Buffalo May Turn Parking Craters into Neighborhoods

Five transit-rich acres south of downtown Buffalo could be transformed from a 700-space parking lot for the Buffalo Sabres into a new neighborhood.

As Buffalo gears up for an extension of its 6.5-mile light rail system, the Nickel City is eyeing the Keybank Center parking lots — and how they can be turned into places for people again.

The Sabres' development is only conceptual, but the team's ownership controls the land, and has begun investing in, and developing, real estate, said Fred Frank, whose engineering firm, WSP, has been retained by Buffalo as a consultant. Hundreds of units of new walkable development, directly on the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority rail line, are part of a conceptual plan the city developed for the site [PDF].

Here's one example:

The Boulevard Mall in Amherst, an inner-ring suburb, is going through foreclosure. Buffalo planners are trying to help neighbors envision how it could be a transit-oriented neighborhood as the light rail extends north from the University of Buffalo. The new light rail line could actually run through the mall property.

"We’re trying to influence a new owner to … really think about how you could influence that whole site to be transit-oriented," said Frank, who presented some of this information at the Railvolution conference  this week in Pittsburgh.

Here's another proposal for a barely used park-and-ride station, the LaSalle Station. Before...

And after...

This park-and-ride station is owned by the city of Buffalo and the transit agency, NFTA. And it's barely used, just about five miles from downtown.

The transit agency, having already been approached by developers, is preparing to release a request for proposals for development on the site. The conceptual drawings, above, show a scheme for residential development with ground floor retail.

"Our goal was to inspire the community to get behind those," said Frank. "I think it is really inspired."