Buffalo Council Denies Lease for Affordable Housing Project

A request to lease city-owned land to a developer for an affordable housing project has been allowed to die by Buffalo’s City Council.

At their Tuesday meeting, the council chose not make a motion to allow the lease to developer Alex Burkhalter, with Housing Solutions LLC, who had made a presentation to the council at their last meeting August 1.

The proposed project would have been built a 24-unit affordable housing complex on city-owned lands located at South Burritt and Cemetery Road, with a 99-year lease to the developer.

The project was up against a time crunch because funding needed to be applied for in September, which prompted the urgency to get it approved, accoding to earlier discussions.

The council failed to act on the lease agreement but later in the meeting voted to place Councilman Scott Madsen on a new Affordable Housing Committee made up of members of the community and local governmental agency members that will look into other ways to address the affordable housing issue facing the community.