Community leaders are pursuing widespread landmark designations for Catholic churches expected to close.
Buffalo City Council Member Mitch Nowakowski and Preservation Buffalo Niagara Executive Director Bernice Radel aren’t waiting for the shutdown of several churches announced by the Catholic Diocese of Buffalo in May.
Work is underway on “Save Our Sacred Sites,” an initiative to secure historic landmark status for Catholic churches closing in Buffalo, Radel said. The focus for now is locations within the city, but the goal is securing landmark status for all locations in the region that will be shut down.
“We want to do more throughout Western New York. However, the preservation laws are different in each community, and that's important to say," she said. "(The) City of Buffalo has a wonderful local landmarking tool and also zoning code that promotes adaptive reuse of these churches. But other communities don't necessarily have those tools. However, we are looking, you know, this is coming at us very quickly, so we are looking at every opportunity to save as many churches in Western New York as possible.”
The Diocese would be open to discussions about preserving the churches, but there would be restrictions over how the spaces are used, Buffalo Diocese Communications Director Joe Martone said.
“We're pleased that they're interested in the preservation of these buildings ... We would prefer the church, you know, not used for commercial purposes, so to speak," he said. "And as I said, a venue that would sell alcohol, a club, you know, anything that would have potentially kind of salacious or legal activity. We would not prefer that. So we put covenants on conditions of the sale of our properties.”
The restrictive covenant also prevents any former churches from being repurposed for functions like casinos or occult use. But Martone says the Diocese might change that standard for this case, given how many churches are closing, and each situation will instead have to be reviewed individually.
The preservation organization has saved many local buildings in the past, but never on this scale, Radle said. If successful, she says it could serve as a blueprint for other areas in the U.S. where several churches may be closing at once.
