1.1 Title, Purpose, and Applicability

This Ordinance, which includes the Zoning Map, is known, cited, and referred to as the “Unified Development Ordinance,” or “Ordinance.”

This Ordinance is adopted in accordance with a comprehensive plan to promote the interest and welfare of the people through standards that address the orderly and compatible use of land, the relationship between building facades and the public realm, the form and mass of buildings in relation to one another, and the scale and type of blocks, thoroughfares, and open spaces.

This Unified Development Ordinance is adopted pursuant to New York State General City Law and New York State Municipal Home Rule Law.

This Ordinance applies to all land, structures, and uses within the corporate boundaries of the City of Buffalo.

In their interpretation and application, the provisions of this Ordinance are the minimum requirements for the protection and promotion of the public health, safety, and welfare.

No structure may be erected, converted, enlarged, reconstructed, moved, or altered for use; no land or structures may be used or changed; and no lots of record established, by subdivision or otherwise, that do not conform with all applicable regulations of this Ordinance, unless otherwise expressly allowed by Section 1.3.

1. Where conditions, standards, or requirements imposed by any provision of this Ordinance are either more restrictive or less restrictive than any standard imposed by any other statute, law,ordinance, regulation, license, or permit, the most restrictive of any such standards control. An exception to this is City Code Chapter 511. In the instance that any provision of this Ordinance is in conflict with any section of Chapter 511 the standard from this Ordinance shall prevail.
2. Whenever a provision of this Ordinance refers to any other part of the City Code or to any other law, the reference applies to any subsequent amendment of that law.
3. Notwithstanding the provisions of this Ordinance, the New York State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code, and State Energy Conservation Construction Code, are applicable and controlling at all times.
4. A development that is proposed for a local landmark or within a local historic district must also comply with City Code, Chapter 337, Preservation Standards. Whenever a development must comply with the Secretary of the Interior’s standards for the preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, or reconstruction of a registered historic building or site, and such standards conflict with any provision of this Ordinance, the Secretary of the Interior’s standards control.
5. Whenever a development is proposed within an Urban Renewal Area and must comply with an Urban Renewal Plan that was adopted by the City of Buffalo and remains in effect, and such standards conflict with any provision of this Ordinance, this Ordinance controls.

If any provision of this Ordinance contains an actual, implied, or apparent conflict with another provision of this Ordinance, the more restrictive provision controls.

If any section, paragraph, subdivision, clause, sentence, or provision of this Ordinance is adjudged by any court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid, that judgment does not affect, impair, invalidate, or nullify the remainder of this Ordinance. The effect of the judgment is confined to the section, paragraph, subdivision, clause, sentence, or provision specifically addressed in the controversy in which the judgment or decree was made.