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Eufaula Welcomes Expert Help for Land-Use Policy Revisions
Hemmed in by the Chattahoochee River and Georgia on the west and bisected vertically across the middle by truck-heavy U.S. Highway 431, Eufaula is now revising its 20-year-old land-use policy as required under the Eufaula 2020 Plan, and Mayor Jay Jaxon and city planner Tim Milner consider it ''very fortunate'' to have expert help from the Audubon Partnership for Sustainability in the process, especially since the toughest issues include development along the proposed seven-mile alternate route through the city's western outskirts.
''Make this road a prototype,'' said Audubon Partnership Director David Risinger at a session with city officials, with his team member Mickey Hall cautioning, ''If you don't ask for something different, ALDOT (the Alabama Department of Transportation) will give you a high-speed, four-lane, median-divided (route) ... an Interstate highway is basically what you'll get.''
They advised officials, reports Eufaula Tribune writer Patrick Johnson, to ask for a road with narrow right-of-way, trees on both sides and in the median, walking and biking lanes at a safe distance alongside, lighting for motorists and pedestrians, and a speed limit of 50 to 55 rather than 65 mph.
To make the route more aesthetic, cost-effective and safer, officials should use roundabouts for its intersections, which would eliminate traffic signals and frequent stops, ensuring better traffic flow.
''Truckers hate doing two things. They hate stopping, and they hate starting,'' observed director Risinger, also noting the need to limit development on the western Eufaula slope, because of soil and water conditions and the related risk of overburdening it with septic tanks.
''If you put 29,000 septic tanks in western Eufaula, that's a problem. And it's currently allowed,'' he pointed out. ''It's not sustainable. It's not consistent with your vision.''
Instead, most growth should go where infrastructure exists, he said, mentioning the downtown area, the South Eufaula Avenue business districts, and especially northern Eufaula, because of projected growth at Fort Benning, Georgia, some 30 miles north.
Presenting a map that divides the city into 11 sectors based on their development potential, all having ''different personalities,'' director Risinger promised to return in a few months, with final recommendations for the city's new land-use and development policies.
In his Eufaula Tribune guest opinion before the Audubon Partnership team visit, city planner Tim Milner urged residents to continue their involvement in development planning, stressing, ''Your participation in this process is not only welcome and encouraged but crucial to the outcome.'' -- Eufaula Tribune
4/16/2008
Resource(s): www.eufaulatribune.com/
Expert Planner Outlines Growth Strategy for Phoenix Region
Expected to attract some 2 million people by 2060, Phoenix' southeast valley and northern Pinal County region can submit to sprawl and turn into a giant ''cul-de-sac,'' report Arizona Republic writers Lynh Bui and Kerry Fehr-Snyder, or it can launch multi-jurisdictional planning and became a model of smart growth, the latter's advantages clearly outlined for the broad-based East Valley Partnership by nationally known planner-consultant John Fregonese, whose report shows ways to ensure regional sustainability, strong employment, diverse housing, quality schools and recreation access.
''When you take a look at the catalysts in the East Valley, the potential is exciting but the work that needs to be done is staggering,'' said Partnership President and CEO Roc Arnett, most concerned about the danger of traffic gridlock if sprawl continues. ''It's up to the body politic. Do we leave things as the status quo or do we move ahead?''
To move ahead, the Fregonese report advises politicians and business leaders to join forces in planning sufficient infrastructure -- four new freeways, another college or university, two or three hospitals, and open space and recreational areas.
The planned growth would be concentrated on the 275 square miles (176,000 acres) of Superstition Vistas, a swath of state desert land between Queen Creek, Florence, Apache Junction and the Superstition Mountains, the writers observe, noting upon completion of the plans, the land would divided into political units and sold to developers.
''We want to understand how we do good planning so we reserve the right-of-way for roads and know where to put amenities and hook up trails so you don't have to go back over and destroy and rebuild,'' commented Pinal County Supervisor Sandie Smith. ''We're looking for something that's not more of the same.''
Ultimately, it will all depend on teamwork by private and public entities, said Arizona Public Service Co. division manager Evelyn Casuga after presentation and discussion of the Fregonese report at an East Valley Partnership luncheon, stressing, ''The political boundaries don't matter but cooperation does.'' -- Arizona Republic
5/2/2008
Resource(s): www.azcentral.com/
S.F. Bay-Area Carbon Dioxide Emissions Program Could Be in Place This Summer
Loath to stand idle until Congress and the state Legislature finally end their internal debates over regulatory and practical aspects of greenhouse gas emission control, the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area Air Quality Management District will likely adopt a 4.4-cent fee per ton of carbon dioxide next month for its 850 businesses, with 90 percent of the expected $1.1 million annually to be paid by refineries, power plants and cement factories and the rest from numerous smaller emitters, beginning July 1.
For example, reports New York Times San Francisco contributor Felicity Barringer, the Shell oil refinery in Martinez would be charged $195,355 if it spewed 4.4 metric tons of carbon dioxide as it did in 2005, while the industrial Safeway bakery that supplies Bay Area stores would pay $85 and the largest gas stations just $1 a year.
Western States Petroleum Association spokesman Dennis Bolt thought the Air Quality Management District would overstep its authority and called the fee idea ''not productive'' in the context of the California Air Resources Board's work on its own suite of emission cutting measures, saying, ''This just raises more uncertainty at a time of increasing uncertainties.''
District Chairman Jerry Hill, who intends to go ahead with the fee, pointed out that if the state air board includes overlapping fees in its regulatory package, ''we will integrate ours with theirs.''
Supporting the proposed regional fee, Bay Area Clean Air Task Force representative Linda Weiner said, ''We believe it sets a precedent as the first time that businesses and government agencies would face financial consequences for contributing to global warming.'' -- New York Times
4/17/2008
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
Tejon Ranch Co., Environment Groups Reach Deal on Tehachapi Mountains Development
Reached after two years of tough negotiations, a deal between Lebec-based Tejon Ranch Co. and five environmental groups -- the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Audubon California, the Planning and Conservation League, and the Endangered Habitat League -- ensures preservation of 240,000 acres of the 270,000-acre farm in the Tehachapi Mountains and allows concentrated smart-growth development on 30,000 acres at the farm's western edge along I-5, some 60 miles north of Los Angeles, with Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger pledging state help in implementation of ''this far-sighted'' plan.
''The success of environmental organizations and Tejon Ranch Co. in reaching this historic agreement to protect a California treasure,'' he said, ''illustrates something that I have stressed since taking office -- we can protect California's environment at the same time we pump up our economy.''
Specifically, report national media, the deal establishes an independent nonprofit Tejon Ranch Conservancy to control permanent easements for about 178,000 acres, restore and enhance the land, manage public access, create a 49,000-acre park, oversee 10,000 acres set aside for relocation of a 37-mile segment of the Pacific Coast Trail from the Antelope Valley through the ranch, and buy another 62,000 acres in the next three years, likely with the aid of state-sponsored bonds.
The company will fund the conservancy with $800,000 a year for the first seven years and for another seven if the 62,000-acre purchase is completed, continuing the funding with at least $8 million in transfer fees from its sale of residential properties in the developed sections of the 165-year-old ranch.
In return, the environmental groups promised to abstain from legal challenges against the company's development projects.
They include a mixed-use Centennial development in northern Los Angeles County, with 23,000 single-family homes, townhouses, condos and apartments, and 15 million square feet of retail, office and business space; an upscale resort-type Tejon Mountain Village in southern Kern County, featuring 3,450 estate homes, condos, and hotel rooms, plus spas, golf courses, and commercial space on 5,000 acres, with 23,000 acres of open space; and the nearby Tejon Industrial Complex, already partly built.
The deal was finalized after the company agreed to withdraw from four of five north-facing ridgelines, including one over scenic Bear Trap Canyon essential for the federally protected California condor.
''This was an extremely complicated deal, but also a once-in-a-lifetime conservation opportunity,'' observed NRDC's Southern California Program Director Joel Reynolds, with Center for Biological Diversity spokeswoman Ilene Anderson still expressing concern over the region's 38 California condors, but backing it as ''precedent-setting that critical habitat for a species just brought back from the brink of extinction would be written off for development.''
Audubon California Conservation Director Graham Chisholm, the prospective chairman of the Tejon Ranch Conservancy, expected at least 50 years of litigation over the ranch's development, saying, ''This could have been the fight of a lifetime.''
And Sierra Club regional representative Bill Corcoran called the importance of Tejon Ranch preservation ''the equivalent of the Louisiana Purchase,'' stressing, ''It is the only place in the region where within a few minutes a visitor can ascend from Joshua tree woodlands to oak-filled canyons on up to vast plains with views across the coastal range.'' -- Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Daily News, State of California
5/8/2008
Resource(s): www.latimes.com/ ; www.dailynews.com/
Conference Examines How Rising Sea Levels Could Alter Bay Area Development Patterns
No longer a distant calamity but an emergent multipronged threat likely to make San Francisco Bay waters go up about a meter (3.28 feet) by 2100, climate change may necessitate abandonment of certain coastal areas and targeted construction in others as buffers for nearby communities, reports San Francisco Chronicle urban design writer John King from the region's ''Preparing for Rising Sea Levels in the Bay Area'' conference in Oakland, quoting Bay Conservation and Development (BCDC) Commission Executive Director Will Travis.
''Global warming isn't just a problem for penguins in Antarctica and polar bears in Alaska,'' he said. ''We need to take a hard look at how our region is growing.'' Pointing out that there are ''places where it may be better to remove developments and restore wetlands'' as best for flood control,'' he called for ''a more nuanced approach,'' because there is ''a lot of low-lying development we need to protect'' with ''a new type of more resilient development.''
According to a 1990 study by the Pacific Institute, the writer observes, construction of new seawalls, levees and higher-elevation roads and rail tracks to prepare for a meter higher sea level would cost the Bay Area $940 million plus $100 million in annual maintenance.
Now the costs would be much higher and the study is being updated, noted Institute President Peter Gleick, saying, ''We're in trouble before we get to a meter.''
Although it highlighted low coastal areas as the first to face climate change risks, the conference once again emphasized the urgent need for overall land use changes to spur compact mixed-use development, rein in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and thus cut tailpipe emissions that contribute to global warming.
Cities near the bay have usually barred higher densities with their growth limits, making much of the development go inland, where higher per capita energy consumption during hot summers requires more from power plants and also heightens greenhouse gas emissions, the writer reports, but recently these older communities have become more receptive to infill.
Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) official Ken Kirkey told the conferees that 50 jurisdictions seeking grants for planning higher-density development near bus and rail lines have space for 395,000 housing units -- half of what the region needs by 2035.
''This is a region that thinks of itself as a leader,'' he said. ''If we want to be a leader in responding to climate change, we can't just buy Priuses. We need to talk about where and how we live.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle
4/18/2008
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/
Editorial: Fixation on C-470 Beltway Completion ''Unwise''
Although traffic studies and a federal Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on transportation options in the metro Denver northwest found no reason to extend the C-470 beltway through its roughly 15-mile gap near Rocky Flats in Jefferson County -- with voters also rejecting that possibility ''by an enormous margin'' -- proponents of the once-shelved idea again include many area officials, who think it would ''jump-start economic development,'' write astonished Boulder County Commissioner Will Toor and Louisville City Council Member Bob Muckle in a Denver Post guest column, telling those of their elected friends and colleagues that ''they are mistaken on the issue.''
While former Republican Governor Bill Owens had called the EIS ''the catalyst'' for completing the beltway, they remind readers, ''reality intruded as the traffic modelers concluded, once again, that most of the travel demand is further east,'' especially ''from the northwest to the southeast -- 180 degrees off from the direction of the beltway.''
As the projected cost exceeded $1 billion, state officials gave up on the project, but now its backers hope that private investors may fund such a toll road.
Noting that ''foreign investment firms are usually willing to accept very low rates of return, so there is some chance that they could bankroll a tollway,'' Commissioner Toor and Council Member Muckle doubt the deal would be good for Colorado.
''Would it address projected transportation need or just prompt congestion, causing growth in inappropriate locations?'' they ask, agreeing that the Jefferson County Airport area may be suitable for significant business expansion, but pointing out that south of Rocky Flats, Candelas developers propose up to 185-foot-high buildings at the edge of the wildlife refuge, ''with the development extending all the way west of highway 93,'' permanently blocking the view of the mountains and generating huge traffic.
They also ask whether the beltway-extension proponents would undertake environmental-impact mitigation efforts and why the push for development in areas with no public transit while the state strives to do its part to address global warming.
''The fixation with completing the beltway does not adequately address the implications or alternatives,'' they conclude. ''We need thoughtful regional planning, investing in transportation options that give residents real options, supports smart growth and wise land-use planning, and helps to provide mobility while reducing our use of gas and emissions of pollution and greenhouse gases.'' -- Denver Post
4/6/2008
Resource(s): www.denverpost.com/
Budget Shortfall Forces Colorado DOT to Suspend Road Project
With its service demand, workload and costs up, but revenue flat and further weakened by a $129 million cut in federal money for the next fiscal year beginning July 1, the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) is shifting its priorities from road construction to system maintenance, reports Grand Junction Daily Sentinel writer Le Roy Standish, quoting CDOT regional director Weldon Allen, who is preparing drivers for ''higher congestion'' and ''longer waits in traffic lines.''
The writer illustrates the increasingly stronger pressures on CDOT with some data. Total vehicle miles traveled (VMT) on Colorado roads has jumped by 60 percent since 1990 to 28.5 billion in 2006, and the number of lane miles under CDOT maintenance has risen from 161,000 to almost 193,000, while the number of registered vehicles increased from 3.3 million in 1992 to nearly 4.9 million last year.
In contrast, the state fuel tax of 22 cents per gallon of gas and of 20.5 cent per gallon of diesel -- the main source of CDOT funds -- has remained unchanged since 1992.
To make matters worse, construction material prices escalated between 2002 and 2006 -- from $37.99 to $59.61 for a ton of asphalt, from $24.81 to $33.79 for a square yard of pavement concrete, and from 78 cents to $2.62 for a pound of structural steel.
The looming federal aid reduction makes it likely that for the first time the CDOT's share from the state Highway Users Transportation Fund could actually decline, noted Colorado Transportation Commission Chairman Doug Aden, hoping to find alternative funding sources.
With Democratic Governor Bill Ritter's blue ribbon transportation study panel drawing criticism for its 2007 recommendations to increase fuel, vehicle, sales and user taxes, Chairman Aden said, ''The real question is: Is the public willing to pay more money to have decent transportation infrastructure?'' -- Daily Sentinel
4/10/2008
Resource(s): www.gjsentinel.com/
Bill Would Require Bike, Pedestrian Paths Along New Connecticut State Highways
''We have to start incorporating bikes into our transportation routes. When we talk about smart growth, people will use bike lanes if they think they're safe,'' said the General Assembly Transportation Committee's Senate Vice Chairman Bob Duff after the committee endorsed a bill -- sponsored by his party colleague, Democratic Representative Thomas J. Kehoe -- that requires the Department of Transportation (DOT) to build bike and pedestrian paths along new state highways, sets a three-foot minimum ''safe distance'' buffer between vehicles and cyclists, and proposes $200,000 for a related ''Share the Road'' public-awareness and education campaign.
''With higher gas prices, now's the time to think about alternative modes of transportation,'' the senator told Connecticut Post writer Ken Dixon, with the committee's House Vice Chairman Antonio Guerrera adding about dedicated bike lanes, ''The DOT is starting to use them in more and more projects, but if we require them, in the long run, it'll be better for the state.''
DOT spokesman Judd Everhart agreed.
''The department makes every effort to support and promote bicycle and pedestrian access in the design of its projects,'' he noted. ''Promoting alternate modes of transportation is an important part of our effort to reduce the number of cars on the road -- especially single-occupant cars. Promoting the safety of bicyclists goes hand-in-hand with this effort.''
The safety issues and the need to change attitudes both among drivers and cyclists are on everyone's mind, the writer observes, quoting bike shop owner John Paige of Shelton.
''I've seen turning cars hit bicycles, I've seen their mirrors whack bike handlebars, I've seen bikes hit from behind,'' he said. ''I've also seen a lot of cyclists not use reflective gear and others wearing dark clothing.''
He likes the bill, but suspects that the three-foot safety buffer for cyclists may create risks on narrow roads if cars move left over the center line.
''You're creating a law that requires drivers to go over the double yellow,'' he cautioned. ''I could see where that could cause liability problems.'' -- Connecticut Post
4/5/2008
Resource(s): www.connpost.com/
Editorial: Connecticut Needs ''Aggressive'' Smart Growth Program to Meet CO2 Reduction Goals
On its February roll of the nation's 50 greenest cities, ranked for their energy use, transportation options, green building and spaces, and recycling and environmental awareness, Popular Science magazine gave three top spots to Portland, San Francisco and Boston, while no Connecticut city has made the list, with Hartford Courant editor Tom Condon pointing out that to meet scientists' goals of cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 60 to 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, the state and cities need an ''aggressive smart growth strategy,'' which would also reduce driving.
Citing the Urban Land Institute's (ULI) Growing Cooler book, which shows that ''a shift to more compact development should lead to a 30 percent reduction in driving,'' the editor writes that the state's nascent smart growth program ''has yet to result in any actual smart growth.''
He mentions three General Assembly bills that would make the program stronger and more comprehensive.
A broad climate change bill would require the state to help towns draw up ''smart growth land-use regulations,'' which would facilitate dense mixed-use development now frequently prohibited by outdated local zoning.
Another bill would offer tax credits for green buildings, but its recently removed provision to limit the credits to construction within a half-mile of transit stations should be reinstated, since transit ''is a big part of green.''
And the so-called Face of Connecticut bill would provide additional money for acquisition of critical open space.
''There are many more steps to take, from carbon impact fees for new development to more bike paths. We will need congestion pricing on increasingly crowded highways,'' the editor observes, counting on Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Joan McDonald to continue the great work she previously did in New York City.
Instrumental in drafting Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC, whose 127 green measures include congestion pricing as a way to reduce carbon emissions 30 percent below 2005 levels, Commissioner McDonald is already working on Connecticut's overall economic development strategy, including transportation, infrastructure and brownfields, the editor notes, concluding, ''Lets hope it will become PlanCT.'' -- Popular Science, Hartford Courant
4/27/2008
Resource(s): www.courant.com/ ; www.popsci.com/
Delaware Gubernatorial Candidates Offer Views on State Transportation Needs
Asked by the Wilmington News Journal to outline briefly their thoughts on the state's transportation needs and solutions, Democratic gubernatorial candidates John Carney Jr. and Jack Markell included efforts to restore federal funds for transportation infrastructure among their top priorities, with the former cautioning against the likelihood of more sprawl ''if state and county governments don't work together to coordinate land use and transportation policies that promote 'smart growth','' while Republican candidate Mike Protack promised to ''aggressively support public/private partnerships for leasing and building of new and existing roads and other projects,'' but all three expressed similar commitment to better and expanded transit.
Democrat Carney stressed: ''People who argue that you can build your way out of congestion are misguided. Building transportation capacity often leads to more development. This can be a good thing, but it often leads to more congestion. I support better coordination between the state and counties to make transportation investments where we need to fix bottlenecks and where we want to encourage new development, as well as efforts to create more livable communities that create alternatives to jumping in the car all the time. Better bus service, including Sundays, and expanding commuter rail are also smart investments.''
Democrat Markell explained: ''The choices we make in the next decade will determine what Delaware looks like in the next century. Delaware's growing senior-citizen population is increasing our mass-transit needs. We must ensure that DARC [Delaware Authority for Regional Transit] bus service meets riders' needs, including on weekends. Additionally, rails is one of the best ways to get Delawareans moving. Delaware should explore options such as speeding the connection of the SEPTA (Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority) and MARC (Maryland Rail Commuter Service) systems to allow more people to travel by rail and bring workers and businesses into Delaware.''
Republican Protack said: ''As governor, I realize the purpose of a transit system is to maximize mobility. To do so, we must invite private enterprise from the light-rail industry to offer solutions for well-traveled corridors in and out of Wilmington and the beach area. My goal is to have a light-rail system in the next 10 years. We will pursue 'Delaware only' transit solutions and also within the regional context to support opportunities like the anticipated Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) job growth in Aberdeen, Maryland.'' -- News Journal
4/13/2008
Resource(s): www.delawareonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Zoning Commissioners Vote to Scale Back Size of Lewes Development
Alarmed by the impact of rapid development on the quality of life in the coastal Cape Henlopen State Park area, the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission voted to reject a proposed 521,000-square-foot shopping center and to reduce the residential Senators and Governors projects from 242 to 229 and from 472 to 258 units, respectively, all three planned by L.T. Associates on a total of 370 acres just south of Lewes.
In addition, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Ron MacArthur, the commission recommended 30-foot green buffers around both housing projects and 50-foot inside buffers around their wetlands, while advising the County Council against inclusion of 57 acres of Governors' wetlands in the project's density computation and finding it ineligible for benefits from the county's density-bonus ordinance.
The developers, the writer notes, wanted a density bonus of 99 units for the Governors project, offering the county $20,000 per unit -- or $1.98 million -- for acquisition of open space.
Speaking for the commission, Commissioner Michael Johnson of Lewes pointed out that without the extra density, future Governors residents will have more space left for recreation.
''While the bonus-density trade ordinance is a good program, this particular location is not suitable given the cumulative effect of the development occurring in the immediate vicinity.''
As to the recommendation against rezoning for the shopping center, named by the developers Townsend Village Centre, Commissioner Johnson called it inconsistent with the area's other commercial uses and district regulations, unneeded, and too perilous for local traffic and for the safety of students at nearby Cape Henlopen High School.
''The proposed project does not meet the purpose of the zoning ordinance since it does not promote the orderly growth of the county,'' he explained. ''It is not a logical transition from neighboring and adjacent uses, especially in this environmentally sensitive area which has severe limitations on safe pedestrian and vehicular travel.''
Smart growth advocates welcomed the recommendations.
''Planning and zoning has taken visionary steps to understand the impact a development of this magnitude would have on neighboring communities,'' commented Lewes' Citizens Coalition spokesman Mike Tyler, crediting local residents for their involvement at the commission hearings. ''There was solidarity among people who spoke and a packed house always gets everyone's attention.''
Citizens for a Livable Lewes spokesman John Mateyko was especially pleased by the vote against rezoning for the shopping center.
''It was rejected on numerous grounds, which were all raised by citizens as part of the public record,'' he said, taking the opportunity to address the county's code flaws.
''The code is needlessly ambiguous with words like 'should' and 'could' instead of 'shall' and 'shall not','' he observed, saying this lack of clarity has cost his group $37,000 in legal and consulting fees and thousands of hours of time. ''Government has the responsibility to make its code clear, fair, predictable and cost-effective.''
Presently, the code ''gives the wrong signals to even the most egregiously inappropriate proposal,'' he stressed, hoping for its overhaul during the ongoing comprehensive plan update process and for continued public involvement in the development and land zoning issues, because the county council ''reversed the commission before and they could do it again.'' -- Cape Gazette
4/1/2008
Resource(s): www.capegazette.com/index.html
Pedestrian Fatality Rates Higher in D.C.'s Outer Suburbs
Alarmed by the percentage of traffic fatalities among metro area residents who walk to work or transit -- an average of 15 deaths a year between 2004 and 2006 in Fairfax County, 24 in Prince George's County, and three in Prince William County -- the capital-based Coalition for Smarter Growth urged immediate action ''to ensure that walking is a safe way to travel,'' stressing in a ''Washington Area's Mean Streets'' report that ''(e)ach land use and transportation decision must consider and design for safe walking and bicycling,'' and expecting creation of ''compact, mixed use, pedestrian-friendly places where walking is a practical and pleasant transportation choice.''
To achieve these goals, the coalition tells area officials to fix the worst places, complete the streets, institutionalize changes, and start to build mixed-use walkable places.
Surface Transportation Policy Partnership (STPP) President Anne Canby is not surprised by the more than 75 pedestrian deaths on the region's road each year.
''When you look at Fairfax, Prince George's, Loudoun and most of Montgomery County,'' she observes, ''they were built in the automobile age, when walking was not really viewed as a form of transportation.''
As models for sound and successful transportation and development policies and practices, the report identifies Arlington County and the city of Alexandria, found the region's safest for pedestrians.
See the report at http://smartergrowth.net/pedreport -- Washington Post
4/23/2008
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop
SmartBike Rental Coming to Nation's Capital
Though relatively late and at a smaller scope than Paris and other European cities, Washington will take a national bicycle-sharing lead in mid-May, launching its high-tech SmartBike DC rental program -- with 120 bikes at first -- in partnership with the Clear Channel Outdoor advertising giant, which runs similar automated systems in France, Norway, Spain and Sweden, reports Washington Post writer Elissa Silverman, quoting city pedestrian and bicycle coordinator Jim Sebastian, who said the program will help ease traffic congestion while giving residents another opportunity to exercise.
''A lot of people have bikes, but a lot of them are in their basements or on their apartment balconies and they don't take them out on a regular basis,'' he told the writer, expecting to expand the program quickly and move it beyond downtown.
Paris' bike-sharing program, launched last year and coordinated by the JCDcaux advertising firm, became so popular that its initial number of 10,000 bicycles was promptly doubled.
Stored in racks at the DC core's intersections, mostly near Metro stations, the writer reports, the program's 120 red three-speed bicycles will be available to participants for an annual fee of $40, which will entitle them to an unlimited number of rentals, up to three hours at a time, 365 days a year, from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.
To release bikes from any of the 10 racks, renters will sweep magnetic cards at nearby kiosks, free to return them at the most convenient rack, but charged a $200 fee for a missing bike.
Under its 20-year, $150 million bus shelter contract with the city, Clear Channel will take responsibility for bicycle maintenance and other related costs.
Just west of the city, the writer adds, Arlington County is considering an automated bike-sharing program, whose participants would reserve bikes over cellphones. -- Washington Post
4/19/2008
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/
As Economy Slows, So Does Sprawl in Outlying D.C. Areas
''Throughout the Washington suburbs, the economic downturn has accomplished what the slow-growth movement could not: It has slowed growth significantly,'' reports Washington Post writer Jonathan Mummolo, with close-in counties like Fairfax, Virginia and Montgomery, Maryland now faring better than distant ones, partly because ever higher gas prices make them a lot more attractive to homebuyers, increasingly wary of long commutes from Loudoun and Prince William counties in Virginia or Charles County in Maryland.
Loudoun County, the nation's third fastest-growing between 2003 and 2004, fell to the 35th spot on the newest census list, with residential building permits dropping more than 40 percent by last year and supervisors approving just one subdivision this year.
Booming till 2006, Charles County saw a 26.5 percent decline in the combined number of residential and commercial permits in 2007.
At the same time, their foreclosures went up, to an average of 124 a month from September through November in Loudoun County and to 984 last year in Charles County.
Slow-growth advocates, the writer observes, hope that relieved from heavy development pressures, area officials will ''take a breather'' and focus on community and infrastructure improvements.
Others fear that the stagnant economy may make such improvements impossible since it not only slowed growth, but also ravaged revenues.
''In good times,'' pointed out developer and Brookings Institution Visiting Fellow Chris Leinberger, ''you're flush with capital, but you're running so fat you're trying to keep up with sprawling demand, and in bad times, you don't have the wherewithal financially to put in infrastructure.''
Loudoun developer Hobie Mitchell acknowledged that the market has put many developers in a holding pattern, but didn't think it would change much in the long run.
''Suburbia doesn't necessarily want to turn to urban, and not everybody wants to live in a condo,'' he told the writer. ''People still want to have a single-family house on a decent-sized lot where the kids can play in the back.''
On the other hand, Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute Co-director Arthur A. Nelson said his research revealed a trend toward smaller and attached suburban homes.
Calling surpluses of large-lot homes in Loudoun and Prince William counties just the ''tip of the iceberg,'' he projects a similar 22 million surplus nationwide by 2025, about 40 percent of the present stock.
To revitalize their housing market, suburban areas will ''have to be reformed,'' he stressed. ''The smart suburbs will figure out where the market trends are and retool their zoning codes.'' -- Washington Post
4/7/2008
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop
Editorial: Density Transition Between Urban and Rural Land Is Part of Smart Growth
Smart Growth includes constraining density in transitional areas between urban and rural land, says a Tampa Tribune editorial, agreeing with Dade City that although developers scaled down their Citrus Ridge plan for 112 unincorporated Pasco County acres from 450 to 358 homes, the project -- in the city's transition area, along a scenic two-lane St. Joe Road, and at the edge of the Northeast Pasco Rural Protection area -- is still too dense and requires further reduction.
Its currently proposed three homes per acre would simply extend the city's overall density pattern, while transition-area density ''should be lowered, not maintained,'' the editorial observes, noting that nearby homes sit on at least half-acre lots and that a new local subdivision will have such lot minimums, too.
What's more, the need to evaluate transition area projects for compatibility with rural protection areas is clearly stated in the county's comprehensive plan, the editorial points out, which ''should ensure that citylike densities don't ruin the character of rural areas or result in sprawl.''
To address local concerns over the project, county and city officials should get together and review again the once-dismissed annexation option for the Citrus Ridge site at lower density, the editorial adds, since the land ''is essentially an enclave, and it would make better sense if it was included in the city, especially considering that the land directly west already has been annexed.'' -- Tampa Tribune
4/13/2008
Resource(s): www.tbo.com/
Energy Bill Would Cut Vehicle Miles Through Land-Use Planning Requirements
''Transportation and transportation costs will be a big factor in how cities continue to develop,'' said state Republican Senator Burt Saunders, co-sponsor of milestone energy legislation under which the Department of Community Affairs could require local jurisdictions to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and tailpipe emissions through land-use plans, a requirement likely to spur dense urban redevelopment, with mixed uses and with expanded transit options including bike lanes and pedestrian walkways -- all key smart-growth measures against sprawl and now increasingly urgent to combat climate change.
With transportation responsible for 41 percent of the state's greenhouse-gas emissions, and daily VMT on a growth curve from 300 million in 2005 to more than 1 billion by 2050, reports Tallahassee Democrat writer Bruce Ritchie, Republican Governor Charlie Crist moved last July to cut emissions to 2000 levels by 2017 and more later, reiterating on this Earth Day his belief ''that climate change is one of the most important issues we will face.''
Some planners and scientists, convinced that land-use and development patterns must be changed now to make future emission cuts possible, are working on research techniques to measure how project design can reduce or increase car use, the writer observes, citing the Urban Land Institute (ULI) Growing Cooler study, which found 25 percent less driving in the most compact cites, including New York, San Francisco and Boston.
The Florida Home Builders Association (FHBA) agrees with 1000 Friends of Florida on the need for land-use changes. Without changes, ''the overall goal of discouraging sprawl and reducing greenhouse-gas emissions becomes difficult to achieve,'' said FHBA spokeswoman Edie Ousley.
Considering land use the most cost-efficient tool for tailpipe emission cuts, Friends Executive Director Charles Pattison stressed, ''You're not saying 'No' to development. You are saying how it should look on the ground, which to me has to be as cheap as it can be.'' -- Tallahassee Democrat
4/27/2008
Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/
Gwinnett County Residents Urged to Support Regional Transit Plan
With Gwinnett County voters last year ranking traffic congestion as their top problem and new rail as the best solution, Gwinnett Village Community Improvement District (CID) Executive Director Chuck Warbington encourages county residents and business owners to support a comprehensive regional transit plan drawn up by Metro Atlanta's Transit Planning Board (TPB), a group of area political leaders and transportation officials brought together by the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) in 2005 to propose improvement, expansion and integration of bus and rail lines into one cohesive and cost-effective system.
Ready for the first public presentation April 16, writes director Warbington in an Atlanta Journal-Constitution guest opinion, the cross-jurisdictional plan involves heavy and light rail, commuter trains and bus rapid transit, offering Gwinnet County residents easy access to downtown Atlanta, Perimeter Mall, the Cobb Galleria and Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport.
''Not only would a new rail service provide choice for mobility, but the collateral effects of the system would spur economic development,'' he observes, citing Center for Transportation Excellence findings that 77 percent of ''New Economy'' companies consider mass transit access extremely important for selecting corporate locations and noting that almost half of Fortune 500 companies, representing more than $2 trillion in annual revenues, have headquarters in transit-intensive metro areas.
According to one of the local studies initiated last year by his and Gwinnett Place CIDs, he adds, Gwinnett County residents prefer light rail over heavy rail, as more cost-effective and less environmentally-invasive, for an envisioned 10-mile link between Gwinnett Place Mall and the existing MARTA Doraville station in DeKalb County, with the currently projected four stations along that route expected to attract transit-oriented development, which would eventually increase the total number of their daily passenger boardings from the initial 21,000 to almost 35,000. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4/13/2008
Resource(s): www.ajc.com/
Survey Arrives Too Late to Save Referendum on Transportation Tax Plan
A new survey of 4,123 registered voters in 11 metro Atlanta counties found about 58 percent of respondents for a one-cent sales tax increase considered by the regional Transit Planning Board (TPB) to fund transportation projects, including rail and bus service, but its April 24 release came almost a month too late to dissuade the General Assembly from a narrow last-minute vote to kill legislation that would have allowed a referendum on regions' powers to tax themselves for badly needed transit expansion and other transportation improvements.
Republican Governor Sonny Perdue, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Brian Feagans, argued against such a tax as misguided in a sluggish economy and unfair for rural residents shopping in urban areas, unwilling to ''pump more money'' into the Department of Transportation, which needs a major overhaul.
On the other side, with support for self-taxation to ease gridlock holding throughout the region, TPB and Clayton County Commission Chairman Eldrin Bell called fears about a possible clash of transportation interests between close-in and outer metro counties unwarranted, saying the survey results put ''many of those arguments to rest.''
TPB staff director Cheryl King had a similar message to lawmakers who killed legislation that could eventually have enabled the region to invest in transportation.
''There's no secret that the Atlanta region is different than other parts of the state,'' she observed, asking, ''If our problem is so bad that we want to tax ourselves to take care of it, why shouldn't we be able to?'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4/25/2008
Resource(s): www.ajc.com/
Developer Seeks Approval for High-Density Redevelopment in Honolulu's Kewalo Harbor District
Confident of the common benefits of dense redevelopment of its 60 acres at Ward Centers in Honolulu's Kewalo harbor district, report Honolulu Advertiser writer Andrew Gomes and Star Bulletin writer Nina Wu, Chicago-based General Growth Properties asked the Hawaii Community Development Authority (HCDA) to approve an overall conceptual master plan for the 20-year project, which ''could be as much as 80 percent residential,'' with 4,300 mid-rise and high-rise housing units, including 860 deemed affordable, 1.2 million square feet of retail, commercial and office space, and five acres of open space, mostly in three landscaped pedestrian plazas.
The focus on housing reflects General Growth's intent to create a transit-oriented urban village, where people can live, work and play, and whose high density would relieve development pressures on rural parts of the island, said its vice president of development Jan Yokota, stressing, ''To be a neighborhood you have to have people living there.''
The residential towers may reach 400 feet and the company counts on some setback reduction and on a tower base increase from the presently allowed 45 to 65 or 75 feet.
Both variances are in tune with HCDA's current rule amendment process.
The first would let the company set the towers' narrow sides perpendicularly to and near sidewalks, which would minimize obstruction of water and inland views and encourage walking; the second would allow it to enlarge and diversify retail, restaurant, and other commercial space under the housing floors of each tower, which would also bring in more pedestrians and their business.
Still, noted vice president Yakota, the project's initial phase won't start before 2011 and depending on the market trends the proportions of residential and commercial space could be changed.
HCDA has 2000 days to review and decide on the Ward Master Plan.
In absence of a decision, plan approval becomes automatic. Details at www.wardneighborhood.com and http://hcdaweb.org/ward-neighborhood-master-plan. -- Star Bulletin, Honolulu Advertiser
4/17/2008
Resource(s): http://starbulletin.com/ ; www.honoluluadvertiser.com
Rapid Growth, Sales of Gas-Guzzlers Propels China to Top of CO2 Emitter List
Though sales of gas-guzzlers have dropped in the U.S., they are constantly up in China, with American, German, Japanese and domestic companies ready to saturate the increasingly affluent market with big sedans, vans and SUVs at the same time that three new scientific reports indicate China had already overtaken the U.S. as the world's biggest carbon dioxide (CO2) emitter in 2006, decades earlier than the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicted four years ago.
''If you look at the fastest-growing market segments in China, there are two -- SUVs and luxury cars,'' said GM China's vice president Joseph Y.H. Liu at the Beijing auto show, where the company starred the Cadillac Escalade, which seats up to eight people and gets 12 miles per gallon.
''Chinese buyers typically like bigger cars and they have the resources to go for them,'' observed J.D. Power's director of Asia-Pacific intelligence Tim Dunne, with Ford Motor Co.'s Asia executive vice president John Parker adding, ''The Chinese consumer is still back on the curve of satisfying their basic need for transportation rather than looking at being green.''
Chinese buyers of ''land yachts,'' reports Associated Press business writer Joe Mcdonald, are ''unintended beneficiaries of a government policy meant to help the poor,'' with a freeze of gas and diesel pump prices -- roughly at $2.90 a gallon for gas -- ''keeping them among the world's lowest,'' but also taking ''the sting out of filling up a gas guzzler.''
China is the second largest oil consumer after the U.S., the writer notes, and its imports rose 12.3 percent last year.
As to China's newly discovered first spot among top greenhouse gas emitters, reports USA Today writer Traci Watson, Oak Ridge National Laboratory scientist Greg Marland said, ''Nobody could anticipate the rate of growth that's taken place in the last six or eight years in China.''
Authors of the other two studies agree.
Earlier projections of China's emission capacity underestimated its ''shocking'' growth of energy-hungry industries, including cement and steel production, pointed out Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory expert Mark Levine, while University of California researcher Richard Carson said the nation has a lot less time to cut emissions ''than people previously thought.'' -- USA Today
4/21/2008
Resource(s): www.usatoday.com/
Canadians Ready to Cut Energy Use, But Believe Government Doesn't Heed Concerns
''The efficient and effective use of energy and resources is essential if we are to live within the inherent ecological limits of Earth,'' writes French Fort Cove Eco Centre Earth Specialist Dr. Klora Phyll in a Miramichi Leader (New Brunswick) guest column, noting that 90 percent of Canadians list the environment among their top concerns and that they could cut their energy and material use by 75 to 90 percent without loss of quality of life, but that their concerns ''are not reflected in the priorities established by governments.''
A governmental action, ''combined with Canada's capital, expertise and highly educated workforce,'' could make economic and environmental sustainability possible within a generation, Dr. Phyll writes in response to a reader's inquiry, worried about the prospective result of inaction.
''Already we are seeing shortages in food staples,'' she observes. ''Urban sprawl is impacting on land available to grow food, and the cost of food is rising dramatically due to the increases in cost to move food into the grocery stores. Most people read these headlines with little or passing interest. You are not going hungry yet, but the time will come when many Canadians will no longer be able to afford to purchase food. And, food staples such as rice will be doled out in small and measured quantities.''
Still optimistic about Canada's chance to become ''a world leader in eliminating waste and pollution by changing the way goods are produced and consumed,'' in building sustainable cities, and in basing infrastructure ''on smart growth'' to stop urban sprawl, she closes with this appeal, ''Remember, the planet is not your personal garbage dump.'' -- Miramichi Leader
4/30/2008
Resource(s): http://miramichileader.canadaeast.com/
Sixth-Generation Iowa Farmer Standing Firm Against Sprawl
Featured with her husband Craig in a National Public Radio (NPR) series on American farmers, ''smart-growth, anti-sprawl crusader'' and 1000 Friends of Iowa co-founder LaVon Griffieon watches a wave of rooftops visible from their 1,100-acre family farm near Ankeny, some 10 miles north of central Des Moines, telling Des Moines Register writer Marc Hansen the family has been farming there since 1868, six generations have lived on the land, and it won't be sold and subdivided for 1,100 homes.
Well known to developers, homebuilders and ''chamber-of-commerce types,'' who ''like her so much that they did what they could a few years ago to keep her off the state annexation review board,'' the writer reports, LaVon describes the 7,000 acres Ankeny annexed between 2003 and 2007 as ''gone forever,'' but she can't be easily dismissed as short on credentials.
She started an ''Ag in the Classroom'' program, won the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation's conservation award and another one from the Wallaces Farmer magazine, and earned fellowships for studying food, trade and agricultural policies abroad.
Not wild about the view of nearing rooftops, the writer notes, she doesn't hold it against the new residents, but she ''does hold it against 'comprehensive land-use' planners and developers who seem to have everything set before everyone else even knows there's a proposal on the table.''
Told about the housing market downturn and new construction risks, she remains doubtful, convinced that people still want to live in the countryside, but also calling the fertile soil of central Iowa ''an honest-to-goodness global treasure.''
In her mind, the writer observes, ''stripping off the top layer to make way for a three-car garage is like dumping a tanker full of oil into the ocean.'' -- Des Moines Register
5/8/2008
Resource(s): www.desmoinesregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Louisville Hoping for Safer Walkways Following Healthy Hometown Pedestrian Summit
Inspired by Louisville's 2005 bicycle summit, which secured major safety improvements for cyclists and pedestrians and a riverside bikeway, many city residents hope their just-concluded Healthy Hometown Pedestrian Summit will produce similar results, with St. Nicholas Academy teacher Debbie Green saying she would like to walk to a local park or grocery store and even the 3.5 miles to her work, but without sidewalks ''(y)ou have to get in a vehicle and drive to all of those places.''
With the Bicycling magazine now naming Louisville, New York and Washington, D.C. as the three cities most improved for biking, writes Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Marcus Green, she and hundreds of others offer many suggestion on how to make the city more pedestrian-friendly, especially by interconnecting neighborhoods with sidewalks.
They note that ''walking doesn't cost $3.80 per gallon'' and that ultimately everyone is a pedestrian.
Metro Mayor Jerry Abramson's spokeswoman Kerri Richardson thinks a pedestrian improvement plan expected this summer will include a cost estimate for sidewalks in all neighborhoods, but officials caution that actual funding may be problematic.
''Whether it's public money or private money to make those changes,'' remarked Metro Planning & Design Services Director Charles Cash, ''we're in an economy that's not favorable to raising large sums of money right now.''
And the sums could be large, indeed, the reporter observes, quoting Austin, Texas program manager Mike Curtis, who said the city spent about $17 million on 60 miles of new sidewalks in the past two years, but according to its pedestrian improvement plan the cost of filling sidewalk gaps throughout the city and making all sidewalks comply with requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) would reach $900 million.
Still, the reporter adds, a plan to reduce car use and foster walking ''doesn't necessarily have to be expensive or focus on building new sidewalks,'' with experts and activists also calling for less costly solutions such as direct routes between neighborhoods, creation of walking clubs, and expansion of walking school bus programs. -- Courier-Journal
5/9/2008
Resource(s): www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Strong Inner-City Schools Are Key to Urban Redevelopment, Speaker Tells Smart Growth Conference
In any move to advance urban redevelopment and repopulate core neighborhoods the key is strong inner-city schools, said St. Louis, Missouri-based McCormack Baron Salazar Chairman and CEO Richard Baron, keynote speaker at the fourth annual Smart Growth Lecture and INDesign Awards event sponsored by the Lafayette Independent Weekly, telling the 300 local officials, business leaders, philanthropists and others in the audience that they should focus on schools and not wait for the state or the federal government to initiate a redevelopment process.
''As part of this effort to reclaim neighborhoods, schools are the single most important thing to attract and retain residents,'' he stressed. ''Community renewal really begins with this.'' Citing his 30-plus years of experience in renovation of blighted neighborhoods and housing complexes in St. Louis, Atlanta, Kansas City, Pittsburgh and elsewhere, reports Lafayette Daily Advertiser writer Bob Moser, the speaker criticized national leaders for not investing in cities through preservation of land for schools, parks and community housing.
He also pointed out that many of his redevelopment projects have included a new or renovated neighborhood school, calling it an investment whose ripple effect improves property values and often reduces crime. -- Independent Weekly, Daily Advertiser
5/2/2008
Resource(s): www.theadvertiser.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Charles County Connector Road Would Endanger Vital Chesapeake Bay Tributary, Say Environmental Groups
Long troubled by Charles County's constant encouragement of ever more subdivisions in the northern part of Mattawoman Creek watershed, the state cautioned the county against seriously polluting the creek -- a Potomac River tributary and one of the Chesapeake Bay region's most fertile fish hatcheries -- by running over it the planned four-lane Cross County Connector from the Bryans Road area to Mall Circle in Waldorf roughly eight miles west, a $60-million highway the county considers necessary for the corridor's some 8,000 homes either proposed, under construction or already built and an envisioned 250-acre high-tech business park nearby.
County officials, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Tom Pelton in the paper and on its environmental blog page, describe development concentrated in the county's northern section, some 15 miles from Washington, D.C., as ''Smart Growth'' that keeps most of the other two-thirds rural, but conservationists call it ''just politically correct happy talk meant to mask the county's real intention: to bring in as much business and money as possible by turning forest into subdivisions.''
Real ''Smart Growth,'' they say, would keep the forest and rural areas untouched, while concentrating development around the towns of Waldorf and LaPlata.
In a letter to the state and federal regulators, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and other groups, said Foundation Executive Director Kim Coble, asked for a comprehensive environmental study, which would also look at transit options, before issuing any road construction approval.
According to a 2003 U.S. Army Corps of Engineers planning branch report, the proposed development in the Mattawoman watershed, with its ''obvious increases in impervious surfaces, phosphorus, nitrogen and sediment loads,'' would have a ''severe'' impact on the creek, including more than 50 percent higher pollution within 20 years.
Calling the prospective consequences to the stream's quality ''dire,'' Corps transportation program manager Paul Wettlaufer told the reporter that he will examine the 2003 report, newer data and input from other sources before deciding whether the county can destroy seven acres of wetlands along the creek to build a key six-mile segment of the connector, which would also claim 74 acres of forest.
The county also needs the same permit from the Maryland Department of the Environment to proceed, which means the project is far from certain.
Between 1975 and 1997, the reporter observes, the state purchased 2,509 acres along the stream to save it from nearby development and protect wildlife.
In 1998, Governor Parris N. Glendening approved $25 million for another 2,225 forest acres to stop a proposed 4,600-home Chapman's Landing subdivision north of Mattawoman Creek.
Governor Glendening, now Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, said the constant development in the creak watershed illustrates the need for strengthening state power under his 1997 ''Smart Growth'' law.
''The danger is we're going to lose these areas for all future generations,'' he stressed. ''The state is buying up land to preserve it, but it doesn't work unless the local government enters into the same philosophy.'' -- Baltimore Sun
4/7/2008
Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/
Mixed-Use Zoning Could Bring Business Back to Randolph Industrial Park
Its revenue and business district hurt by relocation of companies gone elsewhere for tax breaks, Randolph, some 10 miles south of central Boston, could bring its abandoned industrial park ''back to life'' and rebound fiscally by rezoning it for ''work where you live'' development, observed Selectman James Burgess, saying real estate professionals told him that housing within walking distance to jobs is especially attractive to biotech firms looking for the best places to relocate.
Under a proposed zoning change, reports Quincy Patriot Ledger writer Fred Hanson, the park could accommodate up to 30 apartments per acre.
With 25 percent of the apartments affordable and set aside for renters at below market prices, the town could also benefit from the state's smart-growth incentive program.
Still, some park neighbors attending a recent planning board hearing expressed concerns over added traffic and the density impact on water resources.
''We do need the business, but we need something from it as well,'' said resident Cynthia Johnson, who would like to see a compromise on prospective park development.
Accordingly, the writer adds, the planning board delayed its vote until April 14, with Chairman Richard Goodhue noting the need for more details to recommend for or against the current rezoning proposal, which will be considered by a town meeting on May 27. -- Patriot Ledger
4/1/2008
Resource(s): www.patriotledger.com/
Somerville Leaders Want Zoning Loopholes Closed to Prevent Further Overcrowding
Just at the northwestern flank of Boston, Somerville became one of the most densely populated areas nationwide and its leaders want Strategic Planning and Community Development Director Monica Lamboy to work out necessary zoning reform to close loopholes and prevent further overcrowding, reports Somerville Journal writer S.H. Bagley, with Alderman Tom Taylor calling code changes long overdue and stressing, ''Developers take advantage of us.''
Aldermen Bob Trane and Rebekah Gewirtz echoed his alarm, the former saying, ''It's ridiculous, what's going on right now from some of the developers,'' the latter adding, ''There are developers who want to cash in, try to make a buck, and leave.''
Having recently had to deal with ''overzealous'' developers, she said the city forced them to drastically scale down a proposed development complex only by refusing to remove trees for a fire lane.
While all three and Alderman Maryann Heuston focused mostly on residential categories, Aldermen Sean O'Donovan and Jack Connolly thought the entire zoning code should be studied and updated.
''Let's look at the big picture,'' said Alderman Connolly. ''Transit-oriented development, that's the word now.'' -- Somerville Journal
4/3/2008
Resource(s): www.wickedlocal.com/somerville
Former Weymouth Air Base Receives Growth District Designation
Delighted by Democratic Governor Deval Patrick's designation of the former Weymouth Naval Air Station, some 15 miles south of central Boston, as an official ''growth district'' -- a move that ensures substantial state funding and fast-track permitting for its redevelopment into the meticulously planned mixed-use SouthField complex -- South Shore Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Peter Forman asked the state to consider ''the entire South Shore a 'smart growth' region'' in need of targeted infrastructure and transportation investment.
With the state's earlier promise to fund the $42.5 million construction of the East/West Parkway through SouthField, a local quasi-government agency's current investment of $90 million in the project's infrastructure, and a developer's commitment to spend more than $250 million on its residences and offices, reports Boston Globe writer Milton J. Valencia, Governor Patrick stressed the role of designated growth districts as ''hubs of economic growth and housing development'' throughout the state.
''By identifying districts and focusing our collective resources on making each one development ready, we are creating the conditions for business growth and community revitalization for years to come,'' he said at his SouthField tour, pointing out that base redevelopment, including coordinated plans for 2,855 residential units and 2 million square feet of commercial space, will help map future area growth.
''Where is affordable housing going to be? Where is public transportation going to be, and how is it going to be planned?'' he said. ''SouthField is a very natural choice as a growth district.'' -- Boston Globe
4/27/2008
Resource(s): www.boston.com/
Columbia Voters Install Smart Growth Majority on City Council
Elected to the Columbia City Council in 2006, Boone County Smart Growth Coalition co-founder Barbara Hoppe was joined by like-minded new Councilmen Karl Skala and Jerry Wade a year later and Paul Sturtz last week, reports Columbia Tribune writer Kat Hughes, expecting the newly formed smart-growth majority on the seven-member council to insist on development paying its fair share of infrastructure costs and on more decisive efforts to contain sprawl.
Having easily defeated nine-year Councilwoman Almeta Crayton, Councilman-elect Sturtz commended her as ''an amazing spokesperson'' of black constituents against the city's racial divide, attributing much of his victory to his door-to-door campaign and promises of better control over some inefficient projects on the fringe of town near the ward they competed to represent.
''This is a gross simplification,'' he said, ''but she seemed to think that all development was good development, and I'm coming at it from a different angle that talks about stimulating the kind of development that will allow us to have a city we're all proud of in 20 to 30 years.''
His co-worker on an urban garden project, Bryce Oates, feels the same about the election result.
''I think this shows our ward is ready for aggressive change,'' he observed. ''Almeta has done a fine job and has paved the way for a lot of things, but Paul appeals more to our green needs and the push for sustainability in the city.'' -- Columbia Tribune
4/6/2008
Resource(s): www.columbiatribune.com/
Columbia City Ready for Zoning Code Overhaul
Now that last month's election of another smart growth advocate to the Columbia City Council has secured a four-member majority, the Planning and Zoning Commission sees this as the right time to draw up a badly-needed comprehensive plan and overhaul the outdated zoning code, last reworked in 1983 -- both recommended by neighborhood activists and developers in their joint 2006 Process and Procedures Stakeholders Committee Report, which also advised greater community input in development decisions, better mediation between stakeholders, and elimination of duplicate public hearings.
''We not only want to accommodate the types of development we want, we want to encourage them,'' said Commission Chairman Jeff Barrow. ''We want developments to basically work in a way to enact a community vision of green space, accommodating recreation, appreciating wildlife and not polluting our streams.''
Commissioner David Brodsky also stressed the need for change, saying, ''Instead of dealing with things on a case-by-case basis, we should be making ordinances that govern everything.''
With developers seeking more consistency in council decisions and complaining about lengthy public hearings, reports Columbia Missourian writer Rachel Heaton, Commissioner Glenn Rice said developers are used to do things in ''a certain way because the zoning law says they can, and they're taken aback when they come to a hearing and they find out people don't want them to do that.''
He also noted that the commission has been differentiating on a trial basis between complex and simple cases for public hearings to move the latter faster, but that there are ''some developers that work closely with neighbors and bring them into the process early on, and there's others that sort of give it lip service.''
Commissioner Ann Peters observed that some local developers make little effort to involve residents in project plans.
''In my neighborhood, there's an out-of-state developer who has gone the distance. He's met (with neighbors) five times to go over plans and changed parts of his plans to fit with the neighborhood. He's tried to make it a positive win-win for everybody,'' she pointed out. ''With some local developers, they seem to send out the required notification, and they have one meeting and that's it.''
Hoping to find a way for easing good projects through the system, she added, ''Columbia reminds me a lot of like a gold-rush town, where people can't build fast enough, but I don't feel they are building correctly.'' -- Missourian
5/4/2008
Resource(s): www.columbiamissourian.com/
More Communities Turning Vacant Tracts Into Urban Parks
As rapid land consumption over the last few decades intensified environmental worries and lax mortgage policies of recent years precipitated the housing market drop, local priorities began to change and now communities increasingly prefer to turn most of their last vacant tracts into urban parks, in some cases much larger than the famous 843-acre Central Park in Manhattan, reports USA Today writer Haya El Nasser, quoting Smart Growth America Communication Director David Goldberg, who said, ''This desire for parkland and capitalizing on natural assets is really taking hold.''
The two largest urban park projects -- in Orange County, California and in Memphis, Tennessee -- are under way and in the final plan-selection phase, respectively.
In Orange County, roughly half of the 4,700-acre former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, some five miles east of central Irvine, will be converted to mixed uses -- with one of three residential neighborhoods laid around a train station -- while the federal government is keeping another 1,000 acres for wildlife and wilderness, and 1,134 acres are already becoming an urban park.
Ten years ago, the writer notes, the base tempted visions of wholesale development, including an international airport, and it took four ballot initiatives to secure its present outlay.
''A tremendous battle,'' commented Irvine City Council Member Larry Agran. ''But as the population grows, as land values increase, older urban areas and metropolitan areas are good candidates for better land use. For so long, we've neglected the public realm. The park is everyone's backyard, and it enhances property values.''
In Memphis, the 4,500-acre former Shelby Farms labor-prison grounds, about 10 miles east of the city core, for years incited talks of shopping malls, conference centers, golf courses, subdivisions and other massive projects, but Shelby County sharply restricted development, while approving a conservation easement for a big urban park.
Recently unveiled, the writer observes, the final park plan may allow elements of several proposals, including a county-city trail system all the way to the Memphis Riverfront.
''It's a real 21st century park,'' pointed out Shelby Farms Park Conservancy interim development director Laura Adams, applauding the county's ''courageous decision'' when it could have sold 1,000 acres or allowed a Wal-Mart. ''It's ecologically sound, environmentally sound and it possibly would generate its own energy.''
The writer also mentions three other urban park construction projects.
In Alabama, U.S. Steel sold 1,100 acres atop Read Mountain in Birmingham for $7 million, almost $10 million below the market rate, to a land trust that will build a park with fishing ponds and 18 miles of trails.
In Georgia, Atlanta's future BeltLine will benefit almost all neighborhoods with its walking trails, trolleys and parks, adding 1,400 acres of parkland at 13 sites along transit lines.
In New York City, a 2,200-acre landfill full of wreckage and debris from destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11 will become its largest urban park, with biking trails, boating and fishing areas, and waterfront art and restaurants.
''There's growing awareness of the importance of providing green space to cities around the country,'' said City Parks Alliance and National Association for Olmsted (one of the Central Park designers) Parks Executive Director Catherine Nagel, with Yale University professor and park planner Alexander Garvin stressing, ''The environmental movement is looking to use as much of the landscape as possible to clean the air, provide natural drainage and do the kind of nature-friendly work that parks do.'' -- USA Today
4/13/2008
Resource(s): www.usatoday.com/
Climate Change Briefing Will Focus on Need for Compact Development, Expanded Transportation Choices
Against the backdrop of the Energy Information Agency's (EIA's) projection of a 48 percent increase in Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT) for cars and trucks by 2030, the Washington-based Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) and the Urban Land Institute (ULI) invite the public to a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission briefing in 253 Russell Senate Office Building on April 25, where six panelists will review key themes of the recent ULI's book Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change.
The panelists include University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research Professor Reid Ewing, Center for Clean Air Policy Transportation Program Director Steve Winkelman, Smart Growth America President Geoff Anderson, American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials Executive Director John Horsley, Northern Virginia Transportation Authority Chairman and Arlington County Board Member Chris Zimmerman, and Cherokee Investment Partners LLC CEO Tom Darden.
Convinced that without land-use and transportation policy changes the nation will find it more difficult to reduce its dependence on foreign oil, the panelists will focus on the economic and time costs of annual VMT increases due to ''land use patterns, limited alternatives, transportation policies, congestion, highway operations, and other factors.''
They will make the case that reducing VMTs, curbing GHGs, and ''growing cooler'' is largely dependent on more compact and energy-efficient development and expanded transportation choices, including rail, bus and other public transit, and cycling and walking.
Later in the day, California Democratic Representative Ellen Tauscher will hold a companion briefing with some of the panelists in 2263 Rayburn House Office Building.
For details on both briefings, respectively, please contact Jan Mueller, 202-662-1883 or jmueller@eesi.org and Paul Schmid, 202-225-1880. -- Environmental and Energy Study Institute
4/15/2008
Resource(s): www.eesi.org
Can Landscape Architects Help Create Walkable Schools?
With 60 percent of today's kids taken to school in cars, 25 percent bused and only 15 percent allowed to walk or bike, Landscape Architecture News Editor J. William ''Bill'' Thompson points out that although many parents worry about children's safety and many of the newer suburbs have no sidewalks, while road crossings are wide and traffic fast, solutions ''do exist,'' as shown by the national Safe Routes to School efforts, supported by a federal allocation of $612 million from 2005 through 2009.
Wondering ''what are landscape architects doing to implement Safe Routes to School and similar initiatives in school districts where walking is feasible,'' the editor writes he learned at a recent smart growth conference about ''a more systemic reason that actually makes it impossible for many kids to walk to school.''
Most state education boards, he explains, mandate minimum school acreages -- for example, 30 acres plus one acre per every 100 students for a typical high school -- also to accommodate the vast parking lots modern schools are supposed to need.
Such acreage is still available mostly on outer farms or in woodlands, accessible by foot to few or no children.
''Meanwhile, older schools sited on one- or two-acre lots in walking distance of homes cannot satisfy the acreage formulas -- and, in many cases, they are torn down,'' the editor observes, inviting readers to see ''a good primer on this sad state of affairs,'' namely the National Trust for Historic Preservation's landmark study, ''Why Johnny Can't Walk to School'' available at www.preservationnation.org.
''Instead of building far-flung schools that render walking difficult or impossible, wouldn't it make more sense to modernize older schools in walking distance of neighborhoods?'' the editor asks, hoping landscape architects will do the best they can to help it happen. -- Landscape Architecture News
4/15/2008
Resource(s): http://asla.org/
Columnist Questions Logic Behind Think Tank Support of Highway Projects
With the combined local, state and federal outlays for roads estimated at more than $150 billion in 2005, Governing magazine columnist Alex Marshall finds it ''exceedingly strange'' that conservative and libertarian think tanks committed to less government view taxpayer-funded highways and roads ''as a solution to traffic congestion and a general boon to living,'' while attacking ''mass-transit spending, particularly on trains.''
These think tanks ''seem to see a highway as an expression of the free market and of American individualism and a rail line as an example of government meddling and creeping socialism,'' the columnist observes, citing publications and presentations of the Los Angeles-based Reason Foundation and its transportation wing.
They include papers entitled ''How to Build Our Way Out of Congestion'', ''Myths of Light Rail Transit'' and ''Rethinking Transit 'Dollars & Sense': Unearthing the True Cost of Public Transit,'' but none on ''unearthing the true cost of our public highway network.''
Invited by the columnist to square its support for governmental road funding with its ''general dislike of government involvement,'' Reason Foundation's founder, former president and prolific transportation study author Robert Poole responded that he ''never thought about it that way.''
The foundation's general premise ''is that transportation infrastructure would work better if it were market-driven,'' he said. ''Where it's possible, that infrastructure should be run in a business-like manner with users paying full cost.''
The columnist calls this reasoning ''essentially incorrect,'' stressing, ''Transportation is like education: it works best through heavy general funding that pays off down the road in a community's or nation's overall prosperity.''
Noting that governments have spent several trillion dollars on roads over the past century, he writes, ''This system, open to all with a car, has created our automobile-based landscape of suburbs, single-family homes, office parks, mega churches and shopping malls. Love it or hate it, it is the product of massive government spending.''
Although the foundation's ideas for truck-only lanes and congestion pricing ''are worth considering,'' the columnist cautions city and state officials often confronted with its studies that ''the systematic bias in favor of roads and against transit makes the foundation's work suspect.'' -- Governing
4/7/2008
Resource(s): www.governing.com/index.htm
City, State Officials Adding Climate Change to List of Planning Concerns
Mitigation of climate change -- a combined greenhouse gas reduction effort that may make warming ''progress more slowly'' -- is still largely in an early phase of planning or regulation for the next several decades, but the most conscientious states and communities are already working on adaptation to eventually higher temperatures, sea levels and storm rates, notes Climatewire reporter Lauren Morello, quoting International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) -- Local Governments for Sustainability northeast regional director Kim Lundgren, who said, ''Unfortunately, we've gotten to a point where we just can't talk about mitigation only.''
Former Asheville, N.C., city planner Scott Shuford, now working for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) National Climatic Data Center on its new adaptation guidebook for city planners, drives the point further.
''No matter what mitigation efforts we institute today, no matter how exhaustive they might be,'' he stressed, ''we are going to have climate change that is going to require action.''
With the Pew Center on Global Climate Change listing Alaska, California, Florida, Maryland, Oregon and Washington as states preparing to act, the Climatewire reporter mentions four such preparatory moves on the local level.
The Miami-Dade County Commission, Fla., approved an initial adaptation plan that aims to convert the area's taxi fleet to hybrid vehicles, impose coastal development limits, and set strict height minimums for roads and buildings in prospective flood zones delineated on the assumption of a three-foot sea level rise.
The Miami City Commission endorsed similar recommendations.
King County, Wash., launched an aggressive 10-year effort to protect its lower areas from anticipated heavy floods by shoring up levees on the Green, Snoqualmie and Cedar rivers.
And the tiny town of Keene, N.H., is preparing sustainable design and energy efficient building code requirements to reduce its carbon footprint and the risk of structural damage from severe weather.
The common problems, the reporter observes, arise from the lack of state-scale or local-scale climate projection models, the scarcity of implementation funds, and the doubts among officials about their command of adaptation practices.
''We urgently need an improved science base for decision-making,'' said Delaware Department of Natural Resources coastal program manager David Carter about the lack of local-scale adaptation modeling.
Miami-Dade County climate change program coordinator Nichole Hefty and King County Executive Ron Sims' deputy chief of staff Jim Lopez agree that despite a budgetary crunch, local governments must find funds for adaptation measures.
''Some of these (adaptation steps) are certainly going to require additional expenditures. You really have to point out the cost of inaction,'' said the former, with the latter adding, ''Part of the calculus is, what is the cost of not acting?''
As to local officials' fears of their adaptation inexperience, Center for Clean Air Policy transportation and adaptation program director Steve Winkelman is confident they can quickly learn.
''We say, 'Sit with your director of emergency management and ask what you're going to do if floods come twice as often or twice as high,'' he explained. ''Plan that through.'' -- Climatewire
4/29/2008
Resource(s): www.eenews.net/
States and Localities Lead the Way in U.S. Greening Efforts
''We are totally committed to reducing emissions, but it requires rethinking the way we do our activities,'' said King County, Washington, Executive Ron Sims about the need for greater urban densities and less car use ''in an age of global warming,'' a statement marking one key goal of the emergent climate-change debate, while District of Columbia Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning outlined another, stressing that the city wants to become green not only ''for greenhouse-gas benefits,'' but also to be ''globally competitive'' and increasingly attractive both to residents and tourists.
''If a low-carbon lifestyle is a lifestyle of deprivation and denial, we're going to have a hard time,'' she told Washington Post writer Juliet Eilperin, who notes that to help people move without cars, D.C. officials are installing a new trolley line and downtown bike-rental kiosks.
And though national politicians are becoming more serious about a federal carbon cap, ''the flurry of activity in state and local jurisdictions'' indicates that most greenhouse-gas reduction measures will pass on their level, the writer reports, quoting Massachusetts Secretary of Energy and Environmental Affairs Ian A. Bowles.
''It's going to happen,'' he predicted, ''through things like building codes, utilities and zoning.''
At the same time, California Attorney General Edmund G. ''Jerry'' Brown, whose suits forced San Bernardino County and petroleum giant ConocoPhillips to settlements on offsetting their prospective growth-related emissions, echoed King County executive Sims' call for public and individual evaluations of ways to live and work.
''It really takes a sea change in attitude, a shift in how the urban and suburban are perceived,'' he observed. ''It's not something that government can just mandate without a change in how the public views it. You can't just order it into being.''
Experts consider the time critical, convinced that without decisive steps to limit sprawl now, commute distances and vehicle miles traveled (VMT) will continue to increase each year, and any significant cuts in future carbon dioxide emissions will be almost impossible.
''Once you've sprawled, it's really hard to overlay more efficient transportation systems,'' said Pew Center on Global Climate Change Director Judi Greenwald, with University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Professor Reid Ewing noting that unlike sprawl, compact mixed-use development could reduce metropolitan tailpipe emission by roughly 20 percent.
In contrast to northeastern and western states that work hard to curb their emissions, the writer reports, six in the Southeast -- Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia -- do little to hem in exurban expansion and as a single country they would be the world's seventh-largest emitter.
''This region is a major part of the problem,'' said Southern Environmental Law Center land and community program leader Oliver A. ''Trip'' Pollard. ''So far, we are not a major part of the policy solution.'' -- Washington Post
5/4/2008
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop
Shorter Commutes Helping Cities Look Better to Home Buyers
In a pause from sprawl, home prices across distant suburbs continue to fall deeper than city housing values, which sometimes even climb in cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Diego, New York, Miami, Boston, and Washington, D.C., especially near public transit, reports National Public Radio writer Kathleen Schalch, with Case-Shiller Home Price Index chief economist David Stiff saying the familiar buyer rule, ''drive 'til you qualify'' for what's affordable, has morphed into the questions, ''What is the cost of gasoline?'' and ''What is the cost of my time?''
Long lured by cheap outer land and strong home prices, developers miscalculated and ''overreached,'' but have finally seen faraway projects as ''just bad ideas to begin with'' and shifted gears, he observed, his assessment confirmed by Smart Growth America Communications Director David Goldberg.
In the 1990s, his hometown, Atlanta, ''was recognized as the fastest-spreading human settlement, probably in the history of the world,'' he recalled, but over the past two years construction in the countryside dropped by 70 percent, without any slowdown in the city.
The same goes for other big cities, including Baltimore and Philadelphia.
''Philadelphia was losing downtown housing and in-town housing until very recently. And now that's the hottest part of their market,'' he stressed. ''We don't live in the Ozzie and Harriet era anymore. We live more in the Seinfeld, Sex in the City era, in which young people find cities to be compelling.''
In Washington, D.C., the broadcaster notes, home prices tumbled an average of 11 percent last year, but they dropped by 18 percent in parts of Loudoun County, Virginia.
New brick townhouses on Falkner's Lane in Ashburn, some 40 miles northwest of central D.C., ''were selling for about $550,000 at the peak'' in August 2005, said Realtor Danilo Bogdanovic, ''and they're selling right now for about $350,000,'' with half of them either foreclosed or facing foreclosure. -- National Public Radio
4/21/2008
Resource(s): www.npr.org/
North Brunswick Workshop Focuses on Better Land Use to Cut Driving Needs
With a combination of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), mileage per gallon, and fuel carbon content making the U.S. responsible for 45 percent of global tailpipe emissions, the nation must cut these emissions through better land use, compact development and more transportation choices, or it won't be able to cut its total greenhouse-gas emissions by 15 to 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020, being 20 percent above those levels now, said Smart Growth America (SGA) Communications Director David Goldberg at a North Brunswick workshop on the Urban Land Institute's study, ''Growing Cooler: The Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change.''
Held jointly with SGA and New Jersey Futures by North Brunswick TOD Associates, a firm working on a local mixed-use transit village, reports the area's Sentinel writer Jennifer Amato, the workshop featured local and guest speakers, focusing on the study's key findings about the current impact and long-term effects of sprawl, traffic, and project design on the environment and climate, with director Goldberg cautioning that should the current trend continue, the number of miles Americans drive will rise 59 percent by 2030.
''Vehicle miles traveled are growing faster that population growth. We can get pretty close to our (emission cut) goal -- if we stop driving,'' he observed, stressing the importance of more and better market choices for vehicles, fuel, transportation, and overall mobility and housing locations.
He also pointed to an undersupply of attached and small-lot houses, with an oversupply of large lots, seeing an opportunity for change behind the general estimate that half of the 2030 housing stock and two-thirds of the 2050 inventory, respectively, still have to be built. -- Sentinel
5/8/2008
Resource(s): http://nbs.gmnews.com/
New Jersey Future to Present Smart Growth Awards on June 5
Propagating sound land-use planning and development through its prestigious Smart Growth Awards since 2002, the Trenton-based New Jersey Future statewide research and policy group will present the 2008 awards to winners in seven categories at a June 5 Newark Club event, expected to bring together more than 300 political leaders, civic activists and industry professionals, with introductory remarks by Newark Director of Community Development Toni Griffin.
This year's winners include Eleven 80, Newark, in the Historic Building Reuse category; Abbett Avenue Apartments, Morristown, in the Infill Affordable Housing category; Health Science Campus, Cooper University Hospital, Camden, in the Institutional Commitment to Community Revitalization category; The Heldrich Redevelopment Project, New Brunswick, in the Mixed-use Downtown Anchor category; Plainsboro Village Center in the New Town Center Development category; Rahway Town Center Master Plan in the Town Center Revitalization Plan category; and Park Square, Rahway, in the Transit-Friendly Downtow |
