Smart Growth News

 October 2007 News Articles

Alabama

Rep. Bachus Urges Investment in Birmingham's Inner-City Schools

Seeing the nation's urban school neglect as a bigger challenge than terrorism, Alabama Republican Representative Spencer Bachus urged the Birmingham area business community to invest in inner-city schools, telling the Birmingham Regional Chamber of Commerce Congressional Forum that education ''is the key to preserving democracy and creating economic opportunity,'' but ''that opportunity is at risk today because too many of our schools are failing our children, especially minority and lower-income children.''

Noting that the U.S. trails 17 of the 20 other top industrial nations in high school math scores and 14 in science scores, while its 18 percent dropout rate is the fourth highest among all such nations, reports Birmingham News writer Roy L. Williams, Representative Bachus called the need to improve education vital both for area businesses and for American economic competitiveness.

''We're not just competing with other cities and states. We're competing with India and China,'' he observed, pointing out that poorly prepared school graduates burden businesses with higher workforce training costs, and that the high dropout rate imposes additional social tolls.

''Only 40 percent of high school dropouts earn enough to become self-sufficient,'' he said. ''One in four dropouts will end up on welfare, and they are four times more likely to have more children and suffer a cycle of poverty, dependence and crime. That hurts all of us.''

Adding that a third of college students need ''remedial courses,'' Representative Bachus concluded, ''I'm not blaming teachers and principals, but many of our schools aren't getting the support they need to educate our children.'' -- Birmingham News   11/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.al.com/birminghamnews/

Alaska

Anchorage 2020 Plan Provisions Ignored in Transportation Budget, Says Citizens Coalition Member

Although Democratic Mayor Mark Begich told the recent U.S. Conference of Mayors' Climate Protection Summit in Seattle that Anchorage is saving millions of dollars on energy-efficient street lights, light bulbs and government computer sleep modes, the city could do more for climate and the budget if its Assembly's conservative majority grasped the urgent need for more transit and compact development, writes Anchorage Citizens Coalition (ACC) board member Kim Wetzel in the Anchorage Daily News, pointing out that homes and businesses generate only 9 percent of Alaska's greenhouse gases, while the transportation sector emits 35 percent, half of it from car and truck tailpipes.

''The problem is that the total miles we drive are growing much faster than our population,'' she writes, worried that despite the region's projected population growth of just one-third within 20 years, the city wants to spend 90 percent of a prospective $4 billion budget on freeways and expressways, ''making it easier for people to whiz through town on their way to the latest mall on the city's outskirts,'' with a meager 10 percent slated for its ''perpetually underfunded'' bus system.

What's more, the city also counts on hundreds of millions from the state's general funds, which means highway projects will compete for public dollars usually spent on health and education.

Adopted in 2001, the Anchorage 2020 comprehensive plan ''recognized the economic, environmental, health and social values of more compact development,'' she continues, but politicians ignore its provisions.

''The Assembly openly rejects attempts to make Anchorage safer for walking,'' she writes. ''We have not had the leadership needed to provide transportation alternatives for families burdened by high vehicle and fuel costs. Instead, we invest in freeways that generate traffic and siphon economic development out of the central city.''

Directing readers for information on true car ownership and commute cost to the People Mover calculator at www.peoplemover.org, and those interested in the national dimension of land use and transportation problems to the Growing Cooler: Evidence on Urban Development and Climate Change report, recently published by the Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI) and available at her group's web site, www.accalaska.org, she concludes:

''By developing Anchorage in ways that decrease the need to drive and shorten our driving trips, we can make a real reduction in our fuel use and our 'carbon footprint.' Fortunately, we have a plan for that in Anchorage 2020. All we need to do now is start following that plan.'' -- Anchorage Daily News   11/9/2007  

Resource(s):  www.adn.com/

Arizona

6,000-Acre Santa Cruz County Development Rejected by Planning Commission

Calling itself Arizona's largest provider of ''spacious and pristine'' land and telling online visitors to stake their claims ''to a tract of this vanishing wilderness,'' Santa Cruz County-based First United Realty may have to reconsider offering them 1-to-8-acre homesites amid ''some of the most breathtaking'' scenery in the county's northwest corner, because its Planning and Zoning Commission sided with outraged local residents and voted 7-2 to recommend that the Board of Supervisors deny the developer the comprehensive plan amendment needed for the 6,000-acre Vistas at Sopori Ranch project, which would include 6,839 homes, two golf courses and retail, while keeping some 2,500 acres as open space.

''It's just plain not smart growth. It's suburban sprawl,'' objected Tucson Audubon Society member Scott Wilbur, reflecting sentiments of most of the approximately 180 attendees at the commission meeting.

''It will make travel on I-18 a nightmare,'' warned Tubac resident Emilio Falco, with Amador resident Bill Kurtz observing, ''They (First United) bought the property pretty cheap. They have little concern about us or the environment.''

Others, reports Nogales International writer Denise Holley, expanded the arguments.

Nogales High School senior Jose Ruiz favored growth as providing opportunities for him and his family, but told commissioners ''that growth has to respect the plan'' adopted in 2004.

''If you grant this exception,'' noted Tubac resident Harry Peck, ''you are going to run into a new area of exposure to litigation.''

With the proposal slated for the Board of Supervisors' meeting December 12, another Tubac resident, Susan Maurer, echoed that cautionary remark.

''You are charged with upholding standards in the face of relentless development,'' she pointed out. ''While the comprehensive plan is not written in stone, it shouldn't be written in disappearing ink.'' -- Nogales International   11/20/2007  

Resource(s):  www.nogalesinternational.com/, www.arizonaland.com/

Lawsuit Questions Parking Garage Subsidies for CityNorth Development

Under construction on 144 acres in the Desert Range area, some 15 miles northeast of downtown Phoenix, the upscale mixed-use CityNorth development ''epitomizes smart growth and dense urban village planning that reduces sprawl, reduces travel, and creates a live, work, shop and play environment,'' said the Thomas J. Klutznik Company's vice president, John Klutznik, as the Phoenix-based conservative Goldwater Institute released two academic studies to substantiate its August lawsuit against a $97.4 million city subsidy for the project's parking garages.

''Each study makes two points,'' said the institute's Center for Constitutional Litigation Director Clint Bolick. ''Those are that the economic impact has been vastly overinflated, and the other is that the jobs that will be created will pay far less than the city's median income.''

One study, by Arizona State University Professor Dave Wells, reports Arizona Republic writer Michael Clancy, focuses on the project's retail economics; the other, by University of Pennsylvania Professor Andrey Pavlov, evaluates all its aspects.

Pointing out that cities should subsidize developers only for providing affordable housing, revitalizing depressed neighborhoods, minimizing environmental impact or enhancing local quality of life, Professor Pavlov wrote, ''The CityNorth project does not meet any of these criteria'' and the subsidy ''cannot be justified on either economic or social grounds.''

The Chicago-based company's vice president is confident the project will pay for itself, becoming an economic engine for Phoenix and taxpayers.

''We stand behind all the relevant financial information we have provided to the city and its consultants,'' he stressed. ''The city did not risk nor did it invest any existing revenue in CityNorth.''

The $97.4 million subsidy reflects a 50 percent sales tax rebate for the company over 11 years, the writer reports, noting the project's first phase -- High Street, with offices, restaurants, stores and housing in 10 three-to-four-story buildings -- is slated for completion late next year.

Goldwater Institute officials hope to settle the case before it goes to trial. -- Arizona Republic   11/13/2007  

Resource(s):  www.azcentral.com/ ; www.goldwaterinstitute.org/

California

San Francisco to Test Demand-Based Parking Meter Program

Following the February 2007 introduction of demand-based meter prices on downtown parking by Redwood City, 26 miles south, San Francisco officials plan to launch a similar high-tech pilot program in several neighborhoods early next year, hoping eventually to increase the city's parking meter revenue from about $30 million to perhaps $150 million a year while making drivers cruise less in search for vacant spaces and thus reducing traffic and air pollution.

''We're looking at actually pricing a parking space like housing,'' said San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) Chief Financial Officer Sonali Bose, ''let the market dictate the price.''

Under the program the MTA board will discuss in greater detail next month, reports San Francisco Chronicle writer Rachel Gordon, the city may expand meter hours in high-demand areas but lift user time limits, bring meter rates closer to charges on nearby parking lots, and set progressive prices of perhaps $2 for the first hour, with each additional hour costing a dollar more than the previous one.

Officials aim for an 85 percent meter occupancy rate to ensure turnover, the writer notes, and they also want to make payments convenient, believing people will readily use a credit or debit card, a cell phone or other electronic gadget even if there's a surcharge.

In Redwood City, redevelopment manager Susan Moeller is pleased with the 85 percent meter occupancy and the electronic meter payment results, telling the writer that initial technological glitches were worked out and that officials promised downtown merchants to spend the extra revenue on district street and sidewalk enhancements.

''The program hasn't been without its challenges,'' she observed, ''but we've gotten to the point where we are managing our parking much better so there is less congestion and there are always spaces available.''

A ''parking management guru,'' University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) Urban Planning Professor Donald Shoup expects more municipalities to embrace free-market parking rates.

''I think new technology makes it much easier to try pricing variation and the world is changing,'' he stressed. ''There's a much better understanding about energy dependency and global warming, and people are becoming more willing to do what they can about congestion.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle   10/12/2007  

Resource(s):  www.sfgate.com/

Dublin City Council Urged to Place 6-Story Cap on Proposed Mixed-Use Towers

The Contra Costa Times applauds the mix of residential units, office space, live-work quarters, a hotel and a sports club proposed for 12 acres at Dublin's eastern edge as ''high-density 'smart growth' that will help reduce our future dependence on automobiles,'' but it urges its City Council to keep cutting the height of the prospective Grafton Plaza buildings, because they would ''dwarf'' all other structures in the valley.

With the developers hoping to build four 16-story to 21-story residential towers and the council recently announcing it would consider only 10-story heights, the daily's editorial suggests a six-story limit as much more reasonable.

Noting that the project will be more successful if it keeps its proportion of ''job-producing office space'' and provides sufficient shuttle service to the BART station about two miles away, the editorial doesn't want the towers to ''loom'' over everything around.

''The character of the valley and its view,'' it stresses, ''should be respected.'' -- Contra Costa Times   11/13/2007  

Resource(s):  www.contracostatimes.com/

Work Transportation and Home Location: How Affordable Housing Becomes an Environmental Issue

California leads the national drive against climate change, and the San Francisco Bay Area leads California, but ''why are we building like it's 1957, and the best thing we can think of is driving on the freeway,'' ask former Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Tom Steinbach and Interim Director Mike Howe in a San Francisco Chronicle column, pointing out that hybrid-car and low-carbon fuel technology must be augmented by cuts in miles drivers travel to make the state reach its 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act goal of reducing the total greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020.

To help readers appreciate not only the need for both technology and life-style changes to minimize tailpipe emissions, but also the related pocketbook and personal-time gains, the writers invoke an example of someone who drives a big SUV in a three-hour round-trip to work at the cost of at least $60 a week.

That person's first option is to buy a more fuel-efficient hybrid car. By buying a more fuel-efficient hybrid car, that someone could lower the work-trip's tailpipe emissions by two-thirds and save about $45 on gas.

But by moving within perhaps three miles to the job, the person could cut the trip's emissions by almost 90 percent, spend just $3 weekly on gas, and gain at least 10 hours a week to be with family, pursue sports or run errands now delayed till weekends.

And if really ambitious, that person could even bike a few miles to work, which would still save time and be a lot healthier.

Unfortunately, they write, housing near work has become too costly for too many, which ''illustrates why affordable housing is truly an environmental issue; when people can't afford to live close their jobs, they end up driving long distances and pumping more carbon into the air.''

Nevertheless, the best for all determined to reduce their impact on climate, they continue, is to ''do both: get a hybrid and move closer to work'' if the housing prices aren't out of their reach.

''We need to build more homes near jobs, and make sure people can afford those homes,'' the writers stress. ''We need to build neighborhoods with shops, services, good public transit, and parks -- all within easy walking distance of homes.''

With half of all development envisioned by 2030 not built yet, there's still time, they write, noting that technological innovations ''are at the heart of the Bay Area's culture and economy'' and urging application of local talent to ''the question of how to use our land well.''

Stopping ''the climate juggernaut'' requires ''everything we know will work now,'' they conclude. ''We know it'll work to drive less. Let's build our cities to make it possible.'' -- San Francisco Chronicle   10/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.sfgate.com/chronicle/

Tahoe Moving Towards Smart Growth in New Regional Plan

Formed by natural forces, the Lake Tahoe basin's ''forested peaks and deep cobalt blue waters'' make it a scenic wonder, but ''the building craze of the 1950s and 1960s'' has harmed lake clarity and left ugly buildings amid magnificent settings and parking lots atop marshes and meadows, writes Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Executive Director John Singlaub in the North Lake Tahoe Bonanza, expecting the agency's Community Enhancement Program (CEP), launched last summer, to infuse Tahoe's new regional plan with smart growth principles for long-term sustainability.

Although ''the whole idea of developing compact, walkable town centers with community gathering places and easy access to public transportation originated in more densely populated urban areas,'' it can be tailored and adapted to the unique Lake Tahoe mountain environment, he notes, stressing, ''That is what we are testing and what we hope to accomplish both with the CEP and the new regional plan,'' scheduled for adoption next October.

Part of the Pathway place-based planning process, involving hundreds of residents, property owners and real estate professionals, he writes, the CEP offers environmentally conscious developers commercial floor and both residential unit and tourist room bonuses,'' along with ''possible flexibility on height restrictions, density standards and parking requirements.''

So far, nine ''project pre-applicants'' participated in community workshops, receiving extensive feedback on their concept designs, including affordable housing in Kings Beach, and redevelopment in the Kings Beach, Homewood and Crystal Bay areas.

Listing what's ''not good'' for Tahoe, the TRPA director mentions ''(b)ox-shaped buildings with expansive parking lots and no best management practices, stagnant communities, traffic congestion and unhealthy forests,'' all reasons for the public to demand the ''extraordinary'' envisioned in the CEP and aimed for in the upcoming regional plan.

For details, he refers readers to www.trpa.org/ or www.pathway2007.org/. -- North Lake Tahoe Bonanza   11/23/2007  

Resource(s):  www.tahoebonanza.com/

Colorado

Revenue from Colorado ''Guzzler Tax'' Would Go to State Smart Growth Office

Working on legislation that would set an $80-$100 ''guzzler tax'' on the sale of poor gas-mileage vehicles such as Hummers or Yukons and many SUVs, state Democratic Representative Claire Levy plans to earmark the revenue for the State Office of Smart Growth, saying she wants to address ''the problem we have of inadequate transportation planning, combined with this upward spiral in greenhouse-gas emissions because our land-use patterns require people to drive'' more and more.

With only two employees, who call it just a ''cubicle of smart growth,'' she observes, the office handed out $400,000 in grants last year, and could use the extra money for broader assistance to local governments in planning less car-dependent development.

She knows the fee amount won't be enough ''to discourage people from buying a gas guzzler, but it might make them think twice about the consequences'' of their driving habits.

If such a guzzler tax had applied to vehicles with 20 or fewer miles per gallon, it would have affected more than half of SUV owners, reports Boulder Daily Camera writer Ryan Morgan, citing calculations from EPA's web site www.fueleconomy.gov/.

Boulder-based Southwest Energy Efficiency Project Executive Director Howard Geller calls tailpipe emissions a major part of the climate change problem, with better land-use planning bound to minimize driving needs.

''I think she's come up with a clever funding source, rather than trying to find that money in the overall state budget,'' he says of Representative Levy's prospective legislation. ''The least-efficient cars -- the SUVs and light trucks -- those are the vehicles that are polluting the most. Asking the purchasers of those vehicles to pay an additional fee to support efforts to reduce pollution by vehicles and reduce congestion on the roads makes sense.'' -- Daily Camera   11/27/2007  

Resource(s):  www.dailycamera.com/

Credit Crunch, New Urbanism Lifestyle Making Multifamily Housing a Popular Choice

Despite or because of tighter credit and in contrast to a single-family-home market slump, Fort Collins multifamily construction and permits are up, reports the city's Coloradoan writer Pat Ferrier, quoting Coldwell Banker managing broker and Fort Collins Board of Realtors Director Chris Hardy, who said ''people are looking at the opportunity multifamily provides in terms of being closer to the things they need . . . they don't need to drive to get to the market'' and they ''can live a pedestrian life,'' adding, ''It's new urbanism taking hold.''

Townhouses are usually more affordable than single-family homes, especially when interest rates rise, observed Armstead Construction principal and Homebuilders Association of Northern Colorado President Jeff Schneider, glad to see multifamily units ''picking back up'' from last year.

Hearne Construction principal Kevin Hearne, who built 42 townhouse units last year and is now building 63, all for rent at $1,100 to $1,300 a month, said multifamily dwellings are reselling well and there is ''an undersupply'' in their new units.

His 63-unit project in Rigden Farms, the writer notes, will offer residents easy access to an adjacent shopping plaza, restaurants, a gas station, church and other services. -- Coloradoan   10/18/2007  

Resource(s):  www.coloradoan.com/

Aurora Officials Consider Zoning Change to Allow TOD Along Future Denver-Aurora Light-Rail Line

The Regional Transportation District (RTD) has scheduled completion of the 14.5-mile light-rail line along I-225 -- arching from I-25 southwest of Denver through Aurora to I-70 in the west -- for 2015, reports Aurora Sentinel writer J.C. O'Connell, but Aurora officials are already working on prospective transit-oriented development (TOD) zoning around the corridor's nine stations, expecting developers to seize the earliest opportunity for the dense, mixed use, pedestrian-friendly projects increasingly in demand everywhere.

''We really don't have a mixed-use district or a district that allows residential uses to be above retail or office uses,'' observed Aurora top planner Loretta Daniel, saying creation of such a ''mixed use zone district'' will make construction easier and offer residents ''a new lifestyle choice,'' with most destinations accessible on foot or bike.

TOD, she pointed out, creates ''neighborhood centers,'' while boosting transit system ridership.

In this early envisioning phase, the writer notes, area residents are primarily focused on the I-225 light-rail alignment, construction issues and operation details.

Once those are vetted and settled in the next few years, said Aurora Councilwoman Molly Markert, the residents will become similarly involved both in TOD planning and plan implementation. -- Aurora Sentinel   11/20/2007  

Resource(s):  www.rtd-denver.com/ ; www.aurorasentinel.com/

Connecticut

Effects of Zoning on Public Health Part of Connecticut's First Statewide Smart Growth Conference

''It's amazing what type of health problems we're willing to accept to drive our cars,'' observed Fairfield Plan & Zoning Commissioner Alyssa Israel, the leader of a health-in-planning forum during the first Statewide Smart Growth Conference at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, mentioning sedentariness, obesity, asthma, and traffic casualties, and telling the audience that in a 1926 U.S. Supreme Court case, justices upheld the Village of Euclid's (Ohio) right to enforce zoning laws because of the need to protect public health.

Though the mid-1950s boom has led to placement of planning and health issues in separate departments and made planners focus mostly on economic aspects of development since then, said Commissioner Israel, the early awareness of relationship between urban plans and public health must be restored and once again inform zoning and design.

Instead of car-dependent development, the country needs policies to encourage mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly and transit-oriented neighborhoods, she pointed out, which would facilitate physical activity, create more job opportunities, and provide better access to health care and good nutrition, especially for the poor.

In contrast to South Windsor, whose planner Michele Lipe wasn't happy that her city is debating a measure that would not allow students to walk to school, reports Bridgeport Connecticut Post writer Rob Varnon, Norwalk health education coordinator Rhonda Collins said the city's 2002 ''NorWALKER'' program spurred walking by distribution of maps with pedestrian routes for 10 neighborhoods, and after funds dried up in 2005, it was adopted and continued by schools.

Today, she stressed, there are 13 pedestrian maps with 38 routes and a 14th map is in the work, while the city incorporated the program into its development master plan, currently under review. -- Connecticut Post   11/15/2007  

Resource(s):  www.connpost.com/

Kids Aren't Walking to School? Author Points to Efficiency and Choice

''As the nation's population sprawls over an ever-larger geography -- and as schools increase in size -- fewer families can indulge the simple act of walking their children to school,'' observes book author Charles Euchner in a Hartford Courant commentary on the annual National Walk to School Day on October 3, noting that despite serious setbacks since the 1970s, ''America has super-sized its schools for two reasons -- efficiency and choice,'' with administrators driven by economies of scale and the potential for more language and vocational classes, pre-college electives, and extracurricular activities.

''Why build a $70 million school for 1,000 students when you can build a $90 million school for 2,000 students?'' he paraphrases the predominant reasoning among district officials, as if they weren't aware that most students, especially from minority and poor families ''do better in smaller schools,'' a conclusion of 103 studies reviewed by Kathleen Cotton in 1996.

''Private and parochial schools thrive in part because of the small, tight communities they offer, often with few amenities or frills,'' he writes, pointing out that the nation's 27,000 private schools enroll 5.3 million students, or an average below 200 each.

As a rule of thumb, the author continues, elementary schools should have about 400 students, and secondary schools between 600 and 800.

''In a small school, everybody has a chance to be somebody,'' he writes. ''In a high school of 600 students, almost any kid can make the sports teams, land a role in the play or join the student paper. More important, teachers know the students and can spot a student's problems before they fester too long. That's why, according to a survey by Public Agenda, two-thirds of parents and three-quarters of teachers favor small schools.''

As an example, the author quotes Yale Center for British Art postdoctoral fellow Stephane Roy, who moved with his wife to New Haven's East Rock neighborhood two years ago so they could walk their daughter Charlotte to the Worthington Hooker School a few blocks away.

''For her, being able to walk to school makes it all very concrete, very tangible,'' the father said. ''It's an extension of her home, something she knows and loves.''

A decade ago, the author adds, the grand 107-year-old school ''might have been turned into condos,'' but thanks to local advocates, it was reopened after an 18-month-long, $13 million renovation ''for children like Charlotte Roy.'' -- Hartford Courant   10/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.courant.com/

Commentary: Showcase Projects Won't Cut Sprawl

Although Quinnipiac University statistics professor Jack Kaplan, a former Sierra Club Executive Committee member, admires the 10 smart-growth developments showcased in the club's 2005 ''Building Better'' report for their ''genuine contribution to fighting sprawl,'' he admonishes the environmental community's anti-sprawl campaign for still focusing almost exclusively on ''these one-of-a- kind'' projects, even if any realistic person should see that ''only a very small fraction of population'' will ever live in such places.

''There are certainly advantages to living in the downtown area of a central city or above a store in a mixed-use development, but there are disadvantages as well,'' the professor writes in a Hartford Courant guest opinion, certain that most people in large metropolitan areas, ''especially families with children,'' prefer conventional suburban housing, a preference ''just as true for environmentalists as it is for the general population.''

Besides, he observes, there ''aren't that many suitable locations'' for similar showcase projects, most of which also require large subsidies to offer housing that the average person can afford.

Concerned that any ''smart growth campaign that fails to recognize this reality will be only marginally effective at best,'' the professor believes that the central issue in efforts to curb sprawl must be ''the density and location of conventional residential development in the suburbs.''

Noting that the prevalent suburban practice of limiting most residential construction ''to expensive, single-family homes on large lots, plus perhaps a few apartment buildings reserved for the elderly'' doubled Connecticut's urbanized land between 1970 and 2000, while its population increased by only 12 percent, Professor Kaplan stresses that preservation of the state's quality of life depends on policies to discourage low-density residential growth in rural areas and to promote densities of at least four units per acre near cities and along transit routes.

He applauds the HOMEConnecticut group for initiating such a move this year, with legislation on financial incentives for towns that allow single-family home densities of at least six units per acre and multifamily housing densities of at least 20 units per acre, both project types required to set aside at least 20 percent of dwellings deemed affordable.

The incentives were set at $7,000 for each single-family home and $4,000 for each multifamily unit.

''More important, towns would be reimbursed by the state for 15 years for the additional cost of education generated by such housing,'' the professor points out, disappointed that the General Assembly approved only the one-time payments, up to $4 million the first year, referring the education reimbursement issue to an advisory committee, expected to report back by February 1.

''Let's hope,'' he concludes, ''it will come up with some good, politically viable ideas so that further progress can be made next year.'' -- Hartford Courant   10/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.courant.com/

Delaware

Lewes Officials Seek Controls to Slow Down Development

Under Democratic Governor Ruth Ann Minner's 2001 Livable Delaware agenda, the state wants counties to push growth toward towns, and the updated Sussex County comprehensive plan follows that directive, but many town officials are resentful, reports Lewes Cape Gazette writer Ron MacArthur, with Lewes Councilwoman Stephanie Tsantes telling County Assistant Administrator Hal Godwin and others at a recent four-town public feedback meeting, ''We need to protect our quality of life. You are destroying the small-town way of life if development is directed to towns.''

Councilman Victor Letonoff and Mayor James Ford voiced similar concerns.

''We are not asking to stop development, but some controls are needed to slow it down,'' said the councilman, while the mayor added, ''Livable Delaware was created to stop sprawl. But we can't handle any more development. We are swamped with too much, too fast. We need a time out.''

Noting that some municipalities also fear development near their boundaries, Delaware Office of State Planning and Coordination official Connie Holland thought comprehensive town plans could designate those adjacent tracts as areas of ''concern'' instead of growth, which would let officials restrict development on specific parcels if projects might overburden local infrastructure and services.

Calling the updated county plan a mission statement, she stressed that its implementation depends on ordinances, and County Assistant Administrator Godwin and Councilman Lynn Rogers promised such regulatory follow-up.

''We will develop ordinances -- that's where the rubber meets the road,'' said the administrator, committed to strengthening county-municipal land use coordination, with the councilman admitting that the previous plan lacked well-written ordinances.

''This time around we bid out the consultant to write the plan; we like what we've got. And now we also have a professional to write the ordinances,'' he pointed out. ''The ordinances make the plan live or die and the ordinances must have teeth in them.''

At the same time, planner Bobbie Geyer, who worked on the Delaware Department of Transportation's addition to the county plan, responded to Commissioner Letonoff's concerns about Cape Region traffic problems, saying state officials realize ''you can't build your way out of congestion,'' but they ''can make it easier to get around without getting in your car.''

A week later, reports Cape Gazette writer Henry J. Evans Jr., those subjects were also addressed at a two-day ''Managing Growth Around Lewes'' conference, featuring presentations by University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education Associate Professor Reid Ewing and national planner-designer Randall Arendt. -- Cape Gazette   11/5/2007  

Resource(s):  www.capegazette.com/index.html

Florida

Sarasota County Comprehensive Plan Changes Now Need Supermajority Vote

With Sarasota County quality of life under strong development pressures, and the County Commission often approving comprehensive plan changes for massive projects by a 3-2 majority, 61 percent of voters passed a charter amendment that makes any such changes contingent on a 4-1 supermajority -- a requirement business leaders see as likely to affect all rezoning and bad for the economy, while Commissioner Joe Barbetta considers it a natural result of a two-decade-long public quest for more influence on the decision-making process.

''I don't look at it as an anti-growth message,'' he said. ''I look at it as more of an anti-dumb-growth message.''

The question is, report Sarasota Herald Tribune writers Doug Sword, Stephen Frater and John Hielscher, whether and to what extent the county's supermajority rule will affect not only huge developments such as the proposed 7,000-home Thomas Ranch or the 5,400-home Villages at Lakewood Ranch, but also numerous smaller projects requiring simple rezoning, more than 90 percent of which the commission has already been approving or rejecting in 4-1 or 5-0 votes.

Thomas Ranch, the writers note, got a preliminary 3-2 endorsement last month, but must win four votes for its final approval next year.

Villages at Lakewood builders are seeking approval for project changes that may be seen as increases in density or intensity, which would also trigger the supermajority requirement.

As to rezoning requests that don't need comprehensive plan changes, County Planning Commission member Jody Hudgins called the procedure ''not a big hurdle,'' but noted that aware of the anti-growth mood among the public, commissioners may curb their approvals too.

And that could significantly slow down new development.

''Most politicians are notorious for having their fingers to the wind, and the wind blew pretty hard yesterday,'' agreed area Control Growth Now President Dan Lobeck, pointing out that that the three commissioners up for re-election next year may be especially susceptible to these considerations.

''The vote has smart-growth forces on the march,'' the writers observe, with Dan Lobeck expecting a push for higher impact fees, a drive to put more slow-growth measures on the ballot, and an attempt to revise the Sarasota 2050 plan, which allows construction of huge ''villages'' east of I-75. -- Herald Tribune   11/8/2007  

Resource(s):  www.heraldtribune.com/

Sarasota County Residents Stunned by Vote Granting Density Variance

Sarasota County commissioners, who called North Port officials irresponsible for annexing Thomas Ranch to let developers ''dodge'' the stricter county provisions against rural density, won 71-percent voter approval eight months ago for a measure that gave the county ''underlying land-use control over property annexed by cities,'' only to stun residents near the ranch with a comprehensive plan amendment that ''will allow 7,000 homes on land previously destined for 1,000,'' writes Herald Tribune columnist Eric Ernst, troubled that a pivotal vote in the 3-2 decision was cast by Commissioner Joe Barbetta, elected last year as a supporter of smart growth.

''It's hard to see anything smart about a plan that would increase density sevenfold along an already overworked, two-lane River Road,'' which forms a triangle with SR 776 and U.S. 41, the columnist observes, whose population of some 90,000 at buildout would almost double that of the city of Sarasota.

''And it does not account for whatever crazy schemes someone will propose in the future to jam in even more people,'' he writes, noting that county planners expected the area to have enough housing for years from projects approved before the plan amendment.

What's more, the additional 7,000 homes would threat the headwaters of Ainger, Gottfried and Forked creeks, major feeders of fresh water to Lemon Bay, which even now suffers from nutrient overload.

After the vote, the columnist adds, some disappointed residents thought Commissioner Barbetta intended to demonstrate the need for approval of ''the super-majority charter amendment'' on the November 6 ballot, which would require a 4-1 county commission vote to increase density set in the comprehensive plan, but he denied that intention. -- Herald Tribune   10/28/2007  

Resource(s):  www.heraldtribune.com/

Cape Coral Resident Worries That City Council Will Represent Developers, Not Residents, in Sans Souci Megaproject Decisions

''The movers and shakers are at it again, and as usual, they don't care who gets moved and shaken,'' writes Cape Coral resident, retired university professor Gordon R. Ultsch, in Fort Myers News-Press guest opinion on the proposed Sans Souci (French: worry-free) ''megaproject'' that would put 220-foot high-rises in his single-family-home area with a 38-foot height cap, pointing out that it ''may be worry-free for developers who don't live near,'' but not to northwest Cape residents and calling its 7.5-mile distance from the nearest shopping center ''entirely inconsistent with 'Smart Growth' and an egregious example of urban sprawl.''

Beside the height excess and the shopping trip distance arguments, he writes, a Northwest Neighborhood Association (NWNA) petition against the ''largely gated'' project -- already signed by more than 1,000 residents -- lists three other reasons for the area rezoning denial.

It notes that the city already has a 2,500-acre commercial/industrial land deficiency, which would be worsened by towers for the projected 1,600-1,800 occupants; that the effect of the project's location at the Charlotte Harbor Aquatic and State Buffer Preserve could not be good; and that its traffic would ultimately empty onto Burnt Store Road, an even now dangerous route also designated for hurricane evacuation.

Hoping that project supporter, Councilman Tom Hair, a real estate agent whose Miloff Aubuchon Realty Group ''has been hired to help sell the concept and the homes, will recuse himself from any related council vote, professor Ultsch asks ''the big question: Who does the City Council represents -- developers or residents?'' -- News-Press   10/22/2007  

Resource(s):  www.news-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Georgia

EcoBrokers Helping Consumers Find ''Green'' Housing in Atlanta

Sensitive to consumer demand, Metro Atlanta's housing industry is going ''green,'' observes Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie Hairston, reporting that after area home builders partnered with the Southface Energy Institute to devise the increasingly popular EarthCraft inspection program for environmentally sound construction, the city's Harry Norman Realtors brought in Colorado-based EcoBroker certification creator John Beldock on a three-day training session for 48 agents at its Buckhead Branch.

A lifelong environmentalist and former U.S. Department of Energy expert, John Beldock launched his national EcoBroker training program four years ago, offering classes in the field and online, at www.ecobroker.com.

He called the Atlanta classes for Harry Norman Realtors the most crowded he has ever conducted, pointing out that all EcoBroker agents -- some 2,000 in 42 states, but only 14 in metro Atlanta until now -- work ''as green ambassadors'' in their communities.

One of them, Hampton Realtor Burke Sisco, who earned his certification a year ago, told the writer, ''I don't just want to be a real estate agent. I want to be a change agent.''

Accordingly, he not only sells homes, but also maintains a Web site, www.ecohomeguy.com , with green housing information and resources.

''The consumers are a lot farther ahead in what they would like in a green home than the market is ready for,'' he said. ''The signals are that the green market is strong and getting better.''

Environmentally friendly homes, the writer notes, feature highly efficient heating, cooling and lighting, which saves on electricity bills; low-flow water fixtures and appliances; sustainable and recycled construction materials; clean indoor air; low-maintenance, drought-resistant landscaping; and -- no less important -- easy access to mass transit and pedestrian amenities.

EcoBrokers, she continues, help sellers identify and highlight environmental assets of their homes; help buyers find homes with such assets and certification; and help both sellers and buyers find special funding for renovation, purchase or green upgrades.

They also maintain ''a trove of resources that can provide cash, special interest rates, tax incentives and rebates'' for their eco-minded clients, she adds, quoting John Beldock.

With energy prices climbing, water resources dwindling, and traffic congestion worsening, public demand for environmentally conscious design and construction, and for livability and easy accessibility is growing, he said, emphasizing, ''It's tough to meet a consumer who is not concerned about these things.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/12/2007  

Resource(s):  www.ajc.com/

Atlanta Developers Adding Walkability to Project Priorities

Metro Atlanta developers are adopting ''a whole new ethic aimed at putting Atlantans on their feet'' by adding shops, cafes, plazas and parks both along main thoroughfares and in unexpected pockets, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Julie B. Hairston, quoting Woods Partners regional director Mark Randall, who stressed that in planning a high-density project, ''you have to think about extending (residents') life beyond their living rooms.''

Accordingly, the writer notes, plans and designs increasingly include wide sidewalks with vegetation, clearly marked crosswalks, street-level shopping and eating, public art, common areas with benches or amphitheatrical seats, and access to transit.

Developers put a lot of money and energy in such projects, realizing that people ''will be spending more of their leisure time burning shoe leather instead of rubber,'' the writer observes, citing two examples.

With a recently announced $8 million Woodruff Foundation grant for a new 35-acre park in the Old Fourth Ward, a developer consortium will build more than 3,000 diversified housing units, and 500,000 square feet of shops and restaurants around it, both park and development plans reflecting extensive public input to preserve the neighborhood's character.

''The way we're doing this can be a symbol for Atlanta,'' said Cablik Enterprises President Alan Cablik.

''It's a future vision of what it means to be an Atlantan.''

Some four miles north, in the Buckhead neighborhood, the Miami-based Related Group is planning a similar pedestrian-friendly development, CityPlace Buckhead, after months of consultations with city and local leaders on its features and amenities.

These will include a wide central boulevard with art in the median, thousands of feet of sidewalks, natural elements and shaded benches, in a pattern credited by the group's Atlanta Division Vice President Lee Hodges to the Buckhead Community Improvement District's first-phase Peachtree Street upgrades nearby.

''We're going to take that and run with it,'' he explained, confident that CityPlace Buckhead will ''encourage people to get out and walk because they have something to look at.''

District Executive Director Scotty Greene, who has shepherded the pedestrian improvements for years through the city's maze of planning and funding, said that's exactly what the local business community created the district for: to make its public spaces attractive and more pedestrian-friendly. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/20/2007  

Resource(s):  www.ajc.com/

Mixed-Use Zoning, Infill Help to Drop Atlanta's Rate of Open Space Loss

Although the population in metro Atlanta's 10-county core grew from 3.4 million in 2000 to 3.8 million in 2005 and surpassed 4 million this year, the larger 13-county area has cut its rural and forest land conversion from 112,000 acres in 2003-05 to 31,000 since then -- a roughly 71 percent reduction, which the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) attributes mainly to a recent home construction slump, the new popularity of mixed uses, and a marked influx of residents to dense urban centers, including Atlanta.

''We have slowed down. But we're still growing,'' said ARC Research Division Chief Mike Alexander about his new land-use Regional Snapshot, heartened by surges of redevelopment and infill ''all across the region.''

What's more, the greater metro area's 20 counties have protected almost 170,000 acres of greenspace, with outer and relatively sparsely populated Bartow and Paulding counties protecting 23,590 and 31,416 acres (7.8 and 15.6 percent of their land), respectively.

In addition, voters in Paulding and six other counties, and in the city of Smyrna, have passed all their 2003-06 land acquisition ballot measures, taxing themselves a total of $216,330.

''The Atlanta region's advantage of having large tracts of land close to highways and jobs had become a characteristic of the 1970 to 2000 period in the region's development history,'' observed ARC Land Use Planning Chief Dan Reuter. ''While conversion of land to development has slowed in recent years, the larger issue is how Atlanta will grow with less vacant land and more traffic congestion than was present in prior decades.''

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution editorial board counts on higher-density ''live-work-play'' communities.

''While the downturn in the housing market should be temporary, if painful, the change in development patterns should be more long term,'' stresses editorial writer Lyle V. Harris. ''The 'sprawl is good' mindset long embraced by developers and endorsed by public officials is giving way to a recognition that sprawl threatens our region's economic vitality and puts undue burdens on our natural resources. And more important, that realization is being validated in the marketplace.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   11/28/2007  

Resource(s):  www.atlantaregional.com/; www.ajc.com/

More Restrictions on Water Use Likely for Atlanta Region

First, wasteful land consumption since the 1950s has led to land shortages and exorbitant housing prices across urban areas, and now similar multi-level profligacy is exacerbating the impact of higher temperatures and recurrent regional droughts, threatening national water sources, with Georgia Environmental Protection Division Carol Couch having until the end of the month to advise Republican Governor Sonny Perdue on water use restriction options, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Matt Kempner, ''that not even arid Southern California or Las Vegas has had to make.''

Director Couch, the writer notes, already banned recreational water uses, along with watering lawns and gardens and noncommercial car washing throughout Atlanta metro and Northern Georgia late last month, and is preparing recommendations for commercial and industrial water restrictions, with eventual limits on farm and even personal use also possible.

''Most large metropolitan areas have systems in place where they try to be better managers of the resource than that,'' commented University of Nebraska-Lincoln's National Drought Mitigation Center founder Don Wilhite, calling the Eastern states ''more vulnerable than the West,'' where the need for conservation, giant reservoirs and other backup supplies was realized long ago.

Their growth notwithstanding, the Eastern states put ''less emphasis on conservation'' and a severe long-term drought, he observed, ''creates problems they've never had to deal with before.''

Amherst, Massachusetts-based author and water conservation consultant Amy Vickers agrees, putting much of the blame for the quick draining of water supplies during droughts to a dramatic outdoor watering increase over the last ten years.

''We need to act sooner in imposing these more restrictive measures,'' she points out, ''because we may not have as much time as we had in the past to rebound.''

Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General Manager Jeff Kightlinger recollects the severe drought of the late 1980s and early 1990, when the region limited outdoor watering to certain days, asked restaurants to serve water only upon request, and encouraged other forms of conservation.

''It became kind of patriotic to let your lawn dry up,'' he remembers. ''People banded together.''

What is in stock for Atlanta metro and counties farther north should their water levels continue to drop?

In central North Carolina, some 300 miles northeast of Atlanta, the writer reports, Siler City's reservoir lost so much water that officials of this town of 8,000 just ordered all users -- from homeowners to industries -- to cut their water use in half. ''We're asking them to do whatever it takes,'' stressed Town Manager Joel Brower, noting that violators face fines or may even see their water cut off. -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution   10/15/2007  

Resource(s):  www.ajc.com/

Hawaii

Wailea 670 Project Moves Forward with Maui County Land Use Committee Vote; Would Be First to Comply With Workforce Residential Housing Policy

After 11 months of scrutiny and hot debates over a Honua'ula Partners LLC application to rezone 670 upland acres on Maui's southwestern coast for 1,400 housing units, 80,000 square feet of commercial space and a golf course, the Maui County Council Land Use Committee voted 6-2 for approval of rezoning when it meets as the full council December 21, with many residents hailing the Wailea 670 project for its promised 50 percent affordable housing share and some $40 million in road, park and school fees, but many others considering its community benefits overstated and the environmental impact underrated.

Initially approved as a series of gated communities with 2,600 housing units and two golf courses at the end of the 1980s, but later scaled down by the developer, reported Maui News writer Claudine San Nicolas in July, Wailea 670 is the first major project to comply with the county's new Workforce Residential Housing Policy, which requires developers to set aside between 40 and 50 percent of their units for earners in the lower median-income bracket.

The prospect for 700 such units and for substantial developer investment in local infrastructure outweighed misgivings among the six council members who moved the project to the rezoning vote next month.

''We're losing so many young families on this island,'' said Land Use Committee Chairman Mike Molina, blaming the lack of low-cost housing and noting that from now on all developers will have to make major contribution before their projects are approved.

''Seven-hundred affordable units is nothing to sneeze at,'' agreed Council Member Danny Mateo, who previously chaired the council's housing committee that drafted the workforce housing policy, stressing that he has never favored high-end golf courses or homes, but that ''(t)he reality is somebody has to pay for affordable units.''

Council Chairman Riki Hokama and Council Member Jo Anne Johnson, who voted against the recommendation to rezone the land for Wailea 700, remain unconvinced.

Concerned about island water supplies, the chairman was especially opposed to developers' plans for their own water system and wastewater treatment facility, saying he ''can wait for this development,'' because other proposed projects better address the community's economic, environmental and sustainability goals.

Council Member Johnson simply called the developer's application incomplete, saying, ''We wouldn't be having to go all through this if everything was in proper order.''

On an out-island trip and absent at the meeting, the ninth committee and council member, Michelle Anderson, has long criticized the application and pressed for further details and conditions.

Among other things, she requested that the developer's offer to build 250 of the 700 affordable units offsite include a binding promise to begin their construction ''immediately'' upon project approval, though she would rather see all his lower-cost units built on the site, ''with at last half of them being houses for sale, not apartments for rent.''

In a September 17 letter to the Maui News, she wrote: ''This segment of our population is the work force that keeps our economic engine running. They deserve real housing opportunities, not rental apartments in an industrial zoned area.... If rental apartments in an industrial area is the best offer we can get for our work force residents from a massive development proposal like Wailea 700, it's time for the county to condemn land and build the housing ourselves.'' -- Maui News   11/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.mauinews.com

Plan Would Help Hawaii's Teachers Buy Homes

With an unbridgeable gap between the nearly $700,000 single-family home median price and the $42,000 teacher starting salary considered a key reason behind Hawaii's loss of more than 1,500 public school teachers each year, Hawaii State Teachers Association President Roger Takabayashi is hoping to limit the drain with a unique affordable-housing bill, under which the state would buy both new and old homes for resale to qualified teachers at 20 percent of the value, while keeping 80 percent ownership.

''The intent of this is not for investment purposes, but rather to encourage teachers to put down roots in communities where they teach,'' he said. ''This bill offers one way to alleviate a burden from teachers' backs, so they can focus on teaching and not so much on survival.''

First proposed last year, reports Builder Online writer Jenny Sullivan, his legislation stalled in committee due to budget problems, a setback he wants to avoid in the 2008 legislative session, which will open in July, by reintroducing the bill together with an appropriation measure that would increase state funds for teacher rental housing, offered mostly in rural communities.

President Takabayashi thinks his proposal to help teachers become homeowners may advance next year, the writer observes, because the state could tap the expanding foreclosure market and buy houses at reduced prices.

The bill, she adds, would require teachers to pay property taxes, mortgage payments and insurance, own no other property elsewhere, and work full-time for public schools. -- BuilderOnline.com   10/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.builderonline.com/

Honolulu Officials Want Local Input on Planning and Design for New Transit Communities

The upcoming light-rail system between East Kapolei and downtown Honolulu, about 20 miles west, will certainly spur mixed-use transit-oriented development (TOD) within a quarter-to-half-mile radius of some 20 stations, turning ''sleepy bedroom communities into teeming new hubs of 24-hour activity,'' but their look and feel ultimately depend on local input in the planning and design process, observes Honolulu Advertiser writer Gordon Y.K. Pang, reporting on a consensus among officials and experts who seek the strongest possible public involvement in city-sponsored workshops and related meetings.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann expects residents to keep telling the planners and builders in detail what they want around transit stations, said city planning and permitting director Henry Eng.

''From everyone we've spoken to on the Mainland -- Denver, Portland, Seattle, San Francisco -- (we heard) a critical element of successful projects is continuous and inclusive community participation,'' he stressed. ''And we're taking this advice very seriously.''

With the first TOD workshop slated for two stations in very different parts of Waipahu, area native and Land Use Research Foundation Executive Director David Arakawa pointed out that most of the successful TOD projects feature mixed uses and multiple-story buildings so ''you're not going to have one- or two-story single-family homes around there anymore,'' but still each of the Waipahu stations ''is going to be unique.''

Accomplished professional planner Lowell Chun and University of Hawaii-Manoa urban and regional planning associate professor Peter Flachsbart offered residents a few words of experience and warning against passivity.

''While there are some basic rules of thumb on what should go in the area around transit stops, every neighborhood on Oahu, as in any other place in the world, is different, with different people with different values and different goals and dreams,'' said the planner, noting that if they ignore the input workshops, others ''who may know very little about the area, how they live and what they care about, may do something they think is good for somebody else but which may not be'' for this particular neighborhood.

Professor Flachsbart put it this way: ''The planning process calls for participation among a number of stakeholders -- planners, transit agencies, developers, bankers and the community. If the community doesn't show up, then something might be built that's not to its liking.'' -- Honolulu Advertiser   10/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.honoluluadvertiser.com/

Idaho

Post Falls Moving Quickly Toward Smart Growth

Either speed or resolve could be the middle name for Post Falls, a few miles west of Coeur d'Alene, as it moves toward smart growth, with several public sessions just a year ago now resulting in a SmartCode draft slated for City Council approval after December hearings, city staff scheduled to attend a national PlaceMakers best practice workshop, and a related consultant-guided city comprehensive plan update process expected to begin in January and end by the summer.

''The comprehensive plan guides growth; the SmartCode is an implementation strategy. They need to be consistent because they inform each other,'' pointed out city Community Development Director Alex Ifekuna, emphasizing the importance of a local sense of place.

''We need to add a number of new elements to the comprehensive plan to include SmartCode, new mobility elements that relate to both vehicular and pedestrian transportation, as well as address areas in which the city is projected to grow on the prairie.''

One of the code's aims, reports Coeur d'Alene Press writer Brian Walker, quoting from the text, is to ensure ''that a community will not have to scrutinize all proposed projects because, in the process that creates the code, what the community intends has already been specified.''

For example, the writer notes, a proposed mixed-use project in east Post Falls would include rosewalks, buffered by an equestrian trail, and homes with front porches on both sides of a pedestrian green.

Officials, said City Administrator Eric Keck, are anxious to implement the SmartCode ''to get the community moving in a different, more desirable direction.'' -- Coeur d'Alene Press   10/4/2007  

Resource(s):  www.cdapress.com/

Illinois

Legislature Goes to Bat for Complete Streets in Illinois

''The Illinois Legislature recognized what is becoming common sense across the country -- that our roads need to serve everyone using them, whether they are driving, walking, bicycling, or catching the bus,'' said National Complete Streets Coalition (NCSC) Coordinator Barbara McCann after lawmakers voted unanimously in the Senate and 109-3 in the House to nullify Democratic Governor Rod Blagojevich's amendatory veto on the comprehensive Complete Street Law (AB 314), under which the Illinois Department of Transportation must include safe bicycling and walking routes in all planning for urbanized areas immediately and in construction by August 2008.

''By routinely completing their streets,'' she pointed out, ''transportation agencies increase road capacity, avoid costly retrofits, encourage physical activity and help create the walkable communities that so many people want today.''

Chicagoland Bicycle Federation Chief Strategy Officer Randy Neufeld echoed the statement.

''The law is a very cost-effective way to improve safety and access for bicyclists and pedestrians,'' he stressed. ''In the past, the state was prompted by death or injury to correct unsafe conditions on a given project. This law requires projects be built correctly the first time, which will save taxpayers' money and protect people.''

According to an NCSC press release, five other states have adopted some form of complete street law since the movement's 2003 inception, and eight have established other types of such policies, with California lawmakers considering a measure that requires all jurisdictions to plan roads for all travelers, including transit passengers and the disabled.

In related news, reports NYC Streets Renaissance's Streetsblog, an August amendment to the Illinois Vehicle Code requires motorists to leave at least three feet when passing a bicycle.

In an extensive e-mail comment on the Illinois' new law, blog reader Angus Grieve-Smith writes:

''The fact that there needs to be a movement, with a coalition leading to it, to provide basic facilities for people to walk from one place to another, is completely shameful.

''Also, why just urban areas? Many towns and cities are a comfortable walking distance apart (and many more are a comfortable cycling distance apart), and there are lots of country and suburb dwellers (including but not limited to the elderly, teenagers and the disabled) who don't have access to cars and public transportation. I know that urban areas might be a first step, but I think it's important to think and talk in terms of long-term goals. Limiting this to urban areas makes no sense in the long term.

'' 'We didn't build sidewalks here for 50 years,' says Norm Steinman, planning manager for Charlotte's transportation department. 'Streets designed by traffic engineers in the '60s, '70s, '80s and '90s were mostly for autos.'

''It's worse that that. In these years, miles and miles of sidewalks in North Carolina were removed from the streets -- demapped, torn up and transferred to lawns and parking lots. If you walk around some of the older downtowns, you can still see traces (assuming you don't get run over first).'' -- Streetsblog   10/17/2007  

Resource(s):  http://completestreets.org ; www.streetsblog.org/

School District Facing Added Land Expenses as Total Cost Approaches $150 Million

Planning a 3,000-student high school on 80 acres -- roughly equidistant from the Indian Prairie Unit District 204 sectors of Aurora, Naperville, Bolinbrook and Plainfield some four miles away -- where they already own a 25-acre tract, district officials were ready to buy the additional 55 acres for $13.75 million in 2005, or $250,000 an acre, but a jury in a condemnation case decided the land was worth $518,250 per acre at the time the suit was filed, telling the district to pay the owners $28.5 million plus $2.5 million in compensation for loss value of their remaining 15.9 acres.

With $124.7 million in bonds approved by voters last year to ease overcrowding in the two older high schools and absorb future students, reports Arlington Heights Daily Herald writer Melissa Jenco, district officials expected to launch construction six months ago and open the more than $100 million mega-school, near a road intersection passed daily by 75,000 cars, in fall 2009.

Having 30 days from the jury's verdict to buy the land for immediate possession or to appeal, they began special meetings to consider what to do, while seeking information on other possible sites and their prices.

But despite slower residential growth than envisioned in 2005, and in contrast to a growing national trend toward smaller neighborhood schools, they are unwilling to scale down the plans, especially since they count on $17 million to $20 million from land-cash donations, bond proceeds and interest, which brings their land purchase and construction budget for this one high school to a possible $145 million total.

''We are certainly, most likely because of a downturn in housing, not seeing the growth we initially projected we would get,'' acknowledged School Board President Mark Metzger. ''But, as a whole, the board felt the (2006) referendum was not sold on the basis of future projections as it was on the basis of students already here. And we see nothing to suggest current levels are going to go down anytime soon.''

Without questioning the need for 80 acres to build a high school, a Daily Herald editorial says the district found itself in an unenviable position, stressing that the jury's decision ''should inject a sense of urgency that was missing earlier in looking at possible alternative sites.''

To avoid such a position in the future, it adds, the district should have ''a contract for land in hand before asking for money to build a school.'' -- Daily Herald   10/3/2007  

Resource(s):  www.dailyherald.com/

Indiana

Jeffersonville Celebrates Downtown Success at 2007 Awards Ceremony

''Jeffersonville is fortunate to have so many people dedicated to reinvesting in our downtown,'' said Jeffersonville Main Street Inc. Executive Director Jay Ellis, expressing pride for ''all these 'Smart Growth' investments'' in revitalization of the urban core and announcing 11 winners of the nonprofit group's 2007 Champions of Downtown awards.

The award-winning projects, reports Jeffersonville Evening News and New Albany Tribune writer Larry Thomas, include:

Jeffersonville Township Public Library, for $6.1 million renovation and expansion;

Adrienne & Co. Bakery & Cafe, whose sibling-owners Adrienne Holland and Bernie Pasquantino have earlier renovated the 11-year-old building and are now planning an Italian trattoria, to be open late six days a week;

Pearl House on Pearl Street, a 167-year-old and once-decrepit building now transformed by preservation-minded neighbor Walt Lee into two townhomes;

City Hall, recently moved to a former administration building at the U.S. Army Quartermaster Depot, which now hosts a thriving retail and office complex;

200 BuildingWater Town Square, an 1872 structure and the first converted by the Hoehn family to offices and retail on its former truck and warehouse site;

Leslie Lewis & Associates Interior Design, for staying on while expanding, its offices now in their fourth downtown building;

10+Spring Centre, an infill project, featuring office and retail space, along with rebuilt sidewalks, new streetlights, and buried utility cables along the block, all paid for by its architect Wayne Estopinal and wife Theresa;

Bob Hedge Park, revamped jointly by the Jeffersonville Parks & Recreation Department and the Cherry Hill Neighborhood Association's Bob Hedge Park Renovation Committee, with more than $460,000 in private money, into a playground for children, including the disabled;

Carnegie Library Building, a 1903 structure, renovated with private funds for the Remnant Trust, a collection of original and first edition works on liberty and human dignity;

Rob Rippy State Farm Insurance building, renovated by insurer Rob Rippy and his wife, commercial designer Margo Rippy, with help from Laughlin Millea Hillman Architecture LLC, for a better fit with the neighborhood; and

The Oaks at Riverpointe, a redevelopment project spearheaded by Mayor Rob Waiz and the City Council, with the Kentucky-based Gregory Group turning the former bankrupt River Falls Motel & Lounge into 16 high-end condos, with one-bedroom to three-bedroom units priced from $94,500 to $130,000. -- Jeffersonville Evening News / New Albany Tribune   11/4/2007  

Resource(s):  www.news-tribune.net/ ; www.jeffmainstreet.org

Need for Good Land Use Planning Key to Southwestern Indiana's Future

''You're not going to have a bird destroying its nest, but that's what we're doing,'' said the Evansville region's Sustainable Communities Coalition President Jim Daniels at a smart-growth forum co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Southwestern Indiana, pointing out that development is outpacing population growth in much of Vanderburgh, Posey, Gibson and Warrick counties, while forest and farmland shrink.

States with the strongest environmental laws enjoy the strongest economies, he observed, assuring the audience that through smart-growth planning the four-county region can optimize land use, maximize resource efficiency, minimize waste, and improve both the quality of life and economic competitiveness.

Details, reports Evansville Courier & Press writer Libby Keeling, came from the other forum speaker, Purdue University's Forestry and Natural Resources Department expert Robert McCormick, leader of its Planning with POWER (Protecting Our Water and Environmental Resources) project.

''The goal is to strike a balance between (population) growth and development,'' he said. ''This is about how we grow, not if we grow.''

Noting that Indiana loses some 10 acres of farmland to development each hour, he stressed that smart growth offers communities a framework for informed planning decisions.

He advised planners to inventory natural resources, prioritize areas for protection, channel development to areas with infrastructure, make sure projects incorporate open space, and revise zoning and subdivision regulations.

''We're not making any new farmland,'' he said. ''It's where houses are going up.''

One reader sent the daily an e-mail with these two questions: ''Should there be available government tax breaks and grants for using the existing facilities instead of destroying these forest and farm acres? And should these breaks be given to businesses of any size, from mom & pop's coffee shop to Toyota?'' -- Evansville Courier & Press   10/28/2007  

Resource(s):  www.courierpress.com/

International

Development Proposals Challenge Ontario's Smart Growth Policy

In the first major challenge to Ontario's smart-growth policy embodied in the 2005 Places to Grow Act -- which projects 227,000 new residents and 100,000 new jobs over the next 25 years in Simcoe County, not far north of Greater Toronto -- developers Fred DeGasperis and Marion Cortelluci want local politicians to designate huge swaths of rural land in the south-east Highway 400 corridor as ''a massive'' industrial-commercial employment zone, writes Toronto Star reporter Phinjo Gombu, with Building Industry and Land Development consultant John Genest calling the proposal contingent on expansion of residential areas.

''This is an opportunity to create complete communities and to pull southern pay scales to the north,'' he said, tempting officials at a public visioning session in Barrie, while DeGasperis company representative John Bousfield made the lure sweeter by announcing that an unnamed major manufacturer is almost ready to consolidate operations near the corridor's center.

That consolidation could bring in a lot of the 80,000 jobs the developer-proposed industrial-commercial zone would eventually create in addition to the 100,000 under the provincial Places to Grow plan.

Correspondingly, the reporter observes, DeGasperis intends to build homes for nearly 70,000 people in rural Bradford and for 27,000 in Innisfil on Lake Simcoe, a few miles east of Barrie.

In contrast to county planners, who point out that already designated industrial and commercial land in various areas is sufficient under the province's plan, developers want it concentrated in one zone, which would mean leapfrogging over the Greater Toronto Area's conservation Greenbelt, while posing at least two other big problems.

Concerned that the proponents would locate most newcomers ''on the most fertile farmland,'' Oro-Medonte Mayor Harry Hughes stressed the need to consider the potential impact.

And developer Gian Delzotto, who also favors small employment nodes on the county's urban land and hopes to build in the Collingwood area, about 40 miles northwest of proposed Highway 400 development zone, said the county has ''a blank page'' to draw development on and should follow the provincial plan's goals, instead of ''loading up South Simcoe'' in places like Bradford and Innisfil. -- Star   10/26/2007  

Resource(s):  www.thestar.com/

China's Cities Facing Massive Migration from Rural Areas

Although at the projected 0.6 percent growth rate, China's population of nearly 1.3 billion in 2003 may be increasing by just 7.8 to 8.4 million annually, its urban segment will be growing by 15 million to 20 million a year over the next 10 years, with Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy President Gregory K. Ingram, co-chair of the International Studies department, saying, ''The growth has huge implications for urban areas, land policy and the environment, while the massive migration from rural areas will have important consequences in those communities as well.''

To increase American and international awareness of China's challenges in its ''transition to a socialist market economy'' and the wider repercussions, the institute has now published a 320-page book, ''Urbanization in China: Critical Issues in an Era of Rapid Growth,'' edited by Yan Song, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, and Chengri Ding, University of Maryland, College Park.

The book reflects the proceedings of the institute's May 2006 conference on ''urban strategies and instruments'' to promote ''economically sound, environmentally desirable, politically feasible, and socially acceptable'' growth in China.

Having started five years ago, the institute will continue its research and other involvement to facilitate these prospects under its Program in the People's Republic of China, with program director Joyce Man of Indiana University now based in Beijing. -- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy   10/20/2007  

Resource(s):  www.lincolninst.edu/

Cambridge Residents Protest Size of Brownfield-to-Housing Plan

Cambridge Mayor Doug Craig and all six councilors push for more infill housing on postindustrial tracts in their city, some 50 miles southwest of Toronto, but they voted 4-3 to delay approval for 118 apartments and 82 townhouses on a 10.5-acre former foundry site amid narrow, quiet streets, to give Reid's Heritage Homes officials and local neighbors time for further talks about reducing his unit numbers, with resident Bob McMullen telling the council, ''This is merely residential intensification, not smart growth.''

He also asked councilors for advance information about other prospective redevelopment, suggesting the city send residents a map of brownfields targeted for housing.

Reid's planner Brian Blackmere, reports Kitchener Record writer Kevin Swayze, called the planned redevelopment a national pilot project for blending environmentally sensitive residential construction, which ensures water conservation and energy efficiency, into an established neighborhood.

Area Councillor Karl Kiefer pointed out that he hasn't heard any complaints from his constituents about the plan and he sees the need to change the site's zoning from heavy industrial to residential now to avoid the risk of someone trying to ''put up a factory.''

Conversely, Councillor Ben Tucci was ''at a loss'' how to explain the developer's increase of the housing unit numbers from 169 to 200 after neighbors first criticized the project's size.

And resident Ryan Church reiterated their stance.

''As a community,'' he stressed, ''we're not opposed to development of this site, but we are interested in mitigating the negative implications of it as we see it.''

Voting to delay approval, the writer notes, Mayor Craig praised the project, but thought it needed a ''softening, a transition'' between old and new. -- Record   10/26/2007  

Resource(s):  www.therecord.com/

Pacific Rim Brokerage Chief Says India, China Need Smart Growth

Especially focused on expansion of investment banking in India and watchful of the long-term potential in China, the Hong Kong-headquartered CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets financial services company's head Rob Morrison, reports Forbes writer Ruth David from Mumbai, cautioned both nations against their excessive dependence on oil imports and coal, stressing that they need Smart Growth.

''Both India and China need to be very aware that growth at any cost is not sustainable,'' he said at the 10th CLSA India investor conference in Gurgaon near Delhi, concerned about their high rates of air and water pollution, and the lack of renewable energy initiatives.

With India's economy growing by an average 8.5 percent a year since 2003, and China recording 9.8 percent average economic expansion since 1990, ''(o)ne of the big issues is -- growth at what price,'' he observed, adding, ''Globally, the world has to move to more effective pricing of commodities like water, so we reduce wastage.'' -- Forbes   11/15/2007  

Resource(s):  www.forbes.com ; www.clsa.com

Intelligent Community Forum Releases ''Smart 21 List'' of Leading Sustainable Communities

Convinced that local and regional prosperity in this global Digital Age depends on sustainability, smart growth and 'green'' development, the New York City-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) had made these subjects the theme of its next Intelligent Community of the Year award, releasing a first-phase list of Smart21 Communities of 2008 at the ''Intelligent Communities and Broadband'' conference in Waterloo, Ontario -- the 2007 award winner, well-known for its cluster of high-tech companies, including Research in Motion, maker of the BlackBerry wireless communication devices.

The first-phase list of 21 communities from 14 nations will be narrowed to the Top Seven Intelligent Communities of the Year in January, with the winner announced at the annual ''Building the Broadband Economy'' summit in New York City on May 16.

The list includes Ashland, Oregon; Barcelonetta, Puerto Rico; Cape Town, South Africa; Doha, Qatar; Dublin, Ohio; Dundee, Scotland; Edmonton, Alberta; Eindhoven, The Netherlands; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Gengnam-gu District, Seoul, South Korea; Gold Coast City, Australia; Hammarby Sjostad, Sweden; Hwa Seong Dong Tan, South Korea; Hyderabad, India; Isle of Man, United Kingdom (Crown Protectorate); Malta; Northeast Ohio; Tallinn, Estonia; Vancouver, British Columbia; Westchester County, New York; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

''Gaining a place among the Smart21 is the first step toward greater recognition as a community or region that is either positioning itself to prosper, or already is prospering in the Digital Age,'' said ICF Chairman John G. Jung. ''This year we found that communities have passed the threshold, and no longer question whether broadband is a key to success, but are attempting to take steps to use the technology to move forward in order to 'future proof' themselves and ensure sustainability.'' -- Intelligent Community Forum   10/25/2007  

Resource(s):  www.intelligentcommunity.org/

Environmental Chief Says Smart Growth Should Be Essential Part of New Quebec Clean Air Policy

As the Quebec government works on a new clean air policy, it has to get more involved in urban planning and ''find ways to favor smart growth, which means development around public transit routes and densification of urban areas,'' said Quebec Institute of Public Health's environmental section chief Dr. Louis Drouin at its annual conference in Montreal, where institute researchers presented a study blaming the province's 2002 air pollution for some 500 hospital visits with cardiovascular problems, about 9,000 cases of childhood bronchitis, and more than 1,500 premature deaths.

In this context, reports Montreal Gazette writer Michelle Lalonde, Dr. Drouin praised the city for reducing industrial pollution, but pointed out that tailpipe emissions pose a major public health challenge, expressing hope for remedies in its prospective transportation plan.

The plan, the writer notes, aims for a network of modern tramways, a metro extension, more bike paths, bridge tolls, and reduction of downtown parking.

Victoria Transport Policy Institute Executive Director Todd Litman told the audience that public transit creates far more jobs in urban areas than the car industry, while reducing the risk of traffic accidents, pollution-related illnesses, sedentary lifestyle problems such as obesity, and even economic and nutritional disadvantages that also affect individual health. -- Gazette   11/23/2007  

Resource(s):  www.montrealgazette.com/

Vancouver Makes the Cut in ICF's List of World's Top Sustainable Cities

''Vancouver isn't just another pretty face,'' comments Vancouver Sun writer Gillian Shaw on Vancouver's recent inclusion among 21 communities worldwide, from which the New York City-based Intelligent Community Forum (ICF) will select the seven most advanced or most determined in their push for self-sustaining programs, smart growth and ''green'' development and subsequently, the winner of its 2008 Intelligent Community of the Year award.

''How smart are we? That's a good question, we'll find out soon,'' said Vancouver Economic Development Commission communications and operations manager Colin Stein, noting that the land constraints of this city, surrounded almost completely by water, have actually helped win its recognition for the best possible use of available space.

With such constraints, ''you make sure you incorporate multi-use facilities, weaving together live, work and play space to make the most of what you have,'' he stressed. ''It is being able to hold it up to the global community and say, 'Look at what we can do and look at what you can do.'' -- Vancouver Sun   11/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.vancouversun.com/

Delay Sought on Squamish Building Height Cap Removal

Upset by the prospect of 20-story condo towers in downtown Squamish, about 30 miles north of Vancouver, local residents persuaded the City Council to defer removal of the six-story height cap until the November 6 meeting, to allow Pridham Development to rethink that aspect of its 1,500-unit Waterfront Landing project on a former mill site, reports Globe and Mail writer Cathryn Atkinson, with resident Ivan Hughes, a filmmaker, saying, ''I'm all for smart growth and densification of downtown, but 20 storeys are unfathomable'' in this small community of some 16,000.

''The biggest concern is by changing the bylaw, you set a dangerous precedent and towers could end up popping up all over the place,'' he told councillors. ''I understand the argument for affordable housing, but it is very lucrative for developers as well.''

His complaint that at the first two readings of the bylaw change proposal ''the towers weren't mentioned at all'' and the public left ''misinformed,'' was expressed in equally strong terms by resident and Downtown Advisory Committee member Peter Harker, who is building a bistro downtown and worries that the towers would block the beautiful vistas of the mountains and Howe Sound.

''I have no problem with development, nor do I have problems with density -- we have the makings of a world-class city here -- but everything has been done in an ad hoc way,'' he said, stressing that even the advisory committee has never discussed ''anything over six storeys,'' and asking officials, ''How do you plan a downtown with arbitrary decisions?''

Beside the objectionable 20-story condo towers, the Waterfront Landing project would include smaller condo buildings, townhouses, and some commercial space, the writer observes, noting that after the industry and many working-class families made room for more affluent newcomers seeking ''the mountain lifestyle'' and ''a reasonable commute to Vancouver,'' redevelopment in Squamish has been swift, detached-house values have increased by 20 percent since last year, and many business owners are backing the project as likely to double the downtown population and economic activity.

''Waterfront Landing would bring the numbers to the point so that the businesses downtown would actually survive,'' said Gelato Carina owner Gregory Fisher. ''At the moment, it is a day-by-day survival. Yes, they (the towers) are controversial, but on the other hand, Whistler (30 miles farther north) has 12-storey buildings, and nobody kicks up a fuss up there.'' -- Globe and Mail   10/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.theglobeandmail.com/

Iowa

Cedar Rapids Will Use Smart Growth Scorecard to Rate New Projects

In a new direction for Cedar Rapids next year, the city will rate assistance-seeking projects on a smart-growth score card, devised by its Smart-Growth Task Force to discourage costly urban sprawl and facilitate more fiscally efficient infill, reports Cedar Rapids Gazette writer Rick Smith, noting that officials will grade development on 32 specific points in six categories -- proximity to infrastructure and services, land protection, housing options, mix of uses, transportation options, and character and design.

''This will be very controversial,'' City Manager Jim Prosser told the City Council. ''It certainly will be viewed by some developers as more bureaucracy, more paperwork.''

Unlike previous City Hall task forces, dominated by developers and focused on easing the development approval process, the writer notes, the Smart-Growth Task Force brought together representatives of key city departments, with city development coordinator Jennifer Pratt saying the members used such score cards from other cities as their model.

Testing the card on a proposal to renovate the former Osada low-income apartments into condominiums, a city staff model returned an overall grade of B, with A's for service proximity, transportation options, and character and design.

Since the overall grade was lowered by a D for land protection, a category hardly applicable to just renovation, Councilman Pat Shey said the score card should be more flexible.

Others, the writer adds, suggested further revisions, with Councilman Tom Podzimek asking for a more detailed set of goals to measure a project's environmental and energy impact. -- Gazette   11/16/2007  

Resource(s):  www.gazetteonline.com/

Louisiana

''Smart Growth'' Means Different Things to Different Interests in Lafayette City-Parish Council Elections

With races heating up for the October 20 election to the Lafayette City-Parish Council and ''smart growth'' once more prominent in debates and questionnaires, Baton Rouge Advocate Acadiana Bureau writer Kevin Blanchard points out that in the absence of ''common vocabulary and shared assumptions'' the term is ''vague'' and usually used as an argument ''for or against a development decision,'' with some preferring the term ''managed growth,'' which ''implies the real issue -- that government needs to step in and take a greater role in managing how the area grows.''

Managed growth, he writes, ''assumes that many of the problems growing cities like Lafayette face -- traffic congestion, urban sprawl, zoning conflicts and drainage problems -- can be mitigated through a series of new rules.''

Still, as cheaper rural land pulls developers increasingly away from the city core, as thousands of commuters agonize on two-lane roads never meant for the load, as opposition torpedoes ideas of impact fees or special tax districts to fund the needed infrastructure, and as neighbors fight higher-density housing, smaller lots and inter-connected street proposals as detrimental to their property values, ''the government can't 'manage' growth without making some politically unpopular decisions.''

Among others, ''it will necessarily have to dictate to people what they may or may not do with their own property.''

In addition, be it through new tax, impact fees or special taxing districts, ''someone will eventually have to pay to build necessary infrastructure, which is not free and is getting more expensive every day,'' the writer stresses, convinced that ''(s)mart policy means facing growth costs.'' -- Advocate   10/9/2007  

Resource(s):  www.2theadvocate.com/

Maine

Land Use Hearings Scheduled for Moosehead Lake Development Plan

A two-year fight over the Seattle-based Plum Creek timber and real estate company's plan for a residential, commercial and resort complex on 22,000 woodland acres near Greenville, in the heart of the Moosehead Lake region, is entering a crucial phase, with the Natural Resources Council of Maine (NRCM), Maine Audubon, and Environment Maine urging the public to attend a series of Maine Land Use Regulation Commission (LURC) hearings on the project, December 1 and 16 in Greenville, December 2 in Augusta, and December 15 in Portland.

''We must choose smart growth, not mega-developments, for Moosehead and the entire state to maintain Maine's unique quality of life and unrivaled beauty,'' wrote Environment Maine program associate Tracy Allen in a letter to the Kennebec Journal, alarmed by prospective alteration of the landscape, erosion of public access, and disruption of nature-based tourism.

Earlier this month, NRCM Executive Director Brownie Carson and Maine Audubon Executive Director Kevin Carley raised similar alarm at press conferences in Falmouth and Bangor, saying a team of 12 environmental, wildlife, tourism, traffic, and water quality experts will persuasively testify at the LURC hearings against the project.

Noting that Plum Creek plans 2,300 housing units, two resorts, commercial centers, golf courses and other facilities, which would increase traffic on 550 miles of area roads, Director Carson said some recent changes to the project are insufficient and the ''magnitude'' of its potential impact remains staggering.

Director Carley added, ''The harm to wildlife and wildlife habitat would be both extensive and permanent.''

Click here to preview the experts' testimony. -- Kennebec Journal   11/29/2007  

Resource(s):  www.nrcm.org/ ; www.environmentmaine.org/

Voters Back Maine Conservation, Transportation Initiatives

A $295 million quality-of-life state bond package hammered out in bipartisan legislative efforts last spring fares well with the public, as voters easily approved $131 million for transportation and clear water in June and $134 million for economic development, university campuses and conservation now, with each of these three referendum questions voted on separately and officials especially encouraged by the 63 percent support for spending of $35.5 million on the Land for Maine Future program, state parks and historic sites, and river-based and waterfront projects.

The three-part bond package's remaining $30 million, mostly for additional transportation upgrades, will go to a referendum next June, reports Associated Press writer Francis X. Quinn, quoting Democratic Governor John Baldacci's comment on the latest bond approval.

With their strong conservation endorsement, voters affirmed ''our joint commitment to preserving Maine's special places,'' the governor stressed in a statement, noting however that the barely over 51 percent votes for economic development and campus improvements ''show that Mainers want government to be careful with their money.''

In an email to local and national preservation advocates, GrowSmart Maine webmaster Christian McNeil said the bond votes reflect ''two major recommendations that the Brookings Institution and GrowSmart Maine made in the ''Charting Maine's future report, which sought to grow Maine's economy while preserving the state's quality places.'' -- Bangor Daily News   11/8/2007  

Resource(s):  http://bangornews.com/

Maryland

Chestertown Charrette Helps Residents Shape Plans for Area Growth

''The question isn't just how we get Smart Growth in and around existing communities without overwhelming what makes them attractive in the first place,'' but also ''how do we get development that is consistent with the character of the town,'' said Washington-based Urban Land Institute (ULI) Senior Fellow Edward T. McMahon on the eve of a week-long planning charrette in Chestertown, organized by the town, Kent County and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, crediting the conservancy for having helped that Chesapeake Bay area save some 40,000 acres since 1990 and for involving local governments in the more recent ''conservation development'' tactic.

All new houses in this Colonial-era waterfront town of 4,800 residents ''seem to be beige, tan, putty or taupe with garages sticking out the front,'' he told Baltimore Sun reporter Chris Guy, and ''people are saying that they need something that resembles what's been there for 300 years.''

That's exactly what the charrette's organizers aimed for, focusing on a 500-acre tract the town refused to annex about a year ago, because developers wanted to build 900 to 1,500 homes, which would have doubled its population.

Eastern Shore Land Conservancy Executive Director Rob Etgen called that proposal ''the same train wreck we've seen all over the Shore,'' with his group putting up a $300,000 option on the tract, under an agreement that will ensure the sale to a developer who accepts the publicly shaped master plan.

A similar 1996 community planning exercise, noted Chestertown Mayor Margo Bailey, brought several projects to the historic downtown business district, benefiting the town with an accessible waterfront and a visitor center, and also with grants for demolition or restoration of some run-down structures. -- Baltimore Sun   11/4/2007  

Resource(s):  www.baltimoresun.com/

Former Maryland Planner Says Annexations Bring Needed Infrastructure to Towns While Limiting Sprawl

When Democratic Governor Paris N. Glendening and state legislators were launching their landmark multi-prong Smart Growth policy amid record outward development pressures in 1997, ''they didn't think they would do anything about sprawl in a decade,'' observed former longtime Maryland Planning Department key manager, now senior Hunt Valley firm consultant James Noonan, an exponent of more realistic expectations at the policy's three-day review conference in Annapolis, where he and colleague Jacquelyn Magness Seneschal presented a paper on community revitalization success.

According to their paper, described by a Baltimore Sun environmental blog writer as sometimes ''provocative,'' the state invested more than $679 million in revitalization of cities, towns and unincorporated villages, from Glen Burnie to Cumberland and from Hyattsville to Vienna, with each dollar leveraging $2 in private and local money.

The authors think the state should publicize these efforts better to attract more private investors, while helping communities apply and use the various grants, loans and tax credits that could reenergize their neighborhoods.

Convinced that making the designated growth areas ''more attractive places to live, work and play'' would do more to rein in sprawl than denying state infrastructure funds for ''spread out suburbia,'' the paper authors argue against opposition to municipal annexation deals with developers.

A ''lighting rod in growth debates across the state,'' especially on the Chesapeake Bay Eastern Shore, the Sun writer notes, annexation deals have the authors' support as bringing towns developer investment in their cores and otherwise unaffordable but ''badly needed public facilities.''

With further growth unavoidable, clustering homes around towns rather than letting them spread throughout the countryside is also better for the Chesapeake Bay and its water quality, James Noonan said, adding, ''Whether or not you think a town has annexed too much, any house on water and sewer (lines) is one less house on sprawl.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.baltimoresun.com/

Busing Costs Soar as Sprawl Separates Schools from Communities

''We must change development patterns to build more walkable communities closer to schools,'' said 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins, releasing the group's Yellow School Bus Blues report on just one ''hidden cost'' of recent sprawl practices statewide, which shows that total school fleet trips in the state's 23 counties have increased between 1992 and 2006 by 23 million miles to 117.2 million, and that combined county busing expenditures have risen from $215 million to $436 million.

''The location and design of new development greatly affects the cost incurred by governments and taxpayers,'' and public schools ''are no exception,'' the report states, allowing for the fiscal impact of inflation, wage and gas-price increases, and school closures or construction, but stressing that local land use decisions do influence the numbers of county students, along with their household locations and children's opportunity to walk or bike to school.

To curb related costs, 1000 Friends of Maryland recommend local policies to maintain neighborhood schools, locate new ones where more students can walk or bike, and build bike lanes and sidewalks to make students' biking and walking safe.

''Smart growth better supports schools and makes communities stronger,'' the report points out. ''School budgets are too tight to have scarce dollars disappear out of school bus tailpipes.''

And Director Schmidt-Perkins told reporters, ''There're other places that money could go. These dollars are urgently needed in school maintenance, in teacher salaries, in arts programs (and) gym programs. And they're being poured into school buses in order to get kids to school.'' -- Baltimore Sun, 1000 Friends of Maryland   11/1/2007  

Resource(s):  www.baltimoresun.com/ ; www.friendsofmd.org/

Maryland Poll Respondents Want More State Involvement in Managing Growth

Reconfirming the scope and intensity of public concerns about Maryland's rapid development and its quality-of-life impact, previously evidenced in a 2005 Baltimore Sun survey, a new poll by California-based Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates for 1000 Friends of Maryland shows that 85 percent of respondents think the state government should be more active in coordinating and managing growth, including 49 percent who would like it to be very active, with 80 percent also agreeing that residents don't have enough control over local community plans.

Correspondingly, more than 80 percent of respondents support expanding county-town planning coordination (88 percent); ensuring state funding priority for roads, schools and other services in established communities rather than in the countryside (87 percent); making state dollars encourage towns and counties to conserve land, spur redevelopment and contain sprawl (86 percent); and limiting new construction to areas where provision of services would be cost-effective.

In addition, 74 percent of respondents support increasing state outlays on trains, buses and light rail, even if it means less money for new highways; while 72 percent in each case back requiring homebuilders to set aside 15 percent of new project units for moderate and low-income families, and channeling new residential and commercial construction to urbanized areas.

Poll results, observes Baltimore Sun reporter Nick Madigan, do not impress Maryland Association of Counties (MAC) Associate Director Leslie Knapp and Home Builders Association of Maryland (HBAM) CEO and Executive Vice President John E. Kortecamp, both considering the poll questions superficial and inadequate.

''When you try to concentrate growth, you get significant citizens resistance,'' noted Director Knapp, referring to the ''Not-In-My-Neighborhood'' (NIMBY) factor. ''You'd need to ask people what amount of new development would you be willing to accept to keep it out of more rural areas.''

The HBAM CEO agreed. ''This level of concern and frustration has been expressed consistently for some time. These generalizations lead us nowhere,'' he said, asking about transit backers' real commitment. ''What percentage of those people would themselves ride mass transit if it were available?''

Unpersuaded, 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins and other anti-sprawl movement leaders expect the results once again to show Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley the urgency of fulfilling his 2006 electoral pledge to strengthen the state's Smart Growth laws and policies. -- Baltimore Sun   10/17/2007  

Resource(s):  www.baltimoresun.com/

Gov. Glendening Reflects on Work to Curb Sprawl in Maryland

''We did good; we could have done better,'' said former two-term Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening at a conference on the aftermath of his 1997 Smart Growth policy, agreeing that Oregon or the Seattle area did more to curb sprawl thanks to their strict and early urban growth boundaries, though stressing, ''But most important, we stimulated a national debate that really changed policy,'' with about 30 states having adopted a number of smart growth principles and programs.

He also pointed out, notes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, that Oregon-type growth boundaries and development regulations were neither politically viable in Maryland ten years back nor have they become so now.

What's more, the governor said, his policy of urban investments spurred revitalization in downtown Baltimore, Easton, Hagerstown and Hyattsville, despite mere lip-service to growth management under one-term Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and despite federal ''hostility'' to public transit and smart growth since 2001.

Applauding Governor Martin O'Malley for his pledge to strengthen Maryland's growth-management efforts, the former governor, now Washington-based Smart Growth Leadership Institute president, made it clear he would like to see greater state assertiveness and more outlays for compact mixed-use development.

''As we face booming population, rising sea levels, a warming planet, escalating gas prices and a troubled housing market,'' he said, ''the need for aggressive action is urgent.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/4/2007  

Resource(s):  www.baltimoresun.com/

Study Finds Gaps in Monitoring Maryland's Priority Funding Areas Program

Rarely if ever do new policies break long habits, surmount systemic hurdles and quickly reach all their goals, an adage now confirmed in University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education report on results of the state's 1997 shift toward land conservation and urban redevelopment, with some agencies unable to determine whether all their infrastructure money went to growth-designated ''priority funding areas,'' Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening ending his second term in January 2003, and his Republican successor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. ignoring the need to continue the work and fill the initial gaps.

''The Glendening administration tried to do it but didn't succeed. And then Ehrlich dropped it,'' said study co-author and Center Director Gerritt Knaap about monitoring of smart growth investments. ''The way to guide state infrastructure spending using priority funding areas is not working well.''

Its release coinciding with the Center's three-day Annapolis conference on the state's smart-growth accomplishments and stumbles over the last 10 years, writes Baltimore Sun reporter Timothy B. Wheeler, the study found that about 75 percent of housing built between 2000 and 2004 is in priority funding areas, but that the total of units built elsewhere not only went slightly up, but also took some 75 percent of all land developed in those five years.

It also found that most of the $1.1 billion in the state's annual growth-related spending -- about five percent of its whole budget -- helped transportation, with 60 percent of those outlays benefiting growth areas, but with toll highways, Baltimore harbor tunnels, the Chesapeake Bay Bridge, and school construction and renovation exempted from the priority-funding areas law.

For Home Builders Association of Maryland Director of Government Affairs Tom Ballentine the report justifies frequent builders' complaints about local laws in some growth areas that bar construction until their roads, schools and utilities are upgraded.

''Most people who are involved in growth management in Maryland,'' he said, ''understand that the priority funding areas aren't functioning as they were intended to.''

For 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins the key is a renewed and stronger growth-management commitment.

''We have a law,'' she observed, ''but if we're not going to have a monitoring and enforcement system, it's not going to happen particularly effectively, and the impact of the law will be lessened.''

Director Knaap and state Secretary of Planning Richard E. Hall agree, especially hopeful for additional anti-sprawl measures promised by Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley.

''I think it makes sense for the state to worry and try to monitor where it spends its money, to do everything it can to avoid subsidizing sprawl. But I don't think just that is enough to change development patterns,'' said the director.

''No one who knows anything about growth would think that the 1997 law would change things overnight. I think it is having an effect,'' said the secretary, adding, ''We need to do more.'' -- Baltimore Sun   10/1/2007  

Resource(s):  www.baltimoresun.com/

Transit Centers, Schools to Benefit from New Montgomery County Growth Policy

In stepped-up efforts to ease gridlock, limit school overcrowding and make new growth pay its own cost in this heavily congested northern suburb of Washington, D.C., the all-Democratic Montgomery County Council approved Growth Policy revisions for 2007-09 by a 7-1 vote, significantly widening developer responsibility for added traffic and over-capacity school enrollment retroactively to January 1, with a subsequent 8-0 vote raising transportation and school impact taxes by 70 and 125 percent -- above $10,500 per single-family home and $28,500 per high school student, respectively -- effective December 1.

Nevertheless, to encourage transit-oriented development and affordable housing expansion, the transportation impact tax for projects around seven MARC commuter rail stations is set at 85 percent of the county-wide rates -- with builders around Metro stations already paying only 50 percent -- and school impact tax for market price units in residential projects with at least 30 percent of units for lower-income households stopping at 50 percent of the applicable rate.

Here are other key specifics: new projects will have to mitigate 100 percent of additional traffic in two areas, and up to 45 percent in 21 other areas, all depending on a just established area-wide transit and road test.

The tighter school adequacy test eliminates ''borrowing'' of excess capacity from adjacent school clusters, sets 105 percent of a school cluster capacity as the threshold for the newly-increased School Facilities Payment, and 120 percent of capacity as the threshold for a residential moratorium.

The School Facilities Payment for new projects goes up from $12,500 per student to $19,514 per elementary school student, $25,411 per middle school student, and $28,501 per high school student.

Raised by 125 percent, the school impact tax is accompanied by a large-house surtax, increased from $1 to $2 per square foot, and is now triggered when a single-family home exceeds 3,500 instead of 4,500 square feet.

In addition, the council voted 7-1 to increase the county's recordation tax for high-price properties, with the 0.31 percent raise for every $1,000 of the sale price in excess of $500,000 expected to bring in $10 million annually, half earmarked for capital projects and half for rental assistance to low-income and moderate-income tenants.

County Councilmember Nancy Floreen said in a statement that she voted against the revised Growth Policy as going ''over the top,'' rejecting ''the position of the County Executive, the Planning Board, the Board of Education, the Civic Federation and the Coalition for Smart Growth,'' and erecting ''barriers to the creation of affordable housing.''

But Council President Marilyn Praisner, ''who shepherded the policy through 11 months of often rancorous debate,'' reports Washington Post writer Miranda S. Spivack, pointed out that it ''tightened standards on developers,'' and County Democratic Executive Isiah Leggett said, ''It's time to move on. I am happy we have a policy.''

Planning Board Chairman Roy Hanson, a longtime transit advocate who wrote much of the policy, expects it to spur several transit-oriented town centers along the Rockville Pike, now ''a jumble of strip malls and indistinct high- and low-rise dwellings with few amenities within walking distance,'' the writer observes.

''Most of our new development is going to be relatively high density,'' the planner said, also mentioning the Bethesda, Silver Spring and Wheaton rail corridors. -- Washington Post   11/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.montgomerycountymd.gov/index.asp ; www.washingtonpost.com/?nav=globaltop

State Website Provides Comprehensive Planning Data for All Maryland Towns

Following Democratic Governor Martin O'Malley's pledge to ensure openness of the state government and the public process, Maryland Department of Planning (MDP) Secretary Richard Eberhart Hall unveiled his department's new online service, at www.mdp.state.md.us/welcome.htm, which explains the comprehensive plan concept and adoption procedures, tracks the current and prospective local plans by jurisdictions, and provides state comments in the context of state laws related to Smart Growth.

Expecting the service to spur ''a more informed public process,'' Secretary Hall said, ''It is the responsibility of every Marylander to contribute to this public discourse so that, as a State, we follow the Smart Growth visions and create high-quality, sustainable communities and protect our precious natural resources.''

The site offers includes links to the Economic Growth, Resource Protection and Planning Act of 1992, the 1997 Priority Funding Areas Act, and the House Bills 1141 and 2 of 2006.

It also includes data on planning in all 23 counties, their regions and municipalities, along with links to plans, drafts and other documents, and MDP comments.

''I applaud Secretary Hall and his Department for taking a positive step in demystifying and important process. Giving Maryland citizens open access to its government is an important step to having an informed and engaged electorate,'' said Governor O'Malley. ''We are committed to taking the actions necessary to grow Maryland smarter through sustainable development. Making these plans available to the public ensures that every Marylander can be a part of that.'' -- Maryland Department of Planning 11.13.2007   11/13/2007  

Resource(s):  www.mdp.state.md.us/

Massachusetts

Local, Environmental Concerns Grow as Developments Transform Boston's Outer Communities

Unprecedented for sheer project size and mix of uses, a recent development wave through Boston area towns and even pristine outer land is bringing in new tax revenue and urban amenities, but also spawning local and environmental concerns, reports Boston Globe writer James Vaznis, with builders saying that today's suburbanites, ''tired of stop-and-go traffic and office park isolation,'' want everything within walking distance, but with Canton selectmen moving to sue the state for approval of the 103-acre mixed-use Westwood Station in Westwood, three miles away, as certain to flood their town with traffic and exacerbate backups at its decades-old junction of I-95 and I-93.

Planned next to a commuter rail stop, with developers ready to spend $60 million on off-side improvements, the writer notes, Westwood Station would include 1,000 condos, plus stores, offices, restaurants, hotels and parking garages -- all generating about $12.6 million a year in property taxes, more than 20 percent of Westwood's operating budget.

But its Everett Forbes Neighborhood Association President John Harding questions the project's impact not only on traffic, but also on local character, and pointing to other developments considered for the southern suburbs, he asks, ''How many Talbots do you need?''

Westwood Station would be one of the biggest of about 50 medium and large developments recently opened, under construction or on the drawing boards in the region, the writer observes, quoting Metropolitan Area Planning Council Executive Director Marc Draisen.

''Communities are desperate for cash these days, and commercial development, in particular, generates strong revenues,'' he said. ''You find some communities eager -- some may say too eager -- to encourage large-scale commercial developments.''

Westwood Station developers Cabot, Cabot & Forbes, Commonfund Realty Inc., and New England Development expect to complete half of the project, including all retail, in two years, with the next stages dependent on market demand.

''Part of the problem in Massachusetts is we are not keeping enough young people here,'' commented Cabot, Cabot & Forbes President Jay Doherty. ''They want more public transportation options and more amenities in their lifestyles. They want more shopping and restaurants than prior generations, and if they can't find it here they will go somewhere else.'' -- Boston Globe   11/23/2007  

Resource(s):  www.boston.com/

Gov. Patrick Seeks $2.9 Billion for Massachusetts Transportation Work

''The Commonwealth needs a transportation system that improves our quality of life and serves as a catalyst for economic growth,'' said Democratic Governor Deval Patrick, filing a three-year, $2.9 billion transportation bond bill -- its $1.3 billion for road and bridge repair expected to leverage $1.9 billion in federal funds, and the other $1.6 billion targeted for a variety of long underfunded projects and programs, including rail extensions, environmental mitigation, and municipal infrastructure and affordable housing improvements to support transit-oriented development (TOD).

Noting that earlier this year the Massachusetts Transportation Finance Commission (TFC) found a $15 billion to $19 billion gap between the state's anticipated resources and the cost of maintenance and the necessary upgrades of its transportation system over the next 20 years, the governor said, ''This legislation will allow us to address many of our most pressing transportation needs while we work towards long-term transportation reform.''

Specifically, the legislation earmarks $700 million for legally mandated steps to mitigate the impact of Boston's Central Artery/Tunnel (Big Dig) project, including Fairmount commuter rail improvements, Green Line extension, Red Line-Blue Line connector design and engineering, and parking space expansion at transit nodes.

It also assigns $100 million for rail and transit planning; $75 million for Fitchburg commuter rail improvements; $60 million for regional transit authorities; $40 million for regional airports; $50 million for municipal economic development grants; $20 million for infrastructure and affordable housing in TOD zones; and $15 million for transportation grants to small towns with populations of up to 7,000.

As a result, the governor's bill is expected to create some 10,000 construction jobs. -- Commonwealth of Massachusetts, The Boston Globe   11/30/2007  

Resource(s):  www.mass.gov/ ; www.boston.com/

Lincoln Institute to Focus on Land Use in Addressing Global Warming

''At a time when climate change and energy efficiency are more and more on people's minds, our goal is to bring a sharp focus on the land use component in addressing global warming,'' said the Cambridge-based Lincoln Institute of Land Policy's Department of Planning and Urban Form Chairman Armando Carbonell in a press release ahead of the Institute's annual New England Smart Growth Leadership Forum, organized in partnership with the U.S. EPA and key regional advocacy, research and professional institutions November 1 in Boston.

Entitled Climate Change: The Emerging Role of Land Use, open to the public, and co-sponsored by the Federal Home Loan Bank of Boston, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, the Vermont Agency of Transportation, and the Boston Society of Architects, the forum will focus on metropolitan and regional growth policies and greenhouse gas reduction plans as factors in the fight against climate change.

Speakers and panelists include Tufts University Professor Paul Kirshen, Center for Clean Air Policy Transportation Program Manager Steve Winkelman, Sarrafix founding partner Douglas I. Foy, Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Gina McCarthy, Grow Smart Rhode Island Executive Director Scott Wolf, Grow Smart Maine project director Beth Nagusky, Massachusetts Smart Growth Alliance Executive Director Andre Leroux, and EPA's Development, Community and Environment Division Director Geoff Anderson. -- Lincoln Institute of Land Policy   10/16/2007  

Resource(s):  www.lincolninst.edu

Planner Suggests Using Clearer Terms to Describe Smart Growth

All professions have specific languages and verbal peculiarities that may confuse the general public, with lawyers wielding ''torts and writs,'' football coaches deploying ''schemes and nickel packages,'' doctors employing ''illegible handwriting,'' and planners ''too often guilty of overusing the term 'smart growth' as an all-encompassing cure-all for traffic jams, environmental degradation and often just plain ugly development,'' said Southeastern Regional Planning and Economic Development District Executive Director Stephen C. Smith at a New Bedford Standard-Times land use forum, pointing out that since planners participate in ''setting and executing public policy, the last thing that we can afford to be is obscure and unclear.''

One of the planners who prefers to ''define smart growth in non-technical terms,'' Director Smith said, ''Think of smart growth as development similar to what we recall from one or more generations ago, characterized by vibrant neighborhoods, busy downtowns and abundant open space and public places.''

Its antithesis, he continued, is ''endless commercial strip development, long commutes, and residences barely within shouting distance of each other.''

To follow such area examples of smart growth as Padanaram Village and New Bedford's historic district, and to prevent their antithesis, like most development along Route 6 and many new subdivisions, he advised local governments to take ''10 smart growth steps,'' all involving bylaw or policy changes and not all easy, but mostly within their jurisdictional control.

One, he said, promote mixed-use development through zoning changes. Two, provide more housing choices by allowing in-law apartments, duplexes, apartment complexes, and varied lot sizes for single-family homes.

Three, preserve agriculture by offering farmers tax breaks and the purchase of development rights.

Four, promote cluster development to preserve the saved land as open space.

Five, keep municipal buildings, courthouses, post offices, libraries and schools downtown as the lifeblood of the urban cores.

Six, transfer development rights to areas targeted for higher densities.

Seven, preserve your history, remembering that a building hundreds of years old is individual and unique but a new McDonald's or Wal-Mart is not.

Eight, preserve open space, using state grants, land trust funds and local preservation money, as this may be your community's best long-term investment.

Nine, minimize pavement width by allowing narrower residential streets to improve safety and restore neighborhood cohesion.

And ten, expand water and sewer service wisely because these pipes will guide future development.

''The details of zoning and other local development regulations can be pretty boring stuff,'' Director Smith concluded, ''but we need to pay attention to these details because local bylaws are our best means to translate our visions into reality.'' -- Standard-Times   10/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.southcoasttoday.com/

Minnesota

Editorial: Smart Growth Can Help Minnesota Address Climate Change, Improve Quality of Life

Assembled by Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty to help the state carry out an 80-percent greenhouse gas emission cut by 2050, with about 27 percent of the current emissions attributable to transportation, the broad-based Minnesota Climate Change Advisory Committee has been concentrating on the need ''to change the ways Minnesotans commute and travel,'' observes a Twin Cities Minnesota Daily editorial, stressing that while the committee ''is considering drastic measures such as fees to discourage driving, new policies should especially focus on smart urban development and mass transit.''

As the Metropolitan Council projects another million Twin Cities residents by 2030, the editorial notes, the region must have smarter transportation and development policies to preserve its environment and ease traffic.

Expecting the committee's recommendations to spark a series of state bills next spring, the editorial points out that the governor and lawmakers must lead the way to make sure the bills include ''real benchmarks and plans.''

Glad of Minnesota's advance to the renewable energy forefront, thanks to legislation passed at the previous session, the editorial says, ''Smart growth takes foresight, and we are now in the perfect position to not only address climate change, but also improve standards of living.'' -- Minnesota Daily   10/18/2007  

Resource(s):  www.mndaily.com/

Stearns County Will Create Varied ''Policy Zones'' in Updated Comprehensive Plan

Like most other topographically and economically diverse jurisdictions, Stearns County is facing several disparate challenges -- its eastern part booming, but west side towns struggle to survive -- which officials want to address in the 1998 comprehensive plan's almost completed update by dividing the county into nine zones, or ''policy areas,'' with different development standards and requirements, while trying such smart-growth ideas as conservation design and transfer of development rights.

''Nobody thinks Stearns County from north to south and from east to west should be managed the same way,'' said County Environmental Services Director Don Adams. ''This one-size-fits-all isn't cutting it.''

The proposed zones, reports St. Cloud Times writer Kristi Marohn, include the (Mississippi) River corridor north, I-94 corridor, Agricultural limited growth area, Avon Hills natural resource area, St. Cloud metro area, Southwest area, Highway 23 corridor, Lakes natural/recreation area, and River corridor south.

The writer lists some examples of the zone-oriented policies.

The conservation design, with cluster housing and open space preservation, strongly advocated by internationally known planner Randall Arendt at a St. John's University conference in June, would be promoted in the Avon Hills natural resource area.

Transfer of development rights would help the county save prime farmland for production while offering farmers additional income and developers the opportunity to build more densely on residential tracts, which would limit sprawl and keep construction in service areas.

Farm-related industry would be allowed in the depressed Southwest area, new homes in the Lakes natural/recreational area would need vegetative buffers along lake shores, and development between cities along the I-94 corridor would be discouraged to protect local character.

With approval of the updates by the County Board possible this year, Director Adams said that although ''most plans sit up on the shelf,'' he expects this one to become a day-to-day reference manual for staff and officials, guiding their decisions at ''every single meeting.'' -- St. Cloud Times   10/8/2007  

Resource(s):  www.sctimes.com/

Missouri

Columbia's Smart Growth Coalition Helping to Shape Growth Decisions

Although Columbia's Smart Growth Coalition is still small, it has already become a public force and former Missourian editor, Missouri School of Journalism Professor Emeritus George Kennedy, expects it to gain even more clout for at least two reasons -- because voters have put its past president Barbara Hoppe and anti-sprawl advocate Karl Skala on the City Council and because the coalition's insistence on fairness in paying development costs was just substantiated by retired Missouri University Professor Ben Londeree, whose research shows that the city ''has been giving developers pretty close to a free ride.''

Having ranked Columbia and 26 similar Midwestern cities according to their development fees, Professor Londeree found only three that charge less than Columbia's meager $1,200 per housing unit to help build roads and water and sewer lines, with the median for his target cities at $2,260 and the 2006 average for 271 cities nationwide at $8,868.

With the Columbia City Council's recent unanimous approval of a $300 increase in developer fees over three years, Professor Kennedy observes, the city will move ''all the way up from 24th to 23rd'' on the 27-city list, ''jumping over College Station, Texas, but still well below Fayetteville, Arkansas.''

Still, since professor Londeree refrained from pointing out ''that even the higher fees don't cover the full costs of providing the services nor that infrastructure is only part of the cost of growth,'' Professor Kennedy considers it his journalistic privilege to draw for Missourian readers the inescapable conclusion: ''What the developers don't pay, the rest of us do.'' -- Missourian   10/6/2007  

Resource(s):  www.columbiamissourian.com/

Infrastructure Costs Could Sway School Board Decision on Location for New Columbia High School

Columbia School Board Weighing Options for New High School Location Having $60 million in recently-passed bonds and expecting to open a new 600-to-1,800-student high school by 2010, the Columbia School Board should decide next month whether to approve the High School Site Evaluation Committee's selection of an 80-acre site on St. Charles Road, some six miles northeast of the city's core, as the best of the six available -- the owner willing to sell for $900,000 instead of $2 million and the Engineering Surveys & Services (ESS) firm estimating its gas, sewer and other connection costs at $758,000 but declining to provide an estimate for road improvements -- a gap filled on his own by a committee member, former University of Missouri Professor Ben Londeree, who calculated their cost at $23 million.

This cost would be the lowest, except for a 70-acre and less distant $3.5 million site, whose owner-developer proposes to build the roads himself, reports Columbia Tribune writer Janese Heavin, with Committee Chairman Jim Ritter convinced the public would eventually pay much less.

''The roads are the hardest thing to make a judgment on,'' he said prior to site selection. ''Anywhere a school is built, developers are going to be doing some of that work, so there's a lot of shared costs.''

Still, Councilwoman Barbara Hoppe, a Smart Growth Coalition past president, told Columbia Missourian writer Audrey Spalding last month that school road costs are an important factor for the city, especially since the state ''isn't awash in money,'' and her like-minded colleague, Councilman Karl Skala, rebuked the committee at its public site-selection meeting for not asking the city for full infrastructure cost estimates.

As to the school's architectural design, reports Missourian writer Tori Moss, district officials are working with Kansas City-based DLR Group office leader Andy Anderson to make it ''green,'' which will save on materials and energy use and enhance students' learning and retention.

The design may also follow a recent trend to create more personal learning surroundings in which groups of perhaps 180 students of different grades would share the same teachers for core classes.

According to the architect, the writer notes, ''students feel more valued and known'' in such a school within school. -- Columbia Tribune, Missourian   10/5/2007  

Resource(s):  www.columbiamissourian.com/ ; www.columbiatribune.com/

Montana

New Missoula City Council Could Bring Progress on Growth, Infill Issues

The 12-member and now ''highly polarized'' Missoula City Council will have ''a progressive majority'' next year, with incumbent Stacy Rye keeping her seat and challengers Pam Walzer and Jason Wiener ousting conservative incumbents Don Nicholson and Justin Armintrout in the past election, reports Mountain Press writer Matthew Frank, quoting reelected Councilman Bob Jaffe, who described seven members of the new council as being ''pretty open about not being against infill -- all for smart growth.''

The shift on the council will certainly affect the city's current zoning revision, said Councilman-elect Wiener, ready to join the push for a ''forward-looking development code'' and hopeful that ''decisions do not come down to a 7 to 5 vote,'' but reflect ''a broader consensus.''

Missoula Planning Board member Don MacArthur thinks such a hope may be premature, because Missoula residents are ''clearly divided'' on development issues, with some decisions by the council's 8-4 progressive majority from a few years ago responsible for still-lingering voter backlash and with unanswered questions about the exact stance of two newly elected and rather conservative members, Lyn Hellegard and Renee Mitchell.

The election drew 46 percent of voters, a record since 1981, the writer notes, attributing the number partly to mail-in ballots and partly to outreach efforts by the nonprofit Forward Montana political action group.

Forward Montana Director Matt Singer said his group registered more than 1,000 first-time voters, especially in subsequently defeated Councilman Nicholson's ward, whose population ''is traditionally younger, lower income and more progressive.'' -- Mountain Press   11/8/2007  

Resource(s):  www.newwest.net/index.php/city/main/C8/L8/

Court Decision Upholds Interim Zoning Rules for Lewis and Clark County

Confident of their prerogative to rein in and guide the ''free-for-all'' residential expansion across the Helena Valley, Lewis and Clark County commissioners won a legal round against valley landowners Mike Fasbender and John Errin, who planned development and sued the county in December 2006 for its interim zoning rules designed to protect the area from increases in nitrogen and other water contaminants, with District Court Judge Jeffrey Sherlock finding the enactment proper under state law and not dependent on a 30-day window for public protest.

''To require (officials) to create a protest period would create a ridiculous situation where there would be absolutely no reason to have a specific statutory requirement on emergency interim zoning,'' the judge wrote, setting a jury trial for October 2008.

The commissioners, recalls Helena Independent Record writer Larry Kline, first set permanent zoning rules for the valley in November 2006, voiding them a few weeks later upon notification they had missed a public-notice provision, and approving initial interim zoning, almost immediately challenged by the two plaintiffs in court.

Judge Sherlock throw out that zoning on procedural grounds last March, upholding the next interim zoning, enacted in May for at least a year, with a possible one-year extension.

Officials hail the decision.

''It reaffirms what we're trying to do,'' said County Commission Chairman Mike Murray.

''To me, we shouldn't be having debate over interim zoning,'' stressed County Administrator Ron Alles. ''We should be talking about land use and comprehensive zoning for Lewis and Clark County. -- Independent Record   10/26/2007  

Resource(s):  www.helenair.com/

National

Mayors' Conference Makes Push for Greener, Walkable Cities

The federal government must do more to fight global warming than it has done in the past seven years, but for now, ''cities must take up the slack,'' even if many are struggling to convince voters about benefits of ''green'' investments and anti-pollution measures, reports New York Times writer Tom Cochran from the U.S. Conference of Mayors' two-day Climate Protection Summit in Seattle, where former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore via satellite, New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and others stressed that sustainable and fiscally-strong cities must be walkable, livable and energy-efficient, offer residents jobs and focus ''on people and public transit, not cars.''

Among cities well on that way is Seattle, whose Mayor Greg Nickels has inspired more then 700 counterparts across the nation to sign commitments to Kyoto Protocol goals and pledge reduction of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in their cities by 7 percent below 1990 levels by 2012.

Mayor Nickels, the writer reports, told the summit his city had already exceeded that goal, thanks to such initiatives as promoting locally produced foods, distributing 300,000 high-efficiency shower heads, and encouraging replacement of gas-powered mowers with electric or non-motorized models.

Other cities have recently turned around, with Fayetteville, Arkansas Mayor Dan Cody enthusiastic about redrawing dreary roads and bland shopping strips to human scale, making streets once empty at night bustle, and seeing downtown condos sell for a million dollars per unit -- all this redevelopment helping the city become green.

But some cities, the writer notes, have a long way to go.

Meridian, Mississippi Mayor John Robert Smith, who has faced criticism for backing a plan to restore city streetcars, said, ''This is one of those things you do in your last term in office, because they'll be sure you've lost your mind.''

And Trenton, New Jersey Mayor Douglas H. Palmer, the Conference of Mayors president, emphasized the need both to measure city-borne pollution, and to make people fully aware how urgent is its reduction and to relay the urgency in daily-life terms.

He said people respond when they realize that pollution can aggravate their children's asthma, that leaky buildings and foreign-oil dependency can drive up heating bills, or that training the young in ''green collar jobs'' offers them much better prospects than work in fast-food restaurants.

''You just can't say we need to reduce global warming because there will be floods and polar bears will be gone,'' he added. ''They'll run me out of town.''

With capitalism and consumerism also at the ''green'' summit core, the writer observes, political affiliations made no difference in the approach to the greenhouse gas reduction problem.

Former President Clinton told the audience he persuaded private companies to help 1,000 cities buy energy-efficient products at volume discounts, while Mayor Bloomberg, twice elected as a Republican but Independent since last June, announced his support for the idea of a federal tax on carbon pollution.

''As long as greenhouse-gas pollution is free, it will be abundant,'' he pointed out. ''If we want to reduce it, there has to be a cost for producing it.'' -- New York Times   11/3/2007  

Resource(s):  www.nytimes.com/

Brookings Institution Launches Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation

To meet this century's demands for a productive economy, inclusive society and sustainable environment, the U.S. needs ''innovation, superior infrastructure, outstanding human capital and quality places to live,'' said Brookings Institution's Board of Trustees former chairman Jim Johnson at a webcast multi-sector position forum held exactly a year before the 2008 presidential election, as its Metropolitan Policy Program launched a national competitiveness initiative, Blueprint for American Prosperity: Unleashing the Potential of a Metropolitan Nation, with release of the ''MetroNation: How U.S. Metropolitan Areas Fuel American Prosperity'' paper by Brookings Fellow Alan Berube and a sharp critique of related federal practices by Program Director Bruce Katz.

''We are a full-fledged metro nation, and need to change our mental map of the United States, from a union of 50 states to a network of 363 highly connected, hyperlinked and economically integrated metropolitan areas,'' Director Katz said, warning that ''unless these metropolitan engines of national prosperity are healthy and vital,'' the nation's advancement prospects are at risk.

The risk would be exacerbated by foreign competition, increases in income inequities and in a demographic education and skill divide, and the need to accommodate another 120 million people by 2050, while doubling the present built-up space.

''How we accommodate a growing population and economy, whether we break the pattern of sprawl-as-usual will significantly influence whether we as a nation secure our energy independence and forge solutions to global warming and climate change,'' he stressed, noting that local and regional leaders have taken on those challenges, but they cannot ensure the change without the federal government doing its part.

''A metro can focus on building its economic strengths, but its economy is profoundly influenced by federal monetary, trade, regulatory and investment practices,'' he pointed out. ''A metro can focus on reducing income disparities, but only the federal government can close the gap between wages and the cost of living. . . . A metro area can focus on environmental sustainability, but only the federal government can regulate industries on a national scale.'' Yet, Director Katz continued, ''America's metros find our national government strangely adrift, ignorant of the dynamic changes sweeping the country and the new spatial geography of our economy. Our federal government is mostly a legacy government, a collection of ossified agencies carrying out decades-old programs and policies, through means and mechanisms suited to a pre-Internet world. As a result, our federal government is out of step with rapid change, and is failing to leverage those assets that drive secure and sustained prosperity.''

He characterized the current federal information policies as ''highly fragmented,'' inattentive to the commercialization of research, and blind to innovation; education policies -- ''intensely compartmentalized'' and ignorant of the link between grade schools, college education and skills training; infrastructure policies -- ''an unaccountable free-for-all, geared more to building bridges to nowhere than maintaining the ones we have, developing world-class transit, or unblocking the movement of freight at our sea, rail and air hubs;'' and housing policies -- aimed at ''the expansion of McMansions at the periphery of metropolitan areas, while failing to address the rapid suburbanization of poor people and employment opportunities.''

Next year, Director Katz promised, the Blueprint for American Prosperity will be identifying ''concrete reforms for the next administration and Congress that can measurably advance key national priorities, boosting innovation and productivity, making work pay for low-wage workers, replicating the best examples of urban school reform, achieving higher and higher levels of educational attainment, integrating immigrants into the mainstream of American life, increasing the supply of workforce housing, improving transportation within and across metros, and making energy efficiency in our homes part of the solution to climate change.''

Then he reiterated the blueprint's overall theme, stating, ''We are a metro nation. And now it is time to start acting like one.'' -- Brookings Institution   11/6/2007  

Resource(s):  http://www.brookings.edu/

Sierra Club Reports Stormwater Runoff Now Greatest Threat to Clean Water

While the 1997 Water Quality Act, the subsequent amendments and related programs reined in the worst industrial contamination of water, they did little to curb sprawl-fed pollution sources, with the Sierra Club pointing out in its Building Better II: A Guide to America's Best New Development Projects -- Clean Water Edition that now the greatest threat comes from ''stormwater runoff washing contaminants into the water from parking lots and roads'' and from ''combined sewer overflows, which occur when stormwater overwhelms the sanitary sewer system.''

A follow-up to the club's 2005 report, the Clean Water Edition calls for ''stronger, more natural, stormwater management methods from public and private sectors alike,'' listing seven innovative stormwater solutions. They include restored and new wetlands, rain gardens and swales, stormwater parks and bio-retention ponds, green roofs, cisterns and rain barrels, cascades, and urban ''greening'' and natural plantings.

To encourage their creation and systematic use, the report spotlights ''ten outstanding examples of environmentally responsible stormwater runoff management projects'' from across the nation.

Spotlighted are: Natural Drainage System Program, Seattle, Washington; Open Charter Magnet Elementary School, Westchester, California; Sisters, Servant of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Motherhouse Renovation, Monroe, Michigan; Menomonee Valley, Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Alberici Constructors Headquarters, Overland, Missouri; Mason Park Project, Houston, Texas; Heinz 57 Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; ''Philadelphia Green'' Urban Greening and Stormwater Projects; UNC Expansion, Chapel Hill, North Carolina; and Urban Roadside Project, Mt. Rainier, Maryland.

Read the report online as a PDF document (28 pages/2.3mb) at the resource link below. -- Sierra Club   10/15/2007  

Resource(s):  www.sierraclub.org/

Americans Want More Government Support for Transit, Pedestrian-Friendly Development

Jointly sponsored by the National Association of Realtors (NAR) and Smart Growth America (SGA), a Public Opinion Strategies telephone poll shows high nationwide support for greater governmental efforts to expand transit, promote pedestrian-friendly development, save open space and check climate change, with just 21 percent of respondents seeing more new roads as the best long-term solution to reducing traffic in their areas, and 75 percent opting either for improved public transportation or walkable neighborhoods where people can drive less -- 49 and 26 percent, respectively.

''Realtors build communities and care about improving our cities and towns through smarter development,'' said NAR President Pat V. Combs. ''With increased traffic congestion and long commutes, Americans are receptive to new ideas for handling growth, such as better transit or mixed-use walkable communities that allow people to cut down on their driving.''

SGA Executive Director Don Chen emphasized the same point.

''With concern about climate change rising along with gas prices, Americans are looking for options that allow them to reduce the time they spend in their cars,'' he pointed out. ''Americans see smarter development patterns as a viable way to achieve that goal, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.''

With a mere 35 and 39 percent of respondents, respectively, considering public transportation and growth management in their communities more or less sufficient, including 6 and 8 percent who call the situation excellent, between 90 and 83 percent approve major actions to reduce energy use as part of a fight against climate change and oil dependency.

Specifically, among the 90 percent who approve regulations for the car industry to make vehicles more fuel efficient, 74 percent voiced their strong approval.

Correspondingly, the total and the strong approval numbers include 88 and 62 percent, respectively, for improved public transportation, including rail and buses; the identical percentages for requirements to make homes and other buildings more energy efficient; and 83 and 49 percent for building walkable communities where people can use their cars less.

In contrast, the idea of higher gas taxes to discourage driving found only 16 percent support, including strong approval from 8 percent of respondents.

At the same time, with 24 percent of respondents believing Congress should spend more to expand and improve roads, highways, freeways and bridges, 40 and 33 percent, respectively, believe Congress should instead increase funding for maintenance and repair, and for expanding and improving bus, rail and other mass transit. -- National Association of Realtors, Smart Growth America   10/25/2007  

Resource(s):  www.prnewswire.com/ ; www.realtor.org/

Cluster Development Necessary to Meet Conservation Goals, Say Authors of Landmark Study

In contrast to residential sprawl, clustering homes has a smaller ecological ''footprint,'' as their disturbance zones overlap and leave much of the whole area unaffected, but ''conservation goals can only be met if policies promote cluster development and simultaneously steer development away form sensitive ecosystems,'' concluded a six-member academic team in a landmark empirical study, ''Patterns of Houses and Habitat Loss from 1937 to 1999 in Northern Wisconsin.''

The team -- Charlotte E. Gonzales Abraham, Volker C. Radeloff, Todd J. Hawbaker and Murray K. Clayton from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Roger B. Hammer form the Oregon State University, Corvallis, and Susan I. Steward from the U.S. Forest Service Northern Research Station, Evanston, Illinois -- mapped 27,419 houses from older and more recent aerial photos for five periods in 17 northern Wisconsin townships, calculating land left after buffering each house with 100-meter and 500-meter disturbance zones (approximately 330 and 550 feet).

They found a 353 percent housing growth rate from 1937 to 1999, with significant clustering in all five timeframes, but just a 176 and 55 percent habitat loss rate for the 100-meter and 500-meter buffers, respectively, with 95 and 61 percent of their areas unaffected.

''The percentage growth of disturbed land area was much lower than for housing growth,'' observed Volker C. Radeloff in an Ecological Society of America (ESA) press release, ''in the most extreme case, a 1,658 percent increase in the number of houses resulted in only a 204 percent increase in the disturbed land area.''

He noted that habitat loss was lowest in wetlands but reached 60 percent in deciduous forests, and he cautioned against the practice of massive residential clustering within 100 meters of lakes.

''People and wildlife are often drawn to the same places and that exacerbates the environmental effect of houses,'' he stressed. ''Some areas are going to be more important to avoid than others because of their conservation value. High density development in such areas as lakeshores means degrading habitat we prize for its scenic and recreational value.'' -- Ecological Society of America   10/24/2007  

Resource(s):  www.esajournals.org/ ; www.eurekalert.org/

New Jersey

Upper Freehold Mayor Says New Regulations Will Hinder Farmland Preservation Efforts

''It is ironic that while Smart Growth goals are intended to maximize preservation of large tracts of farmland by promoting compact design, recent regulations and guidance have imposed far too much cost uncertainty in the process,'' said Upper Freehold Mayor Stephen Fleischacker, especially concerned that an increased state Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) bank role in buying and selling land credits may frustrate local landowners, who prefer private transactions.

The problem, reports area Examiner writer Jane Meggitt, was signaled two weeks ago by Township Planner Mark Remsa, who advised its board against implementation of a TDR program, complaining that the state now makes Smart Growth efforts ''extraordinarily difficult.''

According to Mayor Fleischacker, the planner referred to the regulations and guidelines recently issued by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP).

They include new endorsement procedures for local compliance with the State Development and Redevelopment Plan (SDRP), recently proposed water quality regulations affecting the township's wastewater management plans for new village areas, restrictions on septic discharges and on sending TDR density allowances from noncontiguous land to designated receiving areas.

Although the rural township's master-plan update draft overlooks Smart Growth principles, the writer reports, the mayor isn't concerned, saying ''(t)he larger context is to limit growth in the farming communities and redirect it to cities and older suburban areas.''

He pointed out that the township needs state endorsement for its updated plan, because without such endorsement it can't set up a new wastewater management area, without which ''there cannot be a center-based village.''

On the other hand, he observed, it's ''unlikely landowners would become willing buyers and sellers in the state TDR bank process,'' because they ''shun government intervention in the private sector.''

DCA spokesman Chris Donnelly commended the mayor and the township for pursuing equitable preservation strategies and saving farmland, promising the Office of Smart Growth's full support for their effort ''to manage future growth and to preserve that rural agricultural character however we can.'' -- Examiner   10/25/2007  

Resource(s):  http://examiner.gmnews.com/

Removing Obstacles to Compact Development Would Help Cut New Jersey's Carbon Emissions

Just released by the New Jersey Sustainable State Institute and Rutgers University at a joint New Brunswick conference, their Energy Sustainability Project research data prove the need for aggressive action to cut state carbon emissions by 13 percent over the next 13 years, with University of Maryland's National Center for Smart Growth Professor Reid Ewing advising federal outlays to help localities overhaul sprawl-era land-use planning and zoning rules that hinder the growing trend toward mixed uses, higher densities and less car dependency.

He pointed out, reports Asbury Park Press writer Kirk Moore, that both car and land use have been three times faster than population growth in recent decades, and that cars and light trucks are now responsible for 45 percent of greenhouse gas emissions nationwide.

''All of that has a lot to do with our land use patterns. We just drive so much farther,'' he observed, noting that it took the nation some 50-60 years ''to get into this mess,'' and that getting out of it may take just as long.

With ever-larger demographic groups preferring urban living and the industry turning to compact development, the professor urged local governments to facilitate rather then obstruct the trend as old housing stock gets replaced, saying, ''we already have enough large-lot, single-family detached housing on the ground, right now, to meet demand in 2025.''

Bloustein Institute's Voorhees Transportation Center Director Dan Chatman said builders ready to pursue compact pedestrian-friendly development are often stymied by lot-size minimums, off-street parking requirements, and frequent neighborhood opposition.

''We're zoning out all kinds of things we ought not to,'' he stressed. ''Maybe the answer is to get out of their (builders') way.'' -- Asbury Park Press   10/30/2007  

Resource(s):  www.app.com/

New York

Mixed-Use Making Its Mark as Walkable Communities Become Focus of Suffolk County Development

''Suburban sprawl is the biggest enemy of our future'' and the nation as a whole is countering the threat with mixed uses, said Prudential Commercial Real Estate Services' Medford-based Property Investment Specialist Jean Larsen after a national conference on the subject in Las Vegas, telling Long Island to make the most of the trend, with Vision Long Island Executive Director Eric Alexander, instrumental in its progress over the past several years, saying, ''Across Long Island there are 50 different smart growth projects; probably eight mega projects which could have those criteria.''

In Huntington, with two mixed-use projects recently completed and another planned, reports Suffolk Life writer George Wallace, Town Supervisor Frank Petrone is exuberant.

''Little restaurants are popping up now on New Street,'' he said. ''We have had to change the code somewhat to permit these, but we think a village should attract young people, and older people, too. The key is to have walkable communities, to have a place where people can walk, shop and don't need vehicles. It becomes a social and cultural experience.''

Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy predicts the smart-growth trend will accelerate.

''Mixed use is the wave of the future,'' he stressed. ''It will mitigate traffic on the roads. People will be able to take a stroll to get a loaf of bread -- you don't have to get in the car every time you want to deal with the most basic parts of life.''

Upbeat about the area's pedestrian-friendly projects, he concluded, ''We're going into a new era for suburbia. And these are the prototypes that, once established, will be sought out.'' -- Suffolk Life   11/28/2007  

Resource(s):  www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?Brd=1776

NYC Teacher Union Pension Fund to Help Finance Bronx Apartment Buildings; Units Will Be Reserved for School System Workers

Unable to afford housing, some 4,600 of New York City's 80,000 teachers, earning between $45,000 and $100,000 a year, left its school system in 2006, while thousands commute 50 and more miles one way often from other states, but municipal employees, paid an average of $30,000 and required to live in the city, face an even harder life, with more than 300 families found recently in homeless shelters -- hardships which unions try to alleviate by ''tapping pension funds, forfeiting pay increases and forming partnerships to create affordable housing for their members.''

Last month, reports USA Today writer Charisse Jones, New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. announced the teacher union pension fund's $28 million investment in New York City Housing Development Corp. bonds to finance two apartment buildings in a large complex in the Bronx, all their 234 rentals reserved for teachers and school system workers who make up to the borough's median income of $70,900.

They will apply for the apartments through a lottery.

''We want a workforce that lives in the city in which it works,'' says United Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, noting that the 234 units are just ''a drop in the bucket,'' but stressing, ''What's important about this nationally, as well as locally, is it's a template.''

Among unions taking similar steps is the city's largest, District Council 37, whose assistant associate director Henry Garrido tells the writer that the 2006 Municipal Employees Housing Program helps members obtain everything from grants for closing costs to a preference in the city's lottery for an affordable unit share.

One of the program grantees, Department of Education communications analyst Aquila Haynes, who earns $55,000 a year, lived with her mother and received $17,000 to help buy a $295,000 duplex apartment in Brooklyn, considers this aid invaluable.

''I was able to move in and buy the furniture and necessities I needed,'' she says. ''Without the grant, I would not have been able to do that.'' -- USA Today   11/29/2007  

Resource(s):  www.usatoday.com/

Gov. Spitzer Announces $500,000 State Grant for New Windsor Smart Growth Initiative

Now serving 300,000 passengers a year, Steward International Airport in New Windsor, some 50 miles north of Manhattan, can accommodate ten times more travelers with the present infrastructure and turn into an ''enormous'' economic engine for the Hudson Valley, stressed Democratic Governor Eliot Spitzer, expecting it to become a regional transportation and economic development hub, hoping for its future rail link, and announcing a $500,000 state grant to launch a related smart growth initiative.

Part of this year's smart growth funding, said the governor, the money will be spent with a focus on Orange, Rockland and Sullivan counties, ''to make sure that what we do when Route 17 becomes I-86, when the Tappan Zee bridge is rebuilt, when Stewart is expanding, when we are adding the jobs and vitality to the Hudson Valley that we desperately want, that we do it properly.''

With the Port Authority and New York and New Jersey buying the airport operation lease, the region's officials, business and community leaders liked what they heard.

Scenic Hudson Senior Vice President Steven Rosenberg called the smart growth initiative ''very significant'' for proper regional development, and Mid-Hudson Pattern for Progress President Jonathan Drapkin said, ''The commitment of the governor to the smart growth effort is very well thought out. Strategic planning is a smart idea.'' -- MidHudson News   11/4/2007  

Resource(s):  www.midhudsonnews.com/

North Carolina

Margin of Victory Surprises All Sides in Charlotte Transit Vote

Despite an aggressive campaign to discontinue Mecklenburg County's half-cent sales tax for the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS), 70 percent of county voters upheld the tax, passed by 58 percent in 1998, to raise and invest some $70 million a year in bus, light rail and other long-term CATS service expansion plans, reports Charlotte Observer writer Steve Harrison, with the margin of victory stunning even transit advocates, especially since many residents often showed anger at cost overruns for the city's first light-rail line, which will open later this month, and since the 37,000 votes for tax repeal didn't even reach the 48,000 signatures under the petition that put the anti-tax proposal on the ballot.

With most of the half-cent tax revenue going to CATS' extensive bus system, the writer observes, the Vote Against Repeal Committee warned voters that they would face worse traffic congestion, bus service cuts and likely property tax increases.

The argument resonated with residents, particularly in African-American communities near uptown. Some that voted almost 70 percent for the tax in 1998, but strongly backed the repeal petition and favored the ballot proposal as late as August, rejected it at the booths by more than 70 percent.

The reasons were clear, the writer notes, quoting air conditioning and heating firm employee Annie Cox, who told him she voted to keep the tax because bus service cuts would hurt low-income residents.

CATS, he adds, is planning a commuter rail to the Lake Norman area, extension of the first light-rail line northeast to University City, a streetcar through central Charlotte, and either a bus or light-rail service down Independence Boulevard southeast. -- Charlotte Observer   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.charlotte.com/

Charlotte Referendum on Transit Tax Will Define Future of City's Transit-Oriented Development

Well aware of how high-density housing along Charlotte's 9.6-mile South Boulevard light-rail line is reviving this long-ignored corridor even before the trains move late next month, city and Mecklenburg County residents facing a November 6 vote on repeal of their 1998 half-cent transit tax -- based on the 2025 Integrated Transit/Land-Use Plan and crucial for further light-rail, streetcar and bus service expansion -- will basically decide whether the Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) should just follow development with buses wherever it goes or continue to steer much of it into another four prospective mixed-use light-rail corridors, helping commuters, shoppers and others reach most destinations without cars.

Charlotte's ''transit-oriented development'' zoning, reports Charlotte Observer writer Steve Harrison, requires developers to build at least 20 housing units per acre within a quarter-mile of a rail station and at least 15 units per acre within a half-mile, with building heights up to 120 feet.

City, CATS and business leaders believe the area's quality of life and sustainability depend on such transit and land-use integration, but transit sales-tax repeal proponents contend that some high-density development along South Boulevard was bound to happen without light rail as similar projects far from the line show, and that it can't be replicated in the other projected transit corridors without massive subsidies, among which they list the $462.7 million line construction costs and $70 million put into improvement of nearby streets.

Appearing last month at a Charlotte debate on the transit tax, Los Angeles-based libertarian Reason Institute urban and land-use policy director Sam Staley called the transit role in spurring development overstated nationwide and attributed most of the South Boulevard projects to the city's housing deficit and its high-density zoning for the corridor, where property values have gone up by 52 percent since 2000, a full 12 percent more than in the city as a whole.

At the same time, County Commissioner Dan Bishop told his colleagues that he sees CATS's land-use involvement as a sign of government willingness ''to control how you live.''

Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory dismissed the notion.

''We aren't going to force people to live in high densities,'' he stressed, ''that's one of the most inaccurate statements I've heard.''

Local developer Steven Harris, whose two large projects at the line's last station and the third from the end account for $650 million of the $1.6 billion in new proposals, was clear about what's behind the rush.

''Without light rail, none of this stuff would have happened for years,'' he pointed out, while developer Monte Ritchey said he primarily focused on an urban location for his Lowe store and 69 housing units under construction on South Boulevard, but the proximity of two light-rail stations has made the units easier to sell. -- Charlotte Observer   10/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.charlotte.com/

Editorial: Charlotte's Transit Tax Foes On the Wrong Track

''If you think the November 6 vote on repeal of Mecklenburg's transit tax is just about light rail, think again. It's also a clash of philosophies about government,'' writes Charlotte Observer editorial pages editor Ed Williams, confident that those seeking to kill the half-cent transit tax will lose, because ''their philosophy is not the one that has made the Charlotte region grow and prosper'' and because they ignore Smart Growth populist roots and see it as governmental coercion.

In contrast to ''keep-the-tax'' advocates, who want their government to ''use the powers granted by state law to try to build an urban region that works well,'' the editor points out, transit tax foes think ''light rail is folly; government is too big, even oppressive; taxes are unacceptably high; government planning is improper meddling with property rights.'' All these views are championed by the Raleigh-based John Locke Foundation and its key founder Art Pope, a wealthy Republican lieutenant-governor aspirant in 1992 and two-term state House member until 2002, whose family's retail company owns almost 600 discount stores nationwide.

His foundation is leading and financing the campaign to repeal the transit tax, the editor writes, quoting two related paragraphs from its 2006 policy agenda.

They read: ''Building rail systems in Charlotte, the Triangle and the Triad is not likely to have the promised results. As projects in other states show, mass transit is almost invariably a wasteful attempt to entice or coerce commuters out of their personal vehicles and into buses and trains. The percentage of commuters willing to use buses or trains is far below 10 percent, and is likely to stay that way regardless of expenditures on transit -- unless, of course, transit advocates are successful in using Smart Growth policies to force families to live in densely packed neighborhoods.''

When Charlotte-Mecklenburg County Planning Director Debra Campbell told the Governing magazine earlier this year that the region ''saw transit as a means, not an end'' and that the ''real impetus for transit was how it could help us grow in a way that was smart,'' transit foes cried foul, while the editor appreciated the statement.

''A belt road around Charlotte promotes a suburban population boom. A light-rail line along South Boulevard encourages residential development by providing people a way to get uptown and back without driving a car at rush hour,'' he stresses. ''To me, it's smart to consider how such decisions affect the goal of having a livable urban region.'' -- Charlotte Observer   10/14/2007  

Resource(s):  www.charlotte.com/

Voters Send Strong Message in Support of Charlotte Transit

In a strong statement on the need for Charlotte-Mecklenburg area transportation choices and on a half-penny sales tax as a good way to fund them, the 70 percent of voters who ensured the tax's continuation made it clear, says a Charlotte Observer editorial, that ''a fast-growing region where 1.4 million people live cannot accommodate traffic and commerce without choking on congestion and asphalt'' and that voters can ''distinguish between the big picture and the problems with construction of the South Corridor, the city's first light-rail line.''

Nothing that the tax repeal drive was launched at the time the South Corridor was ''plagued by cost overruns and lengthy delays,'' which fed public ''angst'' and helped light-rail foes, the editorial points out that the vote ''did not give transit officials and elected leaders carte blanche to build every piece of a 25-year plan for transit,'' though it did leave the planning in hands of a board with mostly county and municipal representatives.

The tax repeal ''would have hit bus riders hardest,'' since two-thirds of the $77 million raised annually pays for expansion of the bus system, ''the backbone of the mass transit plan,'' the editorial reiterates. ''The vote showed firm backing for a transportation future that offers alternatives to driving.'' -- Charlotte Observer   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.charlotte.com/

Riders Generally Pleased with Opening of Charlotte's First Light Rail Route

After more than 100,000 free inaugural-weekend trips on Charlotte's first light rail route, from uptown 9.6 miles south to I-485 in Pineville, the rides tapered down to between 4,500 and 5,000 on the first day of the regular $1.30 one-way service, reportedly due to rain, ticket sale glitches, and incomplete adjustment of bus connections, with Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS) personnel working to correct the technical and other snags to ensure the 9,100 workday boardings projected for the line's first year and expected to reach 18,100 daily by 2025.

''We had a good first day given the weather,'' said CATS CEO Ron Tober. ''The biggest issue we had is that some ticket vending machines weren't working.''

Lacking turnstiles at stations and operating on a proof-of-payment principle, the modern and quiet Lynx Blue Line trains, with comfortable seats and huge windows, need about 25 minutes to travel between uptown and the southern suburb.

Nevertheless, report Charlotte Observer writers Steve Harrison and Mark Price, some commuters who needed their cars to reach light-rail stations found their trips longer than usual, a difference they don't mind.

''It saved me a lot of money,'' said Duke Energy contract worker Deanna Hellis. ''I was paying $10 a day to park. Now I will pay $36 a month for a (discounted) pass.''

Bank of America's uptown branch employee Anne Marie Neely is equally cheerful.

''I was 30 minutes late for work, but according to the schedule, I should get here on time,'' she pointed out. ''I'm not complaining. I really like this ride. I love that I don't have to put up with traffic in the morning.''

And another Bank of America employee, Jerod Laughlin, who bought a home near the line's New Bern station, sounds enthusiastic.

''For the past year, I've been either driving into work or taking my motorcycle, depending on the weather, and it was $45 a month to park and $25 to $30 a week for gas,'' he said. ''Today, it was a 200-foot walk to the station and it was a nine-minute ride. I'm happy. My only complaint is about ticket options. I'd like a three-month or a six-month pass.''

CATS, the writers note, offers daily, weekly and monthly passes, valid for unlimited light-rail and bus rides, with officials hoping the savings and traffic frustration release will gradually take more and more commuters from their cars, while inside bike hooks will make life easier for cyclists. -- Charlotte Observer   11/27/2007  

Resource(s):  www.charlotte.com/

Ohio

Pickerington's Incoming Mayor Ready Wants Blueprint for Smart Growth

Troubled by road and school overcrowding, like most of his 14,500 fellow citizens in Pickerington -- the state's fastest-growing city, some 15 miles southeast of downtown Columbus -- Mayor-elect Mitch O'Brien has campaigned on those issues, reports Lancaster Eagle-Gazette writer Tierra Palmer, finding him eager to improve city parks and open space, and to implement a larger ''blueprint for smart growth,'' including various building and zoning changes.

Residents welcome the prospects.

''I (expect) Mr. O'Brien to work with Council to identify options for a better tax base to slow residential growth,'' said Tracey Conforti, a resident since 2002, who feels almost ''like a hypocrite saying, 'I'm here now. You can close the door behind me.''

Resident Carol Carter wants the mayor-elect to make sure the city retains its small-town charm, and she opposes a proposal to form a Joint Economic Development District with the Canal Winchester, Lancaster, Bloom and Violet townships, convinced that Pickerington tax dollars should be spend on local projects and services rather than fund them elsewhere.

And an avid cyclist, Father Jim Klima, who took over Seton Parish Catholic Church four years ago, hopes the mayor-elect will make the city more biker-friendly, which would encourage physical activity, boost tourism, and reduce gas consumption.

''Every time they build a road, they should install a bike path. If you build them, people will use them,'' he stressed. ''This is not about recreation. This is about planning our future.'' -- Lancaster Eagle-Gazette   11/11/2007  

Resource(s):  www.lancastereaglegazette.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage

Greater Ohio Readies 2007 Candidate Briefing Book for Quality Growth

Last year, the Columbus-based Greater Ohio nonpartisan advocacy group's Candidate Briefing Book helped contenders for state offices and legislative seats tune into public hopes for smart land use, farmland protection, urban reinvestment and transportation options; this year, the Local Candidate's Briefing Book aims to do the same on the mayoral and council levels, said Greater Ohio Co-Director Gene Krebs stressing, ''The smart city concepts outlined in this briefing book include changes the voters are looking for and communities need -- changes that will bring the quality growth and development Ohio's cities and towns need to become great again.''

With the state's recent 49th rank in economic momentum and grade C in quality of life, the book makes it clear that these and related setbacks stem from wasteful land use patterns and that the remedy is smart growth.

''As metropolitan regions spread out, the new development at the edges requires new infrastructure that imposes costs on taxpayers and on local governments (especially burdensome if the region as a whole isn't growing much). Meanwhile, older infrastructure must be maintained. Older communities -- with their beautiful brick roadways, historic buildings, and walkable neighborhoods -- decline,'' the book points out. ''Smart growth is an alternative to urban sprawl, traffic congestion, urban decay and disconnected neighborhoods.''

Designed to match ''Ohio's traditions of local control and property rights,'' Greater Ohio's policy recommendations address those problems.

''For instance,'' the book reads, ''We need to construct walkable communities where people spend their money close to where they live, so that their communities' services benefit from the taxes paid. When people walk to local retail shops, they also limit gasoline consumption and enjoy the benefits of physical exertion. And the regeneration of cities and towns then helps preserve farmland, which provides substantial economic value for food and energy production.''

Noting that the book explains and documents the urgency of community reinvestment, tax reform and Main Street restoration as crucial to attract young, creative, educated workers, and to spur economic growth, Director Krebs invites local candidates and their staff to contact Greater Ohio at the resource link below for additional details or to obtain a copy online. -- Greater Ohio 10.02.2007   10/2/2007  

Resource(s):  www.greaterohio.org

Oregon

Editorial Commends Oregonians' ''Good Public Sense'' in Voting to Curb Proposition 37

In contrast to state Republican lawmakers, who stayed away when their Democratic colleagues were revising ''extremist'' Proposition 37 last spring to make the 2004 property-rights law fair to everyone, Oregon voters recognized and approved Measure 49 as ''a compromise,'' says an Oregonian editorial, happy for this return to the ''political center,'' which is ''a place where Rs and Ds know how to work together.''

Noting that Democrats rewrote the law ''at considerable political risk,'' because opponents portrayed the rewrite as an attempt to repeal Measure 37 and Oregonians ''hate being second-guessed'' and usually ''reject anything that smacks of repeal,'' the editorial commends the good public sense in curbing the measure's reach through the new law.

''Measure 49 protects both property owners and taxpayers by limiting the damage Measure 37 would have done,'' the editorial points out. ''The previous law enabled property owners to demand compensation if they felt -- yes, simply felt -- that regulations had devalued their land.''

Seeking a total of $19.7 billion in damages, claimants didn't care that neither the state nor local governments can afford such payments and they didn't worry over property rights of their neighbors who ''had purchased their land under strict rules to protect farming.''

Measure 49 balances these rights and also ''loosens land use restrictions that antagonized farmers,'' allowing them to build one to three houses quickly, and up to ten upon proof of their losses caused by regulations.

''Welcome back to the political center, Oregonians,'' the editorial concludes. ''This is the strongest place we can be, working side by side.'' -- Oregonian   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.oregonlive.com/

Funding in Support of Oregon's Measure 49 Coming Largely from In-State Contributors

Since Oregon voters passed property-rights Measure 37 in November 2004, eager applicants have filed 7,500 claims for public compensation of their land value losses or for rule waivers to build homes, subdivisions, malls and commercial or industrial projects on a total of 750,000 acres in development-restricted rural and forest areas, a retroactive process whose continuation would erode the state's growth management and its green ''look and feel,'' with an unusual number of local residents, businesses and advocacy groups committing their money to remedial Measure 49 on a state ballot next month.

Measure 49, report Oregonian writers Eric Mortenson and Dave Hogan, would entitle claimants to fast-track construction of one to three homes or between four and ten in cases of a proven property value loss, while banning commercial and industrial development.

The Yes on 49 campaign has raised $2.7 million and spent almost $1.5 million so far, while the opposing Oregonians in Action group, successful with its Measure 37 three years ago, has now gotten about $340,000 and spent $133,000.

The top Yes on 49 contributor, Carlton area winemaker Eric Lemelson, gave $725,000 and another $101,000 from his mother's trust, worried not only that prospective development near his vineyards threatens his ability to farm and his access to groundwater, but also that the state's future is at risk.

''I think the impacts of Measure 37, if it's not amended, will be disastrous, long-term, for Oregon,'' he told the writers. ''Filling up the Willamette Valley with subdivisions all over the place, even over 15 or 20 years, I think, is nuts.''

Similarly motivated former Portland businessmen Edmund ''Ned'' Hayes Jr. and John D. Gray donated $100,000 each, while the Nature Conservancy, its local chapter standing for some 25,000 households, invested $769,000.

''We truly feel we're at a crossroads in Oregon,'' stressed chapter director Russell Hoeflich. ''Can we protect our land and water resources that represent our future? The integrity of the state is really at stake.''

Measure 49 foes dramatize a potential property-rights setback, and its impact on business operations, prices and jobs, without matching the other side's contributions.

''This is about timber for us; it's about keeping our doors open,'' said Seneca Jones Timber senior vice president of legal affairs Dale Riddle, whose company gave Oregonians in Action $50,000.

The milling Swanson Group put in the same amount, its president and CEO Steve Swanson saying, ''When you take away our assets, it takes away our ability to make a profit. It will affect everybody over time, as the employment base shrinks as a result of Measure 49.''

The A-dec dental equipment company contributed another $50,000 and RSG Forest Products added $25,000.

Observers agree that the massive local donations for Yes on 49 signal its advantage in the upcoming referendum.

''I think Oregonian voters differentiate based on whether something is funded out of state or not,'' said the national Common Cause watchdog group's state board chairman David Buchanan. ''If our local people are paying for advertising, that's our business. If it's from out of the state, then there's resentment.'' -- Oregonian   10/1/2007  

Resource(s):  www.oregonlive.com/

Voters Approve Remedial Property-Rights Measure in Oregon

Three years after property-rights Proposition 37 shook the state's growth management, ushering in 7,500 claims for land value-loss compensation or release from restrictions to build ''anything from single homes and 100-home subdivisions to shopping malls, resorts and gravel pits,'' mostly on rural and forest tracts, reports Oregonian writer Eric Mortenson, Oregon voters passed remedial Measure 49 by the same 61-percent margin, with Democratic Governor Ted Kulongoski commenting, ''People stood back and watched it for three years and said this isn't what we voted for.''

Though many eastern and southern Oregon rural counties voted against Measure 49, overwhelming support in the most populous urban counties -- mainly Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas, joined by Marion, Lane and Benton -- ensured its statewide victory.

Crediting the state's Nature Conservancy and preservation-minded business leaders such as Yamhill County vineyard owner Eric Lemelson for making the strong pro-Measure 49 campaign financially possible, the writer points out that the new law will let rural property owners build up to three homes or up to ten if they can really prove a significant loss because of restrictions, but prevent large subdivision projects and commercial and industrial development in protected areas.

With many Measure 37 claims in limbo, the writer notes, some claimants may be able to complete projects beyond the Measure 49 scope if they already have spent large amounts or advanced the construction.

Nevertheless, Oregonians in Action President Dave Hunnicutt, whose group orchestrated Measure 37 in 2004 and fought Measure 49 once the legislature's Democratic majority put it on the ballot in June, is now ready to work with thwarted claimants on their options.

''There may be some who think this ends the issue, but I think they'd be in the minority,'' he said, putting the blame for the property-rights defeat on Democratic lawmakers, who alone wrote the ballot title and long explanatory statement.

''I'm not sure,'' he added, ''the voters really got a chance to understand one way or the other what the impact of 49 really does.'' -- Oregonian   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  www.oregonlive.com/

Pennsylvania

Smart Growth Partnership Offers Free Five-Day Charette in Westmoreland County

''People can be trusted to create good design for their community if you give them the tools and facts,'' said Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County (SGPWC) Executive Director Alex Graziani, inviting area residents to the group's free five-day charrette, October 22-26 at the University of Pittsburgh-Greensburg, on design of a 30-acre site off Routes 30 and 981 near Arnold Palmer Regional Airport, and hoping the event will become a model for public participation in local development planning along the county's whole 40-mile Route 30 corridor.

''There's an opportunity for creative mixed-use -- maybe a town center concept,'' he told Pop City online writer Jennifer Baron. ''With plazas on both sides, it creates connectivity and could keep people from having to get on and off Route 30.''

Expecting future charrettes to include a stronger video component, with SGPWC putting interactive video and an blog features on its web site, Director Graziani pointed out than many public agencies ''are not willing to be transparent,'' but that ''quality of place'' matters and place-based planning is more and more important. -- Pop City, Smart Growth Partnership of Westmoreland County   10/17/2007  

Resource(s):  www.popcitymedia.com/ ; www.smartgrowthpa.org/

Pocono Counties Planning Together for Smart Growth

After Pocono Mountains skiing attracted a 1960s' wave of transplants from the New York metro region to Pike and Monroe counties, municipal officials no more aware of the need to plan development and work regionally than many others elsewhere thought it best to ban local mixed-use zoning, but as traffic worsened and the steady influx escalated in a search for cheaper housing or post-9/11 stress relief, they learned their lesson and moved to correct the past mistake, reports Shamrock Times writer Daniel Axelrod, ''by setting aside conservation funds, changing zoning laws to prevent sprawl and planning together for even more growth'' -- this time for smart growth.

''This recent population boom we've been experiencing after 9/11 really got people's attention,'' said Pike County's Conservation District Manager Susan Beecher. ''We've been growing for a while, but we didn't really have the growth to see it become alarming until then.''

Vacationers and tourists add to the challenge.

''The people who live here,'' added Milford Columns Museum Director Lori Strelecki, ''don't even leave their houses, because you can't even go to the store on the weekend.''

Using its 2005 voter-approved bonds, the writer observes, Pike County earmarked $10 million for targeted acquisition of open space and development rights, while Monroe County has already saved almost 10,000 acres thanks to $25 million in its 1998 bonds.

At the same time, increased county planning staffs are helping municipalities modernize zoning, tighten conservation laws and create detailed growth-management plans, all to promote greater densities, smaller cluster lots, and housing near jobs and businesses to ease commuter and other traffic.

''People don't move here because a builder will build them a house,'' pointed out Pocono Builders Association President Bob Brown. ''They come here because it's great way of life. And if we are smart, and we manage the growth properly, the Poconos are going to continue to have a lot to offer.''

County and local officials think they are finally going in the right direction, and area Democratic Congressman Paul Kanjorski expects them to continue that way.

''If they throw their hands up in the air and allow opportunistic growth,'' he said, ''good God, the Poconos could turn out to look like New Jersey.'' -- Times   10/9/2007  

Resource(s):  www.republicanherald.com/

Mountains Can't Stop Sprawl in Northeastern Pennsylvania

One of the first to keep warning against sprawl throughout the 1980s, then-Pottstown Mercury journalist Thomas Hylton won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for editorials on the need to save farmland, revitalize towns and rethink the nation's ''love affair with cars and big (parking) lots,'' but the warnings went unheeded in much of his own region between Philadelphia and the Poconos, and having hit Monroe County almost 20 years ago, sprawl is now crossing the mountains and reaching Luzerne County.

While population is shrinking in the developed Susquehanna River valley, ''new housing is popping up in the mountain ranges on either side,'' reports Wilkes-Barre Times Leader writer Rory Sweeney, quoting retired longtime Monroe County planning director Joe Krumsky, who calls sprawl inevitable ''if you're near a metropolitan area and people are going to leave that metropolitan area.''

Both he and Chester County's West Vincent Township Manager Jim Wendelgass told the writer that the only real defense against sprawl is strong municipal leadership, regional cooperation, and land-use ordinances that bar development for steep slopes, wetlands, high-water sites and other fragile areas, but make it easier within urban and growth zones.

Accordingly, the township and six other municipalities are working on a plan to focus development around Phoenixville, while Luzerne and Lackawanna counties have recently announced the hiring of a Philadelphia firm to ''establish a framework for investing in our communities'' and to manage growth.

''It makes sense to have your commerce and your density where the existing infrastructure is and where it can expand,'' observed West Vincent Manager Wendelgass. ''It makes no sense to take woods and farms and put businesses there that will compete with businesses down the road.''

And that's how municipal fiscal troubles usually begin, with the Pennsylvania Economy League (PEL) identifying five stages leading to economic distress.

In the first, ''honeymoon'' stage, said PEL policy analyst LeeAnne Clayberger, a municipality enjoys high tax revenue from development on its open land, while service and infrastructure demand remain low; in the second stage, revenue slows with development, but service demand goes up and so must taxes; in the third stage, service demand escalates, while tax-base growth is minimal, forcing cuts in non-essential services; in the fourth stage, revenue declines and reductions in essential services begin, with a noncompetitive tax structure about to precipitate fiscal freefall and some residents ''starting to vote with their feet;'' and in the fifth stage, revenue and tax base continue to diminish, remaining residents shoulder higher tax burden and press for services, the municipality becomes fiscally distressed, and ''households are really moving out if they can.''

Municipal governments ''are nearly powerless to break this cycle given the current limitations on the ways and types of taxes they can use,'' the PEL analyst observed, pointing to ''a fundamental mismatch'' between people's daily mobility and residence-based taxes.

''You might live in one place, work in another, shop in another, recreate in yet another municipality,'' she said. ''The resources aren't really shared across the region or the broader community as much as they are isolated to the municipal boxes, the somewhat artificial boxes that have been created over time.'' -- Times Leader   11/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.timesleader.com/

Butler, Neighboring Townships Seek State Grant to Help Ensure Area-Wide Smart Growth

As different ''as big-box malls are from cow pastures,'' reports Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer David Guo, the city of Butler and its adjacent Butler, East Butler, Penn and Summit townships, some 25 miles north of Pittsburgh, are seeking a state Department of Community and Economic Development grant to pay half of the estimated $304,000 for their prospective ''multiple municipal comprehensive planning code,'' seen by their officials and planners as necessary to ensure area-wide smart growth.

They realize that the area's core and identification mark is the city of Butler, which aims for revitalization, with more stores, businesses and a Main Street program, while the townships hope to maintain their rural character.

''It's the center of our community, and if the outlying towns think what happens in the city doesn't affect them, it just doesn't work that way,'' pointed out Butler Township zoning officer Cindy Davis, who is shepherding the joint land use planning project.

Butler Downtown Revitalization Committee member John Mossman said, ''We're planning ahead so that the things we want to have are in places we want to have them.''

Noting that the city is essentially landlocked and any large development would have go beyond its limits, he stressed, ''But there are certain things that people in my and any one of these separate municipalities all want. Even though I live in the city, my son and I hunt. We don't want all the forested area around here to disappear.''

Officials, the writer adds, expect to receive the joint code grant, especially since it involves five communities.

''The state,'' said planning officer Davis, ''is pretty supportive of these sorts of partnerships.'' -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette   11/25/2007  

Resource(s):  www.post-gazette.com/

South Carolina

Spartanburg County Council Endorses ''Complete Streets'' Plan

Expecting increasingly more retail to sprout up along Highway 9 and spark more subdivisions, the Spartanburg County Council has recently endorsed the ''complete streets'' concept, under which pedestrians, bikers and transit passengers become no less important than drivers, and the state Department of Transportation's plans for widening the highway's 4.3-mile northwest stretch between Boiling Springs and Highway 292 from two to five lanes include a preliminary proposal for a ''typical section,'' with landscaped medians, two-way bike lanes and sidewalks on both sides, but officials fear the design is too costly for full implementation at once.

DOT Commissioner Hugh Atkins likes the complete-street features, reports Spartanburg Herald-Journal writer Emily Dagostino, but he feels ''it will be a long time before the road will get widened if we did the whole thing to that extent,'' because the project's earmarked $30 million can cover only about half of the costs.

County senior transportation planner Jim D'Amato agrees that improving pedestrian and biker safety and linking transportation to land use would inhibit sprawl, but he also thinks the costs would require widening in two phases, with the first launched in 2011.

Upstate Forever's Spartanburg office land-use expert Stephanie Wagner calls the ''typical section'' design, introduced by DOT assistant program manager Penny Phillips, a ''perfect example of a 'complete street,''' pointing out that its benefits warrant an early investment.

''When you're widening a road, that's just a minimal amount of extra asphalt that you're putting in,'' she stresses. ''Why not accommodate them (pedestrian and bikers) from the get-go? It's a lot cheaper to do it now, when we're already doing road projects like that, than down the road.'' -- Herald-Journal   11/25/2007  

Resource(s):  www.goupstate.com/

Gov. Sanford Wants Beaufort County to Scale Down Plan for Rural High School

Having eliminated minimum acreage requirements for school sites in 2003 as hurting small neighborhood schools and inducing sprawl -- the nation's first executive order of this kind -- Republican Governor Mark Sanford asked the Beaufort County Board of Education to scale down its plan for 650-student Whale Branch High School in Seabrook, pointing out that the rural area doesn't face heavy growth, that the big facility would eventually need some 250 students from places almost five miles away to fill classes, and that a smaller school would cost much less than the $30 million projected now.

Board Chairman Fred Washington Jr. promised to consider the arguments, while board member Earl Campbell remained aloof.

''I'm tired of hearing the governor talk about this school. Those kids in that community need that school,'' he stressed, mentioning the governor's private school education and refusing even to address his request.

Approved by voters in a 2000 referendum on a $120 million bond issue, reports Beaufort Gazette writer Jonathan Cribbs, construction of Whale Branch High School, first planned for 1,500 students, has been mired in politics and legal challenges, with Governor Sanford opposing the plan ever since his election in 2002.

He now believes the area needs a high school for about 400 students, a number matching the district's projected enrollment drop in the next four years.

''The consensus is we want that to be a relatively low-growth area,'' the governor said, noting that he owns 1,200 acres nearby and intends to live there after leaving office in 2010. -- Beaufort Gazette   11/17/2007  

Resource(s):  www.beaufortgazette.com/

Tennessee

Germantown Residents Disappointed With Mixed-Use Plan for Wooded Neighborhood Tract

Like most others in Germantown, about 13 miles southeast of downtown Memphis, Neshoba North neighborhood residents favor the overall Smart Growth rezoning plan just approved by the Board of Mayor and Aldermen for the city's 380-acre central business district, but they wanted it to exempt the 14-acre undeveloped Owen Tract -- with old woods and occasional wildlife -- amid their single-family homes just north of City Hall, fearing the prospective effect of dense mixed use development on area character, local traffic, and the safety of children walking and biking to school.

Under the plan, reports Memphis Commercial Appeal writer Kevin McKenzie, the Smart Growth district will feature six-story buildings, stores and offices topped by lofts, a health-care facility, townhouses and pedestrian-friendly streets, most of which Neshoba homeowners see as improper for their neighborhood.

''Unfortunately, the impact of one small portion of this plan on our quiet, stable, single-family residential neighborhood will be anything but smart,'' they wrote in a letter distributed a week earlier, some 200 of them packing a standing-room-only board meeting and expecting reconsideration, but leaving disappointed and criticizing Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy and the aldermen for invoking procedural rules against public comments just before their third and final vote on any subject.

''I think our Board of Mayor and Aldermen have forgotten that they are elected officials,'' said Neshoba resident, history professor Sarah Wilkerson-Freeman, who hoped for an art gallery or museum on the Owen Tract.

Mayor Goldsworthy, the writer notes, has previously pointed out that officials had made special efforts and instituted ''a rather lengthy and orderly process'' to gather and incorporate public input in the Smart Growth plan over the past 14 months, and that residents concerned about traffic and other issues will have many opportunities to seek solutions when the Planning Commission reviews specific development projects.

Aldermen Carole Hinley and Mike Palazzolo repeated that assurance at the latest meeting, the latter saying developers may submit three or four Smart Growth district projects in the next few months and neighbors should remain involved in refining these plans. -- Commercial Appeal   10/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.commercialappeal.com/

Memphis Transit Condenses Plans for Light Rail System to Eight-Mile Starter Line

In the decade since the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) completed a study on a proposed regional light-rail system for the city and its three main suburban corridors, the plan has been condensed to an eight-mile starter line between downtown and Memphis International Airport, said MATA assistant general manager of planning and Smart Growth advocate Thomas D. Fox, expecting the prospective $400 million line to spur transit-oriented development near stations, and to be extended some day from downtown some 13 miles southeast to Germantown and another 10 miles to Collierville.

As an example of light-rail potential for investments, he cited Charlotte, North Carolina, where officials are seeing ''billions of dollars of development already around station locations, before they even open'' their first light-rail line late next month.

Presently, reports Memphis Commercial Appeal writer Kevin McKenzie, the city and MATA operate a bus system at a cost of about $49 million a year.

Its most popular route, between downtown and Germantown, counts 3,000 passengers a day, mostly Memphis residents with service jobs in Germantown, which would ensure at least the same ridership for the corridor's light rail.

But Germantown Mayor Sharon Goldsworthy worries about obstacles, the biggest of which is Norfolk Southern railroad's lack of interest in sharing its right-of-way, the best path for a light-rail line to the eastern suburbs.

Therefore, ''Smart Growth's first transportation step in Germantown'' will be making its core more pedestrian-friendly, the writer observes, quoting the mayor, who said, ''Right now, walking is not doable.'' -- Commercial Appeal   10/21/2007  

Resource(s):  www.commercialappeal.com/

Texas

Reformers Face Uphill Battle in Reducing Texas Auto Emissions

With a 14-mile per gallon Chevy Suburban ''once marketed as the National Car of Texas,'' the state leads the nation in notorious energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions, and as a country, it would be the world's seventh largest polluter, notes National Public Radio (NPR) reporter John Burnett, pointing out that Texas has a lot of industry, air conditioning, miles, and people who love everything big -- an obstinate attitude and a barrier for reformers in their push for change.

''Here, it's the bigger the truck, the better off you are,'' remarks Dallas movie caterer Tangi Spencer, and ''the bigger the gas guzzler you are, the better off you are.''

The feeling extends throughout the whole spectrum.

Waco's Seventh & James Baptist Church pastor Rev. Raymond Bailey says he thought congregants could limit their car trips, but they told him, ''Now preacher, now don't mess with our cars, I'm not going to give up my car.''

Abilene Christian University students behind a petition for a carbon-neutral campus face the same reaction from others, with education major Beth McIlhaney commenting, ''They slough it off, just laughing it off, (saying) 'Oh, you hippie,' or something.''

And even though former Texas governor-now-President Bush ''has acknowledged the human role in climate change,'' the reporter observes, the state's Republican leaders remain incredulous.

State Democratic Senator Kirk Watson's bill to create merely a task force on climate change passed in the Senate, but died in the House, where it encountered ''a who's who of carbon commandos,'' including the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the Gulf Coast Lignite Coalition, the Texas Chemical Council, and the Texas Automobile Dealers Association.

Austin-based conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation economic analyst Bill Peacock, who testified against climate change bills, thinks the lack of a governmental emission-control plan puts Texas ahead of the world, stating, ''So, yes, I'm very pleased the Texas legislature decided to take more time on this issue without passing anything.''

Nevertheless, there are signs of change, with the state's largest utility, TXU, dropping plans for eight coal-fired plans and state mayors challenging the ''hydrocarbon addiction,'' the reporter concludes, quoting the national nonprofit Public Citizen group's Texas Office Director Tom ''Smitty'' Smith.

''Texas has had its head in the hot burning sands for quite some time,'' he says. ''But now it's getting a little too hot and we're starting to look around to see what we can do about it.'' -- National Public Radio   11/26/2007  

Resource(s):  www.npr.org/ ; www.citizen.org

Developer Believes Smart Growth Is Good Policy for Corpus Christi

''There are places where good policy and good economics cross, and I think smart growth is one of them,'' said the grassroots Bay Area Smart Growth Initiative (BASG) group's new member, developer Bart Braselton, whose 300-acre Ranch Vista subdivision in an early phase of construction some 10 miles south of Corpus Christi's core may sometimes induce images of leap-frogging sprawl, but who asks purists to consider its important smart-growth features such as a walkable commercial center, a central park with a playground, and three-tier home prices, in the $140,000, $250,000 and $400,000 ranges.

He also points out, reports Corpus Christi Caller-Times writer Dan Kelly, that the subdivision was planned before sprawl and smart growth became hot issues in the area, that his partners have already owned the outer tract, and that the firm-funded sewer extension opens all the land between Rancho Vista and the denser neighborhoods in the city's south to development.

In addition, he notes that some Corpus Christi ordinances conflict with smart growth, a situation the BASG group wants to remedy to make higher-density and pedestrian-friendly projects easier.

''The way the ordinances are set up, you don't get walking paths and parks,'' he told the writer. ''That park (in Rancho Vista) took an act of God to get done.''

City Councilman Mike Hummel, the writer observes, sees Rancho Vista as a step in the right direction, especially impressed with the extent of its green space.

Corpus Christi newcomer Jeff Pollack, who is starting an environmental consulting firm, says sprawl can be battled on many fronts.

''There are tremendous opportunities for infill development in this community,'' he stressed. ''But if we are going to do green-field development, we want to see master-planned communities with multiple price points and mixed-use suburban centers where people can walk to get the basics.'' -- Caller-Times   10/14/2007  

Resource(s):  www.caller.com/

Criticism Over Condo Tower Puts Spotlight on Houston's Lenient Land-Use Rules

At over 2.1 million, the nation's fourth most-populous city, and the only major one with land-use deed restrictions in a third of its neighborhoods instead of citywide zoning, Houston is often at the mercy of developers who leave unwanted projects in residential areas, including ''(r)owdy cantinas, rock-crushing operations and commercial dumps,'' observes Wall Street Journal writer Kris Hudson, reporting that now even a 23-story condo tower planned ''among the million-dollar homes of two stately neighborhoods'' has ''appalled affluent residents and put local politicians in the hot seat.''

Mayor Bill White told the writer he will do anything he can to scale down or cancel the tower project and to control development elsewhere, short of a push for zoning.

''Not on my watch,'' said the mayor, in a business, real estate and law practice before his election in 2003. ''I do think, as we are in a strong economy and we live closer and closer together, there will be both new development and more rules to protect our common interests. But we will respect consumer choice and not have some bureaucrat in City Hall become the taste patrol for the city.''

Indeed, the writer notes, citywide zoning ideas had little public support, with voters blocking such proposals in 1948, 1962 and 1993. Instead, Mayor White is proposing an ordinance that would enable the city to reject projects that could overburden local roads, but its applicability to the condo tower planned for the Southampton and Boulevard Oaks neighborhoods remains in question.

The developers, Buckhead Investment Partners President Matthew Morgan and CEO Kevin Kurtin, area natives and childhood friends, are resisting city efforts to pare the project down.

Having already paid impact fees, financed $500,000 in sewer upgrades and concluded in an initial study that traffic increases would be negligible, they are planning 187 condos or 236 apartments, a restaurant, a boutique grocery store and 450 parking spaces on their 1.7-acre site of 67 old apartments, with Matthew Morgan saying, ''Doing anything less dense is not economically feasible.'' -- Wall Street Journal   10/17/2007  

Resource(s):  http://online.wsj.com/home

High-Rise Urban Living Comes to Texas

''People are tired of the big house, they're tired of the big yard, and there's a real movement to simplify your lifestyle as children leave,'' says Hillwood development company chairman Ross Perot Jr., the son of an independent billionaire contender in the 1992 and 1996 presidential elections and the leader of a $3 billion-plus effort to create a high-density downtown between the Dallas Convention Center and the former industrial wasteland around the American Airlines arena a mile-and-half away, where he is building his 275-acre Victory Park, with luxury hotels, and condo and office high-rises.

''You can move into a beautiful downtown home, walk to a basketball game, walk to restaurants. There is something unique in the downtown fabric that you couldn't get in the suburbs,'' he tells USA Today writer Haya El Nasser, stressing, ''Our offices want this kind of neighborhood. It's good for recruiting.''

Although the attitude reflects a trend on the rise nationwide, the writer finds it particularly indicative for Texas, a state where space ''often seems infinite'' and ''living large -- and spread out -- hasn't been just a choice but almost a birthright.''

Now, with a population of 23.5 million so far, the state has advanced to the forefront ''of a movement reshaping downtowns'' across the nation, thanks to developers like Perot in Dallas and others with similar dense mixed-use projects in Austin, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio.

The pressures for these land use changes were varied and unavoidable, the writer observes, summing them up.

''Gas prices soared. Traffic congestion choked highways. Air quality worsened and so did pressure from environmental regulators. Light-rail lines came online. And demographics shifted: as baby boomers became empty nesters, their desire for convenience and fun suddenly merged with those of young professionals. Both groups are flocking to urban settings.''

Encouraged by developer interest in mixed-use construction along the 45-mile Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light-rail line to Plano in the north and Garland in the northeast, with work under way to almost double the system's reach by 2013, the city adopted its first long-term growth plan -- Forward Dallas -- last year, aiming for transit-oriented development and high urban density.

Still, the writer notes, even if northern cities inspire much of the Dallas high-rise boom, they don't get the credit.

''In secret, we look at what they do,'' explains the city's long-range planning assistant director Peer Chacko. ''But we try to avoid pointing to them too much as an example. It doesn't sell very well to the public. If we say New York or Chicago, they say, 'We're Dallas.' There's a very strong level of pride.'' -- USA Today   10/3/2007  

Resource(s):  www.usatoday.com/

Houston Announces Plans to Build Five Light-Rail Lines by 2012

In a reversal of its 2005 intent to open four of Houston's next five transit routes with less costly rapid buses and switch to light-rail once high ridership convinces the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to pay half of the system's $1.3 billion construction costs, reports Houston Chronicle writer Rad Sallee, the Metropolitan Transit Authority (Metro) voted to build all the light-rail lines together -- not only for the University of Houston, but also for the North, East End, Southeast and Uptown -- expecting their completion by late 2012.

It will cost less to build light rail from the start than to begin with rapid buses and convert the routes to light rail later, said Metro President and CEO Frank Wilson, glad that FTA recognized the argument and agreed to evaluate the five planned lines as part of an integrated transit system instead of separately.

This will boost the four lines' cost-benefit ratio, especially with simultaneous Metro board approval of the route for the university line, the fifth and most advanced in planning, which will become a 10-mile east-west supplement to the existing 7.5-mile Main Street line.

Board Chairman David Wolff also stressed the advantages of pursuing light rail at the same time in all five corridors, pointing out that they will overlap on several segments.

For example, he said, university line passengers going west will be able to go directly to Galleria, since some of the trains will run on the Uptown line tracks on Post Oak. -- Houston Chronicle   10/19/2007  

Resource(s):  www.chron.com/

Utah

Federal, State Policies Forcing Municipalities to Compete for Infrastructure Funds

''We've got a government structure that dates from the horse-and-buggy era,'' observed University of Utah's Center for Architectural Study Assistant Professor Keith Bartholomew, commenting on Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program's Blueprint for American Prosperity campaign to make metro areas and the need for federal investment, transportation and land-use policy changes central to the 2008 elections, with Salt Lake Chambers of Commerce Vice President Natalie Gochnour saying the campaign is right to link rural America's future to urban dynamics and prosperity.

Federal and state policies and funding practices, the professor told Salt Lake Tribune writer Brandon Loomis, force municipalities to compete for infrastructure rather than cooperate on regional plans, with the requirement for separate spending on roads, transit and trails regardless of local needs making things even worse.

According to Brookings' Metropolitan Policy Program Research Director Alan Berube, the writer reports, a series of the program's reports ahead of the 2008 electoral races will include recommendations to create more powerful regional governments and let them set their own priorities for federal funds.

The Brookings expert thinks the Salt Lake City metro is positioned for the future better than many others since it already has a third of its jobs within three miles of downtown, which bodes well for further revitalization of the urban core.

In tune with the Brookings campaign, the writer notes, the Envision Utah smart-growth group will soon release a market analysis of a pent-up demand for mixed-use development at key transportation nodes, with its Executive Director Alan Matheson expecting the analysis to help local governments offer residents the choices they want. -- Salt Lake Tribune   11/10/2007  

Resource(s):  www.sltrib.com/

Legacy Parkway's Proximity to Schools Called ''Fatal Flaw''

Having won a long legal challenge and eventually obtained a Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) compromise on a better environmental design for the first stretch of Legacy Parkway from Farmington in southern Davis County to Salt Lake City two years ago, state growth-management advocates may now have to go to court over UDOT's preferred route for the parkway's west-side Mountain View Corridor segment, which would have 21 Salt Lake County public schools within its half-mile range, with their students and staff exposed to heavy tailpipe emissions and related health threats.

Sierra Club state spokesman Marc Heilson called the route's proximity to the schools a ''fatal flaw'' of the west-side segment of the parkway, planned in advance of another 500,000 residents in the area by 2030.

According to the just-issued Mountain View Corridor environmental impact study, which also mentions the lack of transit and the need for more pedestrian and bicycle trails, reports Salt Lake Tribune writer Patty Henetz, the new highway is a must, because without it congestion in western Salt Lake County and northwestern Utah County would rise by 791 percent, costing residents and the economy $1.1 million a day and causing more road accidents.

The study details the prospective emissions from the highway, but claims ''concentrations or exposures created by each of the project alternatives cannot be predicted with enough accuracy to be useful in estimating health impact.''

In contrast, Utah Moms for Clean Air (UMCA) co-founder Cherise Udell considers the preferred route a ''cancer'' corridor.

''If you know ahead of time that 'X' number of people statistically will die or be disabled in some way because of these (tailpipe) pollutants, then it is human sacrifice and we have to see it that way,'' she stressed. ''If that's morally unacceptable, we have to do something about it.'' -- Salt Lake Tribune   10/18/2007  

Resource(s):  www.sltrib.com/

Vermont

Williston Growth Center First to Gain Approval by Vermont Downtown Redevelopment Board

Having six months ago decided to designate 700 acres around Taft Corners as a growth center, initially with 356 townhouses and 20 acres of retail space, a proposal just endorsed by the Vermont Downtown Redevelopment Board, Williston officials became the first to take advantage of a 2005 state program's economic incentives for construction in or near urban areas, reports Burlington Free Press writer Nick Martin, noting that the program requires municipalities to fit 50 percent of development over the next 20 years into such growth centers, which must abut already developed land.

''This is an example of how Vermont can support commercial and residential development in areas that everyone can agree are appropriate,'' said Republican Governor Jim Douglas. ''At the same time, growth centers like this will be reducing development pressures on important natural resources outside the designated areas.''

The growth-center concept has been debated for more than 10 years, noted Smart Growth Vermont Executive Director Noelle MacKay, pointing to the state's tradition of downtowns and villages, and their appeal to Vermonters and vacationers alike.

''Historically we have put money into developing downtown areas,'' she said, stressing that state investments in designated centers will ''encourage growth in and around our downtown areas, so in 20 years we still have a community that looks like Vermont.''

The program, the writer observes, offers towns state funds for infrastructure and entitles center developers to lower fees than they normally pay to offset their projects' impact on rural land.

Among other towns working on growth center plans, he adds, are Bennington and Colchester. -- Burlington Free Press   10/30/2007  

Resource(s):  www.burlingtonfreepress.com/

Virginia

Arlington County Looks at Creative Solutions to Moving People in Revised Master Transportation Plan

A national model for multimodal mobility and transit-oriented development since at least 1997, Arlington County's Master Transportation Plan (MTP) is being completely revised to make this widely known western Washington, D.C. suburb even more town-like and livable by 2030, with County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson saying the long overdue revision ''pulls us into the 21st century with some truly creative solutions to the growing problem of moving people in an efficient, environmentally sensitive way'' by further reducing their need to drive cars.

In the last 10 years, notes the board's press release, these policies ensured that despite the county's population and job growth, several of its main roads has become less congested, while traffic increases on others have been limited to the average of just a half percent a year.

Determined to best that record, the county held some 35 forums and presentations over the past two years to gather community input for the new MTP draft, with the board just approving its six primary goals and policies, scheduling a public hearing on a related map for December 15, and expecting the Arlington Transportation Commission to complete work on six other plan elements next year.

So far, the press release says, the plan draft obliges the county to provide high quality transportation services for all users and modes; move more people without more traffic; promote safety; establish equity; manage effectively and efficiently; and advance environmental sustainability.

The elements still to be completed focus on streets, transit, pedestrians, bicycles, parking and curb space management, and travel demand and system management.

Specifically, officials want to expand high-frequency transit routes, the bikeway network, and the travel information program; upgrade sidewalks; ensure ''complete streets'' countywide to meet all needs and reflect neighborhood character; improve system efficiency, safety and capacity to facilitate street traffic flow; manage the valuable curb parking space more effectively; and boost the Transportation Demand Management program, with a sharper focus on commuter travel, monitoring, and new development. -- Arlington County Master Transportation Plan   11/14/2007  

Resource(s):  www.arlingtonva.us/Default.aspx

Voters Support Smart Growth Candidates in Virginia Elections

A major theme in the state's 2007 regional and local elections was the need for reform and smart growth, especially in Chesterfield, Dinwiddie and Prince George counties, which will have to absorb most residential and commercial development as the expansion of Fort Lee Military Reservation accelerates over the next years, points out a Petersburg Progress-Index editorial, quoting newly elected Chesterfield Independent Supervisor Marleen Durfee, founder of the Chesterfield Smart Growth Alliance, who said voters ''were ready for the change.''

Despite the county's overcrowded schools and congested roads, the editorial observes, its outgoing board has just approved the controversial 1,614-acre Branner Station project, with almost 5,000 homes and apartments, and 470,000 square feet of commercial space, plus parks and two schools.

In response, voters replaced two incumbents with Supervisors Durfee and like-minded Republican Dorothy Jaeckle, also putting growth-management advocates at two open seats on the five-member county board.

At the same time, Prince George County Supervisor Robert E. ''Bob'' Forehand lost to a slow-growth contender, former supervisor Reid Foster, with another newly elected board member, Alan Carmichael, equally confident that county residents ''want a change.''

In Dinwiddie County, the editorial says, voters expressed the same sentiment in the sheriff election, passing over four well-qualified department members and choosing outsider B.B. ''Dusty'' Rhodes, who promised increased training and greater public involvement in efforts to fight crime as the area's population climbs.

Dinwiddie residents ''indicated they want change and now the work's gonna start,'' the new sheriff announced, with the editorial adding, ''Now is the time for all our elected officials, whether new or re-elected, to work to make sure growth comes in a smart, efficient manner.'' -- Progress-Index   11/11/2007  

Resource(s):  www.progress-index.com/

New Rules for Development Needed, Glendening Tells Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtable Participants

''From coast to coast, more and more communities are realizing that we cannot continue to build our cities and regions the same way we have for the last 60 years,'' said Smart Growth Leadership Institute President and former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening in a presentation to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Planning Roundtable at Mary Washington College, reminding listeners of Albert Einstein's famous adage, ''Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.''

On its way from 300 million to 430 million by 2050, and its number of households with children falling from 36 to 26 percent, the governor observed, the nation must change ''the rules of the development game'' and stop subsidizing sprawl.

Although ''we are getting older, living longer, delaying marriage and having smaller households,'' he continued, ''two-thirds of the housing stock built in the last decade was typical single-family detached units,'' a trend whose continuation would cause a major mismatch between housing types and public needs.

He mentioned steady fuel-price escalation as another key factor in the increased demand for smaller homes and easier access to everyday destinations, reports Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star writer Rusty Dennen, a change especially important in areas such as Fredericksburg, where most workers commute. Noting a Center for Housing Policy research conclusion that any savings on lower home prices on the fringe vanish once home locations require commutes of just 12 to 15 miles, Governor Glendening said, ''We must think about making communities that can sustain themselves when unlimited driving is no longer an option.''

Thanks to its existing infrastructure, the Mid-Atlantic region's compact, pedestrian-friendly, transit-oriented development is feasible, he stressed, saying farsighted companies and employees have been increasingly focused on quality of life as a prime relocation goal.

Google, he added, chose Ann Arbor over Detroit, because Ann Arbor's development policy makes it ''walkable, livable and fun.'' -- Free Lance-Star   11/10/2007  

Resource(s):  http://fredericksburg.com/

Arlington County Tree Fund Would Support Planting, Maintenance of Trees on Private Property

In a follow-up to the Arlington Initiative to Reduce Emissions (AIRE), the Arlington County Board created the Arlington Tree Canopy Fund to help civic associations and other community groups plant trees on private properties, with the grant money coming mostly from developers, who will be paying $2,400 for every tree they are required but cannot put on theirs sites because of topographical or other constraints.

''What is innovative about this program is the county's decision to fund, through a non-profit group, tree planting on private property,'' pointed out County Board Chairman Paul Ferguson. In establishing this fund, the board is underscoring Arlington's deep commitment to nurturing a healthy urban forest that can help keep temperatures down in our homes and businesses, and make our community an even more pedestrian-friendly place.''

Devised with the help of Arlington's Urban Forestry Advisory Commission and administered in partnership with Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment (ACE) under a Memorandum of Understanding, the program is yet another remedy for the county's loss of more than 3,000 acres of ''heavy'' tree canopy (at least 50 percent tree cover), which have been converted to ''low'' canopy (less than 20 percent cover) since the 1970s, mostly on private properties.

The program will supplement the county's aggressive tree planting on public property -- some 1,200 trees a year -- where further forester efforts are not always possible, since space is limited and soil strips between curbs and sidewalks are usually too narrow for roots to support and nourish trees. -- Arlington County   10/13/2007  

Resource(s):  www.arlingtonva.us/

Loudoun County Voters Turn Out Pro-Growth Board Members

In another good day for Virginia smart growth, its four Democratic proponents unseated pro-developer Republican supervisors in Loudoun County, predominantly conservative and now the nation's fastest-growing one, joining four reelected slow-growth board members -- two Independents, a Democrat, and a Republican -- which leaves the only different-minded GOP holdover, returned mainly for his tough stance on illegal immigration in his district, practically powerless when it comes to approving more subdivisions and other large projects.

''What voters wanted was to get the focus back on existing communities, not on new communities,'' stressed newly-elected Democratic Supervisor Andrea McGimsey, with the capital area's Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz also attributing GOP losses on the Board of Supervisors to public ''anger over the way growth has been handled in the county.''

Loudoun Republican Party Chairman Paul Protic, reports Washington Post writer Sandhya Somashekhar, put the losses in a larger context.

''Clearly, Loudoun Republicans are disappointed with our performance in this year's election, which appears in many ways to be an extension of challenges our party is facing on the regional, state and even national levels,'' he said in a statement. ''We continue to believe that Loudoun County is GOP territory and that our base is strong and resilient.''

Still, the election results show that the GOP is also continuing to change. -- Washington Post   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  http://loudounextra.washingtonpost.com/

Washington

New Transit Plan Expected After Voters Reject Puget Sound ''Roads & Transit'' Package

Opposed not only by construction and anti-tax groups for obvious reasons, but also by the Sierra Club for committing some $7 billion to new Puget Sound highways and recently by influential King County Democratic Executive Ron King for seeking too much at once, the $18 billion ''Roads & Transit'' Proposition 1 package lagged early and badly in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties -- 56 to 44 percent -- with both sides now expecting Democratic Governor Christine Gregoire to spearhead a move against regional gridlock and she stating her readiness to do so.

''This was a tough vote. Local voters were asked to make a significant contribution to solving safety and congestion and I respect the decision of voters in the Puget Sound area. I will continue to fight to solve our transportation problems,'' the governor said, stressing the need to replace the floating 520 bridge, from Seattle over Lake Washington east to Medina, dangerously vulnerable to earthquakes and winds.

Earmarking $7 billion for 186 miles of new roads, about $10 billion for 50 miles of light rail, and the rest for other transit, observes Seattle Times reporter Andrew Garber, the road-transit package would have cost around $47 billion over 50 years, with Executive Sims convinced that a better solution will emerge.

''We've had issues go before the voters the first time, then we came back and were successful the second time,'' he said. I think that's going to happen this time.''

Sierra Club chapter chairman Mike O'Brien told Seattle Times transportation reporter Mike Lindblom that in his phone calls to voters over the weekend he assured them that the club would work out a strong alternative, focused on transit.

Both reporters note that it's too early for specifics, but that many package critics favor congestion pricing to discourage nonessential car trips and raise money for transportation improvements. -- Seattle Times   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

Columnist Predicts Defeat for Puget Sound Transit Plan

Word on the street doesn't bode well for the Puget Sound area's Proposition 1, which would raise $18 billion for badly needed road and transit improvements in King, Pierce and Snohomish counties by 2030, writes Seattle Times editorial columnist Joni Balter, who decided to cast her vote against the package, because its proposed sales, car and other taxes ''to pay for so many projects at once make our region less and less affordable for middle- and lower-income families.''

Weary of congestion, area residents don't hesitate to fund transportation, the columnist observes, noting that just last year Seattle voters approved $365 million for city roads and bridges, and King County voters notched their sales tax .1 cent up to invest $50 million a year in bus service.

Still, she sees the massive taxes and fees on this year's ballot as another step in ''pricing longtime residents and seniors out,'' confident that cutting the $18 billion package in half would make it more manageable and realistic next year or in a few years.

Should the package fail November 6, the columnist envisions several possible scenarios in its wake.

Civic leaders may try ''to change the governance of the multitude of transportation agencies,'' a move seen by King County Councilmember Julia Patterson, a vigorous package supporter, as ''rearranging the chairs on the deck of the Titanic'' in the face of unabated ''congestion and population influx.''

Alternatively or simultaneously, the columnist continues, the legislature might raise the statewide gas tax, but the money could only pay for roads, not for transit.

Or the region could adopt congestion pricing, which experts find effective in changing motorist habits, but which still lack public support.

Or maybe it could do a few smaller projects at a time, first launching the next light-rail line that has the greatest support and ridership potential and whose benefits would make voters more comfortable about approving funds for more rail mileage.

In addition, the columnist predicts, the fail of Proposition 1 would be ''a campaign issue between Governor Christine Gregoire, who supports the package, and her challenger in the 2008 rematch, Republican Dino Rossi.''

Not so pessimistic as ''the gloom-and-doom crowd'' that thinks the failure would result in ''Slow Growth Choke-itopia, where residents either move closer to where they work or the region chokes on its own success,'' she writes, ''Maybe fewer people move here because they hear you can't afford a house or the traffic jams are hell on wheels.''

See arguments for the package at www.yesonroadsandtransit.org/faq/faqs.html. -- Seattle Times   10/25/2007  

Resource(s):  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/home/

Voters to Decide Fate of Tacoma Transit Plan

''We can't allow our businesses to come to a standstill,'' said Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber of Commerce President David Graybill at the Tacoma News Tribune's transportation forum, focused on the November 6 election, urging voters in Pierce, King and Snohomish counties to approve .6 and .8 percent increases in sales and motor vehicle taxes, respectively, which would let the region raise $10.8 billion for transit, including another 50 miles of Seattle's light-rail system, and $7 billion for road expansion.

''We are at the crossroads in Pierce County,'' concurred County Republican Councilman Shawn Bunney, stressing the urgent need to pass the long-term funding. ''One way leads to prosperity; one leads to decline.''

Critics of the ballot measure, reports News Tribune writer David Wickert, were of two minds, some worried that too much money would go to roads; others, that it wouldn't be enough.

''The new freeway miles are just going to fill up with more vehicles,'' observed Sierra Club representative Tim Gould, while former state Senator Tom Horne complained that the regional plan ''(c)osts too much, does too little.''

According to his estimate, the improvement package would really cost about $157 billion if true construction costs, debt interest and other expenses were taken into account.

County Executive John Ladenburg called the estimate ''wildly exaggerated,'' pointing out that the package's price has been verified by independent experts. -- News Tribune   10/11/2007  

Resource(s):  www.thenewstribune.com/

Puget Sound Transit Plan Called ''Too Big'' for Voters

''Proposition 1 was just too big and complicated, all for the enormous sum of $18 billion,'' comments a Seattle Times editorial on its demise, confident that regionalism is well in the Puget Sound area and that a ''new proposal will rise from the ashes of this behemoth, which grew beyond the average citizen's comprehension.''

When sensible people are in doubt, they ''don't sign on the dotted line for billions to be collected over many generations,'' the editorial observes, telling legislators, state officials and local leaders ''to start talking about something smaller.''

It mentions ''a version of congestion pricing that will actually change commuters' behavior'' and the possibility of some road tolls ''to collect more from users.''

Noting that the package rejection ''did not turn out to be a transit-versus-roads equation'' even if ''zealots on both sides helped kill the plan,'' the editorial concludes, ''The proposal was rejected because it reached too far. Come back with something simpler, more manageable and with a more fathomable price tag.'' -- Seattle Times   11/7/2007  

Resource(s):  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/

West Virginia

Glendening Addresses West Virginia Conference on Smart Growth

''Smart Growth can reduce significantly the ratio of how many people commute far distances for jobs when they can find the same jobs right here'' and that would boost ''the overall wealth of the area'' and its quality of life, said Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, former Maryland two-term Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, in a keynote address at the annual West Virginia Conference on Smart Growth in Martinsburg, an event sponsored by the Department of Environmental Protection to explore and promote ways to protect the state's air, water, land and other crucial resources.

As pollution gets worse, gas prices escalate, and climate change looms, people all across the country are challenging the fiscal wisdom of ignoring present infrastructure and expanding roads, sewers and other infrastructure into the urban fringe, the former governor stressed. ''In the long run, we have to ask ourselves where we will be at the end of another decade.''

Other speakers, reports Martinsburg Journal writer Michael C. Lewis, shared these concerns and elaborated on the best solutions, especially pedestrian-friendly measures and designs.

EPA Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation's Community, Development and Environment Division senior analyst Matthew Dalbey focused on the need to update zoning ordinances and development codes for mixed uses, and to use conservation easements and tax policies as tools against sprawl.

''Create a small-town feel with narrow streets, short building setbacks, dispersed parking and rental mixed in,'' he told the audience. ''You want to initiate smart growth principles in your community to preserve your rural character and charm.''

Like the governor and the analyst, West Virginia American Institute of Architects President Thom Worlledge would like to see public policies for more mobility and place choices.

''Encourage mixed-use development. Preserve urban centers,'' he advised. ''Give people the option to walk, bike or use public transit. Build vibrant public spaces -- in the city. Citizens need welcoming, well-defined places to stimulate face-to-face interaction.''

And Martinsburg's Small Business Development Center official Christina Lundberg hoped for a ''density by design'' program to enhance the city and save the countryside.

One of the issues for Martinsburg is how to work with Berkeley County ''on a big picture plan to make this happen,'' she said, adding, ''We have a wonderful downtown. To attract small business, we need to work toward having a downtown area that is full of people.'' -- Journal   10/17/2007  

Resource(s):  www.journal-news.net/

Wisconsin

$25 Million I-94 Interchange Still on the Boards for Pabst Farms Project

The controversial development of historic 1,500-acre horse and dairy Pabst Farms -- set up by Milwaukee beer magnate Frederick Pabst in 1906 -- into a master-planned enclave of 1,200 varied-type homes, offices and stores was to be anchored by a 110-acre regional shopping and entertainment center, but even after Chicago-based General Growth Properties suddenly dropped that proposal, the Wisconsin Department of Transportation (WisDOT), Waukesha County and Oconomowoc are still ready to fund a $25 million I-94 interchange for the center, with Political Environment blog writer James Rowan urging local officials to quit the deal now and state lawmakers to investigate the WisDOT rush to ''use public funds to build an interchange to nowhere.''

Under the deal, reported Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writers Amy Rinard and Scott Williams earlier, WisDOT would put in $21.1 million, the county and the Pabst Farms Development Inc. $1.75 million each, and Oconomowoc $400,000 from its $24,000 million Tax Increment Financing (TIF) district created for the project.

Since General Growth Properties' withdrawal, Pabst Farms Development President Peter Bell has been looking for another company to build the massive shopping component of Pabst Farms, hopeful it will open in 2010, while Oconomowoc Mayor Maury Sullivan tried to allay fears that big-box chains may instead move in, promising to wait as long as it takes for the envisioned upscale retail.

''We've adopted a master plan and zoning for that location, and it does not have big boxes in it,'' he said.

Nevertheless, asks Political Environment writer James Rowan, if General Growth Properties realized the area may not sustain a regional mall, ''why should the state, county and the city of Oconomowoc press ahead with the fast-tracked construction of the interchange?''

Both the county and the city, he points out, can still reconsider and save their money, but ''WisDOT operates with such insularity and arrogance that it can't be counseled to do the right thing with any expectation of a reasonable outcome -- which in this case is simply to pull the plug on having earmarked money for a road to nowhere without permission.''

That's why, he stresses, ''quick and unambiguous pressure delivered by legislators and watchdog auditors at the State Capitol is a necessity to get WisDOT's attention, and action.'' -- Political Environment, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel   10/1/2007  

Resource(s):  www.thepoliticalenvironment.blogspot.com/ ; www.jsonline.com/

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