Three Years of Planning for a More Sustainable Buffalo Niagara Celebrated at Community Congress
Published February 18, 2015 This content is archived.
The One Region Forward Community Congress on February 12th welcomed over 150 guests in celebrating nearly three years of research, community engagement, partnership building and planning by over 5,000 citizens and more than 700 local organizations.
A New Way to Plan for Buffalo Niagara, the initiative’s Regional Plan for Sustainable Development was also debuted at the event. The night included a visual storyboard of the milestones and markers that have defined One Region Forward, in addition to next steps and the road to implementation. Guests were given a Plan Summary to help guide them through the storyboards and provide additional context and background information.
Hal Morse, Executive Director for the Greater Buffalo Niagara Regional Transportation Council and Bob Shibley, Dean of the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning spoke to the crowd about One Region Forward’s bottom-up approach to regional planning and the broad-based collaboration that was fostered during the planning process
Attendees also had the opportunity to learn more about One Region Forward’s Citizen Planning School. Sponsored by UB’s School of Architecture and Planning, the School helps residents across the region become agents for change in their community through interactive lectures, toolkits, and an advanced “Champions for Change” tract. Those who were interested got a chance to ask questions and get information from past participants and the Citizen Planning School Team on what the program has to offer.
For those who are still interested in learning more about A New Way to Plan for Buffalo Niagara, posters and plan summaries will be on display at the Central Library (1 Lafayette Square) through the end of the month. Feedback can also be submitted online:http://oneregionforward.polldaddy.com/s/february-2015-community-congress-feedback
You can download the full Regional Plan for Sustainable Development “A New Way to Plan for Buffalo Niagara” and other supporting planning documents on One Region Forward’s website: https://regional-institute.buffalo.edu/work/one-region-forward/