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The Queen City Hub: Volume I (Overview)
The Overview is also available as a .pdf file. The link below will open the file if you have Adobe Reader installed. If not, get Adober Reader here.
> Download Volume I [PDF | 3.8 MB]
What follows is the full text of Volume I of the Queen City Hub. This document is the summary of the vision for Downtown Buffalo and the action required to realize this vision. At the bottom of each page there are links to continue to the next page, or you can use the navigation sidebar to jump to areas of interest to you.
Preface
The Queen City Hub: A Regional Action Plan for Downtown Buffalo is the product of continuing concerted civic effort on the part of Buffalonians to improve the center of their city. The effort was led by the Office of Strategic Planning in the City of Buffalo, the planning staff at Buffalo Place Inc., and faculty and staff of the Urban Design Project in the School of Architecture and Planning at the University at Buffalo. The plan has drawn upon the considerable technical expertise of eighteen public and private sector partners and incorporates the analysis of more than fifty technical studies and plans they and others produced over the past decade. During the past three years, the priorities expressed in the plan have been developed and reviewed in full public view. Televised public summits, multiple Downtown Buffalo 2002! newsletters, a web site (www.downtownbuffalo2002.org), frequent press reports, stakeholder focus groups, two cycles of survey research on priorities (1999-2002), over fifty public presentations, and detailed professional reviews were some of what was employed to shape the vision and implementation program and keep everyone informed about its evolution.
The Queen City Hub is part of a broader emerging framework of planning that encompasses Downtown Buffalo’s inner ring of neighborhoods, the whole City of Buffalo, and the region. It is a significant component of Queen City in the 21st Century: Buffalo’s Comprehensive Plan.
Volume I - Overview: The Context for Decision Making is for general distribution and provides a specific context for decisions about Downtown development. It presents the vision and key priorities for implementation related to both strategic investment areas and priority neighborhood development sites. It also makes the case that we are not starting from scratch but rather have a substantial history of strategic investments on which to build. The Context for Decision Making outlines the physical plan components needed to link priorities to Buffalo’s historic Joseph Ellicott radial plan, Frederick Law Olmsted’s Park and Parkway System, and our Waterfront. In addition, it frames the basic activity program and key principles that will be applied to achieve the vision.
Volume II – The Work Plan provides the full text of the vision and implementation program. It provides a detailed work plan intended to reinforce the implementation process with the needed tools (zoning, design guides, management practices), additional planning, and analysis (more detailed work on the activity program Downtown as well as the principles employed in developing the activity areas). The work plan establishes a flexible framework for the multiparty collaborations that will be required to implement the vision. This document is intended for citizen and professional planners, architects, public officials, developers, finance institutions, community based organizations and others who seek a more detailed involvement in implementation.
