Strategy for Neighborhood with Vacant Properties in Revision of Zoning Code of Post-industrial Cities in the U.S.

Urban Farm DB summary

This study focuses on zoning code revisions in declining post-industrial U.S. cities burdened with vacant houses and lots, analysing the treatment of residential areas with many vacant lots through a case study of the comprehensive zoning revision undertaken by the City of Buffalo, New York, whose population has sharply declined. The city initially proposed a new "urban interim use" designation for residential areas with many vacant lots to promote temporary uses such as urban agriculture and curb disorderly new development, but this designation was dropped from the final plan due to opposition from residents in the affected districts; instead, some vacant-lot-heavy residential areas were rezoned from multi-family-permitting general residential use to single-family use, restricting density and the direction of new development to gently guide land use in areas left surplus by population decline.