Learn about Buffalo Ready Homes, what the initiative will produce, and the timeline for developing pre-approved housing plans.
Explore peer-city examples, Buffalo’s zoning code, and documents from our process as they are developed.
Find answers to common questions about how pre-approved housing plans work and what they are designed to do.
Buffalo Ready Homes is an initiative to develop a set of “pre-approved housing plans” — home designs that meet Buffalo’s zoning requirements and fit with the city’s neighborhood character and architectural history.
Once complete, these plans will be made available by the City of Buffalo for use by non-profits, developers, property owners, and community partners interested in building new housing on vacant and underutilized lots.
By creating ready-to-use housing plans, Buffalo Ready Homes will help reduce uncertainty in the development process, lower barriers to infill housing, and support high-quality homeownership opportunities for Buffalo residents.
The initiative is being developed through a partnership between the City of Buffalo and the UB Regional Institute. UBRI is working with Trautman Associates on the home designs and architectural documents, with Matt Roland, Director for the Real Estate and Affordable Housing Programs, overseeing the project with guidance from the UBRI team, Nicholas Rajkovich, students from UB’s Department of Architecture, and other faculty advisors as the process moves forward.
The project team will launch Buffalo Ready Homes and begin the research needed to shape the pre-approved housing plans. This includes reviewing examples from other cities, studying Buffalo’s zoning requirements and permitting process, looking at vacant and underutilized lots, and identifying the types of homes that could work well in Buffalo neighborhoods.
The project team will gather input from community partners, builders, developers, non-profits, and other stakeholders. This feedback will help confirm what types of homes are needed, what designs are practical to build, and what would make the plans most useful for Buffalo residents and neighborhoods.
Architects and project partners will use the research and feedback to develop a set of housing plans for review. The designs will focus on homes that meet Buffalo’s zoning requirements, fit with neighborhood character, and can support new infill housing on vacant and underutilized lots.
The draft plans will be reviewed with City staff, community partners, builders, and other stakeholders. This step will help identify any needed changes before the plans move toward final approval and public use.
Once finalized, the pre-approved housing plans will be prepared for public use through the City of Buffalo. The project team will also share information about how the plans work, who can use them, and how they can help support new housing on vacant and underutilized lots.
Cities across the country are increasingly using pre-approved housing plans to help make infill housing easier to build on vacant and underutilized lots. South Bend, Indiana is often credited with helping pioneer this approach, and other cities have since developed similar tools to reduce uncertainty, support small-scale development, and encourage new housing that fits within existing neighborhoods.
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South Bend, IN
Pre-Approved Building Plan Sets
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Kalamazoo, MI
Pre-Approved Housing Plans
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Grand Rapids, MI
Permit-Ready Plans Program
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Port Angeles, WA
Permit-Ready Plans
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Buffalo’s Green Code is a key foundation for better infill development in the city. By focusing on the form, scale, and character of development, the Green Code helps guide how new housing can fit within Buffalo’s existing neighborhoods. Buffalo Ready Homes will build on this framework by creating pre-approved housing plans that can serve as a practical tool for implementing the Green Code on vacant and underutilized lots.
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Buffalo Green Code
Unified Development Ordinance
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This section will be updated as additional documents, presentations, design materials, and other resources are developed through the Buffalo Ready Homes initiative. Please check back for new materials as the project moves forward.
Buffalo Ready Homes is an initiative to create “pre-approved housing plans” that can help make it easier to build new homes on vacant and underutilized lots in Buffalo. The initiative is being developed through a partnership between the City of Buffalo and the UB Regional Institute.
Pre-approved housing plans” are home designs that meet Buffalo’s zoning requirements and fit with the city’s neighborhood character and architectural history. Once completed, the plans will be made available by the City of Buffalo for use by developers, property owners, community development organizations, and other partners interested in building new homes.
The goal is to make it easier to build high-quality infill housing on vacant and underutilized lots across Buffalo. Pre-approved plans can help reduce uncertainty in the development process, lower barriers for smaller-scale builders and property owners, and provide practical design options that are already aligned with the city’s zoning and neighborhood context.
Buffalo’s Green Code provides the zoning framework for how new development should fit within the city’s neighborhoods. Buffalo Ready Homes is intended to be a practical tool to help implement the Green Code by creating housing plans that meet zoning requirements and can be used to support compatible infill development.
The plans are expected to be made available for use by developers, property owners, community development organizations, non-profit housing partners, and others interested in building new homes in Buffalo.
Not necessarily. Each lot is different. Even with a pre-approved housing plan, a proposed project will still need to fit the specific property and meet applicable requirements related to zoning, site conditions, utilities, permitting, and construction.
No. “Pre-approved” means the home design has been created to meet key zoning and design requirements in advance. Individual projects will still need to go through the appropriate City review and permitting steps based on the specific property where the home is proposed.
The initiative is focused on creating practical housing designs that can support new infill development in Buffalo neighborhoods. Specific housing types and designs will be developed through the project and shared as the initiative moves forward.
The project is currently in development. More information about the project timeline, public engagement opportunities, and when the plans may be available will be shared as the initiative moves forward.
Buffalo Ready Homes is being developed through a partnership between the City of Buffalo and the UB Regional Institute. UBRI is also partnering with Trautman Associates to develop the designs and architectural documents for the plans, with close coordination among City staff and other project partners.