Work on One Region Forward will build upon, reinforce and support the collaborative efforts of the past and coordinate with those now underway. We will bring together research, the knowledge of subject-matter experts, and community-wide conversations that will make Buffalo Niagara more sustainable for decades to come.
The plan will be a practical road map for promoting more efficient land use patterns, improving mobility, strengthening our basic infrastructure, growing a 21st century economy, protecting housing and neighborhoods, ensuring broad access to healthy food, and mounting our region’s response to the challenge of global climate change.
It will also bring together key actors to get things done and share what they learn with the region, equip our civic and business leaders with online tools and technical assistance to make smart decisions to make sustainability work here, and empower the people of Buffalo Niagara to drive positive, sustainable change for their communities.
View One Region Forward timeline (pdf)
How we will work
We have forged a partnership, embracing key government, business, and non-profit leadership to ensure the plan has strong support from those who will be most responsible for implementing its recommendations. This also includes the elected officials and business people who will need to translate the plan into action at the local level.
We are working to understand our situation, starting with a review of current and recent planning to help us frame a starting conversation about our regional vision and values. We will also conduct demographic, economic, and geographic analysis of our region to better understand our challenges and opportunities.
We will engage the public throughout the process with broad-based Community Congress events at the beginning, middle, and end. Our Private Sector and Local Government councils will provide a special forum for key actors to review the work in progress. An active — and interactive — website will provide information on the ongoing work and opportunities to comment. Community groups that wish to host a presentation and discussion of the work should contact 1RF staff to schedule a visit.
We will chart a course for the region, building a plan through the interaction of the steering committee, working teams of stakeholders and subject matter experts, and robust public reviews. This will encompass an ensemble of policies, programs, and projects — specific action steps — to help us create a more sustainable region. It will also identify a series of key performance indicators to help us measure our progress toward our goals.
We will take action, implementing the plan and learning as we go through a series of Implementation Councils. These will convene key actors to focus on demonstration projects throughout the region. We want to get things done — and learn from the experience — to move sustainable practices from experimentation to standard operating procedure. We’ll also mount a “Citizen Planning School” to help citizens better understand the issues and participate in the ongoing work.