Clarendon Place

Engaging neighborhoods through the City’s first green streets

Buffalo Sewer, in collaboration with Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, implemented a green infrastructure project within a combined sewer overflow sewershed (CSO 60) that outfalls into Scajaquada Creek near Hoyt Lake at Delaware Park. This project sought to reduce and eventually eliminate overflow events into the creek by implementing and evaluating green infrastructure tools, including porous pavement and rain gardens in an effort to capture and infiltrate stormwater. This project represented Buffalo Sewer’s first green street design and construction effort, installing green infrastructure on five streets between Bird Avenue and Forest Avenue: Claremont Avenue, Clarendon Place, Elmwood Avenue, Parkdale Avenue, and Windsor Avenue. Buffalo Sewer worked with several community members, including the Buffalo Niagara Waterkeeper, the Elmwood Village Association, block clubs, business owners, property owners and residents and secured a NYS Green Innovation grant award to redesign the project.

As part of the CSO 60 project, porous pavement was installed from curb to curb on Clarendon Place. As the project was one of the first porous pavement installations in a public street in the city, the design was very conservative. The project involved full depth reconstruction and temporarily limited road access. Despite these limitations, block club representatives and residents remained dedicated to improving the health of Scajaquada Creek, working with Buffalo Sewer and City representatives throughout the project.