Department of State

Overview

The Department of State is dedicated to revitalizing East Buffalo through the administration of grants for planning, development, and community infrastructure projects as well as grants to combat poverty. Through programs like the Downtown Revitalization Initiative, Brownfield Opportunity Area Program, and Community Services Block Grant Program, the Department of State is helping to transform East Buffalo into a vibrant community that offers a high quality of life and supports redevelopment, business, job creation, and economic and housing diversity.

Projects

Broadway-Fillmore Downtown Revitalization Initiative – $10 million
The Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) transforms downtown neighborhoods into vibrant centers that offer a high quality of life and are magnets for redevelopment, business, job creation and economic and housing diversity. The Department of State (DOS) administers the DRI in coordination with New York State Homes and Community Renewal and Empire State Development. The DRI involves extensive community outreach and engagement and is guided by a Local Planning Committee comprised of neighborhood residents, businesses, community-based organizations, and others. The DRI culminates in a Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) that outlines a vision, goals, and strategies for revitalization and a list of projects recommended for the $10 million in funding available to implement the plan.

The Broadway-Fillmore DRI Strategic Investment Plan set forth a vision for creating special urban places, key park spaces, retail-oriented streets, improved neighborhood connections, bike and pedestrian connections, streetscape improvements, and public realm improvements. The area has seen many completed and ongoing investments, including multiple mixed-use redevelopment projects, a community health hub, and improvements to the Broadway Market and Buffalo Central Terminal. Building on this momentum, the Broadway-Fillmore DRI aims to encourage further redevelopment of vacant structures, provide better connections between community anchors and amenities, increase affordable housing opportunities, create more greenspace, and enhance the streetscape.

For more information about the Broadway-Fillmore DRI, including a list of projects that were awarded funding, please visit https://www.ny.gov/downtown-revitalization-initiative/downtown-revitalization-initiative-round-five#western_new_york.

East Buffalo Revitalization Strategy - $90,000
The City of Buffalo received a $90,000 Smart Growth Community Planning and Zoning Grant. The Smart Growth Community Planning and Zoning Grant Program provides grants to develop municipal-wide comprehensive plans and zoning ordinances, as well as targeted area plans and zoning updates. The City of Buffalo will use the grant to develop a plan focusing on the revitalization of four East Buffalo Neighborhoods. The comprehensive planning process will be guided by robust community engagement. The project will focus on development of infill housing, blight reduction, infrastructure improvements, access to resources, economic development, and placemaking. The plan will include the Broadway-Fillmore, MLK Park, Delavan-Grider and Genesee-Moselle Neighborhoods.

For more information about the program, please visit https://dos.ny.gov/2022-2023-smart-growth-comprehensive-planning-grant-program.

Northland Corridor Brownfield Opportunity Area Plan - $87,750
The Buffalo Urban Development Corporation (BUDC) received an $87,750 Brownfield Opportunity Area (BOA) grant. The BOA Program provides communities with grant funding and technical assistance to develop area-wide, community-based plans to effectively redevelop brownfields and other vacant and abandoned sites, serving as a catalyst for community investment and redevelopment. BUDC will use the grant to complete the Northland Corridor BOA Plan. The objective of the Northland Corridor BOA Plan is to create opportunities for new and existing business, increase workforce training, incorporate green infrastructure, and create affordable housing. The Northland Corridor BOA is located within the Delavan-Grider, MLK Park, and Genesee-Moselle neighborhoods.

For more information about the program, please visit https://dos.ny.gov/brownfield-redevelopment or https://www.buffalourbandevelopment.com/northland-corridor-redevelopment-project.

DOS/EPA/FEMA Equitable Resilience Builder Initiative
Through a technical assistance award from the EPA’s Office of Research and Development, DOS, EPA and FEMA have collaborated on an effort to enhance community resiliency in East Buffalo that addresses several layers of trauma and neglect confronted by this community—chronic traumas, such as poverty, violence, food insecurity, neighborhood contamination, health care and climate; and episodic trauma, such as the 5/14 racist massacre at Tops Market and the devastating winter storm of 2022.

Training on Trauma-Informed Community Engagement was provided by the national organization Institute for Diversity and Inclusion in Emergency Management, which the state is incorporating into its outreach and engagement at DOS’ Office of Planning, Development and Community Infrastructure. A gathering of citizens, foundations and community groups was convened to help access, navigate and understand available resources. The EPA developed a document with three case studies, including East Buffalo, on the development and application of the Equitable Resilience Builder approach. For more background on the initiative and a tool to implement this approach in other communities, see https://www.epa.gov/emergency-response-research/equitable-resilience-builder