1384 Fillmore Avenue

Supporting neighborhood businesses with green parking

Fillmore Avenue is one of Buffalo’s most significant business, community, and cultural areas. As a gateway to MLK Park and home to many small businesses, the commercial corridor attracts residents and visitors from across the city. High vacancies and inadequate infrastructure along the corridor pose challenges for neighborhood revitalization and business development, but recent public investments in the area seek to enhance its appeal. A recent Fillmore Avenue streetscape project focused on the reconstruction of a one-mile stretch of the street from North Parade Street to East Ferry Street. The streetscape project included road repaving, new sidewalks, bike lanes, new trees and benches.

With the involvement of Buffalo Sewer, the goals of the project went beyond streetscape enhancement and traffic calming to incorporate stormwater management for a complete and green corridor. 1384 Fillmore is one of two new off-street parking lots created on vacant City-owned parcels to replace on-street parking spaces lost to accommodate bump outs. The parking lots were constructed to absorb stormwater on-site. All stormwater runoff is directed to the low points of the parking lots, which are surfaced with porous pavement. Water is then collected beneath the porous pavement and stored in a layer of stone until it can infiltrate back into the surrounding soil.