teaberry, Foamflower.

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Photo25.Foamflower. Source: Photo 26. Eastern Teaberry. Source: https://www.waysidegardens.com/spring-symphony-foam- https://longislandnatives.com/products/gaultheriaflower/p/48446/ procumbens-eastern-tea-berry

Photo 27. Bunchberry Source: http://www.florafinder.com/Species/Cornus_canadensis.php

Photo 28. Wild Ginger. Source: https://www.wholesalenurseryco.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/ginger__25599.jpg

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Rain Gardens The KULN plan’s proposed designs will connect the community and create a walkable, clean neighborhood with access to green space and recreation for residents. All proposed new developments should be energy efficient, well-insulated, and water efficient. They will also be effective in enhancing safety and improving quality of life in the KULN. This means focusing on built lots to restore foot traffic to the neighborhood, in addition to protecting the natural water cycle.

Stormwater management will be utilized, including rain gardens and native ground cover in the area, to control any water pooling and runoff that may occur in the neighborhood and to aid in beautification. This will also give both new and old residents access to public spaces that are instrumental in making the neighborhood an asset.

It is also important to provide streetscapes in the KULN that are pedestrian-friendly, and provide residents greater accessibility to other parts of the neighborhood and to the neighboring Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. As a result, a King Urban Trail system will be developed. These will be proposed walkable pathways through lots that will be utilized by the community. They will be an important asset to provide further connectivity within the neighborhood and increase foot traffic. It is important to consider how all elements have an effect on this neighborhood, including the streets, sidewalks, green space, trees, and plants.

Recommendations: Rain gardens in the KULN should be distributed throughout the community. The ideal location will be flat, or slightly sloped lots from a runoff source (Photo 29). Ground cover plots will act as both landscape to alter the physical aesthetic of the neighborhood and to reduce the amount of stormwater that washes pollutants into storm drains.

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Photo 29: An example of a rain garden. Source: http://exprimartdesign.com/rain-garden-design/27724/winsome-ideas-rain-garden-designrain-garden

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King Urban Trail System Recommendations: The perennial planting recommendations for the King Urban Trail System (KUTS) will be used as a way to visually distinguish between parts of the neighborhood as one walks through it, and further beautify the neighborhood and its walkways. Stone walkways should be utilized to help organically create the pedestrian system, with different perennials associated with the implementation phase. This will add to the uniqueness of each developmental area, and create a sense of space for residents(Photo 30).Colorization should be utilized and associated with the unbuilt lots in the area. This will help to distinguish the neighborhood and contribute to placemaking in the KULN.

Map 17: Proposed pathways in the KULN.

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The associated perennials in phase one will foster an analogous warm color scheme. They will include reds, yellows, and oranges to brighten the neighborhood (Photos 31-39). The associated perennials in phase two will foster a monochromatic color scheme of purples for flower beds. For phase three, an associated monochromatic color scheme of blues will be utilized for this portion of the walkable trails. All of these suggestions will aid in creating a patterned look from a satellite perspective.

Perennials: American Spikenard, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Butterfly Milkweed, Whoried Tickseed, Showy Tick Trefoil, Purple Cone Flower, Spotted Joe-Pye Weed, Boneset, Queen of the Prairie, Wild Geranium, Blue Flag Iris, Prairie Blazing Star, Cardinal Flower, Great Blue Lobelia, False Lily of the Valley, Wild Bergamont, Foxglove Beardtongue, Fall Phlox, Solomon’s Seal, Eastern Coneflower, Blackeyed Susan, Wild Stonecrop, Wrinkle-Leaf Goldenrod, New England Aster.

Photo 30. A large stone walkway. Source: https://www.homedit.com/gorgeous-stone-walkways/

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Phase 1 KUTS Recommendations

Photo 31. Cardinal flowers. Source: https://www.homedit.com

Photo 32. Blackeyed Susan. Source: https:// www.seedsforafrica.com

Photo 33. Butterfly Milkweed. Source: https://www.americanmeadows.com

Phase 2 KUTS Recommendations

Photo 34. Wild Bergamot. Source: https://www.mypatriotsupply.com

Photo 35. Eastern Purple Coneflower.

Source: http://tcpermaculture.com

Photo 36. Foxglove Beardtongue. Source: http://www.snetsingerbutterflygarden.org

Phase 3 KUTS Recommendations

Photo 37. Blue Flag Iris. Source: https://longislandnatives.com

Photo 38. Great Blue Lobelia. Source: http://gambartop.com

Photo 39. New England Asters. Source: http://www.fort-worth-metropolitan-area.com

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Suggestions for each category (native ground cover, rain gardens, and KUTS) are dependent upon each lot’s drainage, size, soil type, what the space is typically used for in the neighborhood, and how much sun exposure the space receives. There are a number of other possible suggestions, including trees and vines; however, this will be dependent upon site considerations and design for each individual lot (Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper, 2014). It is recommended that KULC partner with Buffalo Niagara Riverkeeper and Grassroots Gardens WNY for specialized recommendations within the neighborhood. In order to best recreate these unbuilt lots, KULC should partner with local landscaping companies to hold a competition, Lots Of Choice, to best design these lots. This will help to get community partners, and community members directly involved in rehabilitating these unbuilt lots.

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Map 18: Potential gathering spaces in the KULN.

Map 18 indicates several different possible locations for the proposed developments below. This includes food trailers, playgrounds, plazas, community gardens, and others. These locations were selected as a number of intersections with the proposed KUTS. This will allow for the greatest foot traffic, and help to provide greater connectivity within the neighborhood. It will also aid in capturing dollars, improving connectivity, community building, and community engagement. It provides greater horizontal and vertical access to the neighborhood, and meant to intertwine connections between Genesee Street and Best Street, Genesee Street and Sycamore Street, and Sycamore Street and Broadway.

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Food Trailers KULC faces tough challenges in capturing dollars from traffic on Genesee Street and Best Street visitors to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Beside walkability issues, there is a lack of quality commercial space available for business purposes. Those spaces that remain are spread too far apart to create any sense of a cohesive, connected and viable business district. Instead of looking at buildings for potential spaces, why not look at the empty space to create a business district using trailers? This concept has been used in Austin, Texas and Portland, Oregon, where food trailers can act as pop-up brick and mortar restaurants because they stay in the same place for an extended period of time.

This allows timely, affordable, and low-cost activation of unbuilt commercial space.

Food trucks and food trailers can be used to activate unbuilt lots and/or parking lots, increase entrepreneurial opportunities, and create place-making within a neighborhood. Food trucks are simply trucks that drive to various locations like events, business parking lots, or popular street corners to serve pedestrians who stop by. The location often changes throughout the day, depending on where the crowds are located and where demand is high. Food trucks use social media to broadcast their location to draw customers. The ability to change location depending on demand or requests from events, businesses, or other customers is the biggest strength that food trucks possess.

A food trailer blurs the line between food trucks and a brick and mortar restaurants. Food trailers are parked for longer periods of time in ‘trailer parks.” They can be parked for an entire season or longer. They serve food out of the trailers much in the same way as a food trucks, but their mobility is restricted. Their unique benefit is that they are often clustered with other food trailers to create an eating destination rather than a temporary location. A quality food trailer park owner will creatively theme the park and provided a strong marketing presence to draw customers. As a start-up, food trailers have the lowest overhead compared to food trucks and brick and mortar restaurants.

As an entrepreneurial tool, food trailers provide lower overhead for startup. Trailers do not have fuel, maintenance, or wear and tear costs like a food truck. While this would be seasonal, it would be possible to place the trailer park along side of a building that could double as indoor business space. A potential indoor and outdoor food market could be created allowing for all year long eating destination. An entrepreneurial food trailer startup goal is to become a brick and mortar restaurant, a food trailer simply lowers that startup cost, allowing for a wider audience of potential food trailer owners. This wider audience increases the potential for a more diverse eating experience.

Location is key in any business, but the more unique a space is then the better chance of creating a destination eating experience. It should be located near Genesee Street to take advantage of visitors from Martin Luther King, Jr. Park to the north and the large traffic volume on Genesee Street. The location should also be located at the intersection of bike lanes, key walking paths, and infill housing locations chosen by the group. It should also be at a key location of the “street art path” which draws visitors to the area for the food trailer park to capture.

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Community Gardens Urban agriculture is the practice of growing and distributing food within an urban neighborhood or setting. The terms urban farm, urban garden, and community garden all fall under the same umbrella that is urban agriculture (WhyHunger, 2017). This concept has gained popularity over the last several decades in many underdeveloped municipal neighborhoods across America. This is largely due to the amount of benefits urban agriculture can produce for neighborhoods and the people that reside there. Benefits that stem from producing fresh produce on urban farms or community gardens include improving access to healthier foods for low-income residents, providing jobs and supplemental incomes to local youth, homeless people, immigrants, individuals transitioning from incarceration, and the building or strengthening of job skills and confidence. They can also help to increase community economic development, revitalize neighborhoods, productively reuse unbuilt land, and foster stronger community bonds (WhyHunger, 2017).

Currently, the KULN is home to three gardens, two of which are public community gardens and the other is an urban farm (see Map 19). The two public community gardens are run by the organization Grassroots Gardens of WNY. We Care Community Gardens is located at 595 Sycamore Street just west of Johnson Street while the Girard Place Garden of Love is located at 73 Girard Place several streets north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Both are classified as “Flower and Food Gardens.�

(Grassroots Gardens of WNY). Wilson Street Urban Farm is the only urban farm located within the neighborhood. Situated on a large tract of land on Wilson Street between Broadway and Sycamore, the mission of this family-operated urban farm is to provide the City of Buffalo, especially the East Side, with fresh, natural, and locally grown food. They encourage community participation in the growing and harvesting of their food. Wilson Street Urban Farm also desires to reconnect residents of the neighborhood not only to the environment, but to each other as well (Wilson Street Urban Farm).

Recommendations Based on observations of the neighborhood, along with the information presented in the Urban Agriculture Tool Kit (see finance section), the following items should be strongly considered by the KULC for implementation into a proposed community garden: 1. Location: The KULC should establish a potential community garden near the after-school program so children can play a major role in its development and cultivation.These unbuilt residential lots, which are located steps away from the KULC, are situated within a portion of the neighborhood that does not contain a community garden at this time. The Girard Place Garden of Love occupies the northern section of the neighborhood while the We Care Community Gardens and the Wilson Street Urban Farm occupy the southern portion of the neighborhood (Map 19). To avoid an oversaturation of community gardens in one location of the neighborhood, those areas should be avoided. Establishing a community garden within close proximity to the KULC would prevent it from infringing upon the footprint of an existing community garden; while at the same time, allowing the proposed King Urban Life Community Garden to create its own unique niche location.

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Map 19: Urban Agriculture Sites in the KULN.

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2) it ly at

Growing Practices: The proposed King Urban Life Community Garden should make a priority to use raised beds (Photo 40) for growing instead of growing food directin the ground. This will allow for the elimination of most soil remediation costs while the same time, allow the proposed community garden to grow safe and healthy food.

Photo 40: An example of raised bed gardening.

rise-benefits-raised-bed-gardening/

Source: https://www.greenmountaincompost.com/2017/05/

3) Services: The proposed King Urban Life Community Garden should offer volunteer work days, donate food to the Head Start program, and run a farmstand on either Genesee Street or Guilford Street to sell their produce to the public. The Wilson Street Urban Farm along with other farms located outside the neighborhood such as the Common Roots Urban Farm, located south of the KULN at 309 Peckham Street, offer similar services as well that appear to be successful. For Common Roots Urban Farm (Photo 41), their farmstand is open every Saturday, 11am to 3pm, from mid-May to mid-October; while their volunteer days, which allows whoever is interested to help out regardless of farming experience, take place 9am to noon every first Saturday of the month May through September (Common Roots Urban Farm, n.d.). The proposed King Urban Life Community Garden should also offer tours of their site along with classes that teach farming skills to interested individuals.

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These services could help increase productivity, save money for the organization, and create extra funding streams as well. In addition, the KULC should look to construct a greenhouse on site to allow for year round farming and growing of food. More information and possible funding opportunities for greenhouse construction are available in the Urban Agriculture Tool Kit (see the finance section).

Photo 41: The Common Roots Urban Farm stand, located on the corner of Peckham and Coit Streets just south of the KULN. Source: http://www.commonrootsurbanfarm.com/farmstand/

4) Offer Unique Items: In addition to the common produce that would be grown at an urban agriculture project, the proposed community garden should strive to be unique and grow items that are not currently available at other community gardens and urban farms in the region. For example, a small orchard that contains fruit or nut trees could be grown on the site. If the KULC is able to construct greenhouse space in their garden, perhaps they can pursue aquaculture farming (Photo 42). This would allow the proposed King Urban Life Community Garden to breed, harvest, and distribute fish, crustaceans, and other aquatic animals to the surrounding community. More information and possible funding opportunities for them are available in the Urban Agriculture Tool Kit (see finance section).

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Photo 42: An example of aquaculture farming within a greenhouse. Source: https://www.hoerrschaudt.com/the-many-flavors-of-urban-farming/

5) Create Partnerships: Creating partnerships with local restaurants, community centers, or other entities will allow for the proposed King Urban Life Community Garden to receive added revenue and provide the garden with work clients. The KULC should also create a partnership with the Head Start program to provide children and their families with fresh and healthy foods.

Figure 5. 5 areas of concentration for proposed community graden

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Commercial Infill Development Resident concerns were reflected and taken into consideration throughout the following concepts for infill developments within KULN (Map 20). While conceptual, these represent types of commercial development that KULN could attempt to attract for infill projects.

Map 20. Proposed infill sites in the KULN.

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Recommended Commercial Infill Sites for future considerations Retail In order to achieve the Plan goals, new uses are needed for unbuilt parcels located along major thoroughfares to reduce blight and unwanted uses. Retail can serve a purpose of generating income for the community as well as creating community activities and inviting anchor institutions to participate in community events. Retail business along heavily trafficked thoroughfares will work in conjunction to slow different types of traffic (bus, car, pedestrian, cyclist) and act as a stop-and-capture mechanism for thousands of potential consumers traveling through the KULN. Potential sites include: 875 Genesee Street This large parcel size will support the King Urban Life Vintage Store. This store will serve as a place for residents and passersby to purchase a variety of items for which they would otherwise leave the neighborhood boundaries, therefore maintaining spending within the neighborhood. This will also serve as a place residents can sell items as a method for “quick cash.�

675 & 669 Genesee Street & 74 Brown Street The acquisition of these parcels will support the addition of the produce-centric King Urban Life Butterfly Market. In addition to the Butterfly Market, we will add the The Cycle, a neighborhood laundromat. Additions to KULN will provide necessary everday services for families and non-family residents. Other than the established grocery store, Aldi, there are no other fresh produce stores within walking distance of our neighborhood. Dollar General, Family Dollar and Rite Aid provide options for food, but lack produce choices such as fresh fruit and vegetables. The Butterfly Market will provide easier access to healthy food choices. The Cycle will aid residents in access to laundromats services. Residents who rely on public transportation face the challenge of riding the bus to laundromats with dirty clothes and staying in that location until clothes are done before riding back with clean clothes. This turns into a time-consuming event, not taking into account any vulnerable populations.

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Services 788 Broadway This large unbuilt parcel will feature the King Urban Life Community Exercise Center, a variety of restaurants preserving the culture and identity of the neighborhood while providing products that capture new residents and passerby consumers, as well as the introduction of an anchor financial institution such as a bank. This will serve the community’s need for places to exercise within the neighborhood, specifically during winter months. It is at the King Urban Life Community Exercise Center that residents will have the option to do more than exercise, such as learning about healthy diets. It will also contain open spaces alongside a classroom available for a variety of activities such as dancing, self defense, karate, art painting, and marriage and parent counseling.

723 Broadway This medium-sized unbuilt parcel can support a state-of-the-art Child Care Center capable of serving the neighborhood and nearby major employers such as the Medical Park, Erie County Medical Center, and the Buffalo Museum of Science. This will provide a necessary access to quality early childhood education - the foundation for a successful educational career and eventual professional development.

764 Sycamore Street This medium-sized parcel will support medical and mental health clinics. This will serve the growing concerns from residents to bring healthcare to the steps of residents within the neighborhood. Despite the current proximity to medical institutions, residents must cross State Route 33 to utilize Roswell Park’s services. Erie County Medical Center is accessible by Fillmore using bus or car, but not within walking distance. Neither touches on the concerns of mental health and the challenges that mental health presents to struggling minority neighborhoods.

Mental health clinics will address these issues by bringing residents together to lead to an overall improvement in life choices and understanding how choices impact health and wellbeing.

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Gathering Spaces Some spaces easily could be utilized as common areas. Partnerships with Buffalo Reuse may create the opportunity for donated chairs and benches to be used in unbuilt lots. This can provide community members a space to unwind and increase capacity for green space in the neighborhood. In addition, less costly sports playing fields can be created. Utilizing paint on mowed grass can help to create soccer fields, and baseball diamonds for community play. Neighboring schools and other organizations can utilize their assets for equipment donations to enhance these fields created throughout the neighborhood.

Playgrounds Playgrounds can have a profound effect on the community. Not only does this help to improve the physical health of a community, but it also aids in growing a younger population by providing assets for school-age children. This allows for civic engagement and provides safe spaces for children to play. Playgrounds and other child-friendly structures are helpful in attracting different household types to the neighborhood. Playgrounds also can be an inexpensive play area for the community that benefit families and others. They can be created inexpensively, by repurposing other items to further decorate a unbuilt lot, and the use of colorization will aid in placemaking.

Photo 43: A play area in Pittsburgh’s East Liberty neighborhood.

Source:https://www.huduser.gov/portal/periodicals/em/winter14/ highlight1.html

Photo 44: Tire swings. Source: http://www.archplayequipment.com/index.php/swinging. html

Photo 45: Full-circle swing set stands at the corner of Auburn Avenue and Hoyt Street in Buffalo. Source: http://www.buffalospree. com/Buffalo-Spree/May-2017/Spotlight-Full-Circle/

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Housing Planning The KULN is a low residential demand neighborhood, which has been consistently losing population over the past two decades. Yet concurrently, the neighborhood is almost evenly divided between homeowners and renters. Both groups have equal stake in the future of housing in their neighborhood, and the needs of both groups should be taken into consideration when looking at development of housing and housing needs.

Still, KULN is home to large numbers of residents whose incomes range from extremely low to very low, with many of them being housing burdened. In this situation, many homeowners struggle to maintain the quality of their homes, while many renters live in housing units with deferred maintenance that blight the neighborhood. The issue is further problematized by the intermingling of large numbers of unbuilt lots with owner- and renter-occupied housing units. These lots not only drag down property values, but also blight the neighborhood and erect barriers to its redevelopment.

The housing strategy seeks to correct the problems of population decline, poor housing quality and housing burdens in four interrelated ways: (1) improve the quality of existing owner and renteroccupied housing units (2) Improve the visual image of all housing units (3) Make housing affordable (4) develop new housing options. Within this context, although the KULN falls into Buffalo’s lowest market demand zone, it has the potential to become a high demand community because of its location and assets. The task is therefore not only to improve the existing housing options, but also to identify existing and target the groups most likely to desire living in the neighborhood. The key to stabilizing and growing underdeveloped neighborhoods in extreme housing loss circumstances is to carefully identify the community’s target population, while forging a strategy to retain the actually existing population.

The presence of large numbers of rental properties with absentee property owners will pose a unique challenge to neighborhood transformation. In addition to aggressive code enforcement and the enactment of ameliorative legislation, the Plan intends to generate internal competition by building quality and affordable infill housing units, which target actually existing neighborhood renters who are living in substandard housing units.

Existing Homeowners The prime focus of this Plan is to improve the existing quality of housing for homeowners and renters.

The median household income for homeowners is about $34,000 annually, with most of them living in housing units built in 1940 or earlier (ACS 2011-15 [5-year estimates]). While most homeowners should have the discretionary income to maintain and upgrade their homes, the data suggest that many others will not. ACS 2011-15 (5-year estimates) data indicates that about 48% of the owneroccupied units with a mortgage pay 30% or more of their income on housing, while 15% pay 50% or more of their income on housing.

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Concurrently, about 21% [77 units] pay more than 30% of their income on housing. This suggests that many homeowners will struggle to maintain and upgrade their property.

KULC should develop a partnership with East High School and/or the Community Action Organization (CAO) of Erie County to establish a Homeowners Assistance Program to provide homeowners with information and advice on how to connect to existing programs that will provide access to existing grants and loans, such as the ones listed below. The East High Parent Center could be a partner that can provide these services, or they could be provided by the CAO Resource Center located on Fillmore Avenue, just north of Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.

According to ACS 2011-2015 (5-year estimates) data, 48.9% of KULN residents are homeowners.

Overall, this plan seeks to improve the entire neighborhood’s housing quality, but more specifically, it seeks to improve the quality of existing owner-occupied housing units while simultaneously reducing their burden. By prioritizing the improvement of existing owner-occupied property, the Plan is enhancing equity for the current residents. Furthermore, by improving the existing owneroccupied housing stock first, the neighborhood will be stabilized from blight and disinvestment.

Improving the current housing stock inside the KULN will make the neighborhood a more desirable place to live and encourages more investment.

Stabilize & Improve Existing Housing Stock While Decreasing Burden There are a variety of organizations within the City of Buffalo, as well as Erie County and the state and federal government, that have been created to solely assist homeowners. The assistance aims to help owners maintain their properties and enhance their home equity. This Plan aims to connect residents of the KULN with programs and services that can assist with their desire to make improvements to their home. Making these funds and services accessible to current and future residents will play a vital role in this Plan’s goal of improving the quality of housing stock while decreasing the burden.

Homeownership might reduce the housing costs for some residents, but maintenance costs remain a huge portion of homeowner expenditures. While homeownership assistance programs are relatively well-established, they are limited in scope and have specific requirements for eligibility. The goal is to connect homeowners these programs.

Buffalo Urban Renewal Agency BURA was formed by an action of New York State in 1966 (BURA, 2017). It is a public benefit corporation with the purpose of generating and sustaining programs to eliminate or prevent blight and deterioration within the City of Buffalo. This includes focusing on the City of Buffalo’s neighborhood’s appearance. One of the main ways BURA achieves successful community development is through housing. The organization assists in rehab of existing homes or apartment buildings instead of new builds by offering technical or financial assistance to businesses (Housing Services, n.d.). BURA also offers two types of housing services to potential homeowners:

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1)Homes for Sale Database - An up-to-date resource on homes for sale in the City of Buffalo that are code compliant and move in ready 2)Housing Assistance Loan Programs

a)Target/Focus Area Program - Funds for code related repairs and lead based paint hazard reduction with no interest based on household income

b)Down Payment/Closing Cost Assistance Program - Funding up to $5,000 available to first time homebuyers to help assist with closing costs for a single family home. All properties must be code compliant and owner occupied for at least 5 years following purchase. All loans are also interest free and no payments are required following the assistance. Based on household income less than 80% of the area median based on family size (Housing Services, n.d.).

City of Buffalo Emergency Repair Program Funded by the City of Buffalo, the Emergency Repair Program helps cover the costs of sudden interruptions in utility service, such as cuts to water or sanitation. These funds also provide financial assistance for repairs needed to resolve dangerous housing problems, such as electrical hazards (City of Buffalo, 2008). To be eligible for the city’s Emergency Repair Program, the households requesting the funds must have owned and occupied the building for at least a year, and it must be structurally sound (City of Buffalo, 2008). The program can cover the cost of repairs for owner-occupied rental units but applicants must be considered low-income, making 80% or less of the area median income, or very low-income, making 50% or less of the area median income (City of Buffalo, 2008). Funding is available in the form of full or partial grants as well as low-interest loans (City of Buffalo, 2008).

Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services This organization is a neighborhood-based nonprofit that provides a variety of housing programs for low-income and very low-income people. Its services include a home repair program for incomequalified families, focusing on repairs that address immediate health and safety issues, including roofs, foundations and mechanical systems (Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services, n.d.). Typically, the nonprofit funds 90% of the bill, while the owner contributes the remaining 10%. If necessary, homeowners can borrow the funds from the nonprofit at 3% interest (Broadway Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services, n.d.).

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) Each year, the federal government provides funds to help low-income residents weatherize their homes, a program that is a necessity during Buffalo’s cold winters (DOE, n.d.). The DOE’s Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), started in 1976, reduces energy costs by about $283 per household on average (DOE, n.d.). Funds are disbursed to homeowners based on specific requirements. Priority of funding is given to households who meet income requirements, are 60 years of age or older, are

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families with one or more members with a disability, and families who have children (DOE, n.d.).

If households are applicable for funding based on these requirements, local government agencies or nonprofit organizations receive funds from the DOE to help coordinate weatherization improvements (DOE). In New York State, over $15 million was made available in 2015 specifically for weatherization efforts (Weatherization Assistance Program Technical Assistance Center, 2017). In Erie County, weatherization service providers include the Lt. Col. Matt Urban Human Services Center of WNY, Neighborhood Housing Services of South Buffalo, and the Supportive Services Corporation (New York State Homes and Community Renewal, n.d.).

Renters Strategy One: From Renting to Owning ACS 2011-2015 (5-year estimates) data reveals that 51.1% of the residents in the KULN are renters, and median household income in the neighborhood is only $20,428. On average, renters in the KULN spend 49.5% of their income on rent (ACS 2011-15 5-year estimates), creating a disproportionately large housing-cost burden for those who do not own property. Yet, at the same time about 131% [N=168] of the renters make more than $25,000 annually, including 16% [N=87] of renters that are making between $35,000 to 74,000 annually. These renters should be eligible to purchase their own homes. The KULN should forge a two-fold strategy to take advantage of this situation. First, the KULN should develop a program with local banks that makes it possible to combine the mortgage and rehabilitation of existing housing units, which are targeted for actually existing renters in the neighborhood.

Second, the KULN should identify renters that are creditworthy and desirous of becoming homeowners. This should be conceptualized as part of the strategy of improving rental properties by creating new housing opportunity for actually existing renters in the neighborhood.

Belmont Housing Resources of WNY The Belmont Housing Resources for WNY is a local nonprofit chapter whose mission is to expand affordable housing opportunities throughout Western New York (Belmont Housing Resources, 2017).

One service that Belmont provides is their First Home Club, is a Federal Home Loan Bank of New York-sponsored program that helps first-time homebuyers of modest income save for purchasing, down payments, closing costs, lawyer, and inspection fees. For every dollar that is saved, it is matched with $4 through the Individual Development Account Program. In order to qualify for the program, participants must participate in their financial coaching and homeownership counseling as well as meet income parameters depending on household size (Belmont Housing Resources, 2017).

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City of Buffalo Office of Strategic Planning The City of Buffalo’s Office of Strategic Planning is one entity that offers Down Payment and Closing Cost Assistance, or DPCC, where first-time homebuyers earning less than 80 percent of their community’s median income can apply for up to $5,000 towards the purchase a home (City of Buffalo, 2017). The City funds this program through Community Development Block Grant funds from HUD: “The funds are provided as an interest-free conditional grant with a five-year term that is secured by a second mortgage on the property” (City of Buffalo, 2017). Provided that all program obligations are met, the loan is forgiven by the end of that 5-year term (City of Buffalo, 2017).

Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America The Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America or NACA is a nonprofit community advocacy and homeownership organization whose mission is to build strong healthy neighborhoods in urban and rural areas nationwide through affordable homeownership (NACA, 2017). NACA is perhaps most well known for their mortgage program where they connect members with affordable housing without down payment or closing costs regardless of credit at a below market interest rate.

NACA claims to provide mortgages using character-based lending where member’s circumstances are considered when determining if they are ready for homeownership (NACA, 2017). Mortgages are available to members who do not own another property and adhere to NACA policies and procedures. NACA prefers to offer mortgages to members whose income is less than 80% of the median income in the Metropolitan Statistical Area, and are within Census tracts where the median income is less than 80% of the median income in the MSA (NACA, 2017). Additionally, NACA provides home buying counseling through a 10-step process that extends even after the closing of a property (NACA, 2017).

HUD Reverse Mortgages An alternative home loan known as a reverse mortgage is a loan that converts the equity that is accrued over time into cash for the homeowner (New York State Department of Financial Services [DFS], 2017). The equity in the home that is compounded over time is a line of credit for the borrower.

A reverse mortgage is different from a traditional mortgage because it is a “rising-debt loan.” In other words, the lender makes monthly payments to the borrower, traditionally to make home repairs or pay off any other debts. The total debt, or loan balance increases the more money the lender gives to the borrow which is then fully repaid at the point of sale of the home.

There are two types of reverse mortgages, there are term loans and tenure loans. Term loans are repaid after a fixed amount of years whereas tenure loans are repaid after an undisclosed amount of time and matures when the borrower dies or sells. Reverse Mortgages can however, be paid by heirs to the home (DFS, 2017). In other words, after the death of the borrower, the loan and the home can be passed down to direct relatives.

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To qualify for a reverse mortgage, you typically must be at least 62 years old. This is the case for HUD reverse mortgages (Housing & Urban Development, 2017). This is a good option for seniors who are low on cash but own a home that has equity but no access to it.

Strategy Two: Improving Existing Rental Units The blighted image of rental property is a major drag on housing values in KULN, a source of a foreboding visual image in the neighborhood, and a catalyst of poor health. The KULN should work with the City of Buffalo to launch an aggressive housing code violation assessment, which also targets landscaping. The KULN should also work with local groups over setting up unique subsidy programs that cover the rent gaps created by improving rental housing units.

To make this system operational, the KULN should work with the City to establish a volunteer building code inspectors program. By using volunteers, the neighborhood could eliminate the problems associated with using City building code inspectors. KULC should explore the possibilities of developing a partnership with East High School to supply the building code inspectors.

Bolstering the Neighborhood Visual Image Transformation of the visual image of the neighborhood and building a green infrastructure go handin-hand and is essential to turning undeveloped neighborhoods into desirable communities. One inexpensive way to recreate the neighborhood image is through landscaping aimed at bolstering the community’s aesthetic appeal. Such an approach should target parcel and block level development within the neighborhood, slowly moving from one block to another and from one developmental zone to another.

One of the strategic goals is to develop a culture of gardening within the community, with the landscaping strategy unfolding in stages. The primary target should be owner- and renter-occupied housing units, although the landscaping project should evolve out of the greening of unbuilt lots with decorative land covering. The greening of unbuilt lots is designed to create a readiness and demand for landscaping and gardening. It will provide residents with an indicator that change is taking place and that the community is capable of providing the support and assistance needed to bring about that change.

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Plans for bolstering neighborhood visual image include the following: • Create an inventory housing units in the KULN that are already landscaped, which would include flower gardens, trees, and shrubbery.

• Develop activities to promote landscaping and gardening in the neighborhood. For example, sponsoring a Best Garden contest with a cash award.

• Establish a partnership with East High School, using the Mayor’s Summer Youth Program, to develop a landscaping brigade to help residents with the process.

• Bring representatives from organizations such as PUSH Green, Grassroots Gardens and Biology Professors from the University at Buffalo to run learning seminars and guide East High School students to create new landscaping ideas throughout the community.

• Consider working with residents to establish a neighborhood initiative similar to Project Front Yard Initiative. Project Front Yard (PFY) aims to involve residents along with businesses, local government, media and other partners to address community beautification through education and action.

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New Housing Options The KULN is dominated by households with incomes ranging from extremely low to very low, and with a variety of family and household types. To stabilize the population, increase housing affordability, and improve the quality of housing, it is necessary to create a variety of new housing options for residents, especially those that aim to promote collective forms of ownership. New forms of collective ownership are particularly important because of the ability to bolster affordability by reducing housing costs.

Cohousing Cohousing is an intentional community of private homes that congregate around a shared space.

Each household has independent incomes and private relationships, but what is key about cohousing is working together collaboratively to both plan and manage activities that happen in their shared space. Some activities involve meals, a community concerts or a night of games. In cohousing, the cost of living can be reduced through various forms of sharing including housing maintenance, upgrades, energy costs, and sharing food costs.

The cohousing strategy is easily adaptable to urban neighborhoods, which are characterized by extreme housing loss and numerous unbuilt lots situated on long blocks. In this approach, the cohousing clusters would be created on specific blocks and marketed to existing and new groups, particularly immigrant and refugees that might be desirous creating tightly-knit communities within a larger neighborhood setting. In this strategy, the new infill builds could complement existing dwelling units and create opportunities to create new types of sub-communities within the KULN. The cohousing strategy could also be applied to blocks with large numbers of rental properties, which could be potentially converted to cohousing units. A community land trust strategy should be used to complement this approach by making the units affordable.

Multigenerational Housing In 2014, a record of 60.6 million people (almost 20% of the U.S. population, or every 1 in 5 people) lived with multiple generations under one roof, and this trending will likely increase in the future.

By multigenerational housing, the Plan is referring to households where parent(s), grandparent(s), children live together in the same household. Typically, such housing includes two or more adult generations or one that includes both grandparents and grandchildren. These types of housing units are particularly popular among Asians and African Americans. Across the U.S., for example, 28% of Asian-Americans land 25% of blacks live in multigenerational homes, while about 56% of the population nationally live in multigenerational household. Given the growth of the precariat class [those living in very uncertain situations] the trending toward multigenerational living will continue.

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In the KULN, the goal is to intentionally develop these types of housing units and market them to existing and targeted new population groups. To make this strategy work, it is necessary to identify existing housing units in the neighborhood, which are large enough to accommodate multiple generations, and then to build new infill multigenerational housing units. The aim is to intentionally target those families that are desirous of living in housing units specifically designed for multigenerational living.

Multigenerational homes bring forward a number of benefits for those involved, one of them being increased savings across the board. The more individuals contributing to rent/mortgage, utilities and basic household necessities, the more they save. Another benefit is increased social interactions and stronger intergenerational relationships, which can be pivotal in a child’s life. More generations within a household provide a resource for childcare or eldercare that may not have been present before which saves money and time for all members of the family (Goyer, 2012). In the KULN, the community land trust model will create circumstances that will enable the community to make these forms of housing units more affordable than they would be in other Buffalo settings.

Potential Sites 56-69 Rich Street: Affordable Multifamily Housing Since KULC is located on Rich Street, developing unbuilt lots close to the neighborhood’s largest asset will leverage the impact of the development overall. There are multiple unbuilt lots on Rich Street that would make up an effective site for an affordable multifamily building.

According to 2011-15 ACS (5-year estimates), the majority of households in the neighborhood are family households (58.9%), which is more than the city-wide average (54.6%). The KULN families living on Rich Street would be able to take advantage of the Parent-Child Home Program offered by the KULC, which promotes literacy in school-age children (King Urban Life Center, 2016). The parcels for the proposed development are within walking distance to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park.

Parks provide obvious health benefits and opportunities for physical activity. Studies have shown that living in close proximity to a park can reduce obesity rates in the long-term (Wolch et al., 2011).

Studio Apartments In Buffalo, 43.6% of the households are composed of persons living alone, according to ACS 20112015 (5-year estimates) causing the city to be ranked tenth nationally. The KULN, has a slightly higher percentage of persons living alone at 45.37%. Given the size of the population grouping, we think that the development of studio apartments targeted for the live alone population could be population. Newly constructed studio apartments built on a community land trust will create an affordable units for the housing burdened single-occupancy rental units.

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Studios consist of a combined bedroom and kitchen space with an in-suite bathroom are ideal living for those living alone. As families have begun to move out of the cities and into the suburbs, the number of singles living in cities has increased, prompting a national need for the construction of more studio apartments. In the U.S., the number of one-person households has increased from 17% in 1970 to 27% in 2012 while family households have decreased from 81% to 66% from 1970 to 2012 (Vespa et al., 2012).

For one-person, low-income households, studio apartments bring a wealth of benefits. They allow residents to live independently at a small cost without the burden of home repairs or maintenance.

Given the high percentage of people living alone in Buffalo, building studio apartment on community trust land will increase affordability, while giving existing residents new options and making the community an ideal destination for targeted newcomers.

473-495 Sherman Street: Studio Apartments The unbuilt parcels on Sherman Street are located across from an established park with squash courts and basketball courts. The site has been targeted for mixed-income studio apartments, which would attract higher-income residents to the area as well as provide affordable housing units for those at a lower income bracket. Close-by amenities make the site attractive, and new development will help to reduce the number of unbuilt lots in the area.

Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives Another form of collective ownership are the limited equity housing cooperatives. This ownership structure exists when people come together to form a legal corporation to own and control the building in which they live. The cooperative owns the land, buildings, and common areas, while member-owners own a share in the cooperative. Members live in and run the cooperative—from organizing social activities to maintenance to handling finances and landscaping. The members set the bylaws and elect a board of directors. The affordability of these cooperatives can be reduced when they are developed using the community land trust framework. Given the large number of building situated along Genesee, Broadway, and Sycamore, there should be an indexing of structures that might be suitable for limited equity housing cooperatives. In addition, the KULN should evaluate the possibility of constructing new units targeted for limited equity housing development.

986-990 Genesee Street: Mixed-Use Building with Apartments Genesee Street has been targeted as one of the neighborhood’s major thoroughfares, and a mixeduse property would increase the economic vibrancy of the area. Constructing a commercial space below market-rate studio apartments along Genesee Street could attract higher income residents to the area. Demand for mixed-use buildings have increased as more and more urban residents desire to live in walkable neighborhoods (Regional Plan Association, 2016).

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Investing in the KULN by creating market rate apartments and new commercial space will help to nurture a mixed-income neighborhood, stopping the cycle of disinvestment in the area.

166 Guilford Street: Multifamily Apartments A collection of unbuilt parcels on Guilford Street has been identified as another infill opportunity project and a perfect location for multifamily apartments.

Funding Opportunities HOME Investment Partnerships Program The HOME Investment Partnerships Program, referred often to as HOME, provides grants to state and local municipalities that communities can use (often partnering with nonprofit groups within the area) to fund a range of housing activities such as building, buying and rehabilitating affordable housing for rent or possibly homeownership. The program was designed to carry out the following values and principles (HOME, n.d.): 1)Empowering people and communities to design strategies to fit their own needs 2)An emphasis on consolidated planning to strengthen partnerships on all levels of government including the private sector to develop affordable housing 3)Technical assistance for qualified, community based, nonprofit housing groups to build capacity 4)A requirement that participating jurisdictions (PJ’s) match 25 cents to every dollar in program funds in order to mobilize community resources in support of affordable housing (HOME, n.d.)

HOME is the largest federal block grant in the U.S. exclusively to create for affordable housing for low-income households. Like CDBGs, HOME funds are awarded annually by the government to jurisdictions who choose to participate. There is a great amount of flexibility when it comes to usage HOME funds ranging from direct loans to forms of credit enhancements. PJ’s can choose to use HOME funds to provide financial assistance to first time homebuyers to build or rehabilitate housing in a qualified area. Each PJ has different goals and results of usage of HOME funds (HOME, n.d.).

HOME Program The New York State HOME program is offered through New York State Homes and Community Renewal, the statewide public arm for housing improvement and construction (New York State Homes and Community Renewal). HCR’s mission is to increase affordability through the construction of new housing units and the rehabilitation of existing units (New York State Homes and Community Renewal). The agency disburses federal funds to counties, cities, towns, and villages based on need in order to provide housing assistance for the construction and rehabilitation of owner-occupied and renter-occupied housing units (New York State Homes and Community Renewal).

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The program funds are restricted by income and are awarded to for-profit and nonprofit entities based on a community’s demonstrated need, which is set by area median income (AMI). HOME funds provided to households are to be used for those who represent at least 80% of area median income. Funds for rental projects are awarded to those that provide housing for renters who represent 60% of area median income (New York State Homes and Community Renewal). The purpose of the HOME Program is to subsidies the rehabilitation and construction of low-income housing units for homeowners and renters alike. The funds can be used for tenant-based rental assistance as well in order to provide temporary relief to low-income renters (New York State Homes and Community Renewal).

The Public Policy Framework The neighborhood transformation outlined above cannot be successfully implemented without a policy framework, including some new legislation and initiatives that enable residents to control, manage, and guide the neighborhood development process. The KULN is situated on land that is mostly owned by outsiders who reside in other parts of the city, state, and nation, with some property owners living outside the U.S. Moreover, metropolitan city building is a market- and developerdriven process that prioritizes property rights and profits over community rights and the building of a vibrant neighborhood for the actually existing population. In such a situation, unless residents are positioned to control and direct the neighborhood development process, the community will be vulnerable to land speculation and market dynamics. In this section, the Plan will outline a series of policies that enables residents to control, guide, and direct the neighborhood planning and implementation process. It will outline the multi-layered and interlocking policy strategies and funding sources needed to successfully implement the KULN Transformation Plan.

Community Land Trust A top priority of the KULN Transformation Plan is to gain control over the neighborhood development process and to promote collective forms of ownership. The community land trust (CLT) is the most important vehicle for achieving this critical goal. In this situation, the goals of the land trust are to control neighborhood development, promote collective ownership and democracy, and to create affordable housing units. This means that the CLT can mitigate the impact of the real estate market on KULN residents if market demand increases in the community.

Forming a new land trust, however, will be a time-consuming process that will require KULN to devote significant volunteer or staff effort, or to explore partnerships with other nonprofits and/or developers to assist with administrative oversight and project development. Furthermore, to acquire land from the city or the Buffalo Erie County Land Improvement Corp., a party usually has to demonstrate financial and organizational capacity and plans for redevelopment. To meet the goals of this plan, KULC’s land trust will likely have to pursue a two-pronged strategy of presenting detailed plans and financing for specific projects while making the argument that both the land bank and city should turn over unbuilt lots to the land trust for reintegration into the community.

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In this regard, a close working relationship should be established with the Erie County Land Bank and the City to achieve developmental goals, while these types of negotiations are taking place.

A community land trust (CLT) is typically a 501(c)3 nonprofit that acquires and owns land, and manages it on behalf of a community. The land trust may sell buildings constructed on its properties, but it always retains ownership of the land beneath these structures. The CLT typically leases that land to the building owner through an instrument called a “ground lease� (National Community Land Trust Network, n.d.). The ground lease allows the land trust to control the use of CLT land by placing conditions on land uses, sales and the price of the buildings on its properties. While many land trusts focus on homeownership opportunities, others also have developed rental housing, urban agriculture, commercial businesses and other types of uses (Weiss, 2005).

Figure 6. Community Land Trust Model

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Not all land trusts follow the traditional model described above. Some land trusts both own and operate rental housing (Cotner, 2017; National Community Land Trust Network, n.d.). In some cases, condominium associations may own the land beneath a building too, but a land trust will retain a right of first refusal to buy condo units through a deed restriction or an affordable housing covenant (National Community Land Trust Network, n.d.). Some CLTs also lease land to housing cooperatives, rather than more traditional housing (PolicyLink, 2001).

Most land trusts are primarily interested in simply facilitating homeownership and producing affordable housing. The Plan calls for the development of a more radical CLT model, one that intentionally seeks to control market dynamics and to promote collective ownership and democracy within the neighborhood. In this scenario, the land trust seeks to produce housing that is affordable, even for those with the lowest incomes.

While unusual in western New York, land trusts are not a new concept. A handful existed in the U.S. in the late 1960s, and they became more prevalent in the 1980s and 1990s; as of 2010, there were 240 CLTs in 45 states and Washington, D.C. (Davis, 2010). The concept presented here, however, differs from most land trusts in that the CLT would not be focused primarily on affordable housing development. While that may be a secondary goal, the CLT’s main priority should be the acquisition and management of land specifically within the neighborhood’s borders.

To this end, there are several advantages to the land trust model, including the ability to exert control over market forces and assemble properties. The ground lease mechanism allows the land trust to ensure that its properties are used consistently with its mission, and to preserve the affordability of homes in neighborhoods where property values are increasing (PolicyLink, 2001; Weiss, 2005).

Many land trusts use the ground lease to set resale price restrictions through a formula that allows the owner to make a fair return on his or her investment, but not a full market value return (Weiss, 2005). At the Albany Community Land Trust, for example, the ground lease formula assures that homeowners will recoup equity in their home, plus 25% of any appreciation in property value (Cotner, 2017). Often, the home must be sold to a buyer who meets income eligibility guidelines (e.g. a salary at a certain percentage below the area median income).

Land trusts frequently retain a right of first refusal to purchase homes on their land if a homeowner chooses to sell. Also importantly, ground leases may also allow the land trust to step in and make repairs if a building is neglected, or to cure a default on a mortgage or tax payment if the owner has fallen behind on payments. Overall, this model is meant to provide homeownership opportunities to low- and moderate-income buyers in perpetuity, while allowing the land trust leeway to ensure that its properties are stable and well-maintained.

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There is evidence that land trusts with affordability and ownership goals can accomplish results.

In a study of eight housing organizations across the U.S. -- including land trusts as well as limited equity cooperatives and resale-restricted communities -- Temkin, Theodos and Price (2011) found that such programs help to preserve housing affordability and allow low-income individuals to build equity. Homeowners typically were able to recover their original down payment and any capital improvements, as well as a share of any market appreciation. While foreclosure proceedings increased in the conventional market between 2008 and 2010, they decreased in community land trusts neighborhoods (Lincoln Institute, 2010). The foreclosure rate in CLT neighborhoods was .46% compared to 4.63% in the conventional market.

Land Trust Models KULC will have to consider several different ways to structure and govern a community land trust.

According to Weiss (2005) and the National Community Land Trust Network (n.d.), potential community land trust models include: • A program of an existing nonprofit, where the CLT is not a separate entity; • An affiliate of an existing nonprofit, which retains control over the CLT’s governance; • A spin-off from an existing nonprofit, where the CLT may eventually become a self-sufficient nonprofit entity; • An existing nonprofit that converts into a CLT; • A grassroots nonprofit organization launched by a mix of housing advocates, residents, faithbased organizations and/or other community organizations; • A program run or sponsored by local government.

Land trusts in other cities offer examples of several possible models for KULN. The Dudley Street Neighborhood in Boston launched Dudley Neighbors Inc. in 1987 out of concern that city plans to redevelop unbuilt lots in their neighborhood would displace residents (Loh, 2015).

The land trust today manages affordable homes, cooperative housing units, rental properties, a home being constructed as a YouthBuild project, a playground, a small orchard and community garden, an urban farm and a greenhouse operated by a separate nonprofit farming organization (Dudley Neighbors Inc., n.d.). The neighborhood group appoints 6 out of 9 seats with voting power on the land trust’s board; others are representatives for politicians and a related neighborhood group (Dudley Neighbors Inc., n.d.).

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Photo 46: A community greenhouse on Dudley Neighbors Inc. land trust property. Source: dudleyneighbors.org

The Albany Community Land Trust launched through the work of United Tenants of Albany. Today, the land trust is an independent nonprofit, but it has close organizational ties to the Affordable Housing Partnership of the Capital Region, a homeownership counseling agency. Both organizations share an executive director, some staff and office space; and they also have two board members in common (Cotner, 2017).

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Photo 47: A home on Albany Community Land Trust property. Source: albanyclt.com

Cleveland’s Land Trust is a program of Neighborhood Housing Services of Greater Cleveland (NHSGC), a nonprofit community development corporation with a portfolio of other housing programs. The trust was founded in 2001 and was an independent nonprofit until it merged in 2011 with NHSGC. The merger was intended to expand the Land Trust’s work on affordable housing and allowed NHSGC to offer new options to potential homebuyers (Community Land Trust of Greater Cleveland, 2011).

The Atlanta Land Trust Collaborative (ALTC) began in 2009 under the leadership of the Atlanta Beltline Partnership, the Atlanta Housing Association of Neighborhood-Based Developers and the Annie E. Casey Foundation-Atlanta Civic Site. The collaborative was one of several strategies to reduce displacement in neighborhoods targeted for a major redevelopment project (The Atlanta Beltline, n.d.). The ALTC not only functions as a citywide land trust, but as a “central server” to neighborhood groups and neighborhood- level land trusts (HUD, 2012).

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Photo 48: A land trust controls three units in this loft complex in Atlanta, Georgia. Source: https://archives.huduser.gov/scrc/ sustainability/newsletter_010312_4.html#1

Land trusts also vary widely in geographic scope. Some like Dudley Neighbors Inc. in Boston have a neighborhood focus and market homes to people who already live in the neighborhood (Dudley Neighbors Inc., n.d.). Others, like the Albany Community Land Trust, are citywide organizations that focus on housing affordability at a larger scale (Cotner, 2017). The Champlain Housing Trust in Vermont, reportedly the largest CLT in the nation, encompasses three counties, managing 2,200 rental units and 565 owner-occupied homes (getahome.org, 2017).

Traditionally, CLTs are governed by a tripartite board, where land trust homeowners hold a third of the seats; other neighborhood residents hold another third; and representatives of other nonprofits, government agencies or people with particular expertise hold the remaining third. The first two groups are typically elected by membership, which often includes everyone who lives in the geographic area served by the CLT (Weiss, 2005). However, there are variations on this setup that include seats for renters or allow all seats to be appointed by a nonprofit parent organization (National Community Land Trust Network, n.d.).

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Figure 7. The standard structure of community land trust boards.

Recommendations Regardless of the model KULC chooses, creating a land trust is a potentially time-consuming and resource-intensive task. Key steps would include: Developing a clear rationale, mission and intended beneficiaries for a land trust, perhaps focusing on the acquisition of unbuilt parcels; Defining a service area for the land trust; Forming a board, filing articles of incorporation and draft bylaws to form the land trust as a 501(c)3 nonprofit. Model bylaws can be found at http://cltnetwork.org/resource/model-classic-clt-bylaws/ Adapting a model ground lease to the local land trust’s mission. A template can be found at http:// cltnetwork.org/resource/model-ground-lease-commentary/.

There also is ongoing staff or volunteer time required to maintain a land trust by acquiring property, drafting redevelopment plans, securing funding and either developing projects or working with partners to carry them out, among other responsibilities.

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Accordingly, we recommend that: KULC explore partnerships to form and operate a land trust by sharing technical expertise, staff and resources.

Potential partners could include nonprofit community organizations such as the CAO, PUSH Buffalo, which does not operate as a land trust, but has expertise in developing and financing rental housing projects and rehabilitation work. A representative from PUSH has expressed a willingness to at least meet with KULC to discuss options and whether there are ways for PUSH to share its expertise in community-oriented development and housing solutions.

Another option is to approach a neighborhood-based organization, such as Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Solutions, about models that would be mutually beneficial.

Private developers such as Inclusion Development Associates also may provide support for handling the development side of the process.

Partnering with the Buffalo Erie County Land Improvement Corp., or land bank, is another route for a KULN land trust to assemble and obtain multiple parcels.

Consider the best governance model and structure for a CLT. Given KULC’s limited staff and budget, we suggest forming an independent nonprofit with majority representation from KULC on its board, as well as a significant number of seats for KULN residents. Others might best be filled by representatives of organizations with expertise that can benefit KULC’s efforts.

Focus early on securing funding. Likely startup needs for a CLT include land acquisition, project development, feasibility studies, site preparation, infrastructure, construction, and rehabilitation of existing buildings, down payment assistance for first-time buyers, and permanent assistance for first-time homebuyers or nonprofit buyers of residential structures on leased land (Weiss, 2005).

Ongoing operational costs include staff and office expenses, marketing and educational materials, potential legal expenses, bookkeeping and training (Weiss, 2005). One route is to seek certification as a Community Housing Development Organization, which would allow the land trust to apply to various state- and federally-funded housing programs.

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Photo 49. A home with potential code violations.

Volunteer Building Code Inspectors Several U.S. cities engage volunteers to help identify building and code violations in their neighborhoods and relay this information to municipal code enforcement staff. There are several possible benefits to this approach for KULN: Volunteers would help limited municipal staff to identify and address problems they might otherwise miss; the neighborhood could see health and safety issues fixed in a more extensive and timely manner; and the program has potential to build social capital among neighborhood residents.

Such volunteer code enforcement programs appear to be rare in New York. In fact, we were unable to find a single example in the state, and our calls to the state Division of Codes and Building Standards to seek clarification on the legality of such a program went unanswered. There is, however, nothing in the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, nor in City of Buffalo’s charter or ordinances, that would appear to prohibit such a volunteer program as long as enforcement of violations is left to certified professionals.

Under New York State law, actual enforcement can be performed only by certified building inspectors or code enforcement officers. The former position requires 60 hours of training, and the latter, 120 hours, with annual in-service training required to maintain certification. It would be unreasonable to expect volunteers to undergo this level of training and appears to be unnecessary, as they would only need to learn how to identify and report potential violations.

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A separate training program could be developed for volunteers. However, if the KULC partners with East High School, the intensive training and actual inspecting could be made part of a training program in housing development. Such a program could also including housing rehabilitation and similar types of activities. The city’s Citizen Services 311 Self Service webpage already allows residents to report problems with housing violations or excessive trash so municipal staff can investigate further; a small group of volunteers actively looking for such issues and relaying the information to the city could be seen as a logical extension of this existing service.

Most cities with volunteer code enforcement programs have common elements. All require participants to undergo training, but the training varies from one state and municipality to the next.

Volunteers do not generally have authority to enforce violations, but instead provide information to authorities, who can follow up knowing that the report comes from an individual with trained on the code’s requirements. Key concerns include liability, the extent of training programs and determining whether the use of volunteers may violate labor contracts.

Examples for KULN include: Spokane, Washington: The city sought volunteers to serve four hours a week as Citizen Code Enforcement Volunteers. Volunteers undergo a 10-hour training course. The program caused some controversy, with some residents saying it encouraged neighbors to act as a semi-trained group of “Big Brother” spies. The city, however, described the program as a community engagement effort, similar to community policing and neighborhood cleanups. The program also supplements a shorthanded code enforcement staff (Clouse, 2012).

Memphis, Tenn.: The city held an informational meeting for about 50 residents to work as code enforcement volunteers. Participants were expected to undergo background checks, as well as classroom and field training, to supplement the city’s force of 33 code enforcement officials.

Multiple: Belton, Missouri; Eastvale, California; and Daytona Beach, Florida, all have volunteer code enforcement programs. The Daytona program requires volunteers to undergo 20 hours of training and to do ride-longs with a paid code-enforcement officer. Generally, volunteers were told not to interact with the public and to allow the professional staff to handle all interactions with property owners. Most programs only allow volunteers to observe problems and report back to professional staff. (Dutton, 2012) Recommendations The perviouse listed examples require strategies to be adopted for the KULN: This effort will require cooperation from the City of Buffalo. Contact the City of Buffalo Permit and Inspection Services office, as well as the Division of Citizen Services, to discuss the potential for a volunteer code enforcement program, as well as how to structure the program to address any city concerns about liability.

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A volunteer code enforcement program should require participants to undergo background checks administered by the city to minimize liability concerns. Responsibilities of volunteers should be clearly delineated from those of professional staff to minimize potential claims of labor contract violations. The volunteers will act only as the “eyes and ears” of the professional staff, and should leave interaction with the public and enforcement to them.

Participants must undergo training. KULC could work with the city to define the requirements and delivery of instruction. Other cities appear to require anywhere from 10 to 20 hours of training for code enforcement volunteers. KULC should explore incentives to attract volunteers to the program.

Community Brigades Community brigades are groups of individuals working together toward a common goal for improvement within their neighborhood. Brigades equip residents within an area with the skills needed to enhance their everyday lives by improving their surroundings while simultaneously increasing interactions with one another.

One example of a successful community brigade is the Global Brigades at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The mission of UCLA’s Global Brigades is to empower middle and high school students to help build sustainable communities in the Los Angeles area (Global Brigade at UCLA, 2016). The students utilize what they have learned in other communities across the globe and implement their skills towards rebuilding communities where they study and live through sustainable development, working alongside nonprofit organizations. Community brigades have been utilized within the Los Angeles area for environmental efforts, human rights (including pro bono consultations), and economic issues.

Another model of a community brigade for the KULN originated in Cuba. The brigades in Cuba worked closely with neighborhood residents to construct child-care centers, schools for people with disabilities, health clinics, neighborhood doctors’ homes, and offices and other social facilities (Taylor, 2009). Other programs and organizations currently exist across the U.S. to support the development and improvement of yards, gardens and landscapes within neighborhoods in order to increase overall appeal and reduce blight within communities.

Neighbors Helping Neighbors (NHN), a program located in Virginia Beach, Virginia, emphasizes “impact volunteerism” with a priority on increasing social capital alongside revitalization. Neighbors Helping Neighbors is comprised of people taking the steps to help others who live within close proximity of them. One aspect of NHN is a yard cleanup program where members gather in groups on a regular schedule to visit different addresses and help with cleanup and maintenance of yards of owners who reach out (Neighbors Helping Neighbors, n.d.).

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Another example is the Forest Lake Good Samaritans (FLGS) located in Forest Lake, Minnesota. The Forest Lake Good Samaritans are a startup neighborhood group with the sole purpose of helping people. The organization started via Facebook and now leaders of FLGS are filing for 501(c)3 status to be an official nonprofit. Their activities range from yard work to roof replacement and bringing attention to issues within the area, such as pollution (Bussjaeger).

Recommendation The KULN has the capacity to implement a similar community brigade that works with individuals while teaching them the skills needed to help rebuild the neighborhood sustainably alongside community partners for neighborhood wide enhancements across multiple sectors.

The Youthbuild Program The YouthBuild Program is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization. It is funded by HUD. The goal of the organization is to work with at-risk youth (high school dropouts, youth in foster care, etc.).

YouthBuild has a network of 260 urban and rural programs in 46 states.

Those involved with YouthBuild Program can be essential in the construction of affordable housing units, community centers, schools, playgrounds, and other structures to add a sense of place in the KULN. The YouthBuild Program can work as a branch of the aforementioned Community Brigade in order to increase social capital in the neighborhood, due to the fact the youth in the KULN work together in a team environment to accomplish their goals. The skills that youth gain from the YouthBuild Program can keep youth off the streets, and in productive programs while allowing them to obtain an education. A YouthBuild Program must contain three essential components.

Educational and job training services Leadership training and counseling and other support activities On-site training through actual housing rehabilitation or construction work YouthBuild has been successful in other areas of the U.S., including the Tampa area in Florida. A grant for $1.1 million over three years was awarded for sixty students in a community in Tampa (Manning, 2012). The students received occupational skills and construction training, and the program in Tampa has seen students advance to becoming superintendents at housing complexes or to completing secondary education (Manning, 2012). Eighteen members of the Tampa Housing Authority’s executive staff serve as mentors to the young people participating in the program providing them with social activities and exposure to social interactions they might not otherwise have an opportunity to participate in (Manning, 2012).

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Recommendation The KULN has an appropriately sizeable younger population to catalyze and implement YouthBuild activities within its boundaries. The neighborhood has seen an increase in the share of the youth population from 2000 to 2015 (from 10.9% to 14.5%). Preschoolers and youth make up 21.3% of the population in the KULN (ACS, 2015). The YouthBuild Program is intended to target youth between the ages of 16 and 24 to give them skills to learn in their communities. East High School, located in the Northeast portion of the KULN, is a potential asset and can be used for collaboration to establish a relationship between the organization as well as students and teachers within the neighborhood.

With YouthBuild, construction for new housing in the KULN would come from the residents directly instead of outsourcing for construction contracts or bids. The residents of KULN would have the skills to construct housing and would be hands-on in both creating and maintaining a sense of place throughout the KULN. Having a YouthBuild program as a branch of an active neighborhood brigade would bring improvements to both existing housing structures and new infill development, as well as create community connections and build social capital.

Neighborhood Districting Creating special fee or financing districts could help KULN to raise revenue for streetscape and public service improvements, as well as neighborhood rehabilitation programs and development projects. There are two basic options available to KULN: neighborhood improvement districts and tax increment financing districts.

Neighborhood Improvement Districts A neighborhood improvement district is a geographically bounded area within which certain public improvements are financed by a municipality through the issuance of notes or bonds, which are in turn repaid by levying assessments against properties within the district (Armstrong Teasdale LLP, 2010). A nonprofit management association overseeing the district can use fee revenue to make improvements within the district, ranging from landscaping to new lighting to construction of bus stop shelters to sidewalk repairs. The management association must include a mix of district property owners, tenants and representatives of the city administration and Common Council, and would oversee the budget and activities of the district.

Yet the creation of such districts is particularly difficult in upstate and western New York cities.

State law requires organizations to gather petitions with signatures from property owners of more than 50% of the total assessed valuation in the district, as well as 50% of property owners altogether (Slone, 2016; Laws of New York State, 2015). The rules are less restrictive in New York City, and as a result, there were 72 such districts in New York City in 2016, but only 43 in the rest of the state (Slone, 2016). While such districts present a unique way to fund neighborhood improvements in KULN, it will likely take significant time and community organizing to put one into effect.

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Buffalo has limited experience with improvement districts. A Bailey/Amherst Business Improvement District was established in 1985, providing pavement and landscape maintenance, sidewalk plowing, security and other public services (Sanfilippo, 2008). Its primary funding source as of 2008 was an annual fee on real properties in the district. A 2008 city audit found that the board was essentially inactive, and identified financial problems and unpaid bills. A 2012 report on BIDs listed Bailey Amherst as either terminated or disbanded (McLaughlin, 2012). A more established improvement district encompasses the downtown core and is managed by the nonprofit Buffalo Place Inc. The annual budget for Buffalo Place is about $2.3 million (Buffalo Place, n.d.).

Photo 50: Staff for the Buffalo Place improvement district maintain Rotary Rink at Fountain plaza in Buffalo. Source: facebook.com/RotaryRink

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In a paper analyzing 41 business or neighborhood improvement districts in New York City, Gross (2005) identified characteristics of smaller, neighborhood-scale districts in low-income neighborhoods.

Most other studies have focused on larger, corporation-driven districts. Smaller ones tended to have smaller budgets due to lower property Staff for the values. As a result, these districts typically focused on improving basic maintenance and services, including extra sanitation and sidewalk maintenance.

Some, however, also provide some type of social service to residents or provided technical assistance for local merchants. In some cases, the boards that oversee these districts appear to be trying to do too much with too little, leading to problems with financial management (Gross, 2005). This suggests that the KULC will need to identify a narrow, achievable focus for the use of district revenue and exercise oversight of its spending.

While governed by different state rules, Milwaukee’s Harambee neighborhood offers an example for KULN of how an improvement district might work in an underdeveloped area. Residents established the district in 2016; it assesses an annual $50 per unit charge to all residential properties within the district (Harambee Great Neighborhood Initiative, 2017). Revenues will fund a home repair program available to all property owners, but priority is given to owner-occupants who can demonstrate financial need. The program’s goal also is meant to employ local residents in home repair jobs. The grant program is set to launch in spring of 2018, offering awards of up to $10,000 for repairs to roofs, porches and windows (O’Brien, 2015).

Tax Increment Financing Districts In New York State, tax increment financing (TIF) is a way of financing (or paying for) redevelopment of “blighted” areas that cannot be redeveloped by the private sector alone. The criteria and process are laid out in New York State’s Municipal Redevelopment Law. The TIF model could be attractive for KULN in that it gives the city broad leeway to acquire and redevelop property and a way to finance improvements without counting the bonds against its constitutional debt limit.

There are challenges too. If property values don’t increase and tax revenue doesn’t rise, there is a risk of defaulting on the bonds. TIFs do not appear to be widely used in New York State, due in part to some confusion about legal issues and uncertainty about what happens if a municipality is unable to make the bond payments for a TIF district (Harris Beach PLLC, 2012). Other incentives for developers usually involve tax breaks of some kind, which can work against the TIF mechanism by reducing available tax revenue. (Devine, 2002). One option to address these issues is to declare a relatively large TIF district instead of confining it to one neighborhood. We could, for example, try to incorporate a larger area than the KULN, if other neighborhoods are amenable or interested.

New York State law states that areas of “blight” are defined by one or more of the following conditions: (i) a predominance of buildings and structures which are deteriorated or unfit or unsafe for use or occupancy; or (ii) a predominance of economically unproductive lands, buildings or structures, the redevelopment of which is needed to prevent further deterioration (Article 18-C: Municipal Redevelopment Law, 2012). Anyone can request that a legislative body (in KULN’s case, the Common

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Council) study whether a blighted area can be redeveloped. Anyone making such a request may submit plans for the proposed redevelopment. If the study results in Common Council selecting an area for redevelopment, they will provide for the preparation of preliminary redevelopment plans.

This will be developed into a final redevelopment plan (Article 18-C: Municipal Redevelopment Law, 2012).

The key to this mechanism is tax increment bonds. To carry out a redevelopment plan, a municipality can issue bonds (or debt) repayable by property taxes. Essentially, the city issues bonds to finance a private improvements outlined in the redevelopment plan. This is expected to raise property values in the area, causing property taxes to rise. The portion of the tax revenue that results from the increase in property values after the TIF project began is used to pay off the debt. This debt is excluded from the city’s constitutional debt limit. (Article 18-C: Municipal Redevelopment Law, 2012; Devine, 2002).

The law leaves open the possibility of including residential, commercial and/or industrial uses as part of a redevelopment plan. The plan must include a list of properties to be used for public purposes and the nature of such purposes; descriptions of proposed land uses; a neighborhood impact statement; a relatively detailed proposal to finance the redevelopment; and a plan to relocate anyone displaced in the project area. The plan also may provide for the use of proceeds from the sale of municipal bonds to carry out the redevelopment plan. If so, the Plan also needs to include provisions for the payment of principal and interest on these bonds when they become due and payable. (Article 18-C: Municipal Redevelopment Law, 2012) City planning staff would have to review the redevelopment plan and recommend within 30 days whether to adopt it. Common Council would then have to hold a public hearing on the proposal and can subsequently vote on whether to adopt it. If the planning agency has recommended against approval, a two-thirds vote is required to OK the Plan. (Article 18-C: Municipal Redevelopment Law, 2012).

The city can then acquire property in the redevelopment area or take it by eminent domain. Buildings can only be taken without the owner’s consent if the building must be altered, improved, modernized or rehabilitated, or the site itself needs to be modified in size, shape or use. Buildings also may be demolished or moved. Any property owned by the municipality can be used as a building site, or use it for streets, utilities, parks, playgrounds or other public improvements necessary to the redevelopment plan. The law requires contracts for work in the area to be awarded to businesses in or owned substantially by people in the redevelopment area, “to the greatest extent feasible.” (Article 18-C: Municipal Redevelopment Law, 2012).

Municipalities in other states often have used TIFs as part of joint ventures, often with private partners, to fund a public contribution to a larger project. For example, Chicago has used TIFs to help finance several theater renovations, expansion of the University of Illinois at Chicago, and streetscaping on a major public thoroughfare. TIFs also can be useful for small-scale projects like public works improvements (Devine, 2002).

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New York State updated its TIF law in 2012. The intent was to allow communities more leeway to use TIFs to finance development (Harris Beach PLLC, 2012). In 2012, a report produced for the City of Buffalo suggested a TIF for downtown to finance redevelopment, but it’s not clear that this was ever pursued (Buffalo-Niagara Partnership, 2012).

Recommendations We recommend that the KULC: • Pursue the formation of both a neighborhood improvement district and a TIF district. The improvement district could focus on improvements to the public realm (streets, landscaping, sidewalks, etc.) while the TIF district could be used to finance redevelopment of existing buildings and unbuilt land.

• Develop a detailed redevelopment plan to make the case for a TIF district. One option, given the rarity of TIF districts in New York State, is to present the KULN as a pilot area to test the concept of using a TIF to drive a neighborhood transformation plan.

• Plan and execute a public outreach and education campaign to explain the purpose and potential benefit of an improvement district to build support among property owners. This might require door-to-door canvassing and/or a community meeting to reach single-family homeowners.

• Consider an improvement district fee structure that will impose minimal burden on homeowners already struggling to keep up with mortgages and maintenance costs. One option is to follow Harambee’s model and to charge a $50 fee per residential unit. This would result in a fairly small addition to homeowners’ tax bills, while charging more to the owners of potential apartment complexes in the neighborhood.

• Once formed, revenues from an improvement district could be initially targeted to housing rehabilitation programs to halt the decline of buildings in the neighborhood and help transform the visual image of KULN. Financing Redevelopment One of the biggest hurdles that the KULC will have to deal with moving forward is funding. Discovering viable funding sources will be crucial to help transition this plan from ideas to a reality. The following section outlines a select set of possible grants, loans, tax credits and other financial mechanisms that the KULC can utilize to help finance aspects such as brownfield cleanup and redevelopment, the creation of a community garden, affordable housing development, fostering homeownership, and financing rental housing projects, along with mixed-use/commercial projects.

Funding for Affordable Housing New York State Affordable Housing Corporation: Through the administration of the Affordable Home Ownership Development Program (AHOD), this program provides grants for the creation of affordable housing along with the rehabilitation, improvement, and acquisition of homes that are specifically for low- and moderate-income families.

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Eligible recipients are governmental entities (including municipal housing authorities), charitable groups, and not-for-profit organizations, which must have affordable housing or home improvement as one of their primary focuses. The primary goals of the program are 1.) “To promote home ownership among families of low and moderate income for whom there are few affordable home ownership alternatives in the private market,” and 2.) “To stimulate the development, stabilization and preservation of New York communities.” The maximum grant available is $35,000 per unit or $40,000 per unit if the project is located in a designated “high cost area.” (Erie County is listed as a “high cost area,” so the maximum grant would be $40,000 per unit). Projects that service individuals or families that generally earn between 100% and 166% of the HUD Low Income Limits will be awarded grants.

It is up to the entity to determine if homebuyers or homeowners qualify for assistance based on their income levels (New York State Department of Homes and Community Renewal [HCR]).

Currently there are 10 grant recipients in the City of Buffalo; two of which are located within the KULN. Homefront, Inc. which is located at 780 Fillmore Ave., is an organization that provides homebuyer education classes, operates a loan savings program, and purchases, rehabilitates, and sells properties to eligible first-time homebuyers at both a subsidized rate and a fair market value.

The Martin Luther King, Jr. Block Club Association, Inc. has also received a grant from the New York State Affordable Housing Corporation. They are located at 780 Northampton Street ( HCR).

New York State HOME Program: The mission of this program is to help expand the supply of “decent, safe, and affordable housing within the State” through the use of federal HOME Investment Partnership Program funds. Funding is available to the entire state; however, income restrictions do apply. Funding can only be used to assist households that have household incomes at or below 80% of the area's median income level. For rental projects, the income limit drops to at or below 60% of the area’s median income level. Entities that are eligible for specific funding include any private for-profit or not-for-profit organizations that can demonstrate the ability to develop and operate a qualifying project.

Awarded funds can used to acquire, rehabilitate, or construct housing, or can provide assistance to low-income renters or homebuyers. Funds may also be used for tenant-based rental assistance, relocation costs, closing costs and down payments, and limited planning and administrative costs, however, these are subject to the limitations established in federal regulations (New York State Housing and Community Renewal).

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Low Income Housing Tax Credits: The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit gives incentives for the utilization of private equity in the development of affordable housing for low-income individuals. It is currently the U.S.’ most extensive housing affordability program. Each state has a Housing Finance or other Agency (HFA) that is responsible for allocating tax credits to developers for the creation of new construction, rehabilitation or acquisition, targeted to lower-income households. Investors buy tax credits in qualified properties selected by HFAs, which creates cash equity for owners and reduces debt associated with development. In exchange, the owner agrees to rent a specific number of units to qualified tenants at specified rents, usually below-market (National Housing Law Project, n.d.)

Energy Efficiency The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) offers a variety of programs and services that would allow residents of the KULN to make their homes more energy efficient. The following programs and services should be pursued by residents to help them lower the cost of their energy bills and help them save money: 1) Assisted Home Performance with ENERGY STAR: This program helps to make houses more energy-friendly, which in turn lowers energy bills. Single-family houses, along with multi-unit houses that contain between two and four units, can receive a discount that covers up to 50% of the cost of eligible energy efficiency improvements. A maximum of $4,000 per project can be given to single-family homes while a maximum of $8,000 per project can be given to multi-unit houses.

NYSERDA also offers flexible loan options to help fund the remainder of projects. Interested residents should schedule a home energy assessment, which is free to most New York State residents, to help determine where energy is being wasted and what solutions should be pursued. Income restrictions apply however.

To be considered for the program, residents must fall within income brackets that vary from county to county. For Erie County, one person cannot make more than $37,700 a year, a family of two cannot make more than $48,117 a year, and a family of three cannot make more than $59,440 a year, etc. (NYSERDA, 2017).

2) EmPower New York: This program provides no-cost energy solutions to New York State residents who pay their own utility bills, are electricity or natural gas customers, and live in a building that contains fewer than 100 units. An assigned contractor assesses if a resident’s house or apartment would benefit from free improvements such as the addition of energy-efficient lighting, the addition of insulation, and the replacement of inefficient freezers and refrigerators. The program also provides free safety and health checks of smoke detectors, appliances, and other household items. Residents must also fall within income guidelines to be eligible for the program. One individual cannot exceed a gross monthly income of $2,300 or a gross annual income of $27,59; a family of two cannot exceed a gross monthly income of $3,007 or a gross annual income of $36,088 for households, and a family of three cannot exceed a gross monthly income of $3,715 or a gross annual income of $44,580.

(NYSERDA, 2017).

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3) Ground Source Heat Pump Rebate: A rebate is available to fixed or low- to moderate-income residents who wish to install pollution-free ground source heat pumps. The rebates are capped and there are limitations on how much installations can get back. A single family home can get up to $15,000 back. Rebates can only be received through NYSERDA approved designers and installers.

This rebate is also available to schools, non-profits, community centers, and houses of worship that are located in low- to moderate-income locations. A single building can receive a rebate up to $500,000 while a site with multiple buildings can receive a rebate up to $1 million. (NYSERDA, 2017).

4) Solar Electric Program (NY-Sun): The goal of this program is to help develop a sustainable solar industry throughout the state, while at the same time to improve the efficiency, reliability, and affordability of energy systems for the residents and business owners of New York State. Incentives are available for those entities and individuals that choose to go solar and they are based upon Kilowatt production within a subdivided block of the state. These blocks make up larger subdivided regions of the state and each have different kilowatt production targets and incentives associated with them.

This program contains subprograms that help to encourage solar energy installation and production (NYSERDA, 2017). Sub-programs that would be beneficial to residents include: Affordable Solar: This program doubles the current NY-Sun incentive for solar electric installation systems for homeowners who have a total household income less than 80% of the state or area median income. For Erie County, income-eligibility limits for residents who own and live in their home are as follows: $37,700 for one person, $48,117 for two people, $59,440 for three people, etc. (NYSERDA, 2017).

Community Solar Project: A group of solar panels are installed in a sunny location within a neighborhood or region and any entity such as renters, homeowners, businesses, institutions, and municipalities can access the clean energy they produce. After installation, individuals subscribe to the community solar project and receive a credit on their electric bill. Entities that wish to develop a community solar project have the flexibility of owning the solar panels, financing them through eligible tax credits, and creating subscription plans for residents and businesses (NYSERDA, 2017).

Funding for Mixed Use/Commercial Projects New Markets Tax Credits: The federal New Markets Tax Credits program is meant to attract private investment to economically distressed communities. It can be used to spur investment in mixed housing and commercial projects, including retail, office and manufacturing businesses. Credits are made available to certified Community Development Entities. These are financial intermediaries which provide the credits to investors in exchange for equity. The development entity then can make loans and investments in qualified businesses in low-income communities, typically at more competitive rates and with more flexible terms than the open market (Community Development and Financial Institutions Fund, 2017).

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The Empire State New Market Corporation (ESNMC), a subsidiary of Empire State Development, is a Community Development Entity, providing the possibility that the state could support a tax credit application for a major mixed-use development project in KULN with the support of city leaders and other major stakeholders.

ESNMC targets operating businesses seeking capital to grow, facilities occupied by an existing business or nonprofit, and commercial or mixed-use projects (Empire State Development, 2016).

Typically, New Markets credits go to small projects with borrowers seeking $200,000 to $400,000 as part of a project budget of $2 million or less, or projects with capital needs of at least $10 million with a $1.5–$2 million funding gap (Empire State Development, 2016). Other projects are considered on a case-by-case basis.

To qualify for credits, a site must be located in a Census tract where median family income is less than 60% of the area median income, the poverty rate is above 30%, or unemployment is 1.5 times the national average; even if a site does not meet these thresholds, it may also qualify if it meets at least two secondary criteria (Empire State Development, 2016).

Local Initiatives Support Corp. (LISC): This is a national nonprofit with a local office in Buffalo.

Created by executives of the Ford Foundation, the organization supports community development projects across the country, including housing and commercial projects. The latter include supermarkets, schools, and health centers. The organization provides loans, equity and grants for projects that might have difficulty accessing financing on the traditional market.

The local LISC has primarily worked on the West Side of Buffalo with PUSH Buffalo and the Massachusetts Avenue Project, as well as in the University District. It also has partnered with the Buffalo Promise Neighborhood, Belmont Housing Resources for WNY, GroundWork Buffalo and Homefront, Inc. (LISC Buffalo, n.d.).

Energy Efficiency for Businesses: NYSERDA offers services to businesses that can assist them in making both homes and businesses more energy efficient. Specifically, there are two programs businesses in KULN should pursue: 1) Flexible Technical Assistance (FlexTech) Program: This program provides a NYSERDA FlexTech consultant to businesses to help them complete an energy study. The consultant will help businesses determine if a clean energy project is the right course of action to pursue, determine how to reduce energy bills, discover what the payback would be on potential energy-related building upgrades, and help to develop a capital plan that includes various clean energy components and technologies. The program states that “NYSERDA may be able to cover 50 percent of the costs to complete a FlexTech study.”(NYSERDA, 2017).

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2) Small Business and Not-for-Profit Financing: This program allows small businesses along with nonprofit organizations to access to two low-interest loan options to finance energy efficiency improvements to help lower energy bills. Loan option one is the Participation Loan. For this loan, NYSERDA provides 50% (up to $50,000) of the loan at 2% interest and the lender provides the rest of the loan at market rate. The other type of loan is called the On-Bill Recovery Financing Loan. For this loan, the savings gained are used to pay for the energy efficient upgrades.

This loan is also low-interest but requires participants to be customers of utility companies such as National Grid, New York State Electric and Gas Corporation, etc. Services can include but are not limited to: Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) improvements, lighting, domestic or service hot water, business processes (kitchens, laundries, air compression, etc.), controls, etc (NYSERDA, 2017).

Brownfield Redevelopment According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), a brownfield is a property that has been contaminated by pollutants, contaminants, and/or hazardous substances. The pollution that is associated with brownfields, which was caused and spread by prior industrial uses, complicate the process of attempting to reuse, redevelop, or expand the site for future use. The EPA estimates that there are currently over 450,000 of these brownfields sites throughout the U.S. (EPA, 2017).

Because of Buffalo’s industrial past, followed by a period of decline and a decrease in population along with jobs, brownfields are commonplace throughout the city. To clean up and eventually redevelop brownfields into sustainable projects, KULC should pursue the following selected funding opportunities for sites within their neighborhood: 1) Cleanup of Brownfields: The EPA and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) offers assistance to entities that are seeking to cleanup brownfields. The EPA provides Cleanup Grants, which can reach up to $200,000 per site, to entities such as nonprofit organizations, non-profit educational institutions, and specific government entities such as local, state, and tribal governments that own a brownfield site. An entity is allowed to apply for funding for up to three different sites (EPA, 2017).

The DEC runs the Brownfield Cleanup Program which provides tax incentives to encourage and help fund the redevelopment of urban brownfields. Sites that are eligible for this program are determined by restrictions established by federal and state law. Because of this, interested entities are encouraged to contact and set up a meeting with the Point of Contact for the DEC region where the project is located before officially applying for the program (DEC).

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The DEC also runs the Brownfield Opportunity Areas Program, which provides up to 90% of the eligible project costs to complete implementation strategies and revitalization plans for neighborhoods, communities and locations that have been affected by the presence of brownfields. Entities that are eligible to apply for this program include: 1) New york State Municipalities such as counties, cities, towns, villages, local public authorities, local public benefit corporations, school districts, improvement districts, and Indian tribes 2) Community-based organizations such as nonprofits. (Nonprofits are required to be located in an area that has high commercial vacancies, depressed property values, high unemployment, and low resident incomes. It is also required that the board of directors of the nonprofit have 25% or more of its members reside in the community in which the nonprofit is located and serves.)

3) Community boards (these are entities that are unique to NYC exclusively) (DEC, n.d.).

2) Redevelopment of Brownfields: National Grid manages the Brownfield Redevelopment Assistance Program which provides municipalities and/or their authorized development corporation(s), 2) 501(c)(3)’s, 501(c)(6)’s, or s 501(c)(4) corporations that are working in tandem with their municipality and/or its Industrial Development Agency or Local Development Corporation, and 3) developers or owners of an eligible property that have received an endorsement from their municipality, grants that help to fund demolitions, infrastructure improvements that are utility based, and other costs associated with redeveloping an abandoned building or a brownfield property. The maximum size grant a project can receive is $300,000.

For projects to be eligible for funding, they must: 1) receive electric or gas service from National Grid and must fall within their Upstate New York franchise territory, and 2) have a viable end use industrial or commercial plan for the property based on factors such as condition of the property or building on site, obtaining state and federal funding, demonstrate ability to market site as attractive location for economic investment, etc (National Grid, n.d.).

3) Job Training: The EPA awards grants up to $200,000 through their Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training Grants program to nonprofit organizations and government entities to allow them to recruit and train low-income, unemployed, and underemployed individuals along with minority populations, that predominantly reside in contaminated neighborhoods, in skills that are associated with the environmental field.

This grant will help citizens to learn cleanup and assessment skills needed to remediate brownfields along with others such as soil sampling and testing techniques, energy efficient retrofitting and weatherization of buildings, vapor intrusion testing and mitigation, and management techniques for the assessment and cleanup of sites for horticulture and urban agriculture (EPA, 2014).

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Along with these grants, the KULC leadership is strongly encouraged to review and familiarize itself with the New York State Brownfield Redevelopment Toolbox. This document is a straightforward guide that provides start-to-finish assistance to help cleanup and redevelop brownfield sites. It contains steps to follow throughout the entire renewal process, summarizes key concepts in an easy-to-understand language, suggests potential tools and incentives that can be used to help fund brownfield redevelopment, and most importantly, provides a framework to achieve successful project implementation (DEC, 2015).

The New York State Brownfield Redevelopment Toolbox can be found at http://www.dec.ny.gov/ docs/remediation_hudson_pdf/bftoolbox.pdf.

Funding for Community Gardens For the KULC to establish a community garden, funding sources will have to be pursued. Below is a list of potential grants to help make the project become a reality: 1) Community Impact Grants: The DEC’s Office of Environmental Justice offers Community Impact Grants to community-based organizations that seek to address public health concerns and environmental issues. Grants are primarily distributed to low-income and minority communities that have been historically affected by environmental problems. Since the program’s creation in 2006, more than $4 million has been awarded to organizations statewide to help fund projects such as tree plantings, community gardens, urban farming, etc (DEC).

2) Fiskars Project Orange Thumb: Fiskars is a global tool company that runs the Project Orange Thumb grant program. It provides grants up to $3,500 to nonprofit organizations throughout North America. It also provides the tools and resources necessary for communities to achieve collaboration, neighborhood beautification, and the establishment of healthy and sustainable food sources. Grants can be applied for late in the year with awards be distributed the following spring (Fiskars).

3) SeedMoney: SeedMoney is a Maine-based 501c3 non-profit that offers grants to food garden projects that serve people in need. Seed Money offers 50 $400 “Challenge Grants” which are awarded to the first 50 projects that are able to raise a total of $600 on their own crowdfunding pages during a month’s time (usually this occurs later in the year). SeedMoney also offers 50 $200 “Merit Grants.”

The project must raise $200 through their crowdfunding page to qualify and are selected by the nonprofit’s grant committee based on which projects were not selected for the “Challenge Grant.” Every project involved gets to keep whatever funds they raise regardless of whether or not that project is selected for a grant (SeedMoney).

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4) Seeds of Change: Seeds of Change offers grants to private for-profit organizations, private nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations, or public non-profit 501(c)(3) organizations that focus on communitybased farming or gardening, food and nutrition education, farming and agriculture education, sustainable farming or public school gardens. At least one of these requirement needs to be focused on for the organization to be eligible for grant consideration.

Seeds of Change distributes twelve grants to fund school programs: two grants are worth $25,000, while the remaining 10 are worth $10,000. The organization also distributes twelve grants to help fund community gardening programs that are not associated with school gardening programs.

Two of the awarded grants are worth $30,000 while the remaining 10 grants are worth $10,000.

Their guidelines state that “funds will be distributed through this Program to school and community programs that we believe enhance the environmental, economic, and social well-being of gardens, farms, farmers and communities.� (Seeds of Change, 2017).

If the KULC decides to incorporate children into their garden for work or educational purposes, they can pursue these two additional grant programs: 1) U.S. Gardens Grant Program: The Whole Kids Foundation in partnership with FoodCorps awards new or existing edible gardens associated with K-12 schools or 501c3 non-profit organizations monetary grants worth $2,000. 501c3 non-profit organizations can work in partnership with a school or work on their own to operate a garden; however, the grant application requires that if a non-profit works alone, they must engage at least 10 children in the K-12 grade range at the garden. The grant is annually given out with applications due in the fall and then distributed in the spring of the following year (Whole Kids Foundation, 2014).

2) Youth Garden Grant: This yearly grant, which has been awarded by KidsGardening since 1982, is open to any private or public school, nonprofit organization, or youth program in the U.S. that is planning on starting a new garden program or planning to expand an existing one that serves at least 15 youth between the ages of 3 and 18.

The grant is designed to enhance the quality of life for students and the communities they reside in by supporting school and youth educational garden projects. 25 programs are rewarded on a yearly basis; with 5 programs taking home the top grant package which contains $1,000 cash and $600 worth of tools and supplies. The other 20 programs are awarded a $600 package that contains the tools and supplies the top grant winners received (KidsGardening, 2017).

A grant is also available to help pay for tools the established garden might need. The Corona Cares Tool Grant provides a gardening tool package to community and school gardens that is valued at $1,000.

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The garden and landscape tool company distributes twenty-two of these grants throughout the year; typically with two awarded per month except for the month of December. Grants are given out on a first come, first serve basis (Corona Tools).

Despite the various grants that are available, grants alone cannot fund urban agriculture projects.

The New York State Department of Agriculture and Markets suggests other strategies on how to fund Community Gardens. They suggest that urban agriculture projects should also organize and hold events (fundraising or non-fundraising) for gardens, initiate “Adopt-a-Garden” program to secure donors, offer paid-for tours and activities of the garden, solicit donors through emails and mailing, and engage community partners for in-kind contributions (Department of Agriculture and Markets). For the KULC, another potential funding source could be the website ioby.org.

This website is an environmental nonprofit organization that allows urban agriculture projects to post about their projects and then collect tax-deductible donations from interested parties. Posting a project on the website requires a 3% fee of whatever is raised for the organization and a $35 fee if the project raises more than $1,000 (Ioby.org, 2017).

To ensure that a community garden is successfully established by the KULC, it is strongly encouraged that they review and familiarize themselves with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Urban Agriculture’s Tool Kit. This document will provide the KULC with crucial information on how to start an urban agriculture project. It outlines the steps that need to be accomplished along with technical and financial resources available for each step in the process. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Urban Agriculture Tool Kit can be found at https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/ documents/urban-agriculture-toolkit.pdf.

Funding for Temporary Reuse of Land In addition to community garden funding discussed above, a variety of private organizations offer grants or loans to construct playgrounds. These include KaBOOM!, a national nonprofit that provides playground grants to low-income communities through its Built It With KaBOOM! program.

Criteria include median area income and the number of students in local schools who qualify for free and reduced price meals. Playgrounds are eligible by age ranges of 2-5, 2-12 or 5-12, depending on the equipment proposed.

Finish Line, an athletic shoe retailer with a location in Cheektowaga, offers grants to build or maintain play facilities in low-income areas near its stores. The KeyBank also offers a community development grant program in New York State that may provide assistance for this purpose.

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Monetization of State Tax Credits The selling and transferring of state tax credits could be an important strategy to finance projects within the KULN. This process allows for corporations or companies that have a low tax burden to utilize a portion of a received tax credit and then sell the remainder of the tax credit to a company or corporation that is facing a larger tax liability. This gives the selling entity the ability to receive instant cash whenever the credit is sold. It also allows for the chance of accumulating less debt over time, along with the opportunity to retain excess credit if an organization has both low tax liability and tax credits which are then matched dollar-for-dollar (Zimmerman, 2015).

State tax credits directly evolved from two federal programs that provided different techniques to acquiring funds for credits. The Federal Low-Income Housing Program was one of them. This entity created Low Income Housing Tax Credits which helped incentivise developers to produce low-income housing projects. Developers who were awarded these tax credits would sell them to investors to accumulate capital for their projects. For this scenario, this would allow developers to undertake less debt and ultimately allow owners of newly built properties to charge their tenants lower rents.

The Federal Historic Preservation Tax Incentive Program was the other federal program to provide another technique for acquiring funds for credits. This program, which sought to rehabilitate, restore, and reuse historic structures by incentivizing the private sector to invest in them, provided tax credits to entities that were not sold and purchased openly, but rather were transferred from developers to investors via a syndication process.

Through this procedure, a limited partnership between the two parties would be created. The partnership agreement would place the developer as the general partner and the recipient of the majority of the cash flow. The investor would receive 99% of the profits, losses, depreciations, and tax credits (Zimmerman, 2015).

States generally incentivize activities such as brownfield remediation, renewable energy, historic rehabilitation, film production, and breweries with state tax credits that can be used for transferable purposes. Currently, there are three basic methods to help entities monetize state tax credits: 1) the issuing state can refund the amount of a credit at a discount, 2) the issuing state’s taxing authority can issue a tax credit certificate which can then be sold to third parties, and 3) a limited partnership or syndication process, which was described prior, can be implemented.

To simplify the process, companies and corporations have begun to turn to online trading websites, such as the Online Incentive Exchange, to help match them with potential buyers of transferable state tax credits. Tax broking companies have also emerged trying to help facilitate the process. These companies either buy tax credits from entities and try to distribute them to others or also attempt to match buyers and sellers to one another (Zimmerman, 2015).

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Community Building The KULN is a “neighborhood” but not an organized community. Rather, the residents are organized along a series of sub-areas stretched along blocks. To meet the challenges of transforming the neighborhood a great place to live, work, play, and raise a family, the KULN will have to become an authentic “community” that is anchored behind the mission of the transformation plan. Toward this end, community building is a central task of this plan.

The hosting of community events is designed to build community and unity. The Plan is suggesting a series of block level, as well as neighborhood level community activities to create the types of interactive connections and relationship among the residents is critical to make this happen. The intent of this section of the Plan is to outline the kinds of activities and programs that are essential to the community building process.

Reactivating and Regenerating Block Clubs “Block Clubs” or “Block Associations” are made up of a coalition of residents within a city block or general area who collectively work together in order to increase both attractiveness and safety of their neighborhood. Activities range from monthly neighborhood clean ups to social gatherings in order to familiarize faces all fall under the capacity of a Block Club. Members also have the power to keep one another accountable in terms of landscaping of front lawns, crime prevention, and keeping property up to code.

Block Clubs are a familiar concept to many and have been established throughout the City of Buffalo as well as across the U.S. for decades due to community members wanting to work together toward collective improvements of their physical and built environment. The City of Buffalo has a number of established Block Clubs throughout the West Side, University Heights and Northern Buffalo as well as a Board of Block Clubs for Buffalo and Erie County that many Block Clubs can register under to share ideas, events, and projects they may be working on.

With a neighborhood of almost 3,000 residents, from a study conducted in the Center of Urban Studies, there are only two organized block clubs that we are aware of. However, there may be more block clubs that exist, or other community organizations, however they are not far reaching. As a result, it is important to place community organizing and neighborhood governance at a priority in order to redevelop this neighborhood, and serve a great need in our neighborhood.

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Benefits of Block Clubs Block clubs are groups developed in a community for the betterment of a neighborhood. It is both a method of organizing, in addition to communicating all concerns, events, and other information occurring in a neighborhood.

As stated by the City of Buffalo, “They [block clubs] are established to encourage participation by residents, provide them with a voice, and a sense of ownership and to give the residents a means of getting involved� (Block Clubs or Tenant Council, 2001).

Photo 52: A block club sign on Johnson Street in the KULN

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Figure 8. Implementing a Block Club; Step by Step

Process of starting a block club in the KULN Forming a block club reactively, or proactively Activating neighbors Outreach to the neighborhood Accessibility to the community Meeting agendas Meeting guidelines Roles Mission Action Groups Scheduling Establishing by laws

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Registering Block Clubs Once the block club is established, it can then able to register with the Board of Block Clubs of Buffalo and Erie County. As stated by City Services in 2001, the following is required: 1. Must be a Block Club / Tenant Council with the intention of forming a Neighborhood Watch.

2. Must establish a set of bylaws 3. Must have elected officers" these being President, Vice president, Secretary, Treasurer, Sergeantat-Arms, (optional Parliamentarian, Chaplain and/or Block Captains.)

4. Must be organized by an official organizer. (United Neighborhoods, the Board of Block Clubs or the Masten Block Club Coalition). At least six meetings are required per year, winter or summer recess optional.

5. Block Clubs and Tenant Councils with a Crime Watch must have training provided by the local law enforcement agency OR by any person or organization certified to teach Crime Watch Training.

6. There is no longer a registration fee. Block Clubs must re-register every three years.

Organizing Community Events Organizing community events in lots are a convenient, temporary solution for unbuilt use. Instead of viewing them as disinvest opportunities, they can be utilized as community space for residents.

Below are outlined examples and suggestions for temporary use, however, funding and community support is a necessary part of making these uses sustainable and attainable.

Outdoor Movie Space: By utilizing the unbuilt lots for a movie night, it can allow for members of the community of all ages to participate. This can further build community by asking local businesses for participation by providing chairs, food, and an outdoor screen for the viewing.

It also gives community members to highlight upcoming local events, and other community engagement pieces occurring in the neighborhood. A community potluck is also possible with each resident providing their own donation food item to the event. On the ground foot work will be required for community attendance, and involvement with neighboring businesses.

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Photo 55: An outdoor movie space. Source: http://www. dcoutdoorfilms.com/ It is still important to utilize these lots as community assets, even when the weather is less than optimal. The City of Buffalo has distinct seasons that should be looked as as an asset rather than a burden. In Memphis, Winter Arts is run by ArtWorks Foundation, and runs daily from November 26th to Christmas Eve where gifts from local artists are bought and sold (About WinterArts, 2013). Creating a winter craft market within one of KULN’s unbuilt lots helps to create a strategy for increased vibrancy and creating a marketable product. The event can include an ice skating rink, snowboard ramps, a winter forest, and a snowsuit fashion show. Local artists can participate by creating snow and ice installations for the event while other volunteers and community members can participate by renting a space for shops to sell their crafts.

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Photo 56: Fruit Belt Clean-a-thon. Source: https://www.buffalo.edu/ubnow/ub-seen/slide-shows/2016/june/fruitbelt-clean-up.htm

Neighborhood Clean-A-Thon could be sponsored in partnership with East High School. Driven by students, the event will partner with neighborhood residents, the City of Buffalo, and other to clean up the neighborhood and host a celebration at a designated site in the community. The UB Center for Urban Studies organized such an event at Futures (PS 37) fifteen years ago, and it has become a powerful tool in promoting community and unity in the Fruit Belt neighborhood. A similar program could be established in the KULN.

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Part III:Implementation

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To facilitate the implementation of this Plan, the neighborhood will be divided into three Development Zones. Development Zone A will extend from the Martin Luther King, Jr. Park to Genesee Street, with the prime development area being bounded by Best Street to the North, Genesee Street to the south, Jefferson Avenue to the west and Fillmore Avenue to the east.

Development Zone B will extend from Genesee Street to Sycamore Avenue and will be bounded on the west and east by Jefferson and Fillmore Avenues. Development Zone C will extend from Sycamore Street to Broadway, with the zone bounded by Jefferson and Fillmore Avenues.

Within this context, the project will unfold in phases, with each phase corresponding to regeneration activities within each of the three development zones, with catalytic projects attached to each phase. This approach is designed to build momentum and support for the Plan. This strategy will unfold on both the block and development zone levels. By deploying multiple strategies in each step, the Plan can keep moving forward even if unexpected challenges or obstacles arise.

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Map 21. Development zones in the KULN Transformation Plan.

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Phase 1: Development Zone A [Years:1- 5 ] The strategy in Phase 1 is to consolidate the community around the neighborhood transformation plan, bolster community engagement, and start the implementation process. The Plan should be presented to neighborhood residents and stakeholders for input, and then revised based on this input. This should be a three-step process. First, the KULC should study and revise the Plan. Second, a public meeting should be held after the Plan is revised, and third, after revising the Plan based on the public meeting, a Neighborhood Fair should be held, where neighborhood residents are given the opportunity to vote and give input before the document is finalized.

In Development Zone A, the strategy is to initially focus on Rich and Guilford Street and work outward from them, moving west to the Kensington Expressway and east to Fillmore Avenue, while simultaneously initiating activities along Best and Genesee Street. The first set of activities should focus on (1) changing the visual image of the neighborhood, (2) launching the housing strategy, and (3) initiating work on the policy framework. The goal in this first wave of activities is to catalyze a change in the visual image of Development Zone A and to build the momentum and community involvement necessary to advance the long-term and complex aspects of the Plan. In this phase, a secondary goal is to stabilize the population by making this section of the neighborhood a more desirable place to live.

Catalyst Project: Acquire access to unbuilt lots and community engagement Early interventions include pursuing leases for as many city-owned unbuilt lots as feasible in the immediate vicinity of KULC to pursue low-cost temporary use projects. These may include planting decorative, low-maintenance ground cover, working with residents and Grassroots Gardens to launch a small-scale neighborhood garden centered near the KULC so that it can become one of their programs, managed by neighborhood youths and adults who are interested.

Another step is staging an event such as a KULC-led community cookout on a centralized wellkept lot. KULC could later transfer these leases to a newly formed community land trust. KULC also can explore the creation of artwork on the street at the intersection of Genesee and Rich Street.

This approach could engage local artists in the transformation plan, while providing a highly visible example of the change process in KULN and calming traffic at the same time.

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Activity One: Ground Covering of Unbuilt Lots owned by the City of Buffalo In order to increase ground coverage it is necessary to gain permission from the City of Buffalo to plant decorative, low-maintenance ground covers throughout Development Zone A. Moving forward, building a partnership with East High School and Grassroots Gardens, if they are willing to take on a new project, to implement this strategy. Formulating specific strategies for working with property owners along Best and Genesee to landscape and garden the parcels along these major thoroughfares.

These thoroughfares form the windows looking into the neighborhood and their redevelopment is essential to the transformation of Development Zone A. Ground Covering and Trail Development will countnue in Phase 2 and Phase 3.

Activity Two: Neighborhood Volunteer Outreach Campaign The activities described above could help KULC to achieve another critical task of Phase 1: Beginning an aggressive outreach campaign to recruit volunteers for neighborhood projects and build community involvement in enacting the Plan. Other steps for community engagement include: • Work with organizations such as CAO, Broadway-Fillmore Neighborhood Housing Services to connect residents with services to make home repairs or rehabilitations.

• Contact the University Heights Tool Library to explore the possibility of making tools available to KULN residents to make home repairs.

• Connect with the city to identify potential streets and neighborhood blocks that could receive a clean sweep • Begin contacting engaged residents to reactivate block groups within KULN.

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Activity Three: Policy steps As this plan relies heavily on gaining control over land in KULN, initial policy tasks should focus on beginning to form a community land trust and laying the groundwork to form a tax increment financing district. First steps include the following: 1. Form an initial board to oversee the establishment of a community land trust. This board does not need to follow the traditional tripartite model for CLT boards, but KULC should hold a majority of seats, given its central role in carrying out this plan. Neighborhood residents should have significant representation as well.

2. Begin drafting articles of incorporation to set up the land trust as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and draft a set of bylaws for its operation. Model bylaws are available through the National Community Land Trust Network; however, considering that KULN’s land trust will differ in focus from more traditional CLTs, KULC will have to significantly customize its by laws to focus first on land acquisition and control, and second on affordable housing. Model by laws can be found at http://cltnetwork.org/resource/model-classic-clt-bylaws/.

3. Begin adapting a model ground lease to KULC’s mission for the neighborhood, with an emphasis on maintaining community control over CLT land. A model lease is available at http://cltnetwork.org/resource/model-ground-lease-commentary/.

4. Begin to explore partnerships with local organizations and developers whose values and priorities align with KULC to explore opportunities for shared staffing, funding or operation of a land trust and/or redevelopment projects on CLT land. Options include PUSH Buffalo, where Buffalo Neighborhood Stabilization Co. Housing Director Jenifer Kaminsky has indicated willingness to have preliminary conversations with KULC; the Buffalo Erie Niagara Land Improvement Corp.; and the Community First Alliance.

5. Explore grant opportunities to fund a community land trust. Opportunities include a grant program from the Center for Community Progress, which provides technical assistance to communities working to address abandonment and vacancies: http://www.communityprogress.net/technical-assistance-scholarship-program--tasp-pages-494.php 6. Contact KULN’s Common Council representatives and Mayor Byron Brown’s office to begin discussing and advocating for the formation of a tax increment financing district for KULN. This step would require the support of both Common Council and the mayor, and KULC should begin laying the groundwork for this effort as soon as possible.

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Activity Four: Infill Development 56-69 Rich Street: Affordable Multifamily Housing These unbuilt parcels are owned by the City of Buffalo and could be eligible for purchase or acquisition (See unbuilt city owned lots map). Rich Street that would make up an effective site for an affordable multifamily building. According to 2011-15 ACS (5-year estimates), the majority of households in the neighborhood are family households (58.9%). The KULN families living on Rich Street would be able to take advantage of the Parent-Child Home Program offered by the KULC, which promotes literacy in school-age children (King Urban Life Center, 2016). The parcels for the proposed development are within walking distance to Martin Luther King, Jr. Park. Parks provide obvious health benefits and opportunities for physical activity.

986-990 Genesee Street: Mixed-Use Building with Apartments Genesee Street has been targeted as one of the neighborhood’s major thoroughfares, and a mixed-use property would increase the economic vibrancy of the area. Constructing a commercial space below market-rate studio apartments along Genesee Street could attract higher income residents to the area. Demand for mixed-use buildings have increased as more and more urban residents desire to live in walkable neighborhoods (Regional Plan Association, 2016). Investing in the KULN by creating market rate apartments and new commercial space will help to nurture a mixed-income neighborhood, stopping the cycle of disinvestment in the area.

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Phase 2: Development Zone B [Years:4- 7] Catalyst Project: 207 Guilford Street Warehouse Acquisition & Redevelopment The second phase of this neighborhood transformation plan includes the first major acquisition by the KULN land trust formed by the KULC. The property that should be acquired is the warehouse on 207 Guilford Street between Genesee and Sycamore. This property is tax delinquent and in the middle of a residential area within the KULN boundaries.

Its tax delinquency means it is eligible for tax foreclosure, which would make it available for acquisition through the tax auction. In the acquisition of this property, it would be beneficial for the KULN land trust to collaborate on the acquisition of the property with BENLIC, which has the capacity to acquire the property using their super-bid. BENLIC and the land trust could reach an agreement where the property will then be transferred to the land trust so that they can develop it for new housing options for the neighborhood.

If by the time the land trust is established, and this property is still available, this building would be an enormous opportunity to established cohousing or a mixed income apartment building.

This would be one of the first properties that the land trust would bring back online, making it the phase two catalyst project. The goal of this development should be to establish more housing options for the KULN and attract new residents.

Activity One: Community Brigade Also within phase 2 of this neighborhood transformation plan is the establishment and organization of a community brigade program through the KULC. This program would empower and organize residents who wish to better and rebuild their community. To enhance the organizational and resource capacity, this program should be established through a partnership with Buffalo chapter of YouthBuild.

The establishment of the partnership with YouthBuild should come from the King Urban Life Center’s leadership and prior to any recruitment of residents. The vision for phase 2 of this neighborhood transformation plan is to start acquiring land for the land trust and organize more residents to look after the revitalization of the KULN.

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Activity Two: Infill Development Projects The catalyst project at the Guilford Street warehouse will create the momentum for additional, smaller-scale infill development.

166 Guilford Street: Multifamily Apartments This property is a unbuilt parcel that is currently owned by the City of Buffalo. This property would be an ideal location for multifamily apartment.

Image 57. Vacant Lot 166 Guilford St

Image 58. Infill Development Example (Not actual design)

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473-495 Sherman Street: Studio Apartments & Cohousing The unbuilt parcels on Sherman Street are located across from an established park with squash courts and basketball courts. The site is an ideal location for mixed-income studio apartments, which would attract higher-income residents to the area as well as provide affordable housing units for those at a lower income bracket. Close-by amenities make the site attractive, and new development will help to reduce the number of unbuilt lots in the area.

When the land trust is established, acquiring this building will allow for mixed-income studio apartments. This would help to not only bring this unbuilt land online, but also develop new housing streams that would attract higher-income residents to the area. It would increase the availability of affordable housing units for low-income residents without reducing quality of life.

The parcels are located across from a park with squash and basketball courts, providing green space and a healthy atmosphere for residents.

W

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Image 59. Vacant Lot 473 Sherman St

Image 60. Infill Development Example (Not actual design)

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Phase 3: Development Zone C [Years:7- 10 ] Catalyst Project: Commercial development at 630 Genesee Street The proposed Upcycling Recycling Center (URC) fits the location of Genesee Street best, as it is located near the highway for import and export transportation, as well as being a major thoroughfare in the KULN . This also matched the current zoning use of manufacturing within the Buffalo Green Code. The URC will serve as a catalyst project for the final phase as it is projected to take require collaboration with the City of Buffalo and a company such as TerraCycle. TerraCycle is a company that has become a “global leader” in recycling and hard-to-recycle materials (TerraCycle.com). This type of facility has the potential to be a major job producer for the neighborhood and attract neighboring community attention to the KULN. With the influx of jobs, there is an opportunity to decrease unemployment and lower poverty levels throughout the neighborhood. URC will utilize waste materials that are not easily recyclable from industries and “upcycle” this waste into products of that can be sold for profit. The income generated for our community and employment of will provide noticeable impact on improving the quality and impression of the KULN.

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Map 22. Current KULN Development

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Table 2. KULN Plan Implementation

Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3

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Map 23.KULN Reimagined

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Performance Indicators The King Urban Life Neighborhood Transformation Plan strives to use data-driven knowledge to create a results-oriented process in order to both transform and revitalize the neighborhood with both purpose and reason. In order for the KULN to become a destination for others as well as a great place to live, work and play for current and future residents, it is necessary to develop an outcome-based approach. This would include the establishment of performance indicators with metrics specific to the area as well as a system for data management to measure all progress of projects in order to track and then adjust to reach desired outcomes laid out in the Plan.

Phasing for the KULN will take place over a 10-year period, starting with year 1 using the data collected by University at Buffalo’s Urban Planning Studio, as well as any secondary sources and previously established plans for the KULC. All data gathered can be used as a reference point in regards to future progress of projects relating to housing, neighborhood design, reduction of blight, policy implementation and improvement of socioeconomic status of residents.

Each initiative has been evaluated using data drawn from secondary as well as firsthand sources as a tool for needs assessment within the neighborhood to utilize as a primary source for implementation. Current data will be used to track performance indicators based on metrics specific to each area of focus (housing, neighborhood design, policy implementation, etc.)

The following table represents the major indicators within the KULN Plan that can be used to inform neighborhood residents as well those involved in the implementation process about needs as well as progress tracking of projects and policy implementation.

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Table 3. KULN Performance Indicators

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