bio

Tracie Zamiska recently returned to the Cleveland area in 2005 from Buffalo, NY where she lived since 1998.  During her time there, she completed a BA at Canisius College in political science and criminal justice.  After working and taking some MBA courses at Canisius, she decided to pursue a Masters from the State University of New York at Buffalo.  Tracie attended the School of Architecture and Planning at UB and completed her coursework in May of 2005.

While completing her master's education, Tracie worked for several public and private entities.  She completed a semester long internship in the Land Use Division of the City of Buffalo.  During this internship, she completed a revision of the downtown overlay zoning district for the CBD of the city of Buffalo.  This experience led to the formation of her thesis topic, Amending Zoning to Serve the Master Plan.  Buffalo’s recently completed master plan, The Queen City in the 21st Century, outlined very specific strategies to bring Buffalo into the 21st century successfully.  Many of the changes suggested require changes to the zoning ordinance.  Tracie’s thesis serves as an outline for action, advising what changes need to be completed to support the plan’s goals.

Heart of the City Neighborhoods, Inc. was the client for Tracie's capstone project.  She worked closely with Stephanie Simeon, the Executive Director and community stakeholders to complete a vacancy strategy to help HOCN and the city of Buffalo deal with the large number of vacancies. Tracie found through her research that many communities throughout the US are finding innovative and aggressive strategies to deal with the volatile housing market.  Her report outlines specific steps the HOCN can take to help mitigate the growing vacancy problems within its service area.

Tracie also held a position as a consultant for the Office of Strategic Planning.  This position afforded her the opportunity to work with a neighborhood group, the North Buffalo Good Neighbors’ Planning Alliance and resulted in the formation of a 300-page neighborhood plan.  The plan spoke specifically to improving the neighborhood through changes in zoning and land use, specific housing initiatives, safety and traffic issues, educational focus, commercial redevelopment and infrastructure improvements.  Tracie served not only as moderator for the public involvement required to complete this plan but also as researcher, writer and editor.  The neighborhood plan was accepted by the city council and added to the master plan February 2006.

During her time at UB, Tracie also held a position at the Urban Design Project under the direction of Dr. Robert Shibley.  She was Assistant Project Manager on several projects including the Explore and More Children’s Museum Feasibility Study and the Route 219 Corridor Study.  She served as Assistant Planner on other projects such as The Larkin District Redevelopment Plan. 

In her final semester at UB, Tracie was given the opportunity to work as Housing Programs Coordinator at the University Heights Community Development Association.  In this position, Tracie acted as the housing court liaison for 1/3 of the city of Buffalo.  The service area for her position was the majority of the East Side of Buffalo.  In this position she had to conduct regular housing inspections with the city inspectors, identify properties that were not in compliance with city code, report to the housing court judge with updates of any properties in housing court, serve as manager for any receivership properties and assist residents with compliance.  Tracie also assisted with the Acquisition Rehab Program.  This program, funded through a HUD/CHDO grant selects available properties and rehabs the home to comply with HUD standards.  The homes are then available for purchase for low to moderate-income homebuyers; the max median income for single household is $30,000.00.  Tracie also maintained the Housing Department Newsletter and taught homebuyer education classes and workshops.
 
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