Reuse and Rehabilitation of Buildings

Communities can help revitalize existing neighborhoods by making it easier to convert surplus or outmoded buildings into desirable and usable structures. Adaptive reuse of buildings may also serve as a way to preserve local historic landmarks, such as schools, when the prior use has become outdated.

Traditionally, one of the largest obstacles to rehabilitation and reuse of older buildings has been the expense involved in bringing those buildings up to building code standards. In 2002, New York State adopted a new fire prevention and building code, which addresses this issue and makes it easier to rehabilitate buildings. One way municipalities and community groups could foster rehabilitation projects would be to hold training sessions for developers, code enforcement officers and citizens that focus on the provisions in the new building code which encourage rehabilitation of structures. Additionally, communities can pursue the option of relaxing certain building code standards, under clearly defined criteria, in order to make rehabilitation projects more feasible.

Another way that municipalities can encourage building reuse and rehabilitation is to develop and amend ordinances that support reuse and rehabilitation. Examples include: reducing parking requirements for rehabilitated buildings or for buildings over 50 years old; allowing architecturally sensitive building additions; and making it easier to convert empty storefronts into housing. In order to remove regulatory barriers to reusing older buildings, municipalities can also relax rules that mandate building size, height, and setbacks in certain areas.

Municipalities can also donate (or sell at below-market price) to developers or nonprofit agencies, municipally owned or purchased buildings for adaptive reuse as affordable housing or other community-benefiting project.