Tonawanda, NY Building Safety: Green Building Code (2026)

Article 32 of the Zoning Law, the Town's Building and Site Design Standards, opens with a purpose section at § 215-32.1 aimed at improving the character and image of the Town of Tonawanda through design review of future development. Among the objectives the Town Board lists for buildings within its reach is Subsection B(6): the Town seeks to encourage the development of buildings consistent with the goals of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program, phrasing that sits alongside encouragement to use high-quality materials and avoid prototypical corporate architecture rather than alongside a numeric mandate.

Applicability is defined in § 215-32.2.A: the article, and therefore this LEED objective, reaches nonresidential uses including industrial uses, mixed-use development, and multi-family dwellings of more than four units, all reviewed through the Article 42 development plan review process before a building or zoning permit issues. Ordinary single-family and small multi-family homes fall outside Article 32 entirely, so the LEED language never applies to a typical house. Because the LEED reference sits among aspirational 'objectives' rather than the article's mandatory design standards, the reviewing body can encourage but cannot deny or condition a permit solely for a developer's refusal to pursue LEED certification; Chapter 215 contains no LEED point threshold, no certification requirement and no green-building fee schedule.