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Mobile Sustainability Advocates Expect Increased Developer Interest in Smart Code Potential
A 2002-04 effort to redraw old separate-use zoning into a full form-based code and make Mobile more pedestrian-friendly gained little traction and ''faded to the background'' after Mayor Sam Jones took office in 2005, reports the Mobile Press-Register. The recession further delayed the shift toward New Urbanism and Smart Growth.
''City departments can bring it to a point, but for it to take off, it has to be picked up by the community and obviously by the people in the development community. And you've also got to have a driving force in the administration,'' pointed out the city's Urban Development Department Director Laura Clarke. ''What development that is going on right now, continues to be the suburban-sprawl type development.''
Mayor Jones, now in his second term, said he supports Smart Growth development, but the rules have to be palatable to the industry or the effort is self-defeating.
City Planning Commission member John Vallas called the current market hard enough without additional rules. To make their projects viable, he noted, commercial developers need financing and tenant demand, with banks and retailers usually looking for a lot of frontal parking and access to traffic-heavy roads – design elements absent in smart codes.
Actually, the city instituted some ''piecemeal'' zoning options to facilitate better-type growth and introduced some smart-code-like rules for its historic neighborhoods built street grids, but developers have ignored these new options so far, and the historic district rules address only residential projects. According to PlaceMakers consulting consortium urban planner Howard Blackson, initial hesitancy or resistance to form-based codes for commercial development subside and vanish once the industry recognizes they add value. ''Retail can go anywhere,'' he observed. ''You just need to have the right tools in place.''
Indeed, the writer reports in another article, when merchants in the Spring Hill area, some 5 miles west of downtown Mobile, moved to improve the look of their stretch of Old Shell Road in 2005, a newly formed Village of Spring Hill grassroots group hired Coral Gables, Florida-based Dover, Kohl & Partners urban planning firm. The firm showed how the neighborhood could realize the corridor's full economic potential. The road, once choked with traffic and bereft of sidewalks, would be turned into ''a walkable business and residential strip,'' its previously vacant asphalt lots now lined with storefronts, and a nearby suburban-style, car-dependent and increasingly depressed commercial section refashioned as a vibrant ''mini-town'' center.
With many developers and landowners resistant to zoning changes, the city refused to make the Spring Hill transformation mandatory, eventually allowing it as optional two years ago. Though no developer has taken advantage of the new rules yet, Village of Spring Hill President Linda St. John is optimistic. Her group has already convinced a CVS drugstore developer, Don Kelly, to diverge slightly from the predetermined CVS specifications used elsewhere by locating the building next to a sidewalk and moving much of the parking from the front to the side. ''If our vision is going to happen, it's going to be because developers buy into it,'' she said, adding, ''Not a month goes by that I don’t hear from a developer interested in coming in.''
8/15/2010
Resource(s): http://blog.al.com/
Developer Claims Sierra Club Support for Opposed Project
Astonished by the Accretive Group's mailer claiming a Sierra Club endorsement for its controversial Valley Center Sustainable Community (VCSC) proposal to build 1,476 varied-lot homes and a commercial hub on 416 unincorporated acres in San Diego County, Escondido North County Times – Californian columnist Brigid Brett found the claim to be a hoax.
''Not only do we not endorse this development, but we adamantly oppose it,'' said Sierra Club San Diego Development Coordinator Richard Miller. ''The developers have deliberately attempted to deceive the public by taking our words out of context and using them in this way.''
Seeking Valley Center area's support for the project, the columnist writes, the mailer cited a Sierra Club spokesman as having said, ''Leaders like Andres Duany and Peter Calthorpe promote design principles and work with developers to produce model communities.'' The words were true, but in relation to some projects in cities like New York, Atlanta and Phoenix. ''They were most definitely not used to endorse a large urban development in a rural area like Valley Center,” Coordinator Miller stressed. ''In fact, this development fits all the criteria for urban sprawl.''
With the developer's promise last year that it ''will endeavor to design the VCSC as a complete community, where people can live, work, shop for daily goods and services, learn and play,'' and with the County Planning Commission delaying its decision on the requested Plan Amendment Authorization, the columnist hopes the public will remain alert. Accretive Group CEO Randy Goodson ''is fond of using words like 'sustainable' and 'smart growth' to describe this development,'' but would it save Valley Center? ''Not quite,'' she writes. ''In its dogged determination to build this 1,746-home development on 416 rural acres, the Accretive Group just keeps on thinking up new ways to manipulate and deceive its residents,'' she concludes. ''I wonder what will be next.''
8/20/2010
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
San Francisco Residents Upset Over Affordable Housing Complex's Parking Plan
According to a report in the San Francisco Chronicle , neighbors weren’t ''especially happy about plans to build 71 units of affordable housing on a city-owned bus turnaround at Ocean and Phelan avenues, across the street from City College. But when they learned the apartment complex would have just five parking spaces - plus one car-share slot and a single handicapped space - the complaints poured in.''
However, says the article, San Francisco doesn't require that affordable housing projects provide any off-street parking at all, ''because residents are considered less likely to have cars and more likely to use transit.''
The Chronicle noted that during a recent Planning Commission hearing, opponents turned in a petition with 457 signatures against the project. One resident said that the parking plan for the new complex would make local parking ''much worse,'' stating, ''I don't understand how you can get by with five (parking spaces) for 71 units. Make it a condition that (residents) have to use bicycles and can't have cars.'' The article notes, ''Planners and environmental activists argue that limits on parking are the only way to keep congestion from strangling city streets.''
8/2/2010
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
San Francisco’s Transbay Transit Center Project Epitomizes Smart Growth
With initial funding from the 2009 Recovery Act (ARRA), redevelopment of San Francisco’s 71-year-old Transbay Transit Terminal into a mixed-use multimodal Transbay Transit Center is now underway. ''This project is the ultimate manifestation of smart growth,'' said San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom at the crowded August 11 groundbreaking event, attended by U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Barbara Boxer and Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood.
''We are coming together to create jobs and revitalize our economy, and we are laying the first building blocks of a new 'Grand Central Station of the West','' said Speaker Pelosi, with Secretary La Hood calling it one of the most ''transformational public transportation projects'' in the nation. ''Once the dust has settled,'' he said, ''San Francisco's skyline will be transformed – as will transportation, housing, and employment choices for people across the Bay area and beyond.''
The first phase of the project is slated for completion by 2017. The $4.2 billion transit center will include two underground levels – a shopping concourse, and both Caltrain commuter tracks and the future high-speed line below – and two higher levels, a bus connection platform, and a 5.4-acre rooftop park. Flanked by a first-phase 100-floor residential tower, and many other skyscrapers planned for the whole new neighborhood later, the center will link services of 11 transit agencies, serve up to 45 million people a year, and cut the area’s annual carbon dioxide emissions by some 36,000 tons.
Complementing the center's overall ''green'' and energy-efficient design, its rooftop park will feature gardens, grassy picnic sections, ponds, a walking trail, cafes and an amphitheater. ''It's a true embodiment of the livability principles I talk about so often,'' wrote Secretary LaHood on his FastLane blog page after the groundbreaking. ''It will soon be possible to get almost anywhere in the Golden State via public transit – by streetcar to Embarcadero, by Muni bus to Balboa Park, by BART to Oakland, by Caltrain out to Silicon Valley, or by high speed rail to South California,'' he pointed out, noting that beside 3 million square feet of office and commercial space and 100,000 square feet of retail, the larger neighborhood redevelopment plan also envisions nearly 2,600 new housing units, 35 percent of them affordable for medium-income and lower-income families.
8/11/2010
Resource(s): http://fastlane.dot.gov/ ; www.sfmayor.org/
Black Hawk, Colorado, Bans Biking on Most Streets
Despite being set in the middle of a key scenic bike touring route through the Rockies, Black Hawk, Colorado, has banned bicycling on its main streets. ''It's an important issue to us, and we believe that Black Hawk should have the right to control its streets,'' said City Manager Mike Copp in a Los Angeles Times report.
In response, Denver-based Bicycle Colorado Executive Director Dan Gruning said in an earlier Associated Press article that the anti-bike ordinance creates a dangerous precedent. ''We don't believe it's right or legal,'' he stressed, ''and we want to make sure it's addressed before it's spread any further.''
The dispute is heating up and drawing attention nationwide in the context of the federal livability initiative, including investments in multi-modal transportation and transit-oriented development. The government earmarked $1.2 billion last year to help communities become more pedestrian and bicycle friendly. And according to the most recent congressionally commissioned report, Assessing National Trends in Bicycling and Walking, trips on foot or bicycle have increased from 7.9 to 11.9 percent since 1990, says the Associated Press article.
Black Hawk Manager Copp said the City Council passed the ordinance after a surge in casino-bound tourist buses, delivery trucks and other vehicles along narrow streets built in the 1800s for horses and carriages. With a 2009 state law requiring motorists to keep three feet away when they pass cyclists, they often would have to veer into the incoming traffic, he argued. He added that on the popular mountain touring route's city stretch – State Highway 279 until about 10 years ago, Gregory Street since then – cyclists now have to dismount and walk with their bikes about a quarter mile.
But University of North Carolina's federally funded Pedestrian and Bicycling Information Center's Director Charlie Zegeer observed that safety-minded communities offer bikers convenient alternative routes, as do traffic-beset European cities built centuries ago. The only alternatives to crossing Black Hawk on bike, says the Los Angeles Times article, are a gravel road or a 46-mile paved detour over the Continental Divide.
Of course, pointed out Bicycle Colorado Director Gruning, Black Hawk officials could simply treat bicycles like any other vehicles and require motorists to follow the traffic rules obligatory on narrow thoroughfares everywhere; that is, to keep pace behind cyclists until able to pass them without intruding on the wrong side of the street.
8/15/2010
Resource(s): http://articles.latimes.com/; www.msnbc.msn.com/; www.treehugger.com/
Opinion: Transit-Oriented Development Must Consider Families with School-Age Children
Smart growth is increasingly proving its broad adaptability for mixed-use, diverse and sustainable neighborhoods. Still, many middle-class families with school-age children struggle to find apartments that are large enough, affordable, and located near good public schools.
''Unsubsidized apartments built today are almost exclusively designed for and marketed to people without school-age children,'' writes University of Maryland Professor Emeritus of Architecture Roger K. Lewis in his regular Washington Post ''Shaping the City'' column. Lewis calls the situation ''a bit of a dilemma for anti-sprawl advocates'' in their work to locate ''a significant amount of future metropolitan growth'' in compact, walkable, transit-served urban areas, with jobs and affordable housing.
Transit-oriented development plans often follow the fiscal logic that few school-age children mean less school construction or education spending and more tax revenue, Professor Lewis writes, cautioning that such mixed-use development or redevelopment ''will not yield an equivalent population mix.''
On the other hand, he notes that the capital's urban suburbs with strong public schools--Fairfax County in Virginia and Montgomery County in Maryland--could meet the prospective demand for large reasonably priced apartments in the emergent ''smart-growth activity centers'' of Tysons Corner and White Flint, respectively, if they deal with the ''economic hurdle'' of urban land and construction costs. ''Counties would have to subsidize development by directly or indirectly reducing the per-unit cost of land and by providing tax breaks for developers and occupants,'' he writes, countering the likely critics with two arguments. ''First, we already subsidize middle-class housing, primarily through tax deductions for mortgage interest,'' he points out. ''Second, and most important, is that it's in the public interest to create new, sustainable communities with a full range of housing choices, among them choices for families with school-age children.''
8/28/2010
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/
Tampa Bay Area Light Rail Necessary With or Without Tampa-Orlando High-Speed Rail
''We must have a state-of-the-art light-rail system to be competitive in the 21st century,'' says Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio, stressing the need again and again at town meetings and other events as she campaigns across Hillsborough County for voter approval of a penny sales tax increase this November. The increase, from 7 to 8 cents per dollar, reports the Florida Independent, would provide 75 percent of the new revenue for the proposed light rail and expanded bus service. The rest would be used for road improvements.
Some anti-tax activists have doubts that light rail will succeed. ''I think there are a lot of sunny-day scenarios being put forward that people are going to pay to ride something like this, but I just don't see it happening,'' said Tampa Tea Party president and No Tax For Tracks campaign leader Sharon Calvert.
On the other side, a diversified Moving Hillsborough Forward group raised more than $975,000 in donations, mostly from business, to fight for light rail as economically and environmentally advantageous. Its downtown Tampa connection to the future $2.6-billion Tampa-Orlando high-speed rail line, for which President Obama allotted $1.25 billion in recovery stimulus funds, would also increased ridership for both systems, making them mutually beneficial. Nonetheless, ''this is still a very difficult economy, so we are working to make our case,'' said Moving Hillsborough Forward member and former Congressman Jim Davis. Confirming a strong federal interest in Tampa's light rail, he noted similar fiscal challenges related to the 84-mile high-speed line, for which the state needs some $1.3 billion to have trains running in 2015. ''When you look at the state budget, it's not going to be easy. But the bottom line is they will find a way, because with this (federal) funding coming in, it has to get done,'' he observed, equally confident of ultimate light rail success. ''The reality isn't if, but when, this is going to happen,” he told the writer. ''First let me say I think the referendum will pass, but if it doesn't, we will try again until we find a way.''
Urging constituents to back light rail, Mayor Iorio points out that the system is a must for solving the area's enormous transportation problems regardless of the high-speed Tampa-Orlando connection. ''Even if there were no plans for high-speed rail,'' she asserts, ''we would still be doing the same thing.''
8/2/2010
Resource(s): http://floridaindependent.com/ ; http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/ ; www.gohart.org/
If Cities Focus on Walkable Communities, Economic Development Will Follow
With a third of metro area populations eager for pedestrian-friendly settings, a key path out of the recession leads through urban infill and walkable mixed-use redevelopment of car-dependent suburban malls and strips – some 10,000 now awaiting new life.
Meeting that pent-up market demand will take a generation, said Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program Visiting Fellow Christopher Leinberger at the fifth annual Louisiana Smart Growth Summit. Leinberger advised cities to combine transportation and affordable housing strategies to ensure the viability of walkable neighborhoods. He identified the roots of the housing bubble and the resultant crash as the imprudent ''overdevelopment of the 'drivable fringe,''' promoted despite tremendous infrastructure extension costs and through a $300-million annual subsidy in federal mortgage tax write-offs, reports Baton Rouge Advocate writer Chad Calder.
Leinberger told city and other leaders, ''Plan for your walkable future. Economic development will follow.''
Correspondingly, Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) Vice President and Chief Economist Doug Duncan pointed out that devastated by Hurricane Katrina in August 2005, Louisiana escaped the worst of the housing bubble, holding its subsequent unemployment at about 7 percent, that each point of the approximately 2.3-point drop in home ownership nationwide turned some 1.1 million people into renters, and that his company is now ''thinking hard about supporting the rental side'' of the housing market.
The federal shift away from routine policies and failed concepts after 2008 was also reflected in U.S. Department of Transportation Deputy Assistant Secretary Beth Osborne's remarks during a teleconference with the Smart Growth Summit audience. Confident in public transportation's power to cut travel costs, trigger economic growth, and rein in pollution, the federal government will work to continue funding for passenger rail expansion, including the envisioned high-speed network, she said, adding, ''We know that high-speed rail is the new frontier.''
8/19/2010
Resource(s): www.2theadvocate.com/
Almost Six Decades After Historic Streetcar, Federal Funds Will Help Detroit Build Light Rail
With $125 million raised by business and civic leaders in and $25 million in the U.S. DOT's Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant, Detroit's 9.3-mile Woodward Avenue light-rail project will now enter the Environmental Impact Statement stage.
''Woodward was once upon a time a backbone of a street car system replicated in cities across the country,'' said Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood at a Detroit Institute of Arts press conference, joined by Mayor Dave Bing, Governor Jennifer Granholm, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Congresswoman Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick and other officials and private sector leaders. ''Today, together, we're building on a storied tradition.''
Noting that such projects ''cannot be done just with public dollars,'' the secretary said Woodward Avenue light rail – its idea, and its mobility and economic advantages, backed and advanced by public private partnerships, foundations, the state, the city, and Michigan’s entire Congressional delegation – will become ''a model'' throughout the country. ''Secretary LaHood's presence here today underscores the Obama Administration's commitment to support Detroit's effort to bring light rail to Woodward Avenue,'' responded Mayor Bing.
The 9.3-mile line – its fist-phase segment running from the downtown riverfront's Hart Plaza about 3.4 miles north to West Grand Boulevard, and the second-phase segment continuing to Eight Mile Road – is likely to cost between $450 million and $500 million, with much of the money expected to come from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), under the New Starts discretionary grant program. Construction may begin next year, with the whole line operational by 2016.
Line advocates, including the city’s Transit Riders United Executive Director Megan Owens, are hoping it will clear the way for other light rail projects in the region, spur transit-oriented development like the MAX light-rail system did in Portland, Oregon, and eventually leverage a $10 billion investment in a comprehensive regional transit network.
8/2/2010
Resource(s): http://detnews.com/
Minnesota’s North Shore Launches Ride Share Service
A new ride-share matching service has been launched along Minnesota’s north shore of Lake Superior. The Cook County Local Energy Project (CCLEP) recently announced North Shore Ride Share, a free service connecting drivers and riders for travel, carpooling, and package pickup/delivery.
The North Shore Ride Share website matches drivers who have space with those looking for rides. Drivers and riders simply go to the website, sign up for a membership, post listings for rides offered or needed, and then search or reply to other listings. The service is free.
CCLEP received a grant in 2009 from the Lloyd K. Johnson Foundation in Duluth to create the ride-sharing website.
8/9/2010
Resource(s): http://www.boreal.org/
Senate Banking Committee Passes Livable Communities Act
The Senate Banking Committee on August 3 passed Chairman Chris Dodd's (D-CT) Livable Communities Act (S. 1619) to improve the coordination between our housing, community development, transportation, energy, and environmental policies to help create better places to live, work and raise families. The bill will promote sustainable development and enable communities to cut traffic congestion; reduce greenhouse gas emissions and oil consumption; protect farmland and green spaces; revitalize existing Main Streets and urban centers; spur economic development; and create more affordable housing.
''The needs of our citizens are evolving, and the way we plan for the future must evolve as well. This legislation is a significant step in that evolution,'' Dodd stated at the hearing. ''Workers across the nation are living farther away from their jobs and commuting longer distances. Our roadways are ever more crowded, and this strains our infrastructure. Farmland and open spaces are disappearing, and the impact on the environment from the large numbers of cars on the road is adding significantly to the problems of oil dependence and climate change.''
''With our population expected to grow by over 150 million people between 2000 and 2050, it is clear that our current path is unsustainable. The Livable Communities Act before us represents a comprehensive and flexible approach to the diverse issues facing communities.
This legislation provides for planning and capital grants so that regions can coordinate transportation, housing, and community development policies to reduce traffic congestion, generate economic growth, create and preserve affordable housing, and meet environmental and energy goals. This bill is about helping our communities meet vital future needs, in a flexible, fiscally responsible and environmentally sustainable way, while also increasing transportation and housing choices for our citizens,'' Dodd said.
8/3/2010
Resource(s): http://banking.senate.gov/
Consumers Declare McMansion Era Over
Between 1950 and 2004, the size of the average American home increased from 983 to 2,349 square feet, as Americans dreamed of larger homes with 3,200-plus square feet. However, dreams that were realized had become nightmares for many owners by 2010. Citing multiple earlier reports of a ''McMansion glut'' or ''backlash,'' and new market research, CNBC writer Cindy Perman calls the era of giant houses ''over.''
A survey conducted in July 2010 by Harris Interactive for Trulia.com found that just 9 percent of respondents still believing the ideal home should have at least 3,200 square feet. Thirteen percent endorse 3,200-2,600 square feet, 27 percent endorse 2,600-2,000 square feet, 28 percent endorse 2,000-1,400 square feet, and 9 percent endorse 1,400-800 square feet.
The industry is taking notice. ''That's something that would've been unbelievable just a few years back. Americans are moving away from McMansions,'' said Trulia CEO Pete Flint about the ''right-sizing'' trend. ''This is absolutely a long-term effect. Think of families with small children who've been foreclosed upon … When these teenagers are in a position to build a home, they won't want to go through these experiences they saw their parents go through.''
American Institute of Architects Chief Economist Kermit Baker felt the same. ''We continue to move away from the McMansion chapter of residential design, with more demand for practicality throughout the home,'' he noted earlier. ''There has been a drop-off in the popularity of upscale property enhancements such as formal landscaping, decorative water features, tennis courts, and gazebos.''
Builders are planning accordingly. ''McMansions just look and feel out of place today, given the more cautious environment everyone's living in,'' remarked National Association of Realtors (NAR) Research Vice President Paul Bishop. NAR's 2009 survey shows that nine out of 10 builders are prepared to build smaller and less costly homes.
Even Texas, where large homes are the norm, doesn't lag behind. Austin has just expanded its McMansion ordinance, which makes home size dependent on lot size and sets a 32-feet height cap. Where the ordinance faced strong opposition four years ago, today there is none. In Dallas, local Urban Edge Developers' previous small-home average of 2,500 square feet has declined by 300 since 2005. Hired to replace a 3,000-square-foot house with a 1,200-square-foot super-green home now under construction, company owner Diane Cheatham admitted, ''We've never built one that small.''
Coincidentally, Trulia researchers also found that 27 percent of renters don't intend to buy a home ever, and the rest are not ready to enter the market for another two or more years.
The McMansion demise, the writer adds, has inspired some creative solutions. A Seattle film collaborative took a 10,000-square-foot McMansion both for living and work, a San Diego couple turned one into an autistic-adult home, and many in the real-estate sector think about redesigning such suburban tracts as mini-towns, with offices, banks, grocery stores and movie theaters. ''Though, given some of the poor quality of materials and craftsmanship,'' the writer points out, ''it begs the question, would it be better to just tear them all down and start from scratch?''
Details about the survey are available at http://info.trulia.com/index.php?s=43&item=96.
8/19/2010
Resource(s): www.cnbc.com/ ; www.news8austin.com/
Walk Score Launches Transit Score
When deciding where to live and work, not only do you want to know what amenities and services are nearby, you also want to understand your transportation options. How easily can you walk, bike or take the bus? How long will it take to get from point A to point B? And how much will it cost?
Today, Walk Score launched Transit Score, along with custom commute reports, and a home and transportation costs calculator, which together empower anyone to quickly understand the proximity of public transportation, their commuting options and associated costs. This work, funded in part by The Rockefeller Foundation, also enables third parties to easily add public transit information to their websites.
Consumers everywhere are looking to reduce the time and money spent driving. Consider these facts:
- Commuters waste 4.2 billion hours and 2.8 billion gallons of gas in traffic per year. (Source: Texas Transportation Institute)
- Households in traditional suburbs spend up to 32% of their income on transportation costs, while households in walkable areas with greater access to public transportation spend as little as 12%. (Source: Center for Neighborhood Technology)
- Neighborhood walkability and access to public transportation has been linked to lower foreclosure rates. (Source: NRDC)
''The costs of driving to and from work and daily activities are only growing, and the time spent in traffic is lost forever,'' said Josh Herst, Walk Score CEO. ''Walk Score's new Transit Score and commute reports make it easy for consumers to quickly understand how much the location of their home and workplace impacts their daily lives.''
What's your Transit Score?
Transit Score provides a 0-100 rating indicating how well an address is served by public transportation. Ratings range from ''Rider's Paradises'' where multiple transit options are available within a quarter of a mile to areas with limited or no nearby public transportation.
The Transit Score rating is currently available in over 30 cities, including Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C. For a list of cities where Transit Score is available, see the link below.
''The Rockefeller Foundation's transportation initiative is committed to helping Americans re-think our transportation future as a way to expand economic opportunity, and we are excited about the potential impact Transit Score will have in helping Americans make more informed decisions about where they will live and work,'' said Benjamin de la Pena, Associate Director at The Rockefeller Foundation. ''Transportation costs are often the second highest expense for working Americans and Transit Score will give families more control over their household budgets by providing them with information about their transit choices.''
What will your commute be like?
Walk Score now enables customers to type in an address and get a summary of commuting options, including the time it would take to get to your work, school or other location by car, bike and foot and lists nearby public transit stops and routes. The customized commute report also includes a visual representation of the hills between your home and work to better understand how bikable or walkable the route may be.
Walking, biking and driving directions are provided by Google Maps. Public transit information is available from over 100 public transit agencies that provide open access to their transit feeds. For a complete list see http://www.citygoround.org.
Can you really afford this home?
For most families, transportation is the second largest household expense. Walk Score's new home and transportation costs calculator makes it easier for people to understand the true costs of owning or renting in a particular location. Based on a few simple pieces of information, the calculator generates an estimated monthly amount that includes housing and transportation costs.
''Transportation is often a hidden cost in deciding where to live. By integrating the Center for Neighborhood Technology's Housing + Transportation (H+T(SM)) Affordability Index with Walk Score, we are now making it easier for customers to understand whether a house is truly affordable,'' says Scott Bernstein, president and founder of CNT.
8/16/2010
Resource(s): www.prnewswire.com/
DOT Awards $13 Million for Community Transportation Projects
Thirteen states received $3.5 million in additional federal aid this week to help pay for 16 projects that will make driving, walking and biking easier in the communities receiving the grants, U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood recently announced.
The projects range from the construction of bike and pedestrian paths in Dekalb, Ill., Lakeland, Tenn., and Bonanza, Ore., to the installation of push-button pedestrian countdown features at crosswalks in Pinellas Park, Fla., and a bicycle route system throughout West Virginia.
''These projects will make a big difference to the people who live in these communities,'' said Secretary LaHood. ''Putting in a bike path, making a crosswalk safer or improving the flow of traffic improves safety and gives people options for getting where they need to go.''
Through the ''Transportation, Community, and System Preservation'' (TCSP) Program, local, state and Tribal governments may apply for federal assistance to support methods of increasing transportation efficiency, roadway improvements and research.
Since the program's creation in 1998, nearly $850 million in TCSP grants have been given to improve livability, reduce environmental impacts of transportation and improve the cost-effectiveness of infrastructure investment.
The TCSP Program is managed by the Federal Highway Administration, in conjunction with the Federal Transit Administration, the Federal Rail Administration, and the Research and Innovative Technology Administration within the U.S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
More about the grant recipients and their projects is available at the link below.
8/16/2010
Resource(s): www.dot.gov/
Strong Community Involvement Vital for Las Cruces Sustainable Future
Chosen by EPA for its Smart Growth Implementation Assistance (SGIA) in April 2009, Las Cruces is gathering public input on redevelopment of its economically depressed El Paseo Road corridor. The process of visioning and following community preferences for the 1.7-mile corridor, running from downtown Las Cruces through mostly low-income neighborhoods to the New Mexico State University (NMSU) campus, will be a model for the city's other locally focused and eventually wider master planning, and for its involvement in implementation of a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) comprehensive regional plan currently in the works.
Once a rural road, lined by an irrigation ditch and sometimes flooded by an arroyo, reports Las Cruces Sun-News writer Steve Ramirez, two-lane El Paseo has evolved since the late 1970s into ''a major thoroughfare, with shopping centers, large stores and restaurants,'' becoming ''an ever more important link between the city and NMSU.''
Now city officials want local advice on what to preserve, whether to aim for pedestrian traffic, especially near Las Cruces High School, and whether a trolley or any other public transit could help the corridor's traffic flow. ''Those are just some of the questions we're looking for answers for from the public,'' said MPO Associate Planner Caeri Thomas, with MPO Safe Routes to School Program Coordinator Naoma Staley adding, ''We’ve been talking about general mobility and safety along the corridor, in addition to a lot of other issues people have wanted to discuss.''
Officials have held a number of public input meetings, and several more are upcoming.
8/12/2010
Resource(s): www.lcsun-news.com/
Chain Superstore to Boost Depressed Las Cruces Corridor Economy
The Las Cruces City Council unanimously approved a project to convert the old Community Action Agency building into a Pro's Ranch Market store. According to report in the Sun-News, the store will revitalize ''a moribund commercial center,'' fitting perfectly into the El Paseo corridor vision being created ''through the federal government's 2010 Smart Growth Implementation Assistance program.''
Part of the Hispanic 12-superstore chain, the 9,975-square-foot Pro's Ranch Market in Las Cruces will open early next year, offering ''fresh, authentic food'' for all. The store is expected to create 250 jobs, ''a terrific boost at a time when our local economy continues to struggle through what has become a sluggish recovery from the recent recession,'' the Sun-News editorial points out.
Pro's Ranch founder and owner Mike Provenzano Sr. is promising to a hiring priority to nearby residents. Introducing himself to small-business owners with whom he will share the El Paseo Plaza, he expressed readiness to build up both the plaza and its neighborhood. His store, the editorial notes, will offer spaces inside and on the long porch outside for small, local vendors on weekends.
8/25/2010
Resource(s): www.lcsun-news.com/
Opinion: New York State Needs Complete Streets Policy to Improve Traffic Safety
''The road to older age should be a safe one,'' writes ARRP New York Executive Council Member Robert O’Connell in an Albany Times Union guest column, urging the state General Assembly to pass a Complete Streets bill at a session likely this fall. The Senate passed the companion bill on a bipartisan 57-4 vote in June.
Noting that an imminent surge of baby-boom retirees will raise the number of state residents over 65 to nearly 20 percent by 2025, and that the state currently ranks third nationwide for pedestrian fatalities in that age group, O'Connell points out that the Assembly bill is backed by more than 40 advocacy organizations – for the environment, sustainable transportation, public health, smart growth and other community interests – with no counter-campaign.
The bill would require transportation planners to keep in mind non-car mobility needs and plan for road crosswalks, timed crossing signals, traffic lane marks, curb cuts, sidewalks and related amenities. Should the state or a community contest the compliance costs in some cases as disproportionate to current or future needs, it could get an exemption.
''Complete Streets do not only benefit older adults. They also benefit transit users, pedestrians of all ages – including youth traveling to school and mothers pushing strollers – bicyclists and people with disabilities,'' O’Connell observes. He cites research findings that about a third of Americans don't drive, some 52 percent want to expand their biking, and 55 percent would rather drive less and walk more.
''Safe and accessible roadways and sidewalks are not only a critical link in our transportation system, they also are vitally important to helping New Yorkers access essential community services, stay active and give back to their communities. Most importantly, they save lives,'' he stresses. ''The livability of our communities depends on having safe travel choices. The Assembly should stand up for improved street design and safer travel choices for everyone.''
8/18/2010
Resource(s): www.timesunion.com/
New York City Plans Major Street Improvements Next Year to Reduce Pedestrian Fatalities
New York City is planning to redesign more than 60 miles of streets for pedestrian safety next year. ''It's unprecedented re-engineering of our streets,'' said Transportation Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan, to make them ''safer and better to walk around on.''
Although New York's traffic fatality rate has been the lowest among big cities nationwide, reports Wall Street Journal writer Andrew Grossman, officials pledged in 2008 to reduce fatalities by 3 percent annually until 2030. Last year saw the fewest fatalities ever. The city already has reassigned car lanes for buses and bicycles on four avenues in Manhattan and a road in the Bronx, installed many crosswalk islands to slow down traffic and give pedestrians more time to reach the other side, permanently banned cars on Broadway and other streets around Times Square, and temporarily reserved some others for pedestrians and cyclists.
Commissioner Sadik-Khan's new action envisions installation of countdown pedestrian signals at 1,500 intersections, overhaul of 20 intersections on key two-way streets, and several safety programs, including a 20 mph neighborhood zone test. Though some criticize Sadik-Khan, she plans pedestrian safety improvements according to situations in all five boroughs, including Queens. Queens Boulevard, nicknamed the ''boulevard of death'' for its 88 pedestrian fatalities between 1993 and 2006, will finally become safer. ''I think 10 times before crossing the boulevard, every time I get groceries,'' said retired nurse Maritza Rodriguez. This is like a little highway in a neighborhood. We've been begging the local politicians to tackle the problem for a long time.''
See the study and related links at www.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/about/pedsafetyreport.shtml .
8/17/2010
Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/
Amarillo Counting on Smart Growth to Rein in Costs of Sprawl
Already overburdened by infrastructure and maintenance costs, Amarillo needs a development pattern change before its 2009 population of 190,000 reaches some 250,000 by 2030, reports Amarillo Globe-News writer Karen Smith Welch from a Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee workshop with city and planning and zoning commissioners.
''It's time we try to look outside of what's comfortable and what we're familiar with, and think outside the box,'' stressed Steering Committee Vice Chair Lilia Escajeda. ''The citizens, in nearly every sector, said they did not want more sprawl. They want revitalization.''
Drafted over the past 14 months, the committee's plan advocates for the capital investments, ordinances and development policies necessary for smart growth, including a focus on neighborhoods, parks, transportation, housing, utilities, and land use in the city's extraterritorial jurisdiction (ETJ), a five-mile wide band around its limits. Since insufficient city control over land use and development in that area may result in such mismatches as junkyards near homes, the plan envisions a more proactive annexation stance. Amarillo should annex the most vulnerable nearby tracts sooner rather than later, noted Steering Committee member Bob Juda, ''to minimize future mistakes and problems getting absorbed into the city.''
Correspondingly, Vice Chair Escajeda, member Bill Chudej and others urged cleanup and improvements for depressed neighborhoods, city gateways, streets, and gathering places, hoping for developer incentives to spur infill, attract business and create jobs. And Kendig Keast Collaborative planning consultant Gary Mitchell recommended adoption of ''a street-drainage utility fee'' – a service charge popular elsewhere in the state – to help offset immediate maintenance costs. ''It seems like the city's going to go deeper and deeper,'' he cautioned, ''trying to keep up with infrastructure and maintain a low tax rate without having this kind of financing tool.''
Joining Mayor Debra McCartt in commending the 20-member Steering Committee for its work on the plan, City Commissioner Brian Eades asked for help in public outreach to detail city priorities and related benefits. ''For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction,'' he remarked, saying should that happen with some plan items, the city would expect a group of dedicated civic leaders to secure the planning goals.
8/5/2010
Resource(s): www.amarillo.com/
El Paso Adopts Housing + Transportation Affordability Index
Systematic in translating its sustainability commitments into practical measures, the El Paso City Council has adopted the innovative Housing + Transportation (H+T) Affordability Index to evaluate the financial feasibility of low-income housing locations. A few days later, the Council re-zoned land for apartments in a planned ''smart growth'' community.
The H+T Affordability Index, created by the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT), will help officials decide on low-cost loans for first-time home buyers, low-cost unit developers, and other affordability advocates. In its February 2009 report on El Paso, CNT found its metropolitan statistical area (MSA) – with an average median income of $34,065 and an average household of 3.18 people – ''broadly affordable when measured using a widely accepted standard of affordability of 30 percent or less of household income.''
In contrast, it found residents ''largely overburdened by transportation costs,'' which ranged from $600 to almost $1,000 a month and alone accounted for 28 and 33 percent of household incomes in many parts of the area. Noting that CNT considers a neighborhood affordable if the average family spends no more than 45 percent of its income on housing and transportation, El Paso Deputy Director of Planning Matthew McElroy pointed out that in the city's far East Side, ''it's not unusual to see 71 percent'' in such combined household costs.
''I think it has huge implications for the way we do planning,'' observed City Representative Susie Byrd, who introduced the affordability evaluation ordinance, saying the H+T index will help the city make sure that individuals can repay low-income housing loans and that developer or other projects are truly low-cost. The deputy planning director added that residents trying to decide whether to buy or rent would also find the H+T index useful.
As to rezoning of 10 acres near Mesa Street, some 4 miles north from the city core, he said the proposed apartment complex – with retail stores – and the eventual 220-acre Montecillo community are ''light-years ahead of what we have had,'' exemplifying smart growth. Dense, mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly and located in the recently approved bus rapid transit corridor, they feature narrow streets, wide sidewalks, hidden alley parking spaces, and various other amenities that standard subdivisions lack.
''This is going to introduce a different model to not only Mesa but all of the city,'' stressed Representative Byrd. ''This can prove that you can grow and develop in a way that is smart and beneficial to our city.''
8/2/2010
Resource(s): www.elpasotimes.com/
El Paso Revives 1920s Urban Plan
In the 1920s, El Paso was a city of 100,000 with a dynamic downtown business district. At that time, urban planner George Kessler (1862-1923) expected the city to become an economic and quality-of-life model under a boulevard-based master plan he drew up just before his premature death. El Paso officials are now re-launching that effort through smart growth. The current population stands at some 620,000.
''In proportion to population and financial resources, no other city in the country has invested so much money as El Paso has in the last 15 years in reclaiming raw land for municipal use and occupancy,'' Kessler wrote almost 90 years ago, observes El Paso Times writer Gustavo Reveles Acosta.
Current officials wish their predecessors had foreseen the ramifications of the post-World-War-II push into the urban outskirts. ''What we got because of that is the type of city that we are today,'' said City Representative Steve Ortega, who has studied the Kessler plan as a guide for the current growth policy. ''We are a city with so much potential, but because of the mistakes made 30, 40, 50 years ago, we are forced to try and backtrack in order to fix our planning problems.'' Until the 1950s, ''El Paso was the leading city in the Southwest,'' he continued. ''We had the highest per capita income, the tallest concrete buildings and the best mass transit system. After the business and political communities in El Paso caved in to sprawl, we became a low-wage city. It is going to take us a while to come off from that.''
Oretga is encouraged that more and more developers see both their own opportunity and shared public benefits in the city-core redevelopment, which is bound to attract young professionals and help spur the economy. ''Their actions are having a trickle-down effect on other business people who want to do the same,'' he said.
Retired El Paso planner Nestor Valencia and present Deputy Director for Planning Mathew McElroy concur with Ortega’s diagnosis and share his trust in a better future. ''Kessler gave us the blueprint. He really helped shape this city for so long,'' said Valencia. ''Unfortunately, after World War II things changed completely, and growth in El Paso went in a different direction. For better or worse, El Paso sprawled and that killed Downtown, the trolley system and the density of the city.''
Deputy Director McElroy, also coordinating the 20-year regional master plan, added, ''George Kessler had the insight, even back then, of what would work 10 years in the future, 20 years in the future and even 100 years in the future. The plans that he developed in the 1920s are still so relevant today. They are still the basis of where we want to go as a city.'' Expecting the new city plan, now in the works, to focus on redevelopment, density, transit and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods, he stressed, ''A city that creates density and walkability is a city that creates economic development and healthy life styles.''
8/28/2010
Resource(s): www.elpasotimes.com/
Utah Transit Authority to Launch Public-Private Transit-Oriented Development Projects
Last March, the Utah Legislature authorized the Utah Transit Authority (UTA) to partner with developers for mixed-use projects on its surplus land at five TRAX light-rail stations. Now, UTA has announced two such ventures, to augment its revenue and help more people shift from cars to trains. Both ventures are expected to ensure lenders' repayment priority, a 5-percent return on UTA land value, and an even partnership split of additional profits, reports Salt Lake Tribune writer Brandon Loomis. Upon project completion, each partnership would co-own the land and pay local property taxes.
''We are not going below market to incentivize ridership,'' said UTA Board Chairman Greg Hughes, a Republican state lawmaker wary of subsidies. ''We are finding smart partnerships.''
One proposed UTA project, in partnership with California-based Boulder Ventures, would use 36 acres of the agency's land around a West Jordan station for the Mid-Jordan TRAX line now under construction. Valued at $6.5 million, the land would be re-zoned for 1,400 apartments, senior housing units and a later-phase's condos, plus retail stores, offices and an 849-car parking garage. The developer would put up $1.6 million and seek financing for the project, which could eventually total $200 million. Work would start this fall and intensify next spring.
In the other project, the UTA would partner with state-based Ascent Construction, offering its $2.4-million, 4.1-acre property at the TRAX station in South Salt Lake for 88 apartments, some stores, and a Salt Lake Community College office and classroom building. To help the UTA convert the site's parking lot and bus loop into a garage for the mixed-use project, the U.S. DOT awarded it a $400,000 livability grant last month. UTA officials want to launch construction of the $20-million project next spring, with the community college expected to move into the new building for the fall 2011 semester.
8/1/2010
Resource(s): www.sltrib.com/
Jordan School District Cuts Busing to Reduce Costs
The Jordan School District is eliminating busing along 75 percent of walking routes throughout its six municipalities just south of Salt Lake City. Part of a larger effort to reduce costs, the move will save some $900,000 each year. The district includes nearly 50,000 students.
According to the Salt Lake Tribune, thousands of students are left with no busing, causing worry among cities and parents over their children's safety, especially on major thoroughfares lacking enough sidewalks, crosswalks or traffic lights.
Its elementary school removed from the busing list, Riverton began to improve walking routes by marking them with giant white-paint footprints to guide children. Other cities are already spending thousands of dollars to add sidewalks, hire more crossing guards and install flashing signals. To help ensure safety, more parents are walking with their children, and police are strictly enforcing the 20-mph speed limit.
The Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) also is responding. UDOT will cover the district’s cost of resumed busing at cancelled routes near an I-15 ramp construction site until the work is completed and may extend such a temporary remedy to affected cities. As the district plans to eliminate the remaining routes next year, Riverton wants it to help lobby the 2011 legislative session for larger busing outlays.
Currently, elementary school children are eligible for state-funded busing if they live more than 1.5 miles from school, and secondary school students qualify if they live 2 miles away. The sponsor of a new busing bill, Republican Representative Carl Wimmer thinks the state can fund more busing for elementary school children without additional spending by reducing the qualifying distance to a mile or less, while increasing the 2-mile minimum distance for secondary school students. Most of them are already driving or catching rides and leaving the buses empty, he argues, also mentioning their greater ability to walk farther and handle risks better than younger children.
8/25/2010
Resource(s): www.sltrib.com/; http://jordandistrict.org/
Virginia Beach Businesses Lead Another Campaign for Light Rail
Light Rail Now recently held its first meeting, where it rallied support for a long-envisioned 10-mile Virginia Beach light-rail line that would link with Norfolk's 7.4-mile Tide line opening next May. Formed by the business community in 1993, the non-partisan Virginia Beach Vision organization lost a light-rail referendum in 1999, and the loss has now inspired its inclusive Light Rail Now nonprofit to run the campaign.
''What we missed was [that] the information didn’t get to the general public,'' said Virginia Beach Vision Executive Director Martha McClees. ''What we decided we needed to do differently was to focus on the citizens. We've reached out to as many groups as we could.'' Indeed, reports Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reporter Aaron Applegate, the Light Rail Now Board of Directors includes environmentalists, neighborhood leaders, housing and church representatives, seniors' interest spokesmen, and biking and walking advocates.
''The reality is most of these groups involved don't have the financial resources to put it together,'' noted board member Steve Davis. ''Where it goes from here is going to depend on the people involved and the direction they decide to take it. The business community has done the initial job to get this thing off the ground.''
So far, the writer observes, Light Rail Now has received almost $89,000 of the $109,860 pledged for its effort to raise $145,000. How much more it may seek will depend on politics, including a potential light-rail referendum, probably in November 2011. ''If there's a referendum,'' said Davis, ''it's like there's a political candidate we're trying to get elected and the candidate is light rail.''
8/6/2010
Resource(s): http://hamptonroads.com/
Group Proposes Sustainable Community for Port Angeles, Washington
A group is proposing a sustainable community for the old Rayonier pulp mill site at Port Angeles, reports the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Members of the Jamestown S'Klallam tribe and a group of designers and environmentalists are proposing a model sustainable development for the 75-acre site, which would provide commercial, residential, retail and cultural space. In the initial concept for the development, called Salish Village, ''all utilities - power, water, storm water and waste water - would be contained and generated onsite by using the sun, tides and wind as energy sources.''
8/15/2010
Resource(s): www.seattlepi.com/
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