Fall/Winter 2004 Table of Contents

Slowing Demolition
by John M. Laping, FAIA Chair, Buffalo Preservation Board

The Landmark Society of the Niagara Frontier's Tuesday noontime lecture series at the Buffalo Architecture Center have become recognized platforms for community leaders to address the complex aspects of preservation and landmark celebration.

One such presentation on June 17, 2003 was by John Laping, Chair of the Buffalo Preservation Board. Entitled "Slowing Demolitions," this important talk outlined the steps both the Preservation Board and the City of Buffalo are taking to prevent "Friday afternoon demolition permits" from destroying the architectural fabric of our cultural legacy.

With kind permission from Mr. Laping and an invitation to hold public officials accountable to their own guidelines we present his remarks in full...

Over the past five years city residents have been shocked by the number of demolitions, both attempted and successful, that have been permitted on many of our historic buildings. The Vernor and Schmidt buildings, the Squire Mansion, contributing buildings to the Michigan Avenue Baptist Church are a few of the more prominent examples of failed demolitions. These were halted by court actions but not until the wrecker's ball did significant damage to them. As Chair of the Buffalo Preservation Board, I was invited by the Mayor to participate along with other high-ranking officials in the redesign of the demolition permitting process.

I would add here that each time we tinkered with the process we thought we had a failsafe procedure. And to some extent we did. A temporary moratorium on issuing permits slowed down the number of demolitions and with some tweaking of the process we all believed our landmarks and buildings within historic districts were safe from what we referred to as "Friday afternoon demo permits." These were the permits issued just before the weekend allowing a contractor to take buildings down on Saturday and Sunday. While not a protected building, the owner of the Harbor Inn was issued a permit on a Friday afternoon and the building was gone by Saturday. The press and local preservationists asked, "How could this happen again?"

Once again the Mayor brought us together. This time we totally redesigned the system to introduce checks and balances that should put an end to allowing demolitions to fall through the cracks. In broad terms, the new regulations require:

ï A two-week period between the time of an application and the permit being issued.
ï The applicant is required to photograph the building that will come down and the adjacent buildings.
ï The city will post at least one large sign on the building and two if it's a corner property, stating the building is slated for demolition. The sign should be in place for at least one week.
ï During this two-week period the Buffalo Preservation Board Office will review the application. If there is a building that may be of some historic interest, a committee of the Board will tour the facility and make a recommendation on granting or if the building has some historic merit, holding up the permit.
ï In the event the recommendation is not to grant the permit, the Board would conduct a public hearing inviting testimony from all interested parties. However, the Board can only recommend; except for landmarks and buildings within historic districts it has no authority to halt a demolition.

While our authority is limited we do offer a public forum for debating the merits of some buildings. Ultimately an involved and vocal community of preservationists is the best hammer we have for maintaining our historic inventory of buildings.

These new regulations haven't been in place long enough to judge their ultimate effectiveness. There are still those situations that can arise over which we have no control. I'm speaking of emergency demolitions that the Fire Commissioner can order if he feels the public health and safety is at risk.

While I cannot argue with the wisdom of the laws that allow this, I believe there are situations where others may be better qualified to judge the structural integrity of the building that remains. The burned out building at Main and Virginia is a perfect case in point. The Commissioner wanted the building down; the preservation community wanted the insurance proceeds to be used to stabilize the property until it could be successfully redeveloped. Fortunately the Judge found on the side of preservation.

The Buffalo Preservation Board began developing legislation that extends its authority beyond our landmarks and historic districts. The legislation that was shepherded through the Common Council by Councilman David Franczyk says that the Preservation Board shall review all improvements or demolitions to properties within 300 feet of a landmark or district. While our authority is only advisory, it does provide a layer of review that we believe is important if we are to maintain the character and flavor of our city and its wonderful legacy of historic properties.

It isn't a perfect system, but it is a lot better than the system we had. It will undoubtedly need some adjusting. But we do need to give it a chance.

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