The City of Buffalo and other community leaders concluded that this community of roughly 7,000 residents needed to better understand local housing needs.  Pedersen Planning Consultants was retained to evaluate regional economic trends influencing future housing demands, and to correlate potential housing demands with the available housing inventory.

The second task associated with this project was to establish a land use database for the City of Buffalo using County Assessor records.  PPC linked the database to other spatial information using ArcView GIS software.

Representatives from the regional coal bed methane and power generation and transmission industries, as well as other larger employers, were interviewed to gain insights concerning future economic growth that could influence future employment for residents in Johnson County.  This information, combined with results from the Buffalo housing survey, was used by PPC to model and forecast anticipated employment generation, resident population, and housing demands for the 2003-2013 period.

Potential housing demands were correlated with anticipated income ranges of the existing and anticipated employed labor force to determine the affordability ranges needed to meet anticipated housing demands for both fee simple and rental housing.  Such information was presented to provide guidance to housing developers and other investors concerning affordable ranges for both rental and fee simple housing.

PPC also recommended several potential locations within the community that could support future residential expansion for single-family market housing; affordable single-family, townhomes, and apartments; seasonal housing for seasonal visitor industry workers, and temporary rental housing for coal bed methane exploration and drilling crews.