Further progress has been made in the passage of the City of Buffalo’s historic property management law

To address blight while improving living conditions in Buffalo neighborhoods, efforts are underway to pass the City of Buffalo Historic Preservation Receivership Act. The act, which outlines procedures for appointing receivers to manage neglected or abandoned properties, is being championed by Fillmore District Councilmember Mitchell P. Nowakowski, Senator Sean Ryan, Assemblyman Jonathan Rivera, and representatives from various community groups. Senate Bill S7765 and Assembly Bill A1054n2 are currently before the New York State Legislature.

• Assembly Bill A10542 for the 2023-2024 Legislative Session enacts the “City of Buffalo Historic Preservation Receivership Act” and is currently before the New York State Assembly Committee
• Senate Bill S7765 for the 2023-2024 legislative session enacts the “City of Buffalo Historic Preservation Receivership Act” and is currently awaiting passage in the New York State Assembly.

The bill aims to: enact the City of Buffalo Historic Preservation Receivership Act, which outlines procedures for appointing receivers to manage neglected or abandoned properties, thereby combating blight and improving living conditions in Buffalo neighborhoods.

Neglected properties not only blight neighborhoods in a variety of ways (increased crime, declining property values, health issues, poor quality of life, blight, etc.) but they also lead to demolitions due to neglect. For decades, we have been at the mercy of neglected property owners, many of whom reside outside the city. The City of Buffalo’s Historic Preservation Act will empower Buffalo officials to take action, instead of standing idly by while threatened neighborhoods crumble.

“Neglected properties are a significant problem in our city, contributing to unsafe living conditions and diminishing the quality of our neighborhoods,” said Fillmore District Councilmember Mitch Nowakowski, who introduced a resolution in support of these bills to the Buffalo City Council, emphasizing the need to address property neglect and improve housing standards for residents and helping to pass the bills. “By enacting the Historic Property Receivership Act, we can take a proactive approach to rehabilitating these properties, ensuring safer and healthier homes for our residents.”

The resolution calls for the Buffalo City Court to consider receivership as a remedy for severely neglected and substandard housing with existing code violations. 

“Buffalo’s historic architecture has played a major role in our city’s economic renaissance,” said New York State Senator Sean Ryan. “We have many more historic buildings that can become assets to the city’s future, but only if we take steps to ensure their preservation and restoration. It’s time to stop letting neglectful owners eat away at our historic neighborhoods piece by piece through their inaction. Buffalo’s receivership program already provides the framework we need to end decades of neglectful demolition. Passage of this legislation will make the program more effective and ensure it works as intended in the future.”

The resolution acknowledges the vital work of non-profit agencies like Preservation Buffalo Niagara in improving housing conditions and maintaining historic properties.

Assemblyman Jon D. Rivera said, “Due to the age of our housing stock in Buffalo, many of our city’s historic and treasured properties are at risk of decay due to the indifference of their owners, which in some cases can even lead to their demolition due to neglect. This is how we recently lost the Great Northern Grain Elevator and the irreplaceable history it contained in its design and structure. The Historic Preservation Act can be a powerful tool to combat this type of unacceptable property abandonment, regardless of ownership. As we work to pass this legislation, I urge the city to be proactive in eliminating the conditions that lead to decay and create lasting cracks in our neighborhoods.”

Councilman Nowakowski’s resolution in support of the “City of Buffalo Historic Preservation Receivership Act” (Senate Bill S7765 and Assembly Bill A1054n2) will be taken up at the Common Council Legislation Committee meeting at 1:00 p.m. the same day.

Main image: A historic building on the corner of Vermont and 16th Avenue, destroyed by fire – this scenario could have been easily avoided. The City of Buffalo’s Historic Preservation Act could have given the city the “teeth” to prevent its demise | Photos by Dave Weitzel