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Anchorage Considers Zoning Rules to Make Buildings More Appealing
Anchorage, Alaska, is considering ways it can reform its zoning code to make developers build more attractive buildings. Under the proposals currently being considered, blank, windowless walls would no longer be allowed to front a street, according to the Anchorage Daily News. Buildings would be required to provide a more architecturally pleasing façade with a street side entrance and to help enliven the street.
Currently, only very large big box retailers are required to create interesting storefronts. However, despite the appeal of creating a more exciting urban environment, the new law has its detractors. A group of local developers oppose the new law, worrying the new design standards will impose higher costs and prevent visionary architectural design. The new zoning laws might prevent the worst cases of poor deign but in the process bring everything else down to a mediocre level. The zoning revision committee is trying to finish up the guidelines by the end of the year and slow introduce them throughout the city.
2/20/2010
Resource(s): www.adn.com/
Federal TIGER Streetcar Grant ''Game Changer'' for Tucson
''The streetcar is a great way for Tucson to attract business,'' said U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood at a crowded event at the city's Historic Train Depot downtown, signing a $63-million check from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) Grant Program for its planned four-mile modern streetcar line. Expected to cost some $150 million, reports Tucson Arizona Daily Star writer Rob O’Dell, the project now has enough money to start construction and create 1,600 jobs late this year.
With $6 million in earlier federal grant funds and $75 million in Regional Transportation Authority (RTA) money, the additional $6 million may not even be needed to open the line in 2012, thought Tucson Transportation Director Jim Glock and RTA Executive Director Gary Hayes, hoping to complete the project under budget. Local developers and UA officials, the writer and a Star editorial observe, have touted the streetcar as crucial for their investments to revitalize downtown and build student housing. ''It’s a real game changer,'' said developer Jerry Dixon about the TIGER grant.
UA Associate Vice President for Planning, Design and Construction Bob Smith said earlier that without the streetcar, the university would slow its downtown plans, and Architecture College Dean Janice Cervelli pointed to potential downtown classes for working professionals and to the prospect for mixed-use development along the line. Tucson congressional lobbyist Terry Bracy acknowledged hard work by U.S. Democratic Representatives Ed Pastor, Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Gifford in securing the $63-million grant, also assigning ''tremendous credit'' to Mayor Bob Walkup for his idea of buying all-American streetcars, designed and built by Oregon Iron Works Inc., an element that put the Oregon congressional delegation behind the Tucson grant application. ''This just shows what you can do if you ignore the negatives and turn off the background noise and work together,'' he said, with Mayor Walkup stressing, ''The White House wants to see workers getting back to work.''
2/18/2010
Resource(s): http://azstarnet.com/
Mesa May Narrow Six-Lane Artery to Bring Back Pedestrians and Revive Business
Derided sometimes for its ''wide streets and narrow minds,'' Mesa may now reverse that perception by closing curb lanes of the six-lane, two-mile Southern Avenue stretch across the Fiesta District to slow down traffic and restore its full economic and civic significance. South of the avenue, reports Phoenix Arizona Republic writer Gary Nelson, relatively recent investments of hundred of millions of dollars have already benefited the district with a new children’s hospital, new Mesa Community College building and Fiesta Mall improvements. In contrast, the avenue’s north side suffers blight and shuttered storefronts, with the once-thriving Fiesta Village retail, dining and entertainment hub neglected and fenced-off after far-flung competitors began to pull away its customers in the mid-1990s.
Told by a consultant study in late 2008 that a $16.5-million investment in walkways, pocket parks, better signage, and landscaping and narrowing the avenue would jump-start district revival, Mesa leaders couldn’t act on the recommendations until now because of the recession and the city’s budget crisis. Encouraged by what they learned from other cities nationwide last year, and buoyed by both unanticipated savings on recent road construction projects and a $1 million federal grant for pocket parks, the writer notes, the City Council is looking to turn Southern Avenue into a richly landscaped boulevard, with both curb lanes reserved for parallel parking.
''By focusing on making through traffic a priority, we have pushed people out farther,'' said Mayor Scott Smith about the avenue and the Fiesta District. ''We’re never going to revive or create the kind of economic center this can be if we facilitate people living 20 miles away so they can drive to Tempe or Phoenix. That’s what focusing on through-traffic efficiency does.'' Sonoran Institute’s Sun Corridor Legacy Program Director and City Councilman Dave Richins and the Fiesta District area’s Councilman Dennis Kavanaugh concur. ''The more walkable a neighborhood becomes, traffic actually drops,'' observed the former, with the latter saying the remake ''would be a good example for suburban communities that acknowledge the negative aspects of urban sprawl and cookie-cutter development,'' and it could show them ''how central retail-oriented areas can reinvent themselves as a special neighborhood or district where people want to live, work and recreate.'' And Mayor Smith confirmed he would like to make the Fiesta District ''a place,'' pointing out, ''It used to be a place. It was a destination. And it’s lost that luster.''
2/15/2010
Resource(s): www.azcentral.com/
Study Finds Northwest Arkansas Suitable For Light Rail Line
According to the Arkansas Times, a study has concluded that ''Northwest Arkansas is a strong candidate for light rail,'' in part because the region grew up along a rail service line and offers a linear configuration for a modern system. Also, ''like the rest of the world, Arkansas is making a dramatic shift toward urbanization,'' with the region's population expected to grow from about 300,000 to one million by 2050. The article adds that ''as much as 66 percent of the cost of building a new light rail system is used in acquiring the property,'' and in the region, ''most of this right of way already exists...and is used lightly by the Arkansas Missouri freight line.''
The Arkansas Times covers additional aspects of the study, done primarily by the University of Arkansas and Washington University of St. Louis, and notes issues in planning any light rail line.
2/11/2010
Resource(s): www.arktimes.com/
Rail Line to the Sea Approved in Los Angeles
Transportation officials have approved a route linking downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. According to this article in the Los Angeles Times, the expansion of the Expo Line would be a nearly seven-mile link from downtown to Culver City with the additional extension to Santa Monica extending rail through one of the most congested parts of the city.
Transportation planners believe they have the funds necessary to complete the line with broad public support. ''Every other part of Los Angeles has been served by mass public transportation,'' L.A. County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the Westside is quoted. ''This part of town, this part of the county has waited a long time for this.''
2/4/2010
Resource(s): http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/
Nation’s First Systemic Bike Transit Network Unveiled in Claremont, Calif.
Located on the same LA Metrolink Line, Bikestation Claremont Joins with
Bikestation Covina to Create a Systemic Bike Transit Network
Long Beach/Claremont, Calif., February 8, 2010 — Mobis Transportation has announced the development of Bikestation Claremont, located at the Metrolink station in the historic Claremont Depotin downtown Claremont. Since Bikestation Claremont is on the same transit line and shares the same access technology as Bikestation Covina, it creates the nation’s first bike transit system. This bicycle network enables greater use of alternative transportation methods like bicycles and it increases the practicality of public transit for many people. Bikestation Claremont provides a complete bicycle transit center with a variety of services and amenities that make bicycling more secure and convenient, including secure bike parking, restrooms, retail accessory sales, and bike repair and rental services.
Bikestation Claremont will enable more people to use bicycles for transit by addressing the most common concerns – preventing bike theft with secure parking; improving convenience through a range of services; and addressing the critical issue of the “first and last mile.” The first and last mile is the typical distance commuters need to move from the transit station to a destination and it frequently represents an obstacle to broader usage of public transit. Bicycle transit is a solution to the first and last mile challenge, and by locating Bikestation bike transit centers on multiple points on the same transit line, it shows a growing demand for alternative transit options and enables more people to bike and use public transit more often, improving the efficiency of the mass transit system.
Bikestation Claremont will be 600 square feet and offer a range of bicycle transit services and amenities, including electronically secured indoor bike parking, a repair stand and tools, retail accessory sales, a restroom and a changing room, and repair services and bike rentals across the street at Jax Bicycle Center. Secure bike parking will be accessible 24/7 to members. Designed to fit aesthetically within historic downtown Claremont, the location provides convenient access to the Metrolink station, other public transit options, businesses and communities, and the campuses of the Claremont Colleges.
“By providing convenient and economical bike-transit services at major transit lines and within close proximity to urban destinations, Bikestation can play a primary role in educating the public about the benefits and the ease of using public transportation and other alternative modes,” said Andrea White-Kjoss, president and CEO of Mobis Transportation/Bikestation.
“We’re very pleased to include Bikestation Claremont as a key element of the city’s overall bicycling program. Our goal is to fulfill sustainable principles by providing alternative modes of transportation to reach local and regional destinations, and encourage walking and bicycling in our communities for recreation, local shopping and multimodal transportation,” said Brian Desatnik, Housing and Redevelopment Manager, City of Claremont. “Toward that end, Bikestation Claremont is located in what we’ve designated as our Bike Priority Zone – a two-square mile area encompassing the Village, the Claremont Colleges, residential neighborhoods, mixed-use areas and transit centers where we’ve provided safe bicycle routes, pedestrian walkways, and are in the process of adding additional bike parking. By creating this infrastructure, we’re providing a livable, walkable and bikeable community.”
Bikestation Claremont will be open for operation on February 24, 2010. Membership includes 24/7 electronic access to Bikestation Claremont and any of the other Bikestation locations throughout Southern California and across the country, such as those in Covina, Long Beach, Palo Alto, Washington, D.C., and Santa Barbara. Memberships are available at an annual rate of $96 per year, a monthly rate of $12 per month, or a daily rate of $1 per day sold in packs of 10, plus a $20 annual administrative fee.
Learn more about Bikestation Claremont at www.bikestation.com/claremontca/location.asp .
2/8/2010
Resource(s):
West Oakland Debates Future of Growth
West Oakland, a low income area of the City of Oakland located near the port, is seeing a debate unfold over its future. This article in the Wall Street Journal investigates how restaurant entrepreneurs and condominium developers are challenging the city’s vision for the area as a hub for green industry and technology.
Tanya Holland opened Brown Sugar Kitchen in West Oakland in 2007. The former Food Television host’s restaurant has revitalized the block and drawn other restaurants into the area. Holland has since begun working with other entrepreneurs and real-estate developers to transform the area from a gritty neighborhood into something better. However, when she attempted to expand her business, she was stopped by the City of Oakland. City officials are concerned that a focus on services and housing would be ill-suited for an area with a wealth of industrial infrastructure and close proximity to the Port of Oakland.
Karen Chapple, professor of city and regional planning at the University of California, Berkeley notes that many cities are facing similar issues when considering how to redevelop an area with a debate between encouraging a service sector that can quickly change an area or rather focusing on more long term and job producing industrial growth. ''The city has to play a more proactive role,'' Chapple said. ''If they want to attract industry to that part of the city then it has to create incentives, build partnerships. It has to do some of the heavy lifting.''
Holland meanwhile continues to plan for the expansion of her restaurant and hopes the area will be transformed into a food destination. She remains committed to the neighborhood and wants to build on the progress already made. ''I knew this wasn't going to be easy,'' she said.
3/4/2010
Resource(s): http://online.wsj.com/
Will Developers Have Last Word on Visalia’s Smart Growth Plan?
Drafted since Visalia’s building surge in 2005, its Southeast Area Specific Plan was to ensure smart growth for some 850 rural acres at the city edge. Now the high urban design standards may be diluted as too costly and seemingly unwarranted by the local demand.
With a prospective $900,000 tag price for the whole development, reports Visalia Times-Delta, the draft plan envisions a mix of varied-income single-family homes, small-lot row houses, and multi-family dwellings, along with shops, offices and schools in well-defined, walkable neighborhoods, featuring curved streets, alleys, biking trails and open spaces. Visalia Principal Planner Paul Scheibel described the sometimes delayed planning process as ''the most complex'' in a long time. Still, while some developers see the virtue of the inclusion of affordable housing, green space and other ''quality-of-life amenities'' in the plan, most would like to shelve it and start over or pursue their individual projects.
But the absence of overall planning philosophy would lead to design and style mishmash, exactly what the city wanted to avoid, said Assistant City Manager Mike Olmos, hoping that a series of just-launched meetings with area landowners and prospective developers to discuss the draft plan before its release for public input in the summer will result in ''tweaks'' only. Others expect a total overhaul, with Councilman Mike Lane saying, ''We need major modification to the plan.''
Early in the planning process, city consultants thought the proposed standards would likely increase developer and ultimately buyer costs by at least 20 percent, but now developer consultant Darlene Mata argues that as recession-squeezed builders reduced home sizes, project amenities and buyer prices in standard developments, the price difference could reach 40 percent. Developer Bob Ausherman, who complained that delays of his 60-acre mixed-use project within the plan area have cost him and partner Kevin Fistolera some $30,000 a month, doubted the ambitious smart-growth plan could work in Visalia.
Former Councilman Greg Collins, an urban planner, said the plan, even if costly, ''would have made for great neighborhoods,'' cautioning against its rejection simply because of the depressed market or a perception of homebuyers' preferences. ''I think,'' he commented on the debate's real issue, ''developers are more interested in doing their traditional cookie-cutter neighborhoods with a convenience store in the corner.'' Nevertheless, the assistant city manager counts on a compromise, which would make ''economic efficiency'' a higher plan priority. ''That's the message we're getting from the development community,'' he said. ''In the end, they're the ones that are going to deliver (this plan). They're the ones that are going to come in and build it.''
2/4/2010
Resource(s): www.visaliatimesdelta.com/
Small Wind Systems Bring Alternative Power Sources to Single-Family Homes
A firm in Colorado Springs, Colorado, soon will begin manufacturing small wind systems that will allow homeowners to reap the benefits of wind energy directly. The systems are roof-mounted, horizontal turbines that generate around 5,000 watts of power, enough to meet the electricity needs of a single-family home. According to this article in Colorado Springs Gazette small system wind turbines have become increasingly popular with ranchers and farms. ''For as little as $10,000, (people) can have free electricity for the rest of their lives,'' said Steve Stultz, a chief financial officer for Rocky Wind Power.
Rocky Wind Power believes that its horizontal wind turbine design will allow wind turbines to be adopted in areas where zoning has restricted their usage. Instead of placing the turbine on a high tower, the company has developed a system that places that resembles an overgrown egg beater the can be mounted on a roof top. A 5,000-watt rooftop turbine from Rocky Wind costs about $16,000 and typically pay for itself in four to six years (including a 30-percent federal tax credit), with a lifetime of 30 years.
2/26/2010
Resource(s): www.gazette.com/
Boulder County, Colorado, Adding Flexibility to Green Building Codes
Boulder County, Colorado is considering revising its green building code to be more flexible. The county’s BuildSmart program currently is based on meeting defined energy-efficient thresholds, which get stricter as the homes get larger. The revised code would work off a prescriptive list that would work like a checklist allowing development if it met the green building criteria. Local architects complained the existing code was too stringent and forced huge cost increase in implementing the BuildSmart program. ''I applaud the attempt to go and modify the system further,'' he said. ''But a little tweak here like what's been done the last time or two isn't going to cut it,” Paul Zopff, a local architect is quoted in this article in the Daily Camera.
2/1/2010
Resource(s): www.dailycamera.com/
Freezing Transportation Impact Fee Would Negate Space Coast Smart Growth
Alarmed by the loss of Space Coast jobs, especially in construction, Brevard County countered last March with a two-year moratorium on transportation impact fees from projects granted permits before this March. But the slump continues and the commissioners have now moved to extend the permit deadline for another year. Though the county waived and returned $6 million in impact fees since March to spur construction, reports Florida Today, developers seek more help. ''I have queried many of my peers in the commercial and residential industry. And many of them fear they’ll be out of business in the next year or two,'' said Home Builders and Contractors Association of Brevard CEO Franck Kaiser. ''We’re just trying to hold on to what we have.''
Commissioner Andy Anderson called the impact-fee moratorium a kind of ''marketing tool'' that encourages builders to break ground earlier then they would have otherwise. ''We need to get businesses up an running that would employ people,'' he told his four colleagues, with Commissioner Chuck Nelson expressing concern about some fee waivers and asking county administrators to look into possible alternatives. The county, he noted, waived a $782,000 fee for Sam’s Club opened just four months after the moratorium took effect. ''They were ready to open – and we basically gave them back $800,000,'' he said. ''Here’s national company that certainly could afford to have paid those impact fees.'' Nevertheless, the commissioners unanimously decided to draft an ordinance giving builders an extra year to secure permits with impact fees payable later, expecting it ready for their vote on March 23.
A Florida Today editorial has mixed feelings. Noting that the end of the shuttle flights later this year means massive layoffs at the Kennedy Space Center and that cancellation of the Constellation moon-landing program adds to the Space Coast’s economic problems, the editorial’s author hopes that ''the waived fees can get some building projects off the ground'' and spur jobs. ''However, we remain worried that when times get better, the impact fees won’t be reinstated,'' the editorial says. ''Developers will be lobbying hard to ditch them permanently, and commissioners who take their campaign donations could toss the smart-growth safeguards.'' With big landowners seeking approvals for almost 64,000 homes in Brevard and adjacent counties, the Space Coast could face ''disastrous'' consequences. Concerned that ''the next boom will mean grater gridlock on roads, more infrastructure repair backlog, worsened public safety and higher bills for taxpayers who’ll be left holding the bag.'' The editorial concludes, ''The fees should be put back on the books as soon as possible.''
2/10/2010
Resource(s): www.floridatoday.com/
Atlanta’s BeltLine Project Moves into Crucial Design Phase
''The eyes of the nation are on Atlanta’s BeltLine as a model for smart growth and urban redevelopment,'' said Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed as the Atlanta BeltLine, Inc. (ABI) chose the lead design team for a $2.5-billion transformation of an old 22-mile railroad corridor around the city into a network of light rail, compact development, parks and trails. Chosen in competitive bidding, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Leon Stafford, internationally known Chicago-based Perkins+Will and New York City-based James Corner Field Operations will guide 17 other multi-disciplinary firms with expertise in architecture, urban planning, landscaping, surveying, transportation, structural engineering, historic preservation and related fields.
Calling a public space such as Beltline envisions, ''with pedestrian-friendly rail transit, trails, greenspace and abutting development in one corridor,'' nonexistent in the nation so far, ABI President and CEO Brian Leary said of the 25-year endeavor, ''By creating a design which will integrate all of the BeltLine’s components in a comprehensive way, we are building the BeltLine foundation.''
The BeltLine will connect 22 miles of planned light rail to the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority’s (MARTA’s) train and bus lines, while its 22-mile trail loop will reach into inner neighborhoods with another 11 trail miles for easy two-way access. It will also create a 1,200-acre linear park along the trails, ensure at least $240 million for construction of some 5,600 affordable workforce-housing units over 25 years, and generate more than $20 billion in economic development, while creating 48,000 year-long construction jobs and about 30,000 permanent jobs.
Planned from inception with unprecedented community input that will continue as the project proceeds, the BeltLine is expected to become increasingly eligible for federal funds, with its prospective trails reaching the ''shovel ready'' status. Perkins+Will Urban Designer Ryan Grovel, who first envisioned the BeltLine in his Georgia Tech 1999 graduate thesis, is ''particularly excited'' to participate in the design of this national ''model for sustainable strategies and public space.''
James Corner Field Operations Director James Corner shares the excitement, confident that the greenbelt ''will recast the identity of Atlanta, reconnect its neighborhoods, and enrich public life for all of Atlanta’s citizens,'' while revitalizing old industrial and railroad infrastructure, and retooling it ''for new social and environmental purposes.'' Learn more about the BeltLine at www.beltline.org.
2/10/2010
Resource(s): www.ajc.com/
Atlanta Continues to Pursue Street Cars Despite Loss of Grant Funds
Despite the recent investment of TIGER grant funds to mass-transit projects across the nation, the City of Atlanta did not receive a grant to start building a streetcar down Peachtree Street. ''We worked very hard on this project, and we will continue to,'' said Luz Borrero, the city’s deputy chief operating officer. “It was disappointing to learn that we did not get the grant, but at the same time, it is encouraging to see the commitment of our partners remaining intact.”
According to this report in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Atlanta will continue to pursue money for the streetcar line through other grant opportunities including another $600 million in federal grants that would soon become available.
Streetcars had been in operation throughout the City of Atlanta until 1949. The city and business groups have already paid $8 million towards the project, improving sidewalks and landscaping through the proposed streetcar corridor. Although Atlanta may have lost out on the streetcar grant, the article notes that other projects funding by the transportation grant program will have a benefit to the city including the Crescent Corridor Intermodal Freight Rail project which would improve a rail line that currently runs through the city.
2/17/2010
Resource(s): www.ajc.com/
Honolulu to Recharge Economy and Create Jobs with Rail and Transit-Oriented Development
Calling himself ''a glass-half-full kind of guy,'' who sees expects success when others fear failure, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann feels in this recession and fiscal crunch that ''hope must begin with the economy'' and the city’s planned 20-mile rail.
''There is no other shovel-ready project anywhere in this state that will create as many jobs, in as short a time, as rail,'' Mayor Hannemann said in his sixth State of the City address. ''Rail will create an average of 10,000 jobs a year. Once we get the go-ahead to begin construction, we’ll be pumping $300 million into our local economy. And once we break ground, we believe 4,000 people will be put to work right away.''
Noting that contractors ''bid low during an economic downturn'' and that rail is a centerpiece of the Obama administration, the mayor applauded a federal promise of $1.55 billion for the Honolulu system. ''I can’t thank the President and Federal Transit Administration enough for their vote of confidence in our proposal. Honolulu is the envy of the nation to have such an unheard-of commitment so early in the game,'' he said, disturbed by attempts of those who still question five years of hard work and the will of the voters. ''One of the lessons my parents always taught me while growing up in Kalihi, was this: If you don’t have a better idea, then go with the one before you,'' he told objectors. ''I don’t see any meaningful, tangible alternative to our project that is as important to our economy, environment and quality of life, as rail.''
Especially encouraged by formation of the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, through which the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Housing and Urban Development are helping communities improve the environment, expand affordable housing and fund transit, Mayor Hannemann said he ''can’t think of a more perfect encapsulation of our rail project and transit-oriented development.''
Accordingly, the city will use part of its recent $25,000 grant from the Living Cities collaborative of 22 foundations and financial institutions to help its Department of Planning and Permitting hold an April 6 symposium, during which national TOD experts will outline ways to use rail as a catalyst for sustainable communities. To leverage the anticipated funds from the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities further, the city is looking to use its Affordable Housing and Clean Water and Natural Lands money. It is also working on a package of funding, planning, zoning and other tools, ''to help create livable communities that will include affordable housing, open space, pedestrian and bicycle-friendly paths, and a sustainable environment,'' while making this vision attractive to private developers.
Mayor Hannemann told the listeners, that the private sector has invested $15 billion in TOD in Washington, D.C., $7.4 billion in Phoenix, and $3 billion in Portland.
Learn more about the federal Sustainable Communities program at www.epa.gov/dced/partnership/index.html.
2/22/2010
Resource(s): www.honolulu.gov/
Idaho Town Raising Money for Town Square
In a mere two weeks, the town of Ketchum, Idaho, has raised more than half the money needed to start construction on a town square. A variety of donors contributed to the fund.
The new town square would be built on an area currently consisting of a 17-space parking lot. The plan is to tear up the pavement, with most of the square ending up as open space.
According to this article in the Idaho Statesmen the Ketchum town square would include a raised platform for performances, a fountain, fire pit, solar-powered lighting, trees, tables and benches. ''The plan is the canvas, the features are the frame,'' said Dale Bates, the projects design team leader. ''And it's up to the community to paint the picture.''
2/17/2010
Resource(s): www.idahostatesman.com/
Indianapolis Adding New Bicycle Lanes
The City of Indianapolis will be adding new bike lanes in 2010 with the addition of special markings and signs to help motorists and bicyclists share the road. The new dedicated bike lanes will include directional arrows showing dedicated bike right-of-ways and a chevron symbol noting where bikes and automobiles can occupy the same space and therefore need to exercise a greater degree of caution.
One safety suggestion noted in this article in the Indy Stare dictates that bicyclists should not get out of the way of motorists where the different vehicles need to share the same pavement. Riding closer to the road helps make the cyclist more obvious to car traffic and enables the cyclist to have better control over when automobiles are allowed to pass. Mutual respect between different modes of transportation remains a key factor to reducing accidents and creating a more pleasurable experience for everyone.
2/11/2010
Resource(s): www.indystar.com/
World Bank Promotes Global ''Climate-Smart'' Growth Strategies, Especially for Most Vulnerable Regions
World Bank stated in its 2010 report that developing countries ''can shift to lower-carbon paths'' and grow, but they need assistance from high-income nations, which also must quickly reduce their own carbon footprints to make ''a 'climate-smart' world possible.'' The key for all is to act now, together and differently. ''Economic growth alone is unlikely to be fast or equitable enough to counter threats from climate change, particularly if it remains carbon intensive and accelerates global warming,'' the report points out. ''So climate policy cannot be framed as a choice between growth and climate change.''
Sent to all nations, the message needs special public attention in the East Asia & Pacific region – including Philippines – where about two billion people live, notes Manila Bulletin writer Edu H. Lopez, alarmed that the region may ''bear 75 to 80 percent of the costs of damage caused by changing climate,'' due to its exposure to higher sea levels. Citing the World Bank report, he writes that the region’s progress in reducing poverty has come at a high environmental cost, with energy use and carbon emissions doubling between 1995 and 2005. Still, he observes, the Philippines account for just 0.27 percent of global carbon emissions and its Climate Change Adaptation Project promises to balance the nation’s environmental and economic needs.
Focused on integration of disaster risk and climate risk management in national and local planning for agriculture and natural resources, the project will get a boost from the World Bank’s new Country Assistance Strategy for 2010-12, said Acting World Bank Country Director Maryse Gautier, adding that the bank’s other initiatives open up the potential for ''broader mitigation programs in areas such as sustainable transport, renewable energy and waste management.''
Learn more about the bank’s 2010 development and climate change report here.
2/12/2010
Resource(s): www.mb.com.ph/
Vancouver Winter Olympics Sets Public Transit Records
The gold medal for transit appears to be going to Metro Vancouver's public transportation system during the 2010 Winter Olympics, with record increases in ridership. Vancouver's TransLink agency reported on February 20 that an average of 1.6 million riders per day had used the various transit modes during the first week of the international competition. Preliminary figures suggest that bus loads were up 34% over normal to 975,000 passengers per day and the West Coast Express commuter rail carried 19,538 riders per day, up 78% from February 2009. The Expo/Millennium route on the SkyTrain, an elevated rapid transit system, increased 54% to 369,700 riders per day, including a single-day record of 488,000 on Sunday, February 14. It normally carries about 150,000 passengers on a Sunday. In addition, the SeaBus ferry service between Vancouver and the North Shore saw a doubling of ridership to an average of 48,000 passengers per day.
TransLink CEO Ian Jarvis said one goal of the public transportation effort was to reduce vehicle traffic in downtown Vancouver by 30% during the Winter Olympics, which close on February 28. Passengers with Olympic event tickets have unlimited access to the TransLink system on the day of each event. Jarvis cited the agency's use of effective communications to help keep the system responsive to the large crowds and shifting venues. The agency has had to add 48 extra train cars and a third ferry to meet the demand and has used every available train during peak times.
3/8/2010
Resource(s): http://www.translink.ca/
Full TIGER Funding for Loyola Streetcar Lets New Orleans Focus on Expansion into Nearby Neighborhoods
New Orleans has welcomed a $45-million federal Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant for the full cost of a 1.5-mile Loyola Avenue loop as auspicious for expanding the network with two routes to other neighborhoods. ''Winning this grant,'' commented New Orleans Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Julie Schwam Harris, ''is a testament to what’s happening here in this city as a whole, building back greener, building back better.''
In an announcement of the grant, reports New Orleans Times-Picayune writer Frank Donze, the U.S. Department of Transportation cited significant commercial activity in the Loyola Avenue corridor – including the government, energy, health care and financial sectors – and streetcar potential for attracting business and for redevelopment of underused properties. The New Orleans Regional Transit Authority (NORTA) wants to ensure the same opportunities elsewhere. Ready to build and open the Loyola streetcar loop by May 2012, NORTA also counts on federal aid for its future $115-million French Quarter extension – a four-mile North Rampart Street route, with a 1.2-mile Elysian Field Avenue spur that would link with the Riverfront line – and a $51-million, 1.8-mile Convention Center Boulevard route.
University of New Orleans Center for Economic Development Director Ivan J. Miestchovich doubts the Loyola streetcar can bring in a major industry, but he is optimistic about spurring retail and perhaps reconstruction of the vacant Hyatt Regency Hotel. ''Tourists will get on the streetcar and take a ride,'' he remarked, ''And if they see a coffee shop or store that catches their interest, they know they can get off and get back on, and that could be very good for retail businesses.''
Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu called the TIGER streetcar grant an example of the federal stimulus package’s injections into local economies. ''This project is exactly what the stimulus bill is intended to provide: real opportunities for Louisiana,'' she said. ''Sadly, some other elected officials failed to recognize the opportunities these investments can offer, but I will always fight in continued support of the stimulus spending and the benefits it affords my state.''
2/18/2010
Resource(s): www.nola.com/
Maryland Launching Effort to Write Statewide Growth Plan
State officials in Maryland are launching a year-long effort to write a statewide growth plan with the intent of planning how Maryland can prevent sprawl while accommodating for an additional one million people over the next 20 years. According to this article in the Baltimore Sun, planners will be holding workshops throughout the state focusing on how to balance population and economic growth with environmental protection and quality of life.
''It's the first time the state has ever done anything like this,'' Richard Josephson, director of planning services said. State planners have had the authority to draw up a statewide development plan since the 1970s, he said, but have never acted on it. Local and state officials have debated at times over the state's role in guiding development. Officials make it clear that the state does not intend to usurp local government’s traditional role in land-use decisions--the aim is lay out shared goals and strategies for achieving them, such as making communities more walkable and increasing housing affordability.
3/8/2010
Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/
Barr Foundation Commits $50 Million to Reduce Carbon Footprint, Expand Public Transportation in Boston
In a major initiative, the Boston-based Barr Foundation has announced that it will provide $50 million to fight climate change in the Boston region. The foundation will
put the grants – ranging from $100,000 to $1 million – in the hands of local groups working to cut emissions and expand transportation choices across the metropolitan area. According to a report in the Boston Globe, the Barr Foundation expects to award the first new grants within weeks.
''It’s a global problem of catastrophic proportions, but we have the ability in Metro Boston to make reductions. This isn’t an issue we can wait until 2050 or even 2020 to address,'' said Barr Foundation Executive Director Patricia Brandes about the need to rein in carbon emissions. ''You don’t have to be a global player to make a difference on this issue. If you want to make a difference on a national level – which we want to do – you have to affect the metro regions.''
Other public interest advocates also consider such translation of global climactic challenges into local resource-efficiency actions crucial for ultimate multi-level environmental and economic success. ''There are two ways to look at climate change. You can look at it as a global issue and, therefore, you have to work globally,'' observed New York City-based Foundation Center President Bradford Smith. ''But it’s very clear you can work on climate change at local and regional levels.''
Conservation Law Foundation President John Kassel and Pew Center on Global Climate Change Vice President for Communications Katie Mandes appreciate the Barr Foundation’s heightened climatic priority. ''Unless we grapple with climate change now, in a way that supports our local economy and our quality of life, everything else would be like arranging deck chairs on the Titanic,'' said Kassel. Mandes observed that ''[t]he debate on Capitol Hill, the international negotiations – for most people, these don’t resonate.''
What does resonate are efforts to improve community conditions now, says the article’s author, citing Boston’s Environmental and Energy Services Chief James W. Hunt III. ''We’re an old city with old building stock and we’re largely built out. We estimate that 78 percent of our greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings and the energy used to heat, light, and cool those buildings,'' he said, pointing out that earlier Barr Foundation grants went to promote green standards, making buildings more efficient, and create environmentally friendly affordable housing. A $125,000 grant for the nonprofit Community Labor United (CLU) and the Chinese Progressive Association helped their push to retrofit Chinatown houses for better energy efficiency.
''Barr’s investment is about bottom-up leadership,'' said CLU Co-Director Darlene Lombos, stressing that CLU works ''on the ground, talking to people who are very affected by the fuel crisis, (and) will be affected by the climate crisis.''
2/14/2010
Resource(s): www.boston.com/
Detroit Planning to Downsize
Detroit’s mayor and City Council are looking at downsizing the city ''in order to save it,'' and now they face the arduous task of prioritizing which neighborhoods should be saved at the expense of others. The city recently completed a survey of its 133 square miles and 350,000 parcels. The report is seen as a key tool in prioritizing viable neighborhoods and accelerating the clearance of blighted areas and the movement of residences out of these areas.
As noted in this article in The Detroit News, the City of Detroit was built to accommodate two million residents and could contain the cities of San Francisco, Boston and Manhattan combined within its boarders. The city currently is home to 900,000 people and declining, with large swaths of the city already abandoned. The issue of downsizing is politically sensitive in the city, with many residents uncertain who would decide which areas of the city were still viable and the methods the city government would use to force the relocation of residents. ''There is sometimes controversy if only a few areas are prioritized,'' said John T. Metzer, an urban planner who has taught at Michigan State University and the University of Pittsburgh.
Despite the controversy, many believe the city needs to take some kind of action to deal with the city’s problems. John George, who runs Motor City Blight Busters, said he believe it is ''time to get serious'' about downsizing the city. ''If you don't start somewhere, you will never finish,'' George said. ''It's so easy to stand at the side of the road and throw rocks at the parade.''
2/20/2010
Resource(s): www.detnews.com/
Complete Streets Legislation to Remedy Design and Construction Rules of ''Autocentric World''
Attractive, safe and easy streets for all are regaining their economic, civic and environmental importance in Minnesota. A Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial expects a proposed Complete Streets bill to help accelerate the recent state ''shift from roads-only approach.''
Welcomed by Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) Commissioner Tom Sorel, the bill follows his department’s comprehensive Complete Streets Report on the benefits, cost and feasibility of a complete streets policy, applicable to construction, reconstruction and relocation of streets and roads. Requested by the Legislature in 2008, prepared by the Minneapolis-headquartered SRF Consulting Group, and submitted last December, the MnDOT report adopts complete streets definition from the Federal Complete Streets Act of 2009 (HR 1443/S 594) and focuses on the state’s six legislative requirements. They include ''safe access for all users, including pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists, and transit riders,'' along with bicycle and pedestrian ways in appropriate urbanized areas; paved shoulders on rural roads; safe pedestrian mobility, including for people with disabilities; utilization of the latest and best design standards; and consistency of local complete streets plans with community contexts.
The report calls complete streets ''inherent'' and complementary to Context Sensitive Solutions (CSS), lists their potential benefits and costs, and finds them feasible on state, regional and local levels. Citing the report’s conclusion that ''the benefits of Complete Streets offset the incremental costs,'' the Star Tribune editorial says it makes the related bill revenue-neutral. ''Adding an occasional bike lane or a sidewalk might cost more. But no longer having to build massive, freeway-style bridges on quiet, narrow streets would save money,'' the editorial explains. ''Safety and health are primary concerns,'' it points out. ''More than 500 people have been killed and 20,000 injured while walking or biking along Minnesota roads over the past decade. Roadway design should encourage, not punish, healthy lifestyles. And Minnesota communities should have the option of restoring a more human scale to daily life.''
See the MnDOT report and related news at www.dot.state.mn.us/planning/completestreets/legislation.html.
2/14/2010
Resource(s): www.startribune.com/
Smart Growth Foe Randall O’Toole Leads Property Rights Forum in Bozeman
Angry at smart growth, Bozeman-based Property and Environmental Research Center (PERC) and Montana Policy Institute (MPI) officials and their guests, including the libertarian Cato Institute’s self-proclaimed ''antiplanner'' Randall O’Toole, rallied some 220 people at a day-long forum to counter government mandates as bad for local economies and lifestyles.
Calling themselves nonpartisan, reports Big Sky Weekly contributor Phil Drake, PERC and MPI hailed the turnout at the ''Your Land is My Land – Property Rights in Montana'' forum. ''People are becoming increasingly aware of government overstepping,'' opined PERC Executive Director Terry Anderson, with MPI President Carl Graham telling attendees in a welcome speech, ''We provide you the ammunition to go out and fight the fight.''
Others sounded no less combative. Missoula City Councilman Dick Haines told the audience he brought it greetings from ''the People’s Republic of Missoula,'' where public hearing participants who oppose changes in the law never get a chance to speak. ''The next best thing is revolution and that is coming,'' he said, invoking public unhappiness. ''Keep your powder dry.''
Antiplanner O’Toole, an outspoken rail and sprawl-restriction enemy, whose new blog ''promotes the repeal of federal and state planning laws and the closure of state and local planning departments,'' blamed smart growth for the housing crisis. ''A dozen states have passed laws requiring growth management. Those states had (housing market) bubbles,'' he said, equally assured that a federal push for greater urban compactness to reduce car dependency wouldn’t work in Montana. ''Are people moving to Montana to live in high-density condos?'' he asked. ''I don’t think so.'' At a panel, he also urged listeners to prepare good plans for fighting smart growth, but his subsequent take on such plans seems somewhat disjointed even if tenacious. ''If we’re going to win that’s not enough. To be right we have to be successful. Don’t talk about conspiracies, you lose once start talking about conspiracies,'' he said, raising this battle cry: ''I don’t want to be right, I want to win.''
2/26/2010
Resource(s): www.thebigskyweekly.com/
Department of Transportation Releases 2009 Record of Accomplishments
The U.S. Department of Transportation has released a report on what the agency considers to be its best accomplishments of 2009. The list includes items such as safety, restoring economic health, promoting sustainability, and livability. Each section is given a quote by U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and breaks down specific accomplishments for each of the above categories.
Specific accomplishments include creating a safety council, campaigns to reduce impaired driving, new aviation standards, the cash for clunkers program, improving fuel efficiency, restoring Suisun Bay, and encouraging transit oriented development.
2/12/2010
Resource(s): http://www.dot.gov/documents/2009dotaccomplishments.htm
DOT-HUD-EPA Partnership Looks to Boost Investment in Smart Growth
The first administration to make smart growth a federal policy, President Obama entrusted its implementation to the Department of Transportation (DOT), the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which created an interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities last June and now work to inject some $667 million more into the economic foundation for a ''cleaner and greener'' America.
With nothing more important now than creating jobs, wrote DOT Secretary Ray LaHood, HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in a Seattle Times guest column at the start of the 9th Annual New Partners for Smart Growth Conference, February 4-6, ''(w)e need communities where residents have easy access to jobs; where there are clean, reliable options for transportation to work and school; where housing is affordable and energy efficient; and where clean and renewable energy is abundant.''
To help that happen, they wrote, HUD is launching its Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities, with $140 million in planning and challenge grants for innovation, and with funds for a new program to lower homeowner utility bills by allowing inclusion of home-energy upgrade costs in mortgages. Simultaneously, DOT is proposing $527 million to let its Office of Livable Communities fund low-income neighborhood transit expansion or similar initiatives, and offer state and local transportation agencies grants for more transportation choices that spur economic development. And the EPA Office of Sustainable Communities is strengthening its work with HUD, DOT, state and local officials ''to ensure that unprecedented investments in clean-water infrastructure support existing communities, create jobs, protect vital resources like the Puget Sound, and strengthen our country’s foundation for prosperity.''
Though the government ''can set the pace for change and provide critical funding support,'' LaHood, Donovan and Jackson pointed out, the initiative is not the government’s alone. ''We are looking to emulate Seattle and regions across America that for years have provided leadership and support, innovative ideas and partnerships, and a long-term commitment to building livable, economically competitive communities,'' they stressed. ''Working together, we can provide consumers and communities with the sustainable housing and transportation choices they need to build a stronger future for our country.''
2/3/2010
Resource(s): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
HUD Requests Comments on Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program
A top priority of President Barack Obama is to build economically competitive, healthy, opportunity-rich communities. In the 2010 Budget, Congress provided a total of $150 million to HUD for a Sustainable Communities Initiative to improve regional planning efforts that integrate housing and transportation decisions, and increase the capacity to improve land use and zoning. Of that total, approximately $100 million will be available for regional integrated planning initiatives through HUD’s Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program.
As part of a commitment to listening and learning, HUD is providing an Advance Notice with a description and framework of the grant program for public comment. HUD is seeking input from the public, including State and local governments, regional bodies, community development entities, and a broad range of other stakeholders on how the Program should be structured in order to have the most meaningful impact on sustainable regional planning.
Comments can be made through March 12, 2010.
3/6/2010
Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/
HUD Secretary: Nation Must Debunk 'Drive to Qualify' Myth and Connect Housing to Jobs
Communities nationwide may inscribe various local meanings to ''sustainability,'' said Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Secretary Shaun Donovan at the 9th Annual New Partners Smart Growth Conference in Seattle, but their common question is how to ''meet the needs of today without compromising the futures of their children and grandchildren.''
Outlining HUD efforts to ''tie the quality and location of housing to broader opportunities such as access to good jobs, quality schools, and safe streets,'' and to reverse frequent perception of the federal government as ''a barrier to smart growth rather than a partner in smart growth,'' Secretary Donovan said it’s no coincidence the sudden 2008 recession often hit hardest the neighborhoods farther away from transportation, good schools and economic possibilities. ''For all the implications of 'sprawl' – from job loss and economic decline, to alarming obesity, asthma rates and segregation, to the loss of habitat and global warming, to our dangerous dependence on foreign oil – all of them are driven by one fundamental problem: The mismatch between where we live and where we work,'' he told a session moderated by a Smart Growth pioneer, former EPA Development, Community and Environment Division (DCED) head and now District of Columbia Office of Planning Director Harriet Tregoning.
''Whatever else we do to address these problems, America must find a way to connect housing to jobs.'' With the average household spending over half of its budget on housing and transportation, and with businesses unable to compete globally without workers who can afford to live nearby, the secretary observed, few of the recently numerous market failures ''have been as catastrophic or had as many economic and environmental consequences as 'Drive to Qualify,''' a blunder facilitated by real estate agents and mortgage lenders.
Since ''the beltways and highways that drove investment away from the urban core and connected employment centers outside city limits were built by the federal government,'' the federal government must now rectify the results through a ''New Federalism Attuned to Place.'' President Obama, the secretary continued, has already moved ahead – by signing the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) last year to create jobs and brace the economy, by ordering the first agency review of all federal policies since the early 1980s to see whether they encourage or obstruct ''locally-driven, integrated and place-conscious solutions,'' and by requiring agencies to forge unprecedented-scale partnerships.
One such partnership is the HUD-DOT-EPA sustainability partnership. Rooted in six Livability Principles, to provide more housing and transportation choices and to lay the foundation for a new economy, the partnership reflects the federal government’s determination to speak ''with one voice'' on housing, transportation and environmental policy. The task isn’t to tell communities ''what to do or how to do it,'' but to offer them the resources and tools to help them realize their own visions for achieving the outcomes we all want, Secretary Donovan said, announcing a new Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities as “the center-point of all HUD’s sustainability efforts.” Overseen by HUD Deputy Secretary Ron Sims – a Washington State native, three-term King County executive, strong advocate of Smart Growth, and the department’s ''Designated Silo Buster'' – the office, with $200 million this year, will be led by Director Shelley Poticha, formerly with the Transportation for America and Reconnecting America nonprofits.
Inviting multi-jurisdictional and multi-sector partnerships and consortia to compete for the office’s planning and challenge grants, the secretary urged their regions to build the capacity to integrate not only economic development, land use, transportation, and water infrastructure investments, but also workforce development with transit-oriented development.
Among the office’s new tools, currently under development, will be one to measure where a home is located in relation to jobs, schools and transportation – an ''Affordability Index'' that will affect many HUD formulas to ensure distribution of federal money according to ''the true affordability of a home.'' An expanded Energy Efficient Mortgage and a new Transportation-Efficient Mortgage will be based on the fundamental premise that markets work best when consumers and communities get sound information, and that ''by making information on utility and transportation costs widely available, we can drive a much broader scale of change than government ever could alone, ensuring that we never again foster a culture of 'Drive to Qualify.'''
Committed to change, Secretary Donovan said he sees his department’s entire budget of nearly $44 billion as bound to advance sustainability, intending to use its every dollar ''to put more power in the hands of communities and more choices in the hands of consumers,'' especially those in older industrial city cores, where recession voided 15 years of revitalization gains in just months. ''The sharp decline after years of progress was magnified in minority communities – where African Americans and Latinos have experienced not only a drop in homeownership rates and lost billions in wealth, but also suffered disproportionate declines in public health, educational and economic opportunities,'' the secretary stressed. ''These developments point to a broader challenge facing localities: that you can’t have a truly sustainable community if you promote segregated development patterns and concentrated poverty.''
HUD’s new Choice Neighborhood demonstration will soon commence to prove that neighborhoods can achieve a new kind of sustainability, ''bringing to bear private capital and mixed-use, mixed income tools'' to transform all their housing. As this requires revision of HUD’s fair housing policies, largely unchanged since the 1968 passage of the Fair Housing Act, HUD Assistant Secretary of Fair Housing and Equal Opportunity John Trasvina, in consultation with Deputy Secretary Sims, is ''adopting a broader definition of fair housing that includes not only the racial makeup of housing, but also its orientation to opportunity – to public transportation and job centers.'' Calling the new approach ''Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,'' Secretary Donovan said he and Deputy Sims have instructed Director Poticha to work with Assistant Secretary of Community Planning and Development Mercedes Marquez ''toward that end as we develop HUD’s new Consolidated Plan.''
Noting that the ''sprawling of the American landscape was decades in the making – its remaking won’t happen overnight,'' and that he and Deputy Sims bring different perspectives to the issues – he from the east coast and the New York City level; the deputy, from the West and the King County level – Secretary Donovan highlighted their shared viewpoint. ''One thing that drives us both is a belief that when you choose a home, you don’t just choose a home. You also choose transportation to work and to school. You choose public safety for your children. You choose a community – and the choices available in that community,'' he said. ''A belief that our children’s futures should never be determined – or their choices limited – by their zip code.''
2/4/2010
Resource(s): http://portal.hud.gov/ ; http://7thspace.com/
List of Most and Least Affordable Cities Released
CNN Money has released its latest list of America’s five most affordable and five most unaffordable housing markets. Affordability was measured as the percentage of people who could afford the median price of a home based on the region’s median income. Indianapolis, Indiana, took the top spot as the nation’s most affordable housing market, with a median home price of $106,000 and a median income of $68,100. Detroit, Dayton, Youngstown, and Akron rounded out the list of most affordable housing markets.
New York was ranked most unaffordable in the nation with a median home price of $425,000 with a median income of only $64,800. Also on the unaffordable list: San Francisco, Honolulu, Santa Ana, and Los Angeles.
2/20/2010
Resource(s): http://money.cnn.com/
Rail~Volution 2010: Call for Proposals
Rail~Volution has issued a call for proposals for its annual conference scheduled for October 18-21, 2010. This conference is for passionate practitioners - people from all perspectives who believe in the role of land use and transit as equal partners in the quest for greater livability and greater communities. The success of the conference depends on the quality and diversity of presentations. Rail~Volution is soliciting your story-sharing expertise, experience, success and challenges.
Never before has Rail~Volution's mission of building livable communities with transit aligned so perfectly with the federal agenda. Thanks to President Obama's commitment to creating sustainable communities, we truly have the opportunity to work in partnership with policy makers at all levels to grow more livable places -- regardless of their size, shape, demographics, locations, or economies. These ground-breaking partnerships are setting the stage for the next decade at all levels, with commitments to transit resources, renewable energy, climate change, and sustainable housing and communities.
Join organizers by sharing your stories and lessons learned, your information on new policies and legislation, your wisdom gained through innovative tools and current best practices. Help conference participants understand the most important elements of great places, steps they can take to create greater livability in their own communities, and the essential public and private activities that contribute to successful change.
Entry deadline is March 31, 2010.
3/8/2010
Resource(s): http://www.railvolution.com
Survey Finds Strong Support for High-Speed Rail
Nearly nine in ten (88 percent) Americans support the idea of using high-speed rail travel for long-distance travel within the United States, according to a survey conducted by America THINKS for the HNTB Corporation. ''The time has come for high-speed rail,'' said Peter Gertler, HNTB high-speed rail services chair. ''Stimulus money is seeding initial projects. It’ll be up to those of us in the industry – working in partnership with transportation agencies and elected officials – to keep up the momentum.''
In addition to the high level of support found for high-speed rail projects, more than four in five (83 percent) Americans agree that public transit and high-speed rail infrastructure should receive a larger share of federal funding than they do now. There was wide consensus that building additional highway capacity was not a realistic solution to solving the nation's long term transportation needs. The survey notes that the Department of Transportation under the Obama administration has been shifting funding to help develop mass-transit projects and has come up with new criteria to base a project's worthiness not only on cost considerations, but also on the ability to improve the quality of life for residents within the project's community.
2/18/2010
Resource(s): www.hntb.com/
Dept. of Interior Launches WaterSMART Initiative
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar signed a Secretarial order establishing a new water sustainability strategy for the United States on February 22. Salazar showcased the Department of the Interior’s WaterSMART Initiative at a press conference featuring a geospatial presentation on water supply and demand in the high-tech operations center at the Department’s headquarters. The ''SMART'' in WaterSMART stands for ''Sustain and Manage America’s Resources for Tomorrow.''
''The federal government’s existing water policies and programs simply aren’t built for 21st century pressures on water supplies,'' Salazar said. ''Population growth. Climate change. Rising energy demands. Environmental needs. Aging infrastructure. Risks to drinking water supplies. Those are just some of the challenges.''
He noted that the 2011 budget proposed by President Obama for the Department of the Interior doubles the current enacted 2010 appropriations for water programs to move the initiative forward. It includes $72.9 million for the WaterSMART program, which is a total increase of $36.4 million over 2010.
''Local entities – water districts, water users, and local governments – have demonstrated the greatest foresight and leadership in recent years,” added Salazar. ''I believe it is time for the federal government to join the movement toward a more sustainable water future.''
As part of his order, Salazar announced that he is directing the Department to increase available water supply for agricultural, municipal, industrial, and environmental uses in the western United States by 350,000 acre-feet by 2012.
Salazar noted that stakeholders from the seven Colorado River Basin states will participate in a WaterSMART workshop on Februrary 23 in Nevada to help frame the new initiative and to discuss issues such as how to adjust to the anticipated 20% reduction in water flow in the Colorado River due to climate change. Assistant Secretary Castle, who made the geospatial presentation today, is convening the Nevada workshop.
The WaterSMART Secretarial Order has several parts, all of which are focused on improving water conservation and helping water and resource managers make wise decisions about water use.
2/22/2010
Resource(s): www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/2010_02_22_release.cfm
ASLA Helps Congress Craft Streetscaping Resolution
Congressman Steve Cohen (TN) has introduced H.Con.Res. 240, a resolution designating the fourth week of April as National Streetscaping Week. The measure recognizes the benefits of streetscaping to homes, businesses, and communities across the country. ASLA worked with Rep. Cohen on crafting this legislation that highlights the myriad of benefits of streetscaping, including: creating local green jobs; helping reduce energy costs for consumers; managing stormwater; reducing air pollution by sequestering harmful carbon emissions, creating safer streets and neighborhoods through traffic calming designs, and a host of other benefits.
More importantly, the resolution helps to highlight the work of landscape architects. Landscape architects design streetscaping projects and other green infrastructure projects to make our communities more economically viable, more attractive, and environmentally healthier for their residents.
A host of allied organizations have joined ASLA in supporting National Streetscaping Week, including, American Rivers, American Nursery & Landscape Association, American Public Works Association, International Society of Arboriculture, America Walks, Alliance for Community Trees, T4 America, Reconnecting America, Smart Growth America, America Bikes, National Parks and Recreation Association and the Irrigation Association.
ASLA applauds Congressman Cohen for introducing this measure and working to raise awareness of the importance of streetscaping and green infrastructure in creating desirable places to live. Learn more about the resolution at the link below.
3/8/2010
Resource(s): http://www.govtrack.us/congress/bill.xpd?bill=hc111-240
Bill to Let Builders Freeze Site Zoning for Vague Projects Would Hinder Smart Growth
Carried over from the last session, Senate Bill 82 would let builders lock in site zoning at the time of application, even if officials were to wait years for specific project proposals. The bill is ''a bad idea,'' says a Newark Star-Leger editorial, ''that denies municipalities the flexibility'' needed for smart growth planning. A real estate attorney, industry-based Smart Growth Economic Development Coalition founder Ted Zangari, calls the S82 bill (previously S58) fair to developers who often file costly time-consuming applications and then see their plans derailed by ''a malcontent or someone who controls a voting block, who starts squawking and town fathers have a change of heart.''
On the other hand, the editorial points out, residents ''have a right to weigh in'' on local development. The state requires revision of municipal master plans every six years, and a ''law that freezes zoning and ordinances would hamper'' municipal ability to respond quickly to any number of challenges. These could be posed by a baby boom or a population decline, aged infrastructure, water shortage or an inadequate sewage treatment system.
Municipal officials and environmentalists share these concerns. In a report from the Senate Community and Urban Affairs Committee, which approved the bill earlier this month, Star-Ledger writer Brian T. Murray cited objections by League of Municipalities Executive Director William Dressel and Sierra Club Chapter Director Jeff Tittel. ''This legislation discourages smart growth, undermines sound planning strategies, and is not in the best interest of the public,'' said the former, with the latter calling it ''the equivalent of someone obtaining approval for a driver’s license without being required to successfully complete a written exam or a road test.'' Restating his opposition, the editorial observes, Director Tittel was now joined by the league’s senior assistant counsel for land use Stuart Koenig. ''It undermines a town’s ability to redo the master plan,'' the Sierra Club director said about the bill. ''Town officials can make errors in zoning or other aspects of the plan that aren’t caught until a developer comes in with a plan.''
What’s more, noted counsel Koenig, developers also can and do revise their plans midway whenever they encounter a drainage, buffering or any other hidden or overlooked site problem. The current law balances the interest of builders who want certainty when they put together their plan and the interest of municipalities in protecting the public good. ''The public good should prevail,'' he stated, with the editorial adding, ''Even if the public has to squawk a little to be heard.''
3/1/2010
Resource(s): http://blog.nj.com/ ; www.nj.com/
Warren County Chamber of Commerce Offers Green Program to Members
The Warren County Regional Chamber of Commerce has become the first business association in New Jersey to offer a Green Plus sustainability education and certification program to its members. The program is aimed at helping businesses become more sustainable while maintaining profitability. ''It’s a challenge for businesses to maintain their financial goals while incorporating 'green' initiatives,'' said Chamber President and CEO Robert Goltz. ''With this program, we can provide our members the opportunity to achieve both objectives in a way that makes sense for them.''
Green Plus is a program created by universities and chambers of commerce to provide smaller employers with affordable tools to improve sustainability and environmental awareness. The program’s three main goals are to reduce costs and become more competitive, differentiate an organization in a competitive marketplace and increase responsibility to employees, the local community, and the environment. The program is specially tailored to address the needs of small businesses in any field.
2/28/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
Hoboken Loft Project Called Template for Green Development
The Garden Street Lofts project in Hoboken, New Jersey, has been awarded gold LEED certification by the U.S. Green Building Council. According to this report in the Jersey Journal, the project is the first such mixed-use residential building in New Jersey to receive the LEED designation.
In 1919, the building was a storage warehouse and coconut processing factory for Hostess cupcakes, IN 2009, the project underwent a major rehabilitation to create an environmentally friendly development of 30 condominiums. The project achieved LEED certification by meeting a rigorous checklist of energy efficiency requirements. The building also has been recognized as a top green project by the Sustainable Building Industry Council.
Hudson County Executive Thomas DeGise said the project ''should be a boilerplate for building anything from here on in.'' Several similar projects are under consideration in New Jersey.
2/2/2010
Resource(s): www.nj.com/
State Awards $500,000 in Smart Growth Grants for Lower Hudson Valley
Reiterating Governor David Paterson’s interlinked economic and environmental policies, New York Secretary of State Lorraine Cortes-Vasquez awarded $500,000 from the Environmental Protection Fund Smart Growth Grant Program for one regional and six local planning projects to spur community economies, enable transit-oriented development and cut carbon emissions in the Lower Hudson Valley.
''The Lower Hudson Valley region possesses tremendous natural resources and outdoor recreational opportunities,'' Cortes-Vazquez said. ''In recent years, it has experienced rapid growth and development; this growth can either threaten or enhance the quality of life in the region, depending upon the way it is planned. These awards will help communities address the effects of this growth on local and regional development patterns and show how the population boom can be a blessing for the Valley.''
Half of the money, a $250,000 grant, goes to the Open Space Institute (OSI), which will involve five partner organizations – the Regional Plan Association, the Trust for Public Land, the Environmental Defense Fund, Scenic Hudson, and Patterns for Progress – to draw up a valley-wide plan, with a focus on carbon emissions, economic efficiency and quality of life.
The other $250,000 goes directly to local communities. Three grants aim for transit-oriented development. The city and the village of Harrison will use a $50,000 grant to draft zoning regulations and design guidelines for a 3.3-acre mixed-use project flanking the Metro-North Railroad station. The city of Poughkeepsie will put $40,000 into market research to prepare development scenarios for both sides of its Metro-North and Amtrak station. And the city of Mount Vernon will have $35,000 for similar research on the full economic potential of mixed-use development near its three Metro-North stations and a popular bus line.
The other local grants – two at $50,000 each and one at $25,000, respectively – will let the town of Red Hook, along with the villages of Red Hook and Tivoli, amend the town’s comprehensive plan and zoning rules to curb sprawl, protect open space and encourage village-scale development; enable Orange County, in partnership with the city of Newburg and the villages of Maybrook, Montgomery and Walden, to conduct a vacant building inventory and create an adaptive reuse plan; and help the town of Lloyd finish a development analysis for the hamlet of Highland, with a focus on traffic, parking, waterfront access, a rail trail, parks and related issues.
2/10/2010
Resource(s): http://www.dos.state.ny.us/pres/pr2010/2-10smartgrowth.html
Maintaining Sustainability a Challenge for Cities
Although Smart Growth has been considered a worthwhile goal in many communities, the reality of maintaining momentum over time for creating better communities can become stalled as demonstrated in this article on Citiwire.net. The article discusses three communities around Charlotte, North Carolina, that had adopted smart growth principles and seen tremendous growth over the last decade.
In the early 1990s, new ordinances adopted in Huntersville, Cornelius, and Davidson, North Carolina, all adopted elements of the smart growth mantra, encouraging density where feasible, planning for complete streets, and trying to avoid typical urban sprawl. The author notes the communities represented ''a remarkable exercise in local and regional planning'' and ''a remarkable vision.''
The author has revisited these towns and tried to see how things have played out. What she found was a mixed result. As the communities changed and new voters immigrated in, the city councils in these areas changed as well, often reflecting a new growth dynamic that disregarded smart growth principles. ''The torch didn’t get well passed,'' said Bill Coxe, transportation planner in Huntersville, a one-time mill-town and railroad hamlet that has grown from less than 3,000 people in 1988 to an estimated 39,000 in 2006.
However, Davidson has held the course and continued to encourage and develop smart growth projects. ''Davidson’s own dynamics, its sense of specialness,'' has, over the years, helped it work through difficulties and keep its eye on its goals, a city official is quoted. The author concludes that communities need ''constant vigilance, constant education, constant programming of public events to keep the issues alive.''
2/28/2010
Resource(s): http://citiwire.net/
Workforce Housing Faces Uphill Fight to Locate Near Million-Dollar Homes
Targeted by Charlotte for some affordable housing, the upscale suburb of Ballantyne is to get its first subsidized apartment complex, but the 86-unit project may stall due to intense local opposition and a sudden pull-out of the Charlotte Housing Authority (CHA), worried about a likely $13-million cost.
The CHA, reports Charlotte Observer writer Steve Harrison, had restated its support for the project – as offering low-income earners the opportunity to live near their jobs – just three days before a meeting of some 300 Ballantyne residents with developers Stuart Proffitt and John Schwaller. The developers were often heckled and their assailants cheered, the writer notes, quoting an anonymous one, who objected to public housing near his million-dollar home. Others feared the impact on traffic and schools, cited inadequate sidewalks and distant transit, and questioned the developers about details of their CHA contacts. “This isn’t a NIMBY (Not-In-My- Back-Yard) issue,” insisted resident Kevin Williams, voicing anger over possible rezoning of the seven-acre parcel from office use to neighborhood services, which would allow the apartments next to a proposed bank. “It’s a 45-minute walk from your site to the bus.” Resident Al Rutherford echoed the objection. “You say there will be strong access to transit,” he said. “I just don’t see that.”
Despite CHA withdrawal, the developers showed no intention of dropping the project, known as Ballancroft. Noting that their newly formed Republic Development Group lacks the experience to secure federal tax credits, they said they are seeking other partners with affordable-housing expertise. They need federal aid to make 26 of the planned 86 apartments affordable to workers who earn 30 percent of the area’s median income, or just under $20,000 for a family of four. The other apartments will be available to residents making 60 percent of the median income, but should their efforts to secure federal assistance fail, they said, they might have to build the apartments for buyers paying market rates.
2/23/2010
Resource(s): http://charlotteobserver.com/
Are Charlotte’s Design Requirements Too Tough for Developers?
Adopted in 2007, Charlotte’s Urban Street Design Guidelines won a 2009 U.S. EPA National Award for Smart Growth Achievement and may soon become rules. But in the meantime, Mayor Anthony Foxx advises flexibility toward developers who tell horror stories, though City Manager Curt hears only ''horror rhetoric.'' With the City Council looking to strengthen Charlotte’s 32-year-old tree ordinance and make the street design guidelines enforceable too, reports Charlotte Observer writer Steve Harrison, some developers argue that overly rigid regulations could hurt the economy. They also note wider concerns about high housing prices.
City Planning Director Debra Campbell confirmed that guidelines and ordinance requirements increase short-term developer costs, adding between $1,900 and $2,900 to prices of new homes, but she pointed out that the visual and other improvements ''bring economic value.'' Elaborating on his call for flexibility, Mayor Foxx stressed the need for a cost-benefit analysis when development regulations seem particularly cumbersome and for a clear conflict resolution approach to potential clashes between the requirements of three involved city departments – planning, engineering and transportation.
Council Member Warren Turner is comfortable with strong development regulations. ''Is there a list of people who have said, 'We aren’t doing business in Charlotte?''' he asked. ''I like that it may have removed people who didn’t want to do a quality project in Charlotte.''
Read about the EPA 2009 Smart Growth Award for Charlotte at www.epa.gov/smartgrowth/awards/sg_awards_publication_2009.htm.
3/2/2010
Resource(s): www.charlotteobserver.com/
Oregon Faces Opposition Over Planned Wind Farms in Scenic Areas
Having promoted wind-power technology as a source of renewable energy and jobs since 1998, Oregon has become the sixth nationwide in wind-energy production, with nearly 1,200 turbines on more than a dozen farms so far. Still, some of 23 planned projects face resistance because of views, noise and environmental impacts of the systems. Oregonians value green power, but also open vistas and wildlife habitat, said Oregon Department of Energy (ODOE) Hermiston Office spokeswoman Sue Oliver, noting, ''We are about to have a clash of two things very important to the state.''
Last year, reports Oregonian writer Richard Cockle, local opposition forced Massachusetts-based First Wind to withdraw a plan for 40 260-foot turbines between Mosier and The Dalles as threatening Columbia River Gorge views and bird migrations. The Wallowa County-based Blue Mountain Alliance moved to ban turbines on 200,000 acres of the mountains, an effort backed by the Milton-Freewater City Council in its own area. In Morrow County, Boardman area residents have invoked state noise regulations, asking managers of the year-old Willow Creek Energy Project to stop some turbines at night. The Oregon Natural Desert Association and Portland Audubon Society are trying to block three wind farms for the north flank of the iconic Steens Mountains. ''The reality is, we are putting turbines up at an unprecedented pace and putting them in places that nobody ever imagined they would ever be,'' explained Audubon Conservation Director Bob Sallinger. ''Just because you have a wind resource in a given spot doesn’t mean it’s an appropriate place to put turbines.''
In Union County, the same arguments come from the Cove-based Friends of the Grande Ronde Valley and the Union City Council in a newly launched campaign against the planned $600-million Antelope Ridge Wind Farm in the valley’s south end. Taking 47,000 acres of slopes, the farm would have 182 towers from 470 to 520 feet high. The city of about 1,900 residents fears the turbines, some within 1.5 miles of its center will hurt local quality of life, wildlife and the $106-million tourism industry. ''Instead of the Grande Ronde Valley, we’re going to be known as windmill valley,'' observed former City Councilor R.J. Middleman. Scores of ''Say NO'' posters can be found throughout the city targeting both the Texas-based Horizon Wind Energy company, a subsidiary of EDP Renovaveis of Portugal, and the possible state tax credits for the project.
Horizon’s Development Director Arlo Corwin is confident about wind farm benefits. ''This is an important project to the county and local economic development. This is an important project for wind energy in Oregon,'' he pointed out, citing the prospect of 165 construction jobs, about 50 permanent jobs later, new county tax revenue, and generation of 300 megawatts as sufficient for some 90,000 homes. Like all wind farms that would generate at least 105 megawatts, the Antelope Ridge project depends on a decision by the state ODOE Energy Facility Siting Council, with no need for approval from the county or the city.
3/4/2010
Resource(s): www.oregonlive.com/
Transferable Development Rights Help Preserve Land in Seattle
Bill Fulton, author of the California Planning Report, notes in this blog article that transferable development rights (TDR) are partly responsible for creating the LEED certified hotel he had been staying at for the recent New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. Transferable development programs allow developers in to increase density in cities by purchasing the development rights on land that has been designated for preservation in rural areas.
Fulton notes that TDRs may be able to lower the region's carbon footprint by focusing development back into the inner city throughout a region. A condo in an urban area has less than half the carbon footprint that a 5 acres single-family home in the exburbs would have. The savings comes not just from decrease in driving but also less home energy use. Fulton also suggests that TDR could be linked to urban redevelopment goals by linking tax increment financing to supporting TDR projects.
Finally, Fulton suggests that TDRs could use amenity funds to “peel off” TRD funds and reinvest them back into urban areas in order to improve amenities such as parks and sidewalks. TDRs work, Fulton argues, because they help make the urban-rural connection more apparent to city residents. Every six or seven extra rooms that a TRD was able to provide the hotel Fulton was staying at helped prevent one 5-acre lot from being developed in a rural area.
2/7/2010
Resource(s): http://www.cp-dr.com/node/2594
Seattle Residents Help Transform Alleys into Useful Public Spaces
Nord Alley, which connects S. Jackson St. and S. Main Street in Seattle's Pioneer Square neighborhood, has undergone a revitalization thanks to the efforts of local residents. When Todd Vogel opened up offices of the International Sustainability Institute (ISI) on the alley two years ago, the area was dismal, with boarded-up windows and garbage dumpsters filling the corridor, says this article in the Seattle Times.
Vogel began cleaning up the derelict alley by setting out patio furniture, adding planters and light filters to windows, and installing a 1,600 water bottle art project over the alley way. ''We started respecting the space and people started to respect it,'' notes Vogel. The City of Seattle has taken notice of the revitalized alley way and started its own inventory of how pedestrians use public spaces and what factors drive people to walk instead of using other modes of transportation. Nord Alley has served as a model on how public spaces can be revitalized to make them more interesting.
2/25/2010
Resource(s): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Controversy Brewing in Dane County over More Precise Development Planning
To ensure the best management of water supplies across Dane County, its Capital Area Regional Planning Commission (CARPC) wants municipalities to work together on Future Urban District Area development plans. Without such plans, CARPC could withhold approval for extensions of water and sewer lines in the next 20 years, a requirement sharply criticized by builders.
Madison Area Builders Association Government Affairs Director Kent Dish thought the CARPC call for more planning could stem development and undercut the new comprehensive plans that local governments needed by January 1 to comply with the 1999 state Smart Growth law. Others echoed the argument. ''We’ve got the comprehensive plans,'' Madison’s Encore Construction President Chad Wuebben told Milwaukee Daily Reporter writer Paul Snyder. ''If your project falls within the comprehensive plan, then the battle should be easier to get it approved.''
Madison-based Axley Brynelson law firm attorney Tim Fenner concluded in a legal opinion that state-mandated Smart Growth plans render CARPC-required plans advisory. ''Trying to work on boundary agreements between towns and villages is always a tough order,'' he noted. ''And does anyone really presume to know what will happen 25 years from now?'' The greater the need for multi-jurisdictional coordination, responded County Executive Kathleen Falk’s Chief of Staff Topf Wells, pointing out that localities could draw up Smart Growth plans separately. ''So you could easily have a case where three different municipalities say three different things about how 400 acres should be developed in the future,'' he observed, stressing that the CARPC requirement for joint urban district area development plans would prevent such potential disputes.
3/4/2010
Resource(s): http://dailyreporter.com/
Wyoming Planning Commissioners Recommend Permanent Housing Fund
Jackson and Teton County (Wyoming) planning commissioners have recommended establishment of a permanent fund to pay for an affordable-housing program, according to the Jackson Hole Daily. Although the commissioners didn’t specify where the money would come from, they stated they wanted the fund ''to help lessen the reliance on new development to provide affordable housing.'' ''Housing should be separated from development,'' Jackson Planning Commissioner Michael Pruett said. ''We need a permanent funding source with clear direction, not to land bank, but to buy existing housing stock.''
The two boards also included ''provisions in another recommendation that recognize resort jobs as a vital part of the community and as something that should be addressed in an affordable-housing program. That endorsement stipulated that the plan should promote Jackson Hole as a community first and a resort second.''
2/1/2010
Resource(s): www.jhnewsandguide.com/
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