BUFFALO, N.Y. – A recent court ruling regarding an Outer Harbor proposed development project is the next step toward construction that would change Buffalo’s skyline.
New York State Supreme Court judge Catherine Nugent-Panepinto ruled in favor of Queen City Landing, the high-rise luxury apartment building proposed by private developer Gerry Buccheit.
It had been caught up in a lawsuit with local environmentalists for quite some time. Attorney Arthur Giacolone argued the structure's impact to water and wildlife would be too great and that the developer didn't follow proper procedures.
The ruling creates some confusion because the high-rise would seemingly violate the City's new Green Code, the zoning overhaul that took effect last year.
It turns out Queen City Landing had already been on the books long enough that it was grandfathered into the old zoning laws, and it's those old laws that were open to interpretation in this court case.
Brendan Mehaffy, Buffalo’s executive director of the Office of Strategic Planning, explained that'll be the key difference for current and future projects.
The new, uniform Green Code was adopted in 2017. It was the first time the City overhauled its code in half a century. The Green Code now provides clearer limitations, restrictions on building height, traffic impact, and nearness to water sources, depending on the part of the city a project is proposed for.
Mehaffy said it provides more “predictability” for projects that would both pass the City’s zoning board and receive community support.
It also means that if and when Queen City landing gets built, it may be the only apartment building of its kind.
“So, if there was to be another building like that…a new building…it would have to go through a re-zoning process, not a variance process, or something of that nature if we're talking a building of that specific height,” Mehaffy said.
Already though, the Green Code has received a healthy dose of controversy due to several Elmwood Village proposals already seeking variances or exceptions from green Code rules; variances that Village have said defeat the purpose of the Green Code in public hearings.
Mehaffy said allowing for variance applications is built into the Green Code and state law.
“Applying a variance and approving a variance is enforcing the Code. It's a state law, again, that has been in effect throughout the green code and prior to the green code. It's part of zoning, it's part of the overall development process,” Mehaffy said.
Then does a granting variance or rezoning request set a precedent? Mehaffy says no and that every application would be evaluated independently of others.