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Calera Residents Sound Off Against Apartment Plan at Tumultuous Zoning Hearing
Local landowner Bobby Bynum's idea to build some 100-120 upscale apartments on his nine acres in fast-growing Calera -- population 5,000 plus, yet fewer than 20 apartments -- heartens city officials, who see the demand for less costly housing sharply up, but infuriates prospective neighbors, who fear traffic congestion, drainage problems and the loss of their quality of life.
''We moved out here to get away from that kind of thing,'' said resident Marty Smith. ''We moved out here to be in the country.'' Another opponent, Dixie Snowden, who owns an adjacent parcel but lives in Pelham about 15 miles north, argued, ''It's going to bring property values down, and there's going to be a social problem,'' saying he hates to mention that, ''but facts are facts.''
The crowd of some 150 at the recent Planning and Zoning Commission hearing got so loud, reports Birmingham News writer Keysha Drexel, that the commission, which recommended rezoning of the site from agricultural to multi-family residential, had to call the police to restore order.
Apartment proponent and city-resident Bynum was appalled. ''They think anyone who lives in an apartment is a criminal or troublemaker, and I completely disagree with that,'' he noted. ''I don't have a lot of tolerance for exclusionists.''
With the Calera City Council's vote on the rezoning request scheduled for May 2, Mayor George Roy said officials are ''just looking to fill a need'' for apartments because not everyone can afford a house. Calling opponents ''a small minority'' and expecting the council's hearing to go more smoothly, he stressed, ''I hope people will understand we were elected to do what's best for the entire city.'' -- Birmingham News
4/20/2005
Resource(s): www.al.com/birminghamnews/
Public Involvement Sought in Update of Madison's Comprehensive Plans
As development pressures mount in Madison -- just west of Huntsville in the state's green northern valley -- and the City Council and Mayor Sandy Kirkindall focus on new retail, the volunteer Planning Commission is moving to involve the public in urgent updates of the decade-old traffic and comprehensive plans, to make them compatible with smart growth.
''Over the next several years, we'll be maxed out on our growth,'' said Commission Chairman Tracy Lamm. ''We also must ensure we preserve necessary space for passive and recreational needs of the community.''
An improved traffic plan may help bring in new companies, he told Madison Spirit writer Anna Thibodeaux, while a revised comprehensive plan will address crucial public quality of life concerns through new subdivision regulations, commercial project standards and other development guidelines.
A long-time advocate of regional cooperation, Chairman Lamm added, ''We need to establish a strong dialog with Huntsville, Athens and Decatur for the betterment of our connected community, focusing on common boundaries, and to seek better understanding of their organizational structure, processes and challenges.'' -- Madison Spirit
5/18/2005
Resource(s): www.al.com/huntsvilletimes/
Palmer Citizens Group Wants Growth to Be Issue in City Council Elections
Brought together by misgivings over the possibility of a big Wal-Mart in their small city with New Deal era roots, members of the recently formed People for Palmer group became regulars at otherwise scantily attended City Council meetings, where they seek a moratorium on large retail establishments (LRSs), while working to find grants for open space and to make growth an issue in the city election this October, since now they can count on support from just two of the seven city councilors.
''We'd like to see some changes on the City Council,'' said group founding member Rick Shields. ''There doesn't seem to be a lot of forethought and vision for the future.''
His group's overall vision ''is to preserve the quaintness and small-town feel of Palmer,'' he told Anchorage Daily News reporters Rindi White and Kyle Hopkins, stressing, ''It's not an anti-Wal-Mart group, it's an anti-crazy-growth-type group.''
But even if People for Palmer or other preservation groups get money for the land in question, Wal-Mart still has priority, the reporters note, quoting the seller, Eagle River resident Herbert Giles, who said, ''This sales agreement is a locked-in deal until Wal-Mart backs out. We can't entertain any other offers during this time.''
Although the land went up for sale early last year, he added, nobody was interested in its purchase until Wal-Mart showed up. Still, the reporters observe, the company doesn't want to pay until the land is vacated by the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District, whose lease for portable public school classrooms expires June 30. Meantime, People for Palmer will work to convince at least two more city council members about the need to revise the 2004 LRS ordinance, pointed out activist Shields, to limit ''the size of any big box stores in the city limits.'' -- Anchorage Daily News
5/4/2005
Resource(s): www.adn.com/front
Flagstaff's Big-Box Cap Falls in Mail Referendum
A 12-point drop in Flagstaff resident support for a planned Wal-Mart Supercenter since last summer was not quite enough to uphold the big-box cap ordinance passed by the City Council in September, with 51 percent of voters in a mail referendum now shooting it down.
The vote, writes Arizona Daily Sun reporter Rachel Peterson, takes the public ''a step back from the city council majority's New Urbanism agenda that opposes supercenters as promoting urban sprawl, motor vehicle dependency and wasteful land use,'' but it hardly suggests a mandate. The campaign against the big-box cap was led by the Protect Flagstaff's Future group -- bankrolled by Wal-Mart -- and by the Chamber of Commerce, which lost about 10 members in the process, but gained more than 100.
The group's chairman, Frank Dickens, never doubted the results and now wants to work for common goals -- clean air and water, a strong economy and overall quality of life. ''It's time for the divisiveness to end,'' he said. ''It's time for all of us to come to the table and agree that's what we want.''
Chamber CEO Julie Pastrick described the vote as one in favor of shopping choices and business opportunities, adding, ''It's all part of the quality of life ... and economic vitality.''
Upbeat about the chamber's first-ever political involvement, its government affairs director Joe Galli announced it will be taking such actions in the future ''to protect the business interests.'' Councilwoman Kara Kelty said the council will have to make some adjustments ''to the New Urbanism vision,'' promising further efforts ''to maximize land use,'' with a focus on affordable housing.
Councilman Al White said although he preferred a different outcome, the council and voters must work together, noting, ''I think a healthy democracy is majority rule with consideration to the minority.'' -- Arizona Daily Sun
5/18/2005
Resource(s): www.azdailysun.com/
Editorial Credits Marana for Setting High Bar for Future Development
While most ''state of'' speeches can be ''pretty droll,'' Marana Mayor Bobby Sutton, Jr. delivered really ''a great'' State of the Town speech, outlining a vision that, ''if successful, will make the community one of the most distinctive and unique in the Western United States,'' opines the Tucson Explorer, asking the crucial question as to whether Marana can make it a reality.
Aside from a standing ovation from the audience, the newspaper notes, an informal survey of listeners showed reactions ranging ''from rosy optimism among Marana elected officials and town staff, to uncertain pessimism among other regional government officials, home builders and business leaders.''
The newspapers sees the deck ''stacked against Marana.'' If its governmental design standards, rather than market-driven ones, ''drastically raise the cost of housing,'' the newspaper surmises, home buyers and businesses may look to cheaper construction elsewhere in Pima County or in south Pinal County.
''Tweaking housing design standards is one thing. Rising up to battle rampant urban sprawl and redefine what a suburban town should look like smacks of tilting at windmills,'' it says, adding, ''Here's hoping Marana Quixote bags its dragon.'' -- Northwest Explorer
4/6/2005
Resource(s): www.explorernews.com/
Marana Town Council Adopts Strict Impact Fee Ordinances
Just a week after Mayor Bobby Sutton, Jr.'s bold smart-growth address, the Marana Town Council adopted two tough growth-pays-for-itself ordinances -- one setting a $2,884 impact fee for a new house anywhere in Marana, to fund parks; the other adding a $5,941 fee for each in the Northwest Marana Transportation Benefit Area, to fund its arterial and collector road improvements -- both taking effect July 4.
Currently, reports Tucson Explorer community newspaper writer Ryan J. Stanton, developers are charged only a $2,435 impact fee for each new home in the South Marana Transportation Benefit Area, to fund a $57-million interchange construction, slated to start next year.
But with the town's population projected to jump from some 24,000 to 90,000 by 2025 -- about 70,000 in its north sector alone -- the new impact fees, says town manager executive assistant Jim DeGrood, are ''creating an incentive to have developers build infrastructure in a timely fashion.''
Pointing out that developers agree they can build roads far more cheaply than the town can, he tells the writer that rather than collecting impact fees, the council would prefer to credit builders with the amounts due if they undertake road and park expansion as part of their projects.
''It's far more efficient for everyone and, what's more, when they're selling their homes, there's a nice road that's well-built and landscaped, and the same thing with parks,'' he explains. ''We would just assume we won't collect a single dollar.''
Despite some concerns about housing affordability, Southern Arizona Home Builders Association (SAHBA) government liaison Alex Jacome commends town officials for their vision and cooperation with developers. ''We wish to remain a partner with the town, and a part of the solution rather than the problem,'' he says. ''The result is a plan that is fair.''
Noting that the new impact fees should provide about $183 million for roads and $90 million for parks, or the equivalent in construction by developers, assistant manager DeGrood acknowledges that housing affordability may become an issue, especially with the strict design standards soon to come. ''But I'd argue,'' he adds, ''that the market is having more of an impact on affordable housing than our impact fees.'' -- Northwest Explorer
4/13/2005
Resource(s): www.explorernews.com/
New Apartments in Phoenix-Area's Chandler City Include Plenty of Outdoor Amenities
The Phoenix area's recent job growth and home-price escalation has spurred construction of upscale apartments in Chandler, with the 418 units built in the past half year looking ''more like resorts than dormitories'' and offering such facilities as fitness centers, sand volleyball courts and dog parks, reports Arizona Republic writer Edythe Jensen, quoting Scottsdale-based Mark Taylor Residential Inc. vice president Kevin Ransil, who stresses, ''Ours are not 'crash your stuff for six months' kinds of places.''
Priced between $750 and $1,400 a month, he tells the writer, his apartments attract those who can now afford homes only on the urban fringes and hate long commutes, and those who have tough jobs or heavy travel schedules and prefer ''lock and leave'' convenience over home maintenance.
Chandler Advance Planning Manager Hank Pluster says this city, some 12 miles southeast of central Phoenix, wants to remain mainly a ''family-oriented, home-ownership community'' and having little residential land left, follows strict rules for location and design rules of new apartments. They are usually near freeways and must feature outdoor amenities, which can include tot lots, picnic areas and pools.
And they do include even more, the writer finds, mentioning San Cervantes with a lagoon pool, sandy beach, volleyball court and waterfalls; Stonebridge Ranch with staff putting out bottled water and snacks each day for renters and treats for their pets in a dog park; and Italian-theme Villa Pallavicini with free wine lockers, bocce ball courts, commercial pizza ovens and wine-and-cheese parties. -- Arizona Republic
4/9/2005
Resource(s): www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/
Bentonville Celebrates Smart Growth Success, Looks Toward the Next Step -- Community Sustainability
Having the advantage of its well-laid pedestrian-friendly downtown and encouraging New Urbanism and Smart Growth elsewhere, Bentonville seems well poised to limit sprawl and remain livable, but as some see the glass half full, others see it half empty -- Planning Commissioner Buddy Vernetti thinks the city ''is doing a good job'' given the fast growth in northwestern Arkansas, while Community Development Director Troy Galloway says ''we're trying, but it's half-baked.''
Although most of the 2,700 lots platted last year are in the city's southwest, reports Benton County Daily Record writer Rachel Lianna Davis, another planning commissioner, Tom Rife, argues that ''(s)uburbia is not necessarily sprawl,'' defining sprawl as unchecked commercial development, which the city averted some five years ago by directing projects to commercial nodes and seeking wider connectivity.
Nevertheless, director Galloway looks even farther ahead and places the issue in the national context. ''What we're doing now is not sustainable,'' he observes. ''Look at the population growth in 50 years, and the consumption of raw land. There's a wasteful disparity -- a wasteful mindset -- that we have as a nation. We have to move away from that.''
Pointing out that America's infatuation with single-family homes, suburbs and cars began after World War II, he calls the car mania ''a generational thing'' and regrets that Bentonville's current development pattern still ''doesn't set us up for alternative methods of transportation.''
His views resemble those of New Urbanism leaders Andres Duany and his wife Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, who also created the SmartCode, a breakaway zoning document, the writer notes, discussed at national workshops in Dallas last year and in Atlanta last month. ''Older neighborhoods from the 1920s accommodate cars in just measure; cars are only an option,'' said Duany at the Atlanta workshop, adding, ''Now, cities accommodate cars and leave no other options. In the end, pedestrianism is the single most important outcome of (SmartCode), without eliminating cars,'' while also helping boost transit. -- Daily Record
5/16/2005
Resource(s): www.nwanews.com/story.php?paper=bcdr
SANDAG Offers $17 Million in Federal Grants for Transit Center Mixed-Use Projects
The San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) approved a $17 million smart-growth promotion program, offering the region's jurisdictions and public agencies between $200,000 and $2 million in federal grant money for mixed-use projects near transit centers, with SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos anticipating tough applicant competition, due to the projected population growth and ever-greater public support for urban revitalization.
The region will have more than a million new residents and a half-million new jobs, he observed, stressing, ''Our premise is that we need to do better in planning for that growth, and being smarter about reinvesting in the areas where infrastructure and support services are.''
SANDAG senior planner Stephan Vance said, ''The way we have been building requires people to get in their cars to go almost everywhere. We need to start bringing together the places where people live and where they work.''
The grants will go mostly to areas served by regional transit, he promised, adding, ''We're looking for projects that promote such things as pedestrian access, improved bicycle paths and bicycle parking, pedestrian lighting and public art.''
To qualify, reports North County Times writer Mark Walker, the applicants must contribute at least 11.5 percent of their project costs, with SANDAG staff and a citizen panel grading applications on smart-growth elements, project readiness and low-income housing inclusion.
Once the federal $17 million is gone, by 2009-10, SANDAG will use money from the half-cent TransNet sales tax, extended by voters last November -- about $7 million a year earmarked for smart growth -- while expanding the project range to parks, parking garages and other urban facilities. -- North County Times
4/23/2005
Resource(s): www.nctimes.com/
$90 Million Smart Growth Fund Will Help Build Affordable Housing for San Diego County Workers
As companies in Southern California find it increasingly hard to attract and retain workers because of sky-high housing costs, San Diego County officials unveiled their public-private $90 million Smart Growth Fund, designed to help build affordable units for middle-income buyers and renters -- those who earn between 80 and 200 percent of the area's median income, or $49,600-$124,000 for a family of four, with the county's median home price reaching $484,000 last month.
Secured through a recent $60 million commitment from the California Public Employees Retirement System (CalPERS), with $30 million expected from banks and insurance companies, report San Diego Union-Tribune writers Lori Weisberg and Emmet Pierce, the fund -- slated for formal introduction during a workforce housing conference at the University of San Diego on May 17 -- should leverage more than $500 million in additional residential and commercial development, producing some 2,000 new homes in older urban communities within five years.
San Diego Capital Collaborative CEO Barry Schultz, whose nonprofit will help oversee the fund, said the money will go to San Diego inner neighborhoods and to redevelopment areas in Chula Vista, National City, El Cajon, Vista, Oceanside and Escondido. The fund will be managed by the Phoenix Realty Group, whose official Jay Stark said workforce housing units ''are smaller niche products that have good economics, but no one has had a focus to enfranchise these kinds of developers'' who specialize in less costly urban housing and often lack money for their projects.
''The banks,'' explained Los Angeles condo builder Percy Vaz, ''provide a big piece of funding, but you can't get those loans unless you get an equity source to cover the gap between what the bank will lend and what is needed to make these projects financially feasible.''
San Diego affordable housing developer Michael Galasso also welcomes the Smart Growth Fund. ''This will help us compete for projects and land with large publicly traded corporations,'' he observed. ''So often we lose out because they can act quicker and have bigger bank accounts than us.''
Phoenix group founder J. Michael Fried noted that the planned housing will include mostly attached three-to-five-story condominiums, helping stem workers' flight to distant suburbs in Imperial and Riverside counties and bring ''policemen, firemen, nurses and teacher within an easy commute from where they work.'' -- San Diego Union-Tribune
5/15/2005
Resource(s): www.signonsandiego.com/news/index.html
Developer's Offer of Road Improvement Solutions Gets Cool Reception in Nevada County
Keen to move on his proposed 1,000-home, mixed-use and pedestrian-friendly Loma Rica Ranch project, some three miles northeast of downtown Grass Valley, developer Phil Carville urged Grass Valley, Nevada City and Nevada County to invest in a three-day road-improvement charrette, writing their leaders that since ''traffic is a regional problem,'' they should work together, and that his adviser, nationally known planning and walkability expert Dan Burden, came up during his recent visit with more solutions in one day ''than most staff would in a year.''
This didn't sit too well with the addressees, who appreciated the developer's effort, but advised him to follow proper channels, by submitting his concepts first to the Nevada County Transportation Commission, reports Grass Valley Union writer Becky Trout.
''It's not like (these) are new concepts,'' said Grass valley mayor Gerard Tassone. ''It's just that we have dismissed many of them due to practicality (or right-of-way issues).''
County Transportation Commission executive director Dan Landon wrote, ''In his exuberance for Mr. Burden's presentation, I believe Mr. Carville has overstated the potential of the recommendations, and the context of his letter implies some things that are not correct.''
During his presentation last month, followed by a city tour, the writer notes, the planning expert recommended such remedies as putting a median on the road along the proposed project, tightening turns at a key nearby intersection, and reducing the number of driveways at another junction. The developer maintained in his letter that these and other Burden recommendations could save the area about $6 million. ''Are we interested in saving $6 million in taxpayer funds?'' he asked officials. ''We must break a few conventional misperceptions, but we can do it.'' -- Union
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.theunion.com/
Debate Lines Being Drawn Over California's ''Transit Village'' Bill
In a preview of the hot debate expected over legislation (SB 521) that would let cities form redevelopment agencies to build mixed-use, high-density, varied-housing ''transit villages'' around rail stations, Democratic Senator Tom Torlakson says his bill could ease freeway traffic, improve air quality, and allow many ''to live closer to work,'' but Republican Senator Dave Cox sees it as part of the state's ''continual, incremental encroachment on the land-use planning done by local entities, cities and counties.''
Under the bill, reports Contra Costa Times writer Kiley Russell, each city-approved transit-village plan would need approval from the respective transit authority and the California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank to enable each new redevelopment agency to subsidize the initial project costs with area property tax revenue. Such an agency would later collect the post-development property tax increment that would have normally gone into county and state coffers.
The bill would also expand the definition of ''blight,'' to allow the new redevelopment agencies to condemn neglected land around rail stations in areas not predominantly urban or designated for high density. This provision worries the California Redevelopment Association, with its legislative lobbyist David Jones saying, ''Calling a neighborhood blighted simply because it doesn't have density is very, very troubling.''
City officials, the writer notes, are split on the bill. Walnut Creek City Councilman Charles Abrams argues state officials need ''to stay out of land-use decisions because they botch it up with all the policies involved,'' and Pittsburg mayor Nancy Parent thinks the bill ''just adds more people whose hoops we'd have to jump through.''
On the other hand, Dublin Mayor Janet Lockhart finds the bill beneficial for the city's new BART station plan. ''We're a classic example of where that would work well,'' she points out, ''since we don't have a redevelopment agency and there's no reason for us to form one except for around the BART station.''
Land-use experts consider the bill both moderate and creative. Public Policy Institute of California researcher Paul Lewis says, ''This (bill) makes sure that what the city does isn't in its own interest alone, but in the interest of the region as a whole.'' -- Contra Costa Times
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.contracostatimes.com/
Sustainability Is a Central Value of Community, Denver Mayor Tells Smart Growth Conference
''Sustainability is a central value of our administration and our community,'' said Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper as he launched the Sustainable Development Initiative at the city's 21st Century Smarter Growth Conference, stressing, ''It requires us to recognize the interconnectedness between the social, economic and environmental impact of our policies and programs, as we seek to ensure that future generations will enjoy a quality of life characterized by environmental beauty, economic opportunity and resource abundance.''
Led by mayoral policy advisor on parks, planning and public works Beth Conover, the former owner-principal of Headwaters Consulting, LLC, the initiative will focus on three main factors of economic and environmental health -- water, energy and land use/transportation -- by convening stakeholders groups, catalyzing new projects and explaining the importance of sustainability for the region.
Targeting water supplies first, the initiative will show how to save Denver's drinking water -- more than half of which is used in summer to spray private properties -- through the Community Conservation Gardens Project, which will involve and train at-risk youth in converting four of the city's top public landscapes to ''waterwise'' gardens.
Under other water-focused programs, the city Department of Public Works will join the Department of Environmental Health in drawing up a strategy to reduce pollution in the South Platte River, and the Mayor's Office will partner with the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in offering a speaker's series on the best ways to conserve water in the West, including the seven-county Denver metro.
''It is important to realize these are not random actions, but part of a larger citywide program and strategy that benefits all taxpayers,'' said Mayor Hickenlooper. ''We intend to honor Denver's environmental record while promoting the 'triple bottom line' of the social, economic and environmental benefits of sustainability moving forward.''
4/19/2005
Resource(s): www.denvergov.org/
Broomfield Mixed-Use Project Will Take Advantage of Future FasTrack Rail Station
Having long seen the New Urbanism promise of the 10-mile northwestern Denver-Broomfield corridor, FirsTier Bank head Tim Wiens bought 206 acres along U.S. 36 in Broomfield very early, and now his developer group, including Los Angeles-based Lowe Enterprises, is ready with its $350-million mixed-use Arista project, planning 1,200 condos and apartments, up to 800,000 square feet of retail, and possibly some offices, all within walking distance of a rapid-transit bus stop and a future FasTrack commuter rail station.
''This would be the first development in Broomfield truly focused on transit,'' says Broomfield assistant city-county manager Kevin Standbridge, noting that officials worked with the developers almost five years to make it happen.
''It did not fire up as fast as we wanted,'' due mostly to the economic downturn, explains Wiens, not really troubled by the delay. ''In hindsight, it allowed for a bigger plan and a better picture of what this project should be about,'' he tells Rocky Mountain News writer John Rebchook. ''We didn't want to throw up a big box.''
And his advisor, local developer Michael Byrne, adds, ''We're buying into New Urbanism with a decidedly authentic Colorado flair to it. We're calling it West Urbanism.'' -- Rocky Mountain News
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.rockymountainnews.com/
Developer Plans Seminar to Help Residents Visualize Advantages of New Milford Smart Growth Project
It would be ''a crying shame'' if New Milford reverted to its prior low-density residential zoning for the Candlewood Mountain farm and someone spread 57 houses all over it, said developer Karl Frey, disappointed that the Town Council voted against the possibility of a special tax district for his planned mixed-use active-adult village, but he bought 164 of the farm acres for $14.25 million anyway and envisions a two-day seminar on the site in June, to help residents visualize the advantages of his smart-growth project.
''I'm going to do everything I can do to have the town's elected officials, and the general populace, understand exactly what we're trying to do here,'' he said. ''I don't want to be like every other developer.''
Frey's proposed luxury adult community, reports Danbury News-Times writer Nanci G. Hutson, would include single-family homes, condos, townhouses and garden flats on about 60 acres, with the remaining 100-plus acres set aside for walking trails and open space. The council's vote, the writer notes, undercut the developer's hope for state legislation on a special tax district that would issue some $25 million in bonds to cover initial construction costs, because of questions about local control over such a district.
Arguing for a tax district, the developer promised a $10 million donation to a nonprofit land trust for protection of tracts the town would select, stressed that active adult communities generate tax revenue without burdening schools and other services, and estimated the tax yield from his project at some $65 million over 30 years. -- News-Times
5/20/2005
Resource(s): www.newstimeslive.com/
Base Relocations Raise Major Transportation Issues for Military and Civilian Personnel in D.C. Area
The Greater Washington area has weathered such moves before, but the Pentagon's current base realignment plan, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, ''is potentially more disruptive'' to regional efforts to contain sprawl, traffic and air pollution, because security-driven relocation will take more than 25,000 military and civilian personnel from the district and its densely populated suburbs to Virginia and Maryland bases some 18, 20 and 40 miles away, with little or no transit options.
Growth management experts, planners and conservationists are worried. ''This is a region already grappling with crushing traffic congestion and all of the associated problems,'' pointed out Smart Growth America Executive Director Don Chen, concerned about local government ability to shoulder additional burdens.
''The federal government primarily is looking for what enhances the security of Department of Defense facilities and what's the most cost-effective solution for the federal taxpayer,'' observed Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments Executive Director David Robertson. ''I don't think the BRAC (Base Realignment and Closure Commission) process considers other issues like affordable housing, air quality and transportation.''
Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute Associate Director Arthur Nelson and 1000 Friends of Maryland Executive Director Dru Schmidt-Perkins made similar points. ''It's one thing to close a base and try to find a way to reuse it, but it's another to reshuffle the employment and put it into places that aren't prepared to take it,'' said the former, while the latter stressed, ''What we've done is take those people who are largely on transit and move them to nontransit spots. That's not going in the right direction.'' -- Baltimore Sun
5/22/2005
Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/
Florida Lawmakers Still Searching for Funds to Reduce Backlog of Infrastructure Projects
As Florida's 60-day legislative session reached the April 6 midpoint and state Republican leaders became alarmed that time was almost out for their efforts to strengthen the 1985 Growth Management Act and cut the $23 billion service backlog without affecting the party's anti-tax mold, reports Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel writer Mark Hollis, Governor Jeb Bush said unexpected additional state revenue this year could ''jump start'' infrastructure improvements, while Senate President Tom Lee and Representative Mike Davis expressed belief in real estate transaction stamp fees or similar payments.
Hoping that growth-related taxes can be avoided, the governor noted earlier that local governments are already able to raise at least $5.3 billion -- $1.1 billion for roads, $2.8 billion for schools, and $1.4 billion for general needs. The governor and key Republican lawmakers, the writer reports, are pushing a ''pay as you go'' system for meeting local ''concurrency'' goals and reducing their backlog.
Pointing out that real estate documentary taxes, or transfer fees, ''are soaring along here,'' Senate President Lee said, ''We're thinking of maybe lassoing some of those and dedicating them to infrastructure.'' At the same time, he cautioned communities against development like the proposed Scripps Florida project for a former orange grove in rural western Palm Beach County, far from other projects under way.
''My personal view is the Scripps site is not the right site,'' he explained. ''I think it's sprawl.''
Representative Davis, the manager of growth-management legislation in the House, acknowledged that people held in traffic gridlock ''for the fifth and sixth light change'' may be ''pretty willing to pay higher taxes,'' and saw an answer in impact fees, too. ''I had someone describe it as the initiation fee that you pay at the country club,'' he said. ''If you want to join us in Florida and you're brand new, then you should pay to mitigate the growth.'' -- Sun-Sentinel
4/7/2005
Resource(s): www.sun-sentinel.com/
Sunshine State Lawmakers Say Infrastructure Funding Bill Will Reduce Sprawl, Promote Orderly Growth
It happened only 15 minutes before the midnight deadline of the two-month legislative session, but key concessions by Republican Senate President Tom Lee to his House colleagues finally secured Florida's first-ever bill with serious money for roads, schools and water facilities -- $8.25 billion over 10 years, including about $1.5 million next year -- to help absorb the state's enormous population growth.
Although inadequate in the context of the present $35 million infrastructure backlog, reports Palm Beach Post writer Jennifer Sorentrue, the bill's money and ''concurrency'' provisions were touted by lawmakers as certain both to reduce sprawl, by providing incentives for building in cities, and to induce orderly growth, by requiring developers to ensure sufficient water supplies for new residents before launching construction.
''People are going to see mass infusion of infrastructure repair and widening on their roads,'' said the bill's House sponsor, Republican Representative Randy Johnson. ''They are going to see over the next few years a major shift of room in classrooms for our kids.''
With about $1.1 million earmarked for next year's local and state transportation projects, and about $200 million for alternative water sources and water pollution cleanup, the writer notes, the remaining $200 million will go for new classrooms required under the state's constitutional amendment limiting class sizes.
To secure the bill in the conference committee, she adds, Senate negotiators made their biggest concessions on taxes and on development in rural areas. They dropped their insistence on letting county commissioners increase taxes for new roads and schools without referendums, and accepted the House's demand to bar the state Department of Community Affairs from reviewing land-use changes for projects on rural tracts smaller than 20 acres. ''The Senate,'' commented 1000 Friends of Florida attorney Janet Bowman, ''really hasn't gotten much for taking the stuff out.'' -- Palm Beach Post
5/7/2005
Resource(s): www.palmbeachpost.com/
Hernando County Ready to ''Push the Envelope'' With New School Concurrency Ordinance
Looking at Florida's only ''school concurrency ordinance,'' adopted by Palm Beach County after years of debating, planning and lobbying, the Hernando County Board of County Commissioners concluded its latest ''marathon'' workshop by asking staff to work on a similar smart-growth measure, which would ensure county-school district planning coordination, ban new subdivisions until classrooms can accommodate extra students, and make developers provide land for new schools.
''Let's push the envelope,'' said new Commissioner Jeff Stabins,'' which pleased school board member Jim Malcolm, who observed, ''We have 1,000 new students a year. We can't keep up. We need help.''
Planning and zoning board member Anna Liisa Covel also welcomed the move, writes Hernando Today reporter Michael D. Bates, since she has never had clear guidelines for approving residential rezoning requests. But Tallahassee attorney Jake Varn cautioned workshop participants about potential problems, reminding them that Broward and Monroe counties tried but failed to produce school concurrency ordinances.
Specifically, said County Attorney Garth Coller, the county, the school board and probably the city of Brooksville would have to agree on language and a cooperation framework. And after the county and the city worked out consistent comprehensive plan amendments, they would need approval form the state Department of Community Affairs.
Consequently, the reporter notes, the commission must clarify the county's growth vision for the next 10 years to pursue its school concurrency ordinance. -- Hernando Today
4/23/2005
Resource(s): www.hernandotoday.com/
Florida Welcomes $8.25 Billion ''Down-Payment'' to Tackle Infrastructure Backlog
With Florida's service and infrastructure backlog estimated at $35 billion, and the population up by more than 1,000 each day, the $8.25 billion in new money for roads, schools and water in the next 10 years hardly overwhelms anyone, but since the situation in many areas looks desperate, reports Associated Press writer Samantha Gross in the Tallahassee Democrat, all sides agree that some cash is better than none.
''It's a good down-payment,'' said 1000 Friends of Florida executive director Charles Pattison, hoping that future lawmakers follow suit and that growth-management money may ''become a permanent part of the budget.''
Still, AAA Auto Club South senior vice president Kevin Bakewell cautions that catching up on the project backlog is unrealistic. ''That's just not going to happen without tax increases like they have in Europe,'' he observed, ''and I think we have to make the best of what we've got.''
Backed by Governor Jeb Bush, the writer notes, Senate Republican President Tom Lee pushed for making it easier for counties to raise gas taxes and secure some $5 billion a year for their local growth-management needs, but he lost to the historically more conservative House negotiators.
Providing about $1.5 billion for next year, the bill gives just some $175 million for school construction and renovation. But to really deal with school overcrowding, said Florida School Board Association legislative director Ruth Melton, districts need a total of at least $10 billion, and more if they were to reduce the numbers of children in classes as demanded by voters in a 2002 state constitutional amendment. -- Tallahassee Democrat
5/12/2005
Resource(s): www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/
Editorial: Volusia County's Growth Policy Should Give Public Interest Precedence When Deciding Where and How to Build
In a collision of two Volusia County ''land-use ethics,'' one that ''subjugates public interest to the speculative interests of private property owners,'' and one that ''presumes the primacy of public interest to control growth provided the private property owner is compensated fairly for any loss of current -- not speculative -- land value,'' The Daytona Beach News-Journal sides with the latter, but notes that all may depend on the County Council-sanctioned Smart Growth Initiative Implementation Committee, created last summer ''to prepare a 'balanced' plan for growth management.''
Formed after the council's majority gave up on earlier-embraced urban growth boundaries, says a News-Journal editorial, the committee wants the county to identify and protect all private land that should remain undeveloped for environmental reasons, and designate the rest either as ''primary'' or ''secondary'' water and sewer service areas, the first suitable for high-density development; the other, for cluster development, with larger open space and ''conservation set-asides.''
But cluster development on large tracts should be cautious and infrequent, otherwise it also can ''escalate'' leap-frogging in rural areas, the editorial warns, concerned that the committee's early draft ''gives less consideration to slowing growth than to facilitating it,'' with seemingly all county land seen as primary or secondary urban.
The committee must now amend the draft to reflect recent legislative changes in the state 1985 Growth Management Act -- some of them improvements, especially in school and water-supply ''concurrency'' requirements -- but ''much of what come out of Tallahassee will appeal to the committee's substantial pro-growth sentiments.''
If the committee really wants balance, the editorial concludes, ''it should draft a growth management policy that gives the public interest precedence in private property transactions,'' that allows deals and land use changes ''if the development density fits with the community's vision for growth and quality of life.'' -- The Daytona Beach News-Journal
5/29/2005
Resource(s): www.news-journalonline.com/
Urban Lifestyles Popularized in TV Shows Help Drive Condo Sales in Metro Atlanta
Low interest rates, demographic shifts and popular TV shows ''set in hip high-rises'' have pushed metro Atlanta condo sales ''through the roof'' since 2003, with a 30 percent surge to more than 16,000 units last year, reports Atlanta Journal-Constitution writer Walter Woods, noting that developers continue to snatch vacant urban lots and sell new condos before they are built.
''The TV shows in the '60s, '70s and '80s, from 'Family Ties' to 'Leave it to Beaver,' all promoted single-family homes in the suburbs,'' says Wachovia Corp. senior economist Mark Vitner, while '90s TV hits like ''Friends'' and ''Seinfeld'' began to popularize a ''lifestyle that's considered the norm by more and more Americans.''
Vice president of the 138-acre mixed-use Atlantic Station on a former steel mill site in Midtown Atlanta, Brian Leary, agrees the shows might have increased the young first-home buyers' penchant for living in high-rise condos and walking to corner coffee shops.
At the same time, they and other experts point out, low interest rates made condo investment affordable to young buyers; mortgage lenders looked for more profit by qualifying more people despite an added risk; the average first-marriage age went up two years over two decades, to 25 among brides and 27 among grooms, with natural delays for having children and seeking single-family homes; and aging baby boomers, whose home values skyrocketed over the years, prod offspring toward ownership, too, often writing their condo down-payment checks.
''You do see some parents continuing to provide some help past college,'' observes Novare Group president Jim Borders, ''and one of the things they'd like to see that money go toward is buying a home.''
Indeed, the writer finds, many young people see a condo purchase as basically an investment. ''I was tired of throwing money away at rent,'' says management consultant Alan Milburn, 26, who bought a high-rise condo last December, adding that with the stock market less secure ''it seems like real estate is the right choice.'' -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution
4/26/2005
Resource(s): www.ajc.com/
Catoosa County Weighs Development Options as Chattanooga's Expansion Heads Southeast
Its roads already heavily tested by residential expansion from Chattanooga, Tennessee, just to the northwest, Catoosa County needs some changes, new ordinances and an urban planner, said County Chairman Bill Clark at a session of the Board of Commissioners and the Planning and Zoning Commission, which jointly discussed best ways to ensure smart growth.
The chairman, reports Ringgold Catoosa County News writer Randall Franks, would like to start with a moratorium and later foster higher-quality housing that could support itself by taxes, since he doesn't see how the current ''tax structure can support the growth.'' But Planning and Zoning Commission Chairman Raymond Clark, cautioned against halting development on the way toward smart growth, with commission member, developer Jerry Hawthorne, convinced that the best solution would be to encourage growth where infrastructure already exists.
Another advocate of denser development, County Commissioner Ron Gracy, urged his colleagues to begin with an urban planning study to help devise a strategy for smart growth. He was backed by Assistant County Manager Ron Brown, who noted that the county lacks sufficient information needed by an urban planner and that a study would provide such necessary data.
Calling for a balanced approach to planning, County Commissioner Jim Emberson said the best way would be to combine local leaders' knowledge of the area's special needs with advice from an outside expert. -- Catoosa County News
5/24/2005
Resource(s): http://news.mywebpal.com/index.cfm?pnpid=724
University of Hawaii's Sea Grant College Expands Mission to Include the Built Environment
Helping to protect coastal watershed, beaches and coral reefs for the past 30 years, the University of Hawaii's (UH) federal Sea Grant College Program is quickly reaching toward urban design and development problems, reports Honolulu Advertiser writer Mike Leidemann from its ''Implementing Smart Growth in Hawaii'' workshop, quoting local Sea Grant director E. Gordon Grau, who said, ''When you live on the ocean, you look upriver and uphill to see what's affecting you.''
It's only natural, noted UH Center for Smart Building and Community Design head, architecture professor Steve Meder, saying, ''We're expanding the original environmental mission to include the built environment.''
Attended by National Sea Grant Office representative Jim Murray, EPA smart-growth specialist Lynn Richards, and Texas Coastal Watershed Program director John Jacobs, the workshop brought together more than 130 local participants seeking the best ways to manage growth, ease traffic congestion, create walkable neighborhoods and build affordable housing.
Administered by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the Sea Grant program, the writer reports, is encouraging its extension agents to help local communities overcome ''the effects of decades of poor planning and urban sprawl.''
Kapolei, some 16 miles west of Honolulu, ''is at a tipping point'' between a new city and another regional shopping area, said Honolulu planner Robert Stanfield, noting that Sea Grant's involvement in the town's earlier smart-growth planning session may help it move in the right direction.
In Kailua, about 10 miles northeast of Honolulu, Sea Grant may open an office to assist residents in dealing with both residential and commercial growth pressures. And in Kawaihae, on the chain's biggest and southernmost island of Hawaii, Sea Grant experts are advising residents on how to deal with traffic, high home prices and other quality of life issues. Agent Sara Peck said a recent survey found most residents aware that coral reefs face the greatest threat from land-generated pollution. -- Honolulu Advertiser
4/13/2005
Resource(s): www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Prime Location Brings Residents Back to Kaka'ako Neighborhood
Having deteriorated from an active, multi-racial, mixed-use neighborhood into a rundown light-industrial district over the decades after 1945, while adjacent areas flourished, Kaka'ako has emerged as a hot residential market in the past several years, with thousands of people choosing it over the standard big-yard home in the suburbs, reports Honolulu Advertiser transportation writer Mike Leidemann, quoting one of them, real estate office worker Arshad Khan, 34, who says, ''The location is great. It's close to Waikiki, downtown (Honolulu), everywhere.''
Planners expect Kaka'ako to become one of the island's fastest-growing and most-desirable urban villages by 2030, with more than 25,000 newcomers boosting its population by 178 percent. The neighborhood's recovery was first envisioned in the mid-1970s, when the state created the Hawai'i Community Development Agency (HCDA) and invested several hundred million dollars in area streets, sewers and other infrastructure.
''Residential development was always part of the vision for Kaka'ako, long before people started talking about smart growth or the new urbanism,'' points out HCDA Executive Director Daniel Dinell. ''Now, you're finally starting to see the manifestation of that vision.''
This, the writer notes, includes almost a dozen projects -- rental units, urban lofts and $1 million-plus condos -- under construction or on the drawing boards.
One high-rise project's representative, Larry Fukunaga, says 84 percent of buyers are ''local empty-nesters,'' who ''want something more comfortable, more convenient and easier to take care of than what they have now.''
On the other hand, some younger professionals feel left behind. ''Most people of my age who work in town want to live close by, even if it means living in a smaller apartment,'' observes 28-year-old architect Kelly Irvine. ''They don't want to spend all their time in a car. Kaka'ako is a great place because it's right next to the theaters, the bars, the beach and the jobs. But the market right now is out of our price range.''
As others also worry that the development surge without more transit may make the neighborhood less pedestrian-friendly, Director Dinell tries to assuage concerns. ''There's a perception that it's only about luxury high-rises, but that's not the case,'' he responds, stressing that ''about 30 percent of the units have been reserved for rentals or affordable sales'' and that his redevelopment agency insists on pedestrian-friendly features in public and private projects alike.
''We've got very generous sidewalks, big shade trees and street-front designs that encourage activity,'' he notes, adding that a local school also will be necessary some day, ''though it may not look like a traditional suburban school with a parking lot and playing field.'' -- Honolulu Advertiser
5/22/2005
Resource(s): http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Developers Adjust Proposed Maui Projects to Include Focus on Diversity, Sustainability
Floated since the mid-1980s, plans for two huge projects just three miles apart on the southwestern coast of Maui have been much scaled down over the years and adjusted for diversification and sustainability, with Makena Resort vice president Roy Figueroa asserting that its current expansion proposal meets many of the 41 conditions set by the Maui County Council's Planning and Land Use Committee last year, and Honua'ula project developer Charlie Jencks stressing that his plan ''embraces all the smart growth concepts that create communities.''
They both hope, reports Maui News writer Harry Eagar, for an eventual extension of Pilani Highway a few miles south for better access to their projects -- the first reduced from the original 5,000 to 1,500 housing units on 153 acres, with 25 percent deemed affordable; the other, from 2,650 to 1,400 units on 670 acres, with 20 percent for lower-income residents. They both also hope to move forward through the hearing and approval process this year, the writer notes, providing some additional details on the Honua'ula project.
The Honua'ula project would include a golf course, mixed-use villages, its own water supply and wastewater treatment plant, and a path system that would put residents within a 5-to-10-minute walk of local services. These services would be available in five ''village mixed use (VMX) districts,'' each under two acres, with businesses, multi-family housing and often apartments atop stores. -- Maui News
5/21/2005
Resource(s): www.mauinews.com/default.aspx
Home Depot's Planned ''Boutique'' Store Spurs Review of Bellevue's Design Criteria
Although a conceptually planned Home Depot ''boutique'' store at Highway 75 would be smaller than a typical big box, the Bellevue City Council last month enacted an emergency six-month moratorium on structures over 20,000 square feet, and now the Planning and Zoning Commission is reviewing the city's design criteria and seeking public input on how to ensure they will really protect the Wood River Valley's character.
''I came to this community for the strong sense of identity and strong sense of community that I think is often deteriorated with large-scale retailers,'' said Citizen for Smart Growth planner Aaron Domini, expressing views of several other residents at the commission's first special workshop, focused on the city's architectural design-review standards.
The current ordinance, reports Idaho Mountain Express writer Megan Thomas, allows a 72,000-square-foot building maximum in business districts, with each building having to include at least two businesses, but without specifying their individual sizes. The city's largest building is Atkinsons' Valley Market at about 28,000 square feet. Discussing ways to minimize the visual impact of large buildings likely to be proposed in the future, commissioners suggested requirements for three-side architectural detailing, back parking and landscaping, but also the need for independent economic and environmental impact analyses.
After the next workshop, on June 2, the writer notes, the commission will submits its recommendations to the council. -- Idaho Mountain Express
5/25/2005
Resource(s): www.mtexpress.com/index2.php
Boise Officials Focus on Infill to Avoid High Costs of Sprawl During Lean Tax Times
Facing an $8.5 million budget shortfall, slower tax base expansion and potential sky-high infrastructure costs should Boise's growth spill into its outer areas of impact, city officials are promoting infill, to make the city grow inward, announced local KBCI-TV reporter Thanh Tan, quoting Mayor David Bieter, who stressed, ''We need to allow existing areas to develop and redevelop in a way that really serves us better in the long run.''
Describing the currently processed residential project requests, top city planner Hal Simmons said, ''They're mostly infill subdivisions. They're attached housing. They're small lot housing. They're the things you see in real cities.''
Both interviewees told the reporter that properly designed infill projects revive vacant urban sites and make use of present infrastructure, exemplifying smart growth. Infill developer David Hale was confident the variety and number of such projects in many city sections will only grow. ''Doing infill and bringing in more density in areas like the north end or southeast Boise,'' he said, ''allows for people who want to get back in the city, who want to be part of the neighborhood, who want to be closer to downtown -- it allows them an opportunity to do that.'' -- KBCI-TV
5/4/2005
Resource(s): www.kbcitv.com/
Neighborhood Connectivity, Increased Densities Downtown Part of Hailey's New Comprehensive Plan
Acknowledging the hard work by the Planning and Zoning Commission on gathering and synthesizing public input for Hailey's long-term land use over the last year, the City Council approved this last section of the Comprehensive Plan, especially difficult to iron out since it envisions increased density in the downtown core, connectivity between neighborhoods and promotion of green space, including parks, recreation areas and wildlife corridors.
The 16-page document, reports Idaho Mountain Express writer Matt Furber, offers builder incentives to redevelop the city's core and calls for relocation of Friedman Memorial Airport, to free that 1.5-mile stretch along South Main Street for master-planned development ''that will include community assets such as cultural and sports complexes, in addition to a mix of residential and commercial uses.''
Accompanied by a color-coded map of residential, business and service-center uses, a map required under the Idaho Local Land Use Planning Act, the writer notes, the document also sets goals for these districts and provides for their future adjustments to ensure ''an appropriate balance of the various uses.''
During a public hearing on the document, a representative of Citizens for Smart Growth and the Wood River Land Trust, Allison Kennedy, asked officials to replace the frequent word ''consider'' with stronger terms like ''use'' or ''create,'' but they retained the more general phrasing. ''This thing needs to be a fluid document because times change, ''explained Councilman Don Keirn. ''The planning tool is intended as a general guide for the future look of the community.'' -- Idaho Mountain Express
5/25/2005
Resource(s): www.mtexpress.com/index2.php
Boise's Foothills Learning Center Offers Unique Indoor-Outdoor Classes for Children
In line with a key goal of its 2000 Foothills Open Space Management Plan, Boise opened the $700,000 Foothills Learning Center in the heart of the 300-acre, trail-laced Hulls Gulch Preserve just a few miles northeast of the central city, offering indoor-outdoor classes for school children, to teach them local natural history, modern conservation and ''green'' construction practices, and the special responsibilities of living in a wildland-urban interface area.
Along with opportunities for similar public presentations and education programs, reflecting management lessons learned both from a 1996 fire that scorched more than 15,000 acres of Foothills vegetation and from the catastrophic 2000 fires in the West, reports Idaho Statesman writer Cynthia Sowell, the center, itself a model of fire-resistant construction and landscaping, will focus on earth studies, biology, ecology and environmental protection in the fragile sagebrush-steppe habitat.
From among its top promoters and program arrangers the writer mentions Boise Foothills and Open Space manager Paul Woods, Boise School District science and health supervisor Joe Gordon, and Idaho Nature Conservancy vice chairwoman, state Department of Parks and Recreation retired director Yvonne Farrell, the latter saying, ''Human culture, wildlife, native plants, fire and erosion are so tied up in how we handle the Foothills.''
The city's Park and Recreation and Public Work departments, the writer adds, will hold three summer educational camps for kids entering seventh, eighth and ninth grades. The first camp at the center will provide an overview of Hulls Gulch environmental issues; the second will focus on water quality, stream ecology, and wastewater and storm runoff treatment; and the third will introduce students to hazardous waste disposal, emergency responses and recycling methods. -- Idaho Statesman
4/22/2005
Resource(s): www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/frontpage
Boise Mayor Hopes Amendment Will Delay Big Developments Until Ada County's Blueprint for Good Growth is Complete
As Ada County drafts its long-term Blueprint for Good Growth, which will guide all updates of the county's own and six municipal development policies, Boise Mayor Dave Bieter asked county leaders to amend their current comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance and enforce their five percent residential growth cap for unincorporated areas before developers rush into several large planned-community projects outside city and area-of-impact limits.
The county requires at least one square mile, or 640 acres, for planned communities, reports Idaho Statesman writer Cynthia Sewell, quoting Mayor Bieter, who says, ''We cannot wait to act until after the Blueprint is finished.''
He points out that the county and the city each approved just one planned community in their respective land-use areas, and that all 40 blueprint maps drawn up so far keep these big projects out of unincorporated land, to prevent excessive residential expansion.
''If the county is not willing to take what is already in their comprehensive plan and commit to it,'' the mayor observes, ''then my concern is they are not committed to the Blueprint process.''
County Commission Chairman Rick Yzaguirre denies the inference, saying, ''The county wants to let the Blueprint for Good Growth work out before making ordinance changes.''
Nevertheless, should the county fail to respond to Mayor Bieter's written request, city officials may file a formal application to make the changes quickly, a move also backed by Garden City and Kuna, with Eagle considering its support. -- Idaho Statesman
4/12/2005
Resource(s): www.idahostatesman.com/
Belvidere's Smart Growth Developments Praised for Preserving Green Space, Creating Livable Neighborhoods
''Belvidere shows it knows how to adopt 'smart growth','' says a Rockford Register Star editorial, complimenting the Belvidere City Council for planning the 6,500-acre mixed-use West Hills development on Boone County land as early as eight years ago and now launching construction of the first of three subdivisions to meet ''the rising demand for new housing while preserving green space and creating livable neighborhoods.''
This project, reaching the Boone-Winnebago county line midway between Belvidere and Rockford, the editorial notes, ''should serve as an example to other municipalities for how to do growth'' instead of pursuing ''the random construction that has consumed so many cornfields in northern Illinois.''
A future home to some 12,000 residents, West Hills will offer mixed-income, multi-family and detached housing, a welcome shift from things past, when subdivisions targeted particular income groups and created ''a certain monotony,'' the editorial observes. ''Smart growth allows for more variety and focuses on building a neighborhood, not just a subdivision,'' it concludes, adding that the council's ''forethought'' also places West Hills in the city limits, securing a new tax revenue boost. -- Rockford Register Star
4/7/2005
Resource(s): www.rrstar.com/
Peoria County Outlines Strategy to Protect Rural Areas Through Smart Growth
Although they expect public controversy, Peoria County officials want to protect their rural area from sprawl through smart growth, with an environmental enforcement officer already at work, a revamped subdivision ordinance and a first-ever set of building codes coming up for board votes this summer, and the Comprehensive Land Use Plan slated for updates in about two years.
The new ordinance, reports Peoria Journal Star writer Angela Green, should concentrate development near cities and villages by requiring builders of ''major'' subdivisions of at least five lots or needing new roads to hook up to public water and sewer systems, and to ensure modern road construction.
Bans on individual wells in such subdivisions will guarantee that residents will have enough clean drinking water even during droughts, said County Planning and Zoning Director Matt Wahl, noting that it's also going to steer growth toward urban areas unless developers are willing ''to create a community water system.''
That's exactly what smart growth means to Board Vice Chairman Merle Widmer -- development in and around population centers. But his colleague Carol Trumpe, who heads the board's planning and zoning committee, observed that the county must still expect growth in rural areas for economic reasons and because it has to ''allow for the individual tastes of people.''
The writer adds that a current county study will map out environmentally sensitive sites, or ''environmental corridors,'' to provide for more comprehensive development guidelines. -- Journal Star
5/9/2005
Resource(s): www.pjstar.com/index.shtml
School ''Walking Districts'' Ease Congestion, Provide Much-Needed Exercise for Children While Reducing Transit Costs
Regretting that walking to school no longer is ''as much a part of students' educational experience as long division and recess,'' a recent Indiana Star editorial pointed out that ''(g)etting children to walk or bicycle to school again would provide most with the 30 minutes of moderate physical activity they need'' and save school systems busing money, especially tight in a time of sky-high gas costs, while easing road congestion and air pollution.
Although walking to school isn't ''a panacea'' for children's inactivity, overweight or obesity and related ailments -- due also to TV or video-game addiction and bad diet -- ''walking would be a good first step,'' the editorial says, welcoming efforts by some metro Indianapolis communities to get students ''back on their feet.''
Taking the lead in these efforts, described a few days earlier by Star reporter Lisa Renze-Rhodes, Carmel Clay Schools officials created ''walking districts'' at eight of their 10 elementary schools -- areas in a roughly mile radius of the buildings without bus service -- saving about $980,000.
They will also test a ''walking school bus'' program at one elementary school next fall, securing a selected route not with low-paid crossing guards, but with parents who volunteer to watch the children as they go to and from school in groups.
After the test, the program may be adopted by other metro school districts, the reporter notes, quoting Hamilton Southeastern Schools Superintendent Concetta Raimondi, who said the district's 1,000 new students each year require another 13 buses annually, at about $80,000 per bus. The superintendent thinks student walking ''will become more of an imperative, as our funding for transportation diminishes.'' -- Indiana Star
5/13/2005
Resource(s): www.indystar.com/
Coalition Tells Ontario Lawmakers It Needs Funds and Tools to Implement Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Plan
As it reviews the 2004 Greenbelt Act, also called Places to Grow Act (Bill 136), the Legislative Assembly of Ontario's Standing Committee on General Government received a submission from the Greenbelt Coalition of concerned citizens and organizations, telling the government it ''has provided the stick without carrot,'' since the bill offers no funds or tools ''to aid with intensification, smart growth, transportation and infrastructure needs'' in the Greater Golden Horseshoe.
''With significant housing price increases no longer subject of debate, uncertain infrastructure and transportation funding, unrealistic housing targets, and no economic or social impact assessments,'' the bill spells trouble for the region, said Greenbelt Coalition Advisory Council Chair, Claydon Research President Frank A. Clayton, PhD, urging the Liberal administration to establish an independent greenbelt commission, required under the Ontario Public Inquiries Act.
The coalition, says its press release, wants to ensure that the Greenbelt is based on ''principles of science, economics, land use planning, farming viability and social studies;'' free from political ''intrusions, interference and inclusions;'' and consistent with equal justice, ''which can only be achieved by ensuring fairness, accountability and transparency.'' More at www.greenbeltcoalition.org.
4/25/2005
Resource(s): www.newswire.ca/en/
Scottish Writer Urges More Involvement With Kids to Spark Interest in Environment, Sustainable Development
Dismayed by the Woodland Trust's survey finding that two-thirds of Scottish kids aged 7 to 14 said schools don't teach about the environment, a self-described ''country bumpkin at heart,'' Edinburgh Scotsman reader Fiona Leith thinks it especially sad that one in seven of those youngsters ''had never so much as played in the countryside with their friends, opting rather to hang outside shops, on the streets or on wasteground.''
Although the trust blames urban sprawl for the disconnect between children and nature, she writes in her guest opinion that parents and others share the blame, asking if they ever take ''these potential eco-warriors ... out of town on day trips and adventures?''
She herself ''was always encouraged to enjoy -- if not respect -- the countryside'' by her parents, teachers and Girl Guide leaders,'' she writes, hoping that perhaps ''ambitious inventions taking place in the workplace will encourage more adults to impart some environmentally sound knowledge upon their children.''
She mentions three projects. A future 3.2 million pound sterling ''hydrogen-powered office block,'' the world's first to use ''wind, rain and sun to power itself through the daily grind;'' the Findhorn Foundation's proposed ''eco-friendly, self-sufficient village'' in Moray; and the planned transformation of a 230-acre landfill site in Glasgow ''into native woodland,'' with one million trees. ''It's a big idea,'' she concludes, ''but let's hope they don't forget about what it can do for the little people.'' -- Scotsman
4/30/2005
Resource(s): http://news.scotsman.com/
Focus on Infill, Increased Building Densities Part of Ontario's Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt Plan
Following the Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt plan, which will protect from sprawl about 1,778,500 acres around the western section of Lake Ontario, ''Liberals are moving to increase building density in cities,'' writes Toronto Star provincial affairs expert Ian Urquhart in a column entitled ''Curbing sprawl: Act II begins,'' calling public attention to an equally important Greenbelt companion initiative called ''Places to Grow.''
Embodied in the government's Bill 136, the initiative envisions a provincial growth plan requiring adherence from municipal plans, with at least 40 percent of new development centered in urban areas. A development pattern described as ''intensification'' will ensure reuse of brownfields and replacement of some housing with high-rises.
The bill's aim, the columnist writes, is to ''get the province back into planning, a responsibility that was abdicated by the previous Conservative government under Mike Harris,'' even though Conservatives professed ''smart growth'' ideas before losing power in the 2003 election.
Although much of ''Places to Grow'' stems from their ''smart growth'' intentions, the columnist notes, Conservatives found reasons to be contrary and criticize the government's initiative ''as oppositions are wont to do.'' So did the New Democrats, who consider the bill too weak to stop ''vulture-like'' developers from pushing their projects ''under the wire'' because its provisions aren't retroactive.
Glad that so many builders, conservationists and municipal officials like the bill, the columnist hopes the government will confirm its commitment by drawing up ''an infrastructure plan, with sufficient dollars attached'' to support greater densities in designated growth areas, and by overruling municipalities ''that bow to pressure from ratepayer groups and oppose intensification.'' -- Toronto Star
5/9/2005
Resource(s): www.thestar.com/
Ottawa's Mayor Says Light Rail Is Key to Meeting City's Growth Needs
''Light rail transit holds the key to successfully meeting the city's growth needs over the next two decades,'' said Ottawa Mayor Bob Chiarelli about the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), he signed with federal and Ontario officials for joint funding of Ottawa's north-south light-rail line, expected to cost up to $700 million, with construction beginning next summer and service starting in late 2009.
''By adopting smart growth principles and working now to bring light rail into new and growing communities,'' the mayor continued, ''we can shape new travel patterns for residents and support our long-term objectives of achieving 30 percent transit use by 2021.''
The federal and Ontario governments will each contribute up to $200 million for Ottawa's new light-rail line, with the city paying the rest and being responsible for a ridership study, environmental assessments, construction details and related issues. ''The Government of Canada is committed to supporting Ottawa's long-term development plans, while moving forward on our commitment to climate change,'' said federal Minister of State (Infrastructure and Communities) John Godfrey. ''This project is part of the New Deal for Cities and Communities -- working in partnership with municipalities and provinces toward a vision for sustainability.'' Ontario Minister of Culture and Minister Responsible for Francophone Affairs Madeleine Meilleur added, ''Our investment in the expanded Light Rail Transit system will help reduce gridlock, provide cleaner air and improve the overall quality of life the city offers.''
5/9/2005
Resource(s): www.news.gc.ca/
Victoria's Government Puts Brakes on Projects That Undermine Growth Management Strategy
Expecting local cooperation with the Victoria government on controlling sprawl along oceanic coasts east and west of metropolitan Melbourne, Minister for Planning Rob Hulls and Minister for the Environment John Thwaites issued the Coastal Spaces Inception Report, which lists seven rural ''hot spots'' threatened by strong urban pressure, with Minister Hulls warning that until final growth-management plans are in place, he will not accept any projects that undermine the governmental strategy.
''The Victorian Coastal Spaces Strategy is the foundation of future coastal planning,'' the minister pointed out, ''and it is important that the state and local governments work together to manage this growth to achieve sustainable and appropriate quality developments.''
The report, notes Warrnambool Standard writer Julie McNamara, describes coastal ''linear sprawl'' as development outside town centers ''with no clear strategic justification and/or sufficient consideration of infrastructure and environmental issues.'' Stressing the need for town boundaries and growth-management plans, Minister Hulls said, ''Prohibiting inappropriate development outside these areas and protecting the valuable spaces in between is a priority to protect our precious coastline from the types of urban sprawl we see along the Queensland and New South Wales coasts.'' -- Standard
5/24/2005
Resource(s): www.the.standard.net.au/index.html
Metropolitan ''Overflow Zone'' for Sydney Presents Critical Challenges for Government
In a desperate move to spare Sydney ever worse traffic congestion and housing shortages, the New South Wales Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources is preparing Newcastle and other Hunter Valley coastal towns some 70 miles north to become a metropolitan ''overflow zone,'' which would make the region of 492,000 residents absorb another 300,000 people, build about 170,000 housing units, and create 113,000 jobs by 2030.
This, writes Sydney Morning Herald urban affairs editor Darren Goodsir, quoting from a leaked governmental paper, would pose many critical challenges, ''including (changes in) settlement patterns, housing requirements, environmental protection, economic development, transportation and infrastructure provision.''
Part of the Lower Hunter Regional Planning Strategy, the editor notes, the leaked paper tells the area's mostly rural towns that their current pattern of residential development in sprawling suburban subdivisions is no longer viable, because it would require 18,000 hectares (about 44,600 acres) and massive construction of roads and utility systems.
''The regional strategy needs to address this issue and provide a change in direction,'' the paper reads, ''on a more sustainable basis -- one that manages growth while maintaining natural resources and lifestyle values.''
Total Environment Centre coastal campaigner Fran Kelly applauds the new long-term strategy, but cautions against its misuse by low-density housing promoters. ''We can't afford to wipe out the biodiversity of the area, which is already under huge pressure, and allow a continuation of a car-dependent urban sprawl,'' she says. ''We need good design, higher-density (housing), served by good transport and infrastructure.'' -- Sydney Morning Herald
4/25/2005
Resource(s): www.smh.com.au/
Developer Wants Public Inquiry Into Site Selection Process for Ontario's Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt
Irked by inclusion of his Duffins-Rouge Agricultural Preserve in Pickering, where he wanted to build 12,000 homes, within Ontario's 720,000-hectare (about 1,778,500 acres) Golden Horseshoe Greenbelt, Vaughan-based TACC Construction president Silvio DeGasperis is demanding a public inquiry into the greenbelt site selection process, questioning its logic and consistency with smart growth.
''I am angry and I stand with many other landowners, farmers and private citizens who believe they have been manipulated,'' the developer complained in a letter to Liberal Premier Dalton McGuinty, New Democratic Party Leader Howard Hampton and Conservative leader John Troy.
DeGasperis told Georgina Advocate writer Lisa Queen that infrastructure investment for his property already reached about $100 million, that Pickering taxpayers won't get $250 million in construction charges, and that the Greenbelt Act will simply make development leapfrog farther out.
The premier, he said, ''is trying to spin things,'' but he didn't create the independent greenbelt commission promised in his electoral platform, fulfilling instead some political promises that ''have been made to environmental groups.''
Vaughan-King-Aurora Liberal MPP (Member of Provincial Parliament) Greg Sorbara dismissed the call for an inquiry and Thornhill Liberal MPP Mario Racco expressed doubt that it would serve any purpose. Pointing out that most Greater Toronto residents are thrilled with the greenbelt, MPP Sorbara said, ''The public interest is the last interest of Mr. DeGasperis.'' MPP Racco added, ''If the developers don't support us, it's a good indication we're doing the right thing.'' -- Georgina Advocate
4/7/2005
Resource(s): www.yorkregion.com/yr/newscentre/georginaadvocate/
Ames Officials Consider Zoning Alternatives to Allow for More Variety of Housing Within City Limits
''The largest percentage of lots we develop, and will continue to develop, is the smallest ones,'' said developer Chuck Winkleblack at a joint session of the Ames City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission, but he and others asked officials to relax residential low-density zoning, which requires at least 3.75 net units per acre in new projects, because some people who want larger lots move outside city limits and even outside its two-mile fringe area.
Another Ames developer, Mark Hanson, said he is building in Ankeny, Johnston and Grimes -- near Des Moines, some 25 miles south -- but not in Ames, because it's too difficult. ''We are in a no growth, stagnant situation,'' he remarked. ''We are not here just to build apartments.''
The Ames Economic Development Commission president and Iowa State University (ISU) vice provost for research, Jim Bloedel, told officials that none of seven Ames' medium bio-technology company heads lived in the city, because ''they want larger lots'' and the feel of living in the Midwest.
Similar factors are ''at least a consideration'' for a lot of ISU employees, observed ISU's vice president for business and finance, Warren Madden, who found that the number of them living in Ames dropped by some 330 in the past five years. ''Those are families,'' he added, ''that otherwise would be contributing to the Ames economy.''
On the other hand, reports Ames Tribune writer Jason Kristufek, Ames Smart Growth representative Joe Lynch cautioned planners that they can't expect developers to seek solutions on their own, urging them to start with a detailed plan for one section of the city, which would help solve the problem.
And resident Erv Klaas was adamant that Ames needs high-density neighborhoods that offer residents jobs, schools and entertainment. ''Everybody can't live in big log houses out in the woods,'' he said. ''Nor we can afford to take all that agricultural land.''
In the end, the writer notes, officials asked planning and housing staff to look into five minimum density zoning alternatives -- exempting a certain percentage of lots; lowering the density; allowing low-impact development in environmentally sensitive areas; increasing high-quality standards to attract buyers; or eliminating the density requirement. -- Ames Tribune
5/11/2005
Resource(s): www.amestrib.com/site/news.cfm?brd=2035
River Ranch Developer Says Lafayette Will Benefit from Replacing Old Zoning Regulations with Smart Growth Codes
''Smart growth is the recognition that the way we develop real estate can have a tremendous impact on quality of life issues,'' said mixed-use developer Robert Daigle at a smart-growth workshop held by the Lafayette Planning Commission and the Lafayette Council of Governments, telling some 50 city and parish (county) officials that his nationally admired River Ranch, the 256-acre Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) in south Lafayette, would be much easier to build had they replaced their 1960-era zoning and building regulations with smart growth codes.
He acknowledged, reports Lafayette Daily Advertiser writer Claire Taylor, that some developers and landowners will fight new guidelines, but stressed that in the long term smart growth boosts property values.
''On Johnson Street, for example, if you had the courage to outlaw 90 percent of what you see -- continuous curb cuts, signage -- in the short term there would be an adverse reaction,'' he observed. ''But I guarantee you, five to ten years down the road that real estate would be worth more.''
With City-Parish Councilman Bruce Conque recalling that River Ranch indeed needed so many waivers that zoning staff nicknamed it ''Waiver Ranch,'' Lafayette Consolidated Government development manager Rebekka Raines said the parish has given preliminary plot approvals to more than 1,500 lots since January, most of them in areas with little or on infrastructure, and has to ''find a way to control'' this huge growth.
She noted that Lafayette's planning, zoning and code department is seeking a federal Smart Growth grant to draw up a parish TND ordinance. Planning manager Mike Hollier said many smart growth policies are being incorporated into the ''Lafayette in a Century'' (LINC) comprehensive plan, in the works since 1997.
Carencro Mayor Glenn Brasseaux called for planning cooperation between municipalities, pointing out that Lafayette's regulations for mobile-home parks spurred their development in his city some seven miles north, and that a similar ordinance Carencro passed later prompted Scott and Youngsville to follow suit. ''Each area's rules can have impact on the others,'' the mayor said. -- Lafayette Daily Advertiser, The Advocate
5/21/2005
Resource(s): http://2theadvocate.com/index.shtml ; www.theadvertiser.com
Lafayette Urged to Nurture Smart Growth Efforts
Well on its way toward smart growth, Lafayette should now build more downtown housing, halt midtown Johnston Street deterioration, and facilitate traditional neighborhood developments (TNDs) such as the 256-acre, mixed-use River Ranch in its south, said one of the national movement leaders, the former four-term mayor of Indianapolis and present mayor of Chevy Chase, Md., Urban Land Institute senior public policy expert William Hudnut.
Guest of the weekly Independent newspaper at a packed River Ranch City Club event, reports Baton Rouge Advocate writer Patrick Courreges, the speaker praised local leaders for supporting downtown arts, museums, festivals and parks.
''This kind of commitment to culture can help revitalize a central city,'' he said, wishing the area had buildings suitable for conversion to lofts and other housing. He also commended the city-parish (county) and Lafayette Utilities System officials for their ''visionary'' though controversial plan to install broadband Internet, TV and telephone lines in all homes and businesses throughout the city, which would put it ''on the cutting edge of new information technologies that will be a driver in the 21st century.''
The plan, the writer notes, is opposed by Atlanta-based BellSouth and Cox Communications in court, the state legislature, and an ad campaign.
Urging officials to seize the opportunity for redevelopment of vacant lots and troubled strip malls along Johnston Street, the speaker advised them to ''eradicate the ugliness'' by burying utility lines, shortening signs and moving parking behind buildings, and to rezone the corridor for mixed uses, including residential and parkland.
As for an urban growth model, he cited the exact neighborhood where the event was held -- River Ranch, with 1,200 varied-income and varied-type housing units, shops, restaurants, a town center, parks, walkways and a lake. The antithesis of sprawl, such ''smart growth'' compact development works, he added, by making better use of land and reducing infrastructure and service costs. -- Advocate
4/1/2005
Resource(s): www.2theadvocate.com/index.shtml
Baton Rouge Revitalization Plan Involves LSU, Local Stakeholders
Clearly one of the top congressional advocates of smart growth and New Urbanism, Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu commended Baton Rouge efforts to advance both, especially through revitalization of the distressed area between downtown and Louisiana State University (LSU) some two miles south, telling officials and onlookers at a vacant neighborhood site that will soon be reclaimed for an $18.6 million Hope VI housing project that she is working to increase the profile of smart growth initiatives and add federal funds for their implementation.
Appearing at the site with City-Parish Mayor-President Kim Holden, Plan Baton Rouge official Gwen Hamilton and Baton Rouge Housing Authority executive director Richard Murray, reports Baton Rouge Advocate business writer Chad Calder, Senator Landrieu expressed confidence that involvement of LSU, Plan Baton Rouge and other stakeholders in the project guarantees maximal effectiveness of the Hope VI money, saying, ''We think private sector development will dwarf the public sector investment.''
Mayor-President Holden pledged quick action on economic development, infrastructure upgrades and safety improvements, noting his recent contacts with businesses potentially interested in the area and mentioning the possibility of new incentives. One, he said, may be a revolving loan fund that would offer up to $100,000 for businesses coming to Old South Baton Rouge. -- Advocate
5/5/2005
Resource(s): www.2theadvocate.com/index.shtml
Baton Rouge Officials Urged to Get Neighborhood Input on Road Projects for Long-Term Bond Issue
As they move to convert the Baton Rouge-East Baton Rouge Parish sales tax into a 20- to 25-year bond issue and to put a plan for faster road construction and repair on the October ballot, Democratic Mayor-President Kim Holden and the City Council must extend their pledge to get neighborhood input to smart-growth advocates, says a Baton Rouge Advocate editorial, stressing, ''The old habits of building four- and six-lane highways, to build our way out of congestion, demonstrably haven't worked.''
Core city neighborhoods especially need street repair and maintenance, not major road construction, while others may prefer ''alternative routes around traffic bottlenecks'' or smaller new roads to ''complement redevelopment of commercial or residential districts,'' the editorial points out, seeing this city-parish infrastructure funding push as ''an obvious occasion for a smart-growth analysis of any proposed plan.''
The previous mayor-president, Republican Bobby Simpson, had a broad-based smart-growth task force, which benefitted from the advice of many of the movement's national leaders, who also spoke at other local public forums. Having ''the best track record of actually pushing for the better urban planning policies,'' the editorial concludes, the task force or a very similar group should help plan for the currently envisioned road improvement program. -- Advocate
4/23/2005
Resource(s): www.2theadvocate.com/index.shtml
Senator Views Development Solutions Through Eyes of Local Communities at Louisiana Smart Growth Conference
Often ''caricatured as a liberal obsession,'' for Louisiana Democratic Senator Mary Landrieu, smart growth embodies principles ''consistent with her conservative upbringing in New Orleans'' -- it improves quality of life, boosts property values, and allows zoning flexibility, reports Baton Rouge Advocate editorial writer Lanny Keller from a recent smart-growth workshop she co-sponsored at Southeastern Louisiana University, where she said, ''We have to have different strategies for different parishes (counties) growing in different ways.''
In the increasingly bi-partisan ranks of elected officials striving to make neighborhoods ''more functional and cohesive,'' the writer observes, Senator Landrieu shares the understanding of smart growth's importance with such politicians as former Utah Republican Governor and EPA Administrator, now Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt, and Michigan Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm.
The senator sees the destructive impact of long commutes on family life, the writer notes, and she wants Louisiana to pursue economic prosperity in the spiritual and emotional context of its history and landscape, with care about amenities ranging from bike trails to distinctive architecture, all crucial for holding its creative young generation.
Other conference speakers made similar points. The senator's neighbor in childhood, attorney and planner Stephen Villavaso, recalled they could bike to 10 grocery stores, now all gone, due mostly to single-use zoning. He stressed the need to stop building the ''sterile single-family suburbs that ring our cities,'' even if smart-growth strategies may stir knee-jerk opposition, including fear of higher-density housing.
But architect Steve Oubre, the creator of the successful neo-traditional River Ranch in Lafayette, contrasted such fears with the groundswell of support for smart growth as promising to alleviate traffic, pollution and other community hardships. ''We are driving on concrete highways to the exclusion of knowing our neighbors and taking our kids to the park,'' he said. ''It's time to rethink the model.'' -- Advocate
4/22/2005
Resource(s): www.2theadvocate.com/index.shtml
Sanford Officials Welcome Flood of Building Permit Applications
Facing housing caps in most of York County's 29 towns, developers flooded long-stagnant Sanford with permit applications for 757 units, mostly condos and apartments, in the past six months -- more than the total built over the 1990s -- a turn of events rather welcomed by local officials and growth experts, who point out that the town has a lot of infrastructure and believe that such potential small service-centers, or ''micropolitan'' communities will help contain suburban sprawl.
Most of the proposed or recently started housing is concentrated along the northwest-southeast crosstown Main Street/Route 109 corridor, reports Portland Press-Herald writer Elbert Aull, quoting Planning Director James Gulnac, who says officials launched several studies to find out what population increase local roads, sewers and public safety services can support, especially in the corridor's main retail and business segment.
Town Councilor Maura Herlihy says Sanford is well prepared for the coming growth, noting that the prospects have already prompted owners to repair rundown homes, with lots priced at some $16,000 not long ago, fetching two times more now. -- Press-Herald
4/11/2005
Resource(s): www.pressherald.mainetoday.com/
Legislation Would Encourage Locating New Schools Near Town Centers
Backed by GrowSmart Maine, Maine Audubon and other advocacy groups, state Democratic Representative John Piotti wants to encourage school construction in or near town centers, to maximize benefits of sidewalks and other infrastructure, enhance downtown vitality and curb suburban sprawl.
His proposed bill, he told lawmakers in the Education Committee, ''is designed to make sure state investment in schools is wise investment.'' This would also help farmers, by limiting related residential and commercial inroads into rural areas and thus preventing rapid land price increases.
The bill, reports Kennebec Journal writer Chris Churchill, would bar the state Board of Education from approving a school away from present infrastructure unless a local comprehensive plan targets the area for growth.
Nevertheless, the writer observes, the bill may conflict with Democratic Governor John Baldacci's school consolidation push, while raising Maine School Management Association practicality concerns, with association official Gerald Clockedile noting that schools in many rural areas usually serve several towns.
On the other hand, bill supporters pointed out that neighborhood schools encourage students to walk or bike, both important for reducing childhood obesity.
''This is a public health issue,'' said Maine Bicycle Coalition executive director Jeffrey Miller at the committee hearing. ''Keep the long-term picture in mind here.'' -- Kennebec Journal
5/3/2005
Resource(s): www.kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/
Plans for Scarborough's ''Great American Neighborhood'' Shrink as Neighbors Lobby for Less Density
Initially planned with 397 varied-type housing units and 50,000 square feet of shops, offices and restaurants as a smart-growth model for Scarborough, just south of metro Portland, the ''Great American Neighborhood'' (GAN) was fought by the local NoGAN group and ALC Development eventually scaled the project down by more than 100 housing units, but neighbors still consider it too dense.
A member of the town's comprehensive plan review committee, Jack Kelly, told Portland Press Herald writer Ann S. Kim that ALC has shown the ''patience of Job'' in the face of ''NIMBY harassment.''
The NoGAN group, the writer notes, prevailed in a town referendum on reverting most of the site to previous zoning, but the Cumberland County Superior Court later found that zoning at odds with the town's comprehensive plan. Consequently, town officials are working on an ordinance that would let ALC build 240 units on the 120 acres suitable for construction, with bonuses of 24 units for land conservation and another 24 for affordable housing, a total of 288 units.
NoGAN activist Beth Conceison said at the latest public hearing the group is ''hoping for a number closer to 200,'' while member Mary Angis urged the Town Council to make the number ''more palatable,'' clearly hinting another referendum as she warned, ''Don't let history repeat itself.'' -- Press Herald
5/19/2005
Resource(s): www.mainetoday.com/
School-Siting Bill Would Require Maine Communities to Designate New School Locations ''Strategically and Thoughtfully''
In response to The Kennebeck Journal's editorial concern that his school-siting bill, debated by Maine lawmakers, ''would prevent new regional schools,'' Democratic Representative John F. Piotti told the newspaper that its interpretation is false, since the bill is simply ''designed to ensure that new school construction occurs where it makes the most sense.''
If a new school near existing infrastructure is impractical,'' the representative wrote, ''the bill would require the community to designate the area where the school will be located as a 'growth area' in its comprehensive plan,'' in recognition of ''the reality that new schools are a magnet for community growth, and as such, they should be located strategically and thoughtfully.''
Acknowledging that ''a few communities where schools might someday be located'' lack comprehensive plans, Representative Piotti asked, ''But should the state of Maine be investing $10 to $30 million of taxpayer money in a community that hasn't done its planning homework?''
Calling his bill ''all about good planning,'' which enhances communities and saves public money, he concluded, ''And good planning should be the goal whether we're talking about a small neighborhood school or a large regional school.'' -- The Kennebeck Journal
5/16/2005
Resource(s): http://kennebecjournal.mainetoday.com/home.shtml
Montgomery County Acknowledges Emerging Affordable Housing Crisis
With the $400,000-plus median price of single-family homes and new townhouses in Montgomery County last year already making them too costly for its $84,000 median-wage earners, a new report by the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission predicts that much of the county's middle class will soon find most old townhouses beyond reach, too, since their median price of $274,000 is expected to grow by double digits, but wages by only three percent a year.
''This is why affordable housing has got to be on anyone's short list of major challenges to Montgomery County's future,'' stressed county planning board chairman Derick Berlage, warning that county demographics ''will fundamentally change because people with ordinary incomes -- firefighters, police officers, nurses -- simply will not be able to live in the county.''
Planners forecast, reports Washington Post writer Tim Craig, that moderate-income buyers will increasingly look beyond county borders, turn to high-risk financing such as interest-only loans, and seek mortgages exceeding ''the traditional affordability yardstick of three times an annual income.''
To alleviate the problem, county officials are ready to start by building more subsidized and medium-price housing, and exploring ways to spur so-called workforce unit construction, fully aware that they have to boost all housing over the long term to cool market demand.
Since 80 percent of the county's available land is already developed, they want to prepare residents for taller buildings and higher density in some neighborhoods, the writer reports, quoting County Democratic Executive Douglas M. Duncan, who points to 2,000 condos and apartments under construction in Silver Spring, just northeast of Washington, D.C., and says, ''The down-county will become more urban.''
The situation is basically the same in other counties around the capital, the writer observes, with Montgomery County firefighter Francisco Javier calling it ''ridiculous,'' and adding, ''We can work here in the fire department. We just can't live here.'' -- Washington Post
4/10/2005
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/
Hyattsville and Crisfield's Bay Waterfront Selected for Maryland's ''Priority Places'' Redevelopment Program
In the second round of Republican Governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s ''Priority Places'' urban revitalization program, seen as his remake of the 1997 Maryland comprehensive Smart Growth policy, the state promised planning assistance and as-yet absent redevelopment funds to Washington's inner suburb of Hyattsville, Prince George's County, for mixed-use downtown projects in the U.S. 1 corridor, and to Crisfield, Somerset County, for a similar overhaul of its once-working Chesapeake Bay waterfront.
''We wanted the designation, even though it didn't come with any guarantees,'' said Hyattsville Mayor William F. Gardiner, ''because we felt having the state as an important partner in revitalizing our downtown was really critical.''
Hyattsville and the Arlington-based Eakin/Youngentob Associates development firm, which wants to invest more than $100 million downtown, reports Baltimore Sun writer Timothy B. Wheeler, jointly asked the state for up to $5 million to make the area more attractive and pedestrian-friendly, with benches, crosswalks and wider sidewalks.
The firm plans some 500 condos and townhouses, plus shops and restaurants for a vacant car dealership site straddling the route, while the nonprofit Housing Initiative Partnership would transform the nearby site of an old municipal building into artists' residences and studios, along with a YMCA.
Small Crisfield, population of about 2,700, the faded ''crab capital of the world,'' which has lost 600 jobs due to Bay fishery decline since 1990, the writer notes, is seeing new market interest in its downtown waterfront and drafting a revitalization plan for the area around a state-owned marina. The state delayed a move to privatize the marina, to give local officials time to involve business owners in planning and make it more comprehensive. -- Baltimore Sun
4/20/2005
Resource(s): www.baltimoresun.com/
Surplus Land Sales Raise $30 Million for Bay State, But Some Lawmakers Urge Reform to Guide Process Toward Smart Growth
Enacted in 2003 and effective till the end of June, Massachusetts law on surplus land sales (Section 548), which eliminated both legislative approval for every parcel and virtually all municipal involvement, quickly let the state raise some $30 million and helped more than 30 towns get new tax income from long-idle sites, but also left communities feeling helpless about the process, with more than 100 lawmakers requesting its immediate suspension, writes Metropolitan Area Planning Council Executive Director Marc Draisen in the Boston Globe, urging the legislature to reform the law before it expires, with an eye toward smart growth.
Expecting officials to declare at least 2,000 acres as surplus in the near future, director Draisen points out that former state hospitals, armories and other closed facilities present a unique opportunity to fulfill three key public goals -- build housing, create jobs, and protect open space and natural habitat.
Before enactment of Section 548, surplus land sales could take years or decades, with the 175-acre Boston State Hospital, closed in 1979, only recently under redevelopment. On the other hand, many local residents complain that the state ignores their wishes to keep some parcels as open space, because selling land for preservation doesn't bring it ''big bucks.''
But instead of stepping ''backward'' to the old system, he writes, lawmakers should ensure the process is consistent with the state's Sustainable Development Practices. Regional planning agencies should conduct a ''smart growth review'' for all parcels greater than two acres, and advisory reuse committees of local and regional stakeholders should convene for parcels of more than 25 acres.
''Any new law,'' the director writes, ''must guarantee that municipalities are partners, not adversaries, in the sale of state surplus land within their jurisdictions.'' He advises, ''Municipalities should have an opportunity to purchase the land at a discount. If localities choose not to buy, but rezone the land consistent with smart growth principles, they should receive part of the sale proceeds.'' And he adds, ''The best use of each parcel of land must count more than the highest selling price.'' -- Boston Globe
5/2/2005
Resource(s): www.boston.com/news/globe/
Editorial: Massachusetts Overlooking Need for More Affordable Housing
Having focused his smart-growth strategy on incentives for higher density near town centers and transit hubs ''to keep professional and technical workers from fleeing Massachusetts due to high housing costs,'' Republican Governor Mitt Romney must also think about affordable housing for ''the people who clean their homes and landscape their properties,'' says a Boston Globe editorial, stressing that the state housing policy should be set by Commonwealth Development Secretary Douglas Foy, not by Administration and Finance Secretary Eric Kriss.
The Citizen's Housing and Planning Association and the Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, the editorial notes, blame Secretary Kriss and other budget advisers for undermining state-subsidized housing programs, while the state's price for a single-family home escalated to $350,000 last month.
In this situation, housing activists should intensify their fight for the poor, ''many of whom live in substandard housing or pay more than half of their income for rent,'' the editorial points out, considering it ''a good time to remind the governor that his 2003 Commonwealth Housing Task Force called for restoration of the state housing subsidies that were gutted in the early 1990s.'' -- Boston Globe
5/8/2005
Resource(s): www.boston.com/news/globe/
Nine Massachusetts Communities Recognized at Second Annual Smart Growth Innovation Awards
''I am delighted to recognize cities and towns that are leading the way in spurring important smart growth projects throughout the state,'' said Republican Governor Mitt Romney, presenting the second annual Smart Growth Innovation Awards to Salem, Easthampton, Lawrence, Marlboro, Newburyport, Newbury and Brockton, and Honorable Mention Awards to Cambridge and Montague.
''These cities and towns,'' said Office for Commonwealth Development (OCD) Secretary Douglas I. Foy, ''are investing in their own strengths -- revitalizing downtowns, preserving open space and bringing back village-style zoning.''
The governor also urged greater participation in the state's new 40R zoning reform program, which offers municipalities financial incentives to build more housing near transit, retail and other urban infrastructure.
The Smart Growth award winners will receive OCD assistance in seeking Commonwealth Capital funds dedicated to smart growth, technical help in preparing applications, priority in infrastructure, conservation and housing grant programs, expedited state permitting whenever possible, and project marketing exposure on the OCD web site.
4/19/2005
Resource(s): www.mass.gov/
Boston Launches Trust Fund to Help AFSCME Workers With High Cost of City Housing
With many Boston public workers required to live in the city, whose housing prices are usually higher than in the suburbs, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Executive Director Anthony Caso launched the Affordable Housing Trust Fund, to help eligible union members in first home purchases, rentals and emergency housing needs.
The city will initially put $525,000 into the fund and add a nickel for every AFSCME local member's work hour, reports Boston Globe correspondent Madison Park, quoting Mayor Menino, who said, ''Boston is the first city in the country to have a housing trust with the union.''
Under pressure from the union during contract disputes last spring, the correspondent notes, the mayor relaxed residency requirements for more than 500 union members and pledged to set up the affordable housing trust fund.
''I live in the city and I cherish the city, but the high cost of rentals and owning a home is well-known,'' said the AFSCME executive director. ''This housing trust is going to help a lot of people that we represent.'' -- Globe
4/20/2005
Resource(s): www.boston.com/
Redevelopment Plan for Weymouth Air Base Faces Stalls as Local Officials Question Zoning, Density
Time is running short for a Weymouth-Rockland-Abington agreement on the newest plan to redevelop the 1,405-acre former Weymouth air base, with South Shore Tri-Town Development Corp. officials again postponing their vote after ''a lengthy meeting marked by yelling and shouts of vulgarity,'' reports Quincy Patriot Ledger writer Mark Fontecchio, revealing that his daily recently received an e-mail from Navy spokesman Lt. Tommy Crosby, who wrote, ''If a redevelopment plan cannot be ratified by this Summer, (the) Navy will have to consider disposal by other means.''
The base's master developer, LNR Property Corp., is now proposing up to 3,000 condos and single-family houses, along with two million square feet of commercial space, which would bring in at least 6,000 residents and 3,000-4,500 permanent jobs by 2017.
But at the latest public meeting some town officials still questioned the proposed zoning and density, fearing a traffic nightmare, which irked dozens of union members eager to secure new jobs, with one member apologetic later for calling the three-town meeting a ''three-ring circus.''
Tri-Town Corp. board member Robert Lunquist cautioned hesitant town officials that if they fail to approve the plan in time and make the Navy sell the land to developers or the state, they will cede control over the base's future.
''If you think for a minute that this base is not going to get redeveloped,'' he stressed, ''you are dead wrong.''
But some town, board and industry officials remain optimistic about approval of the plan by mid-June, the writer observes, noting that Tri-Town board chairman John Ward promised another meeting as soon as possible. -- Patriot Ledger
4/26/2005
Resource(s): www.patriotledger.com
Bay State Implements Law Promoting Cluster Housing Near Transit, Downtown Centers
Not shy in criticism of Republican Governor Mitt Romney whenever doubtful of his commitment to smart growth, this time The Boston Globe credits his administration for ''working hard to implement a law that will encourage the construction of housing in so-called smart growth zoning districts'' with higher densities, which make communities eligible for state payments from $10,000 to $600,000, plus $3,000 for each new building permit.
Passed in June 2004, with implementation rules unveiled by the Department of Housing and Community development last month, the law provides for clustering housing on small lots near transit and downtown centers, to reduce car dependency. With many municipalities still mandating large-lot zoning, mainly because they ''want to limit the number of new students who might put continuing pressure on local school budgets,'' the editorial likes a new budget provision ''to hold communities harmless for any additional school costs generated by new housing in smart growth districts.''
But this ''solid idea,'' the editorial observes, should have been debated and approved separately instead of attached to the Senate budget bill among more than 100 outside sections. Noting that this attachment procedure ''has produced important policy initiatives in the past, but it is also a vehicle for special interest proposals that would not survive separate scrutiny,'' the editorial points out that the state needs to boost its annual construction of 20,000 housing units by another 3,300 a year.
If the current incentives fail to produce enough housing starts, the editorial stresses, ''the state needs to consider a tougher approach -- perhaps reducing school building assistance and other aid to recalcitrant cities and towns.'' -- The Boston Globe
5/30/2005
Resource(s): www.boston.com/news/globe/
Vienna Township Cites Master Plan in Rejection of Rural Rezoning for Wal-Mart
To thunderous applause from the audience, the Vienna Township Planning Commission voted 3-2 against rezoning 80 mostly rural and wooded acres just a mile west of Clio for a proposed Wal-Mart big box, with Vice Chairman Ben Ranger telling Vienna Town Square Corporation representative Mike Motte that the proposal ''doesn't fit the master plan.''
The representative, reports Flint Journal writer Art Bukowski, argued the Wal-Mart would create jobs and add about $400,000 a year to local tax revenue, noting that the company is working with the Genesee County Road Commission on traffic studies, to prevent congestion.
But most residents remained unpersuaded. ''It's not about the money,'' said Clio resident Todd Bixby, ''its about the community -- family-owned businesses have supported Vienna Township and Clio for a long time.''
Among those worried about environmental problems, light and noise pollution, and increased traffic was nearby Edgerton Elementary School teacher Kim McGillis, who said, ''I don't want that for my children or in my neighborhood.''
The company's representative asked the commission to consider rezoning at least about 30 acres, but commissioners didn't think they had the authority to deviate from the original 80-acre request. -- Flint Journal
4/12/2005
Resource(s): www.mlive.com/fljournal/
Conference on Urban Restoration Draws Full House; Land Banks, Revitalizing Older Places Called Key to Michigan's Future
Burdened with the worst kind of sprawl, driven by city abandonment rather than population growth, Michigan -- like other area states -- can regain economic competitiveness only ''through the revitalization of its older places,'' stressed Brookings Institution vice president and Metropolitan Policy Program director Bruce Katz, while Smart Growth America executive director Don Chen applauded the unique Genesee County Land Bank, which takes land for delinquent taxes and makes it productive again, saying such land banks ''may be one of the brightest opportunities for revitalizing cities we've seen in a decade.''
Both experts addressed some 160 officials and activists at a national University of Michigan-Flint conference on urban restoration and land banks, sponsored by Smart Growth America, the Mott Foundation, the Ford Foundation and CEOS for Cities, reports Flint Journal writer Marjory Rymer, noting that the subject drew such interest that another 100 were not able to register.
They all wanted or came to learn, including Little Rock, Ark., administrator Ward Hanna, who said his city tried but failed to create a land bank more than a decade ago, and is now ''looking for best practices'' for reuse of its 7,000 vacant homes.
In a post-conference editorial, The Flint Journal observes that although southeast Michigan development ''is eight times faster than what population growth requires,'' which burdens taxpayers with the cost of new infrastructure and services, while shortchanging cities, some developers ''and township officials who see themselves with a winning hand'' deny the impact of sprawl on the state as a whole. And even if the Genesee County Land Bank, created mainly thanks to county Treasurer Daniel T. Kildee, is doing the right thing, ''that effort is more than countered by the chewing up of farm fields for subdivisions and other development,'' the editorial says, hoping that the experts' urban revitalization appeals won't fall on deaf ears. -- Flint Journal
4/11/2005
Resource(s): www.mlive.com/fljournal/
Huron River Watershed Threatened by Rise in Sprawl, Surface Stormwater Runoff
Saved from industrial and septic discharges after 1965 through the Huron River Watershed Council, this scenic southeastern Michigan river is now becoming increasingly polluted from impervious-surface stormwater runoff, said Council Executive Director Laura Rubin as she and Michigan Land Use Institute (MLUI) Deputy Director Keith Schneider warned against perpetuation of car-dependent sprawl, stressing the need for higher densities, transit use and smart growth.
''It used to be factories and lack of regulation,'' said director Rubin, opening the recent State of the Huron conference at Washtenaw Community College in Ann Arbor. ''Now we look around and the culprit is us.''
The Huron River Watershed, notes Ann Arbor News reporter Geoff Larcom, extends over 910 square miles in Oakland, Livingston, Washtenaw, Wayne and Monroe counties, accommodating a half-million people and providing drinking water to more than 120,000, including 85 percent of Ann Arbor residents.
According to Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG) data cited by director Rubin, development will eat up 40 percent of the region's remaining open space by 2010. To reduce such a loss and to preempt ''sprawl without growth,'' which exacerbates racial and economic segregation, said MLUI deputy director Schneider in his keynote speech, the region needs urban reinvestment ''to build our communities from within.''
Noting that the number of southeastern Michigan residents has grown only by 100,000 since 1970, but the number of vehicles by 1.6 million, the speaker pointed to a new public move toward transit in several areas across the country. Specifically, he applauded Grand Rapids, Chicago and Denver voters for their approval of new transit-expansion funds last November, emphasizing the measures' strong support from liberals and conservatives alike. -- Ann Arbor News
5/7/2005
Resource(s): www.mlive.com/aanews/
Boom in Multifamily Housing Is Good News for Twin Cities
Lofts, condos and apartments are ''popping up like flowers in spring'' throughout the seven-county Twin Cities region, and once developers begin to clear any urban site for new construction, half of the planned units are usually gone within a month, reports the Metropolitan Council in its recent on-line Directions newsletter, counting a total of 19,932 residential permits in 2004, with multifamily permits 3.5 points up to 32.6 percent since the previous year and more than doubled since 1994.
The number excludes townhouses, which the U.S. Department of Commerce counts as multifamily housing, but which in a separate council count stood at 20 percent of the total in 2003.
Calling the popularity of multifamily housing great news, Metropolitan Council Chairman Peter Bell said, ''It means the region is redeveloping in areas that already have great transportation options, sewer infrastructure and services nearby. That translates into reduced travel times, lower costs for sewer infrastructure, preservation of open space and slower growth on the region's edges.''
The Twin Cities led the region in multifamily housing, making it 85 percent of their 3,414 new units in 2004. Experts expect the trend to continue. ''I don't see an end to the demand for condominium-style living,'' said St. Paul Association of Realtors President James Reiter. ''This is an option that allows people who have been homeowners for 25 or 30 years to be released from all the work that comes with home ownership. And there are some pretty good deals out there for younger people who can't afford to buy a single-family home in this market.'' -- Directions
4/12/2005
Resource(s): www.metrocouncil.org/
Metropolitan Council Awards $325,000 for Affordable Housing Initiatives in Twin Cities Region
Under its Livable Communities program, the Twin Cities region's Metropolitan Council awarded $325,000 in grants to the Two Rivers Community Land Trust and the Community Land Trust for their separate affordable-housing initiatives in the metro's eastern and western areas, bringing this year's total of such funding, in partnership with the Minnesota Housing Finance Agency (MHFA) and the Family Housing Fund, to more than $5.4 million.
''These housing grants show just how much you can accomplish when you're working together as partners and using the power of creative thinking,'' said Council Chairman Peter Bell.
Both trusts will use the grants to acquire, rehabilitate and sell a total of 12 homes to families with 60 to 80 percent of the metro area's median income, or $46,600 to $61,600 for a family of four. The trusts will own the parcels, selling only the homes at prices reflecting their higher appraised values due to rehabilitation.
Evaluating requests for affordable housing grants, said Chairman Bell, officials also consider ''opportunities to invest in and preserve existing housing, increase home ownership among under-served populations, leverage additional resources and enlist community support.''
5/25/2005
Resource(s): http://metrocouncil.org/index.htm
Biloxi S.G. Conference Told That Rapid Growth Is Gulf Coast Region's Greatest Challenge
The Gulf coastal region faces tremendous development and to make sure people like what they see by 2025, ''we have to start making decisions today,'' said Mississippi Department of Marine Resources (DMR) Director William Walker as he opened the department's sixth annual Smart Growth conference in Biloxi, a warning echoed by the guest keynote speaker, Smart Growth Leadership Institute President and former Maryland Democratic Governor Parris N. Glendening, who stressed, ''We must have a real sense of urgency.''
With Director Walker especially concerned about the surge of condo construction along the coast, the former governor pointed out that sprawl, which has sprung from the interstate highway system and preferential suburban mortgage programs since the 1950s, has left large city sections boarded up.
The governor, reports Biloxi Sun Herald writer David Tortorano, told the audience of some 500 officials, planners, builders, bankers and others from across the nation that such growth threatens quality of life, the next most important factor for high-tech company location decisions after an educated workforce.
In related news, Sun Herald writer Karen Nelson reports that the chambers of commerce of the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Hancock County and Jackson County passed a resolution asking local government officials to consider smart growth in their condo permitting process.
''Cities and counties need some standard to use when confronted by developers,'' said Jackson County Chamber president Carla Todd, while Coast Chamber communication committee chairman Rex Kelly noted that the resolution encourages public-private cooperation on smart growth, to set consistent height, density, landscaping and other requirements for condo development. ''The hope is to do it collectively,'' he said. ''But there's nothing in the resolution that tells them (cities and counties) how to do it.'' -- Sun Herald
5/18/2005
Resource(s): www.sunherald.com/
St. Louis Employers See Value in Helping Employees Pay for Housing Near Jobs
Helping employees pay for housing near jobs is becoming popular among St. Louis companies both to attract a work force and to stimulate the city's neighborhoods, with Fannie Mae's Employer-Assisted Housing Program listing about 10 participants, including St. Louis and Washington universities, and the Downtown St. Louis Partnership administering a similar program for U.S. Bank, Bank of America and Hellmuth, Obata & Kassabaum.
''Companies use the programs because they want to give employees an incentive to live in the area, and it solidifies that neighborhood as an investment for the company,'' says Fannie Mae's St. Louis Partnership Office director Clifton Berry.
Downtown St. Louis Partnership senior economic and housing development director Kevin Farrell agrees. ''It's a relatively inexpensive benefit,'' he notes, ''and it has great perceived value for the employer to promote stability among staff and development in the community directly around the business.''
The programs, reports St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer Tavia Evans, offer employees closing costs for buying a home downtown or in other designated neighborhoods, usually in walking distance from their jobs. Such a payment can reach $5,000 -- in the case of U.S Bank, a forgivable loan if an employee keeps the job and the house for five years. -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch
5/31/2005
Resource(s): www.stltoday.com/
EPA Signs ICF Consulting to Five-Year Contract for Smart Growth Program Support
As it expands and diversifies its efforts to protect public health and the environment, the U.S. EPA awarded ICF Consulting -- a globally known management, technology and policy advisory firm with headquarters in Fairfax, Virginia -- a $6.5 million contract over five years, to provide the Office of Policy, Economics and Innovation (OPEI) with a full range of support for EPA's Smart Growth Program.
Under the contract, ''Environmental Innovation: Development and Transportation,'' an ICF Consulting team of 14 specialized entities and four independent experts will conduct ''the necessary geographical and substantive research,'' including policy evaluation, emissions modeling, and local planning and design assistance, to align smart growth with local conditions, values and needs.
''Healthy communities and ecosystems and a strong economy depend on creating vibrant cities, towns and neighborhoods,'' said ICF Consulting Vice President for Transportation and Environmental Management. ''This award builds on a deep history of smart growth work we have done for EPA and its constituents, and we look forward to broadening that work as smart growth addresses new areas of concern, such as water quality and coastal management.''
5/24/2005
Resource(s): www.icfconsulting.com
Housing Boom, Social Trends Create Bright Financial Picture for Urban Renewal and Smart Growth
''The confluence of a housing boom and a social trend encouraging remigrating into America's cities has made the concept of smart growth and urban renewal economically feasible,'' said Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia President Anthony Santomero at an equitable development conference, pointing out that while Philadelphia lost four percent of its residents in the last decade, with home prices up by an average of 16 percent annually in the decade's second half, the Center City population grew five percent even though home prices in its southwest had soared by 120 percent.
With building costs significantly lower than home market values, the speaker observed, it ''makes economic sense to develop, redevelop, and revitalize many neighborhoods that had fallen into decay and disrepair.'' But as residents ''are willing to pay a premium for urban living,'' he said, the society must leverage the profitability of housing development and renovation for the benefit of all its members. -- Reuters.com
5/23/2005
Resource(s): www.reuters.com/
''Family-Friendly'' Subdivisions Aren't Meeting Basic Needs of Children
''Our society makes a show of being child friendly, from playgrounds at fast food restaurants and furniture warehouses to the vast array of child-protection devices'' on the market, while ''our actual built environment is extremely hostile to children's most basic needs,'' writes Raise the Hammer web site editor Ryan McGreal in his review of the ''Child- and Youth-Friendly Land-Use and Transportation Planning Guide'' by Richard Gilbert and Catherine O'Brien.
The authors-researchers have analyzed scores of related studies for the Toronto area's Centre for Sustainable Transportation, documenting that the everyday physical and social interaction requirements of the youngest are ignored and that ''(t)he low density development of 'family friendly' subdivisions all but guarantees that parents must drive their children anywhere they need and want to go.''
Children who ''do try to walk,'' the editor observes, ''face automotive exhaust and the gauntlet of speeding cars'' everywhere, and the constant traffic noise heightens their stress levels and forces them inside, ''where their opportunities to play and exercise are severely limited.''
Finding that in Canada crashes are the most frequent cause of injuries and deaths among children older than one year, the researchers stressed the urgent need to lower residential area speed limits from 40 to 25 km/h (from about 25 to 16 mph), which would increase road safety, reduce noise and pollution, and give children better opportunities to play and socialize outside and become more independent.
All together, the researchers drew up 27 guidelines, all applicable also to the U.S., the first reading, ''In transport and land-use planning, the needs of children and youth should receive as much priority as the needs of people of other ages and the requirements of business.'' More about the centre's research and programs at www.cstctd.org -- Raise the Hammer
4/14/2005
Resource(s): www.raisethehammer.org/index.asp
Wal-Mart, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Announce Partnership to Preserve Wildlife Habitat
In an astounding land conservation partnership, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) and Wal-Mart launched their joint ''Acres for America'' program, under which the company is pledging $35 million to save at least one acre of priority wildlife habitat for every acre of its corporate footprint, projected to reach 138,000 acres within 10 years, and the NFWF is seeking exact matching funds to double or triple the saved acreage, with five initial signature projects already securing preservation of an additional 321,000 acres.
''With its generous contribution, Wal-Mart is empowering the foundation to protect and restore important areas of wildlife habitat that otherwise might never be conserved,'' said Interior Secretary Gale Norton during a ceremony at the National Geographic Society headquarters. ''The company is setting a standard of corporate stewardship that I hope other companies will emulate.''
NFWF Chairman Max Chapman and Executive Director John Berry echoed the statement. ''We introduced the concept of the offset program to Wal-Mart last year,'' said the chairman. ''They were quick to say yes, and Wal-Mart's leadership is raising the bar in conservation.'' The executive director added, ''We are very excited to partner with Wal-Mart to build a premier land stewardship model for the next generation.''
Expressing pride in ''making land conservation history,'' Wal-Mart Executive Vice President Mike Duke, CEO of Wal-Mart Stores-USA, called protecting the environment ''simply the right thing to do,'' and noted, ''By giving back something now, our kids, our grandkids and others will have a chance to enjoy these national resources for years to come.''
Conservation Fund President Larry Selzer stressed, ''America loses nearly three million acres of open space each year. It's critical that we act now to protect some of the most important landscapes that we have left. The Conservation Fund is proud to work with the Foundation and Wal-Mart to leave a lasting legacy for future generations.''
In the first five ''Acres for America'' projects, the partnership will acquire more than 6,000 acres of new forests and wetlands for a 40-percent expansion of the Catahoula National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana; a conservation easement to protect 312,000 acres of forests, wetlands and other habitat in Downeast Maine along the Canadian border; two ranches totaling some 1,000 acres and having grazing permits to more than 850,000 federal acres on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon in Arizona; more than 1,220 acres of habitat in the Headwaters of the Buffalo National River in Arkansas; and a 1,120-acre conservation easement on a ranch along Squaw Creek in the Deschutes River basin, Oregon. See www.nfwf.org.
4/12/2005
Resource(s): http://corporate.findlaw.com/index.html ; www.doi.gov/
SCORE Act Would Create $250M Reinvestment Fund for America's ''First Suburbs''
''It's time for the federal government to do more to help our First Suburbs,'' wrote New York Democratic Senator Hilary Rodham Clinton to the American Planning Association's Legislative and Policy Conference in Washington, having a day earlier introduced in the Senate her Suburban Core Opportunity, Restoration and Enhancement (SCORE) Act, with ''a $250 million Reinvestment Fund that provides grants to eligible communities for smart growth initiatives.''
Citing Brookings Institution data that the First Suburbs accommodate more than 50 million people, Senator Clinton pointed out that despite their mounting demographic, poverty and other problems, they rarely qualify for federal aid programs, which determine eligibility on a countywide level.
''Because many suburbs incorporate at least small pockets of great affluence, the entire community fails to qualify for vitally needed assistance,'' the senator observed, stressing that the SCORE Act (S. 1024, with a companion H.R 2357 bill introduced by New York Representatives Republican Peter T. King and Democrat Carolyn McCarthy) would provide these communities with economic and tax incentives for revitalization. It would create jobs, spur housing, expand business opportunities and ''promote 'smart growth' strategies that take advantage of existing infrastructure to ensure long-term development,'' the necessary element being public-private cooperation.
''Good policy is impossible without good ideas from good planners,'' the senator told APA legislative and policy conferees. ''Your vision and your expertise will help ensure that our future success will be built by design.''
5/13/2005
Resource(s): www.knowledgeplex.org/ ; www.planning.org/
Study Dispels Belief That Mixed-Income Housing Is Bad for Single-Family Home Values
Despite a widely held view that mixed-income housing is bad for local single-family home values, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Center for Real Estate found no such impact from seven highly controversial suburban Boston area rental projects, allowed under the state's 1969 Chapter 40B affordable-housing law between 1985 and 2003, with senior researcher Henry Pollakowski saying ''neighborhoods around the developments neither suffered not gained as a result of the development.''
Chapter 40B, reports Boston Globe writer Kimberly Blanton, trumps local zoning in cities with less than 10 percent housing deemed affordable, by allowing large projects if 25 percent of their units target residents who earn at most 80 percent of local median income. Opponents usually argue such projects worsen traffic, infrastructure strain and budget shortages, but gloss over other reasons.
Massachusetts Department of Housing deputy director Fred Habib says towns rarely make it clear they fear affordable housing will hurt home prices. ''Sometimes it's implied,'' he observes, ''but it's always there.''
The MIT study, ''Effects of Mixed-Income, Multi-Family Rental Housing Developments on Single-Family Housing Values,'' rebuts these fears. Typical is the largest project studied, the three Kimball Court buildings totaling 525 rental units in Woburn, about nine miles northwest of Boston.
The city opposed the first building in 1985, claiming lack of a sufficient water supply, until the permit was upheld by the Massachusetts Appeals Court, with the second building allowed in 1989 and the third in 1999. The periodical fluctuations and the overall housing-value increase in Kimball Court's immediate neighborhood and the rest of Woburn were basically the same, the differences statistically meaningless.
Between 1987 and 1992, home prices stayed flat around Kimball Court and dropped 3.3 percent elsewhere in the city; between 1997 and 2003, they went up 12.9 percent and 12 percent, respectively. Over the study's 18-year period, Kimball Court area homes appreciated 8.1 percent and the others 7.9 percent.
Deputy Director Habib says the MIT study shows residents that affordable housing units nearby don't undercut their home values. -- Boston Globe
4/27/2005
Resource(s): www.boston.com/news/globe/
Study Finds Omaha's North Downtown District Ready for Transformation Into Mixed-Use Neighborhood
Having spurred revitalization downtown and along the Missouri riverfront, Omaha city and business leaders are now focusing on the 80-block northern area of pawn shops, rooming houses, light industry, closed factories and a vacant rail yard, which the just-unveiled North Downtown Study, by the Omaha-based national HDR multi-solution design firm, finds ripe for transformation into a mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly front-door neighborhood, anchored by a community ballpark, a museum or a high-density residential project.
With Creighton University already investing $100 million there in a new campus and buyers competing for some parcels, Mayor Mike Fahey expressed belief that the HDR study will help redevelop the area as ''one of Omaha's most exciting and active neighborhoods'' within 10-15 years, stressing, ''You have to start with a plan for the highest and best use.''
Accompanying the mayor at a press conference held in the Tip-Top building, under a $20-million renovation into loft apartments and an entertainment center, reports Omaha World-Herald writer C. David Kotok, Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce President and CEO David G. Brown said ''This (study) presents us with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to proactively guide development in this highly visible location,'' with great potential ''for dynamic public and private investment initiatives.''
City Councilman Frank Brown commended the HDR study team, led by consultant Doug Bisson, for its efforts to ensure more future jobs in the area, and Creighton University President Rev. John Schlegel for its attention to university needs, saying, ''This will open opportunities for our students for entertainment, housing and employment.''
Mayor Fahey will submit the study's recommendations to the Planning Board in June and to the City Council in July. -- Omaha World-Herald
4/22/2005
Resource(s): www.hdrinc.com/default.aspx ; www.omaha.com/
Ranchers Take Advantage of Douglas County's TDR Program to Preserve Open Space
With much of the Carson Valley, parallel to Lake Tahoe some eight miles west, ''chopped into 19-acre home sites,'' Genoa area ranchers Dal and Barbara Byington took advantage of Douglas County's transfer of development rights program to save 700 pasture acres of their 1,050-acre ranch from development in perpetuity, while keeping its core, to pass it later for ranching by their son Russell.
Like many ranchers in the West, reports Gardnerville Record-Courier writer Suzie Vasquez, the couple think about the nation's long-term food supply. ''We don't want to become dependent on other countries like Brazil for our food,'' said Barbara Byington. ''People don't realize food comes from farms and ranches. They think it comes from the grocery store.''
In this largest land preservation deal under the county's program so far, the writer notes, the couple worked with the Terra Firma Associates consulting firm of former county commissioner Jacques Etchegoyhen and with nonprofit Ranch Open Space of Nevada Inc., a land trust governed by Nevada ranchers. ''A lot of people don't want to enter into a transaction with the federal government,'' Barbara explained, citing uncertainty over federal agency commitments and hoping that Ranch Open Space involvement will make people more confident in security of land conservation deals.
Calling development ''the biggest challenge for ranchers trying to maintain their property,'' because it ''puts such a high value on the land,'' trust executive director Paul Pugsle pointed out that their main tool ''is the conservation easement.''
But to qualify for an easement, the land must retain the water rights, he stressed, since ranchers can't continue ranching ''if they lose their water.''
Reno Gazette-Journal writer Tim Anderson reported earlier that the development rights on 700 acres of the Galeppi-Byington Ranch were purchased by three developers for a total of $5.1 million. In exchange, the developers will be eligible for density bonuses on land targeted for development in the county's master plan. -- Record-Courier, Reno Gazette-Journal
5/25/2005
Resource(s): www.rgj.com/ ; www.recordcourier.com/
Advantages of Regional Service Agencies Outlined at Concord Planning Seminar
Small towns often share boundaries, but rarely plan and act together, said University of Southern Maine's Edmund Muskie School of Public Service professor Evan Richert at the Concord seminar ''Planning for Smart Growth ... or Sprawl in New Hampshire: Is It Time for a Regional Approach to Land-Use Planning and Governance?'', assuring the audience of more than 100 area planners that by creating regional service agencies -- similar to school districts -- they could eliminate redundant jobs, cut public costs and reduce suburban sprawl.
Professor Richert, a former Maine State Planning Office director, reports writer Paula Tracy of the New Hampshire Union Leader, noted that Maine lawmakers are considering a pilot program to let municipalities join in municipal service districts to pool their resources.
Seminar moderator, former Office of State Planning director Jeff Taylor, observed that New Hampshire already has a similar law, under which Laconia and Gilford joined forces to build an industrial park; New London, Sunapee and Newbury, to protect shoreline; and other communities, to share fire, police and emergency services.
Such efforts, the guest pointed out, could become even more effective if municipalities created a regional government, which would allow for larger budgets and bonds, more comprehensive land-use planning and regulation, and unified property and other taxes, without undermining local autonomy.
When communities grow from about 5,000 to 10,000 or so, he said, their per-resident costs skyrocket. Getting ''restless,'' the suburbanites start to push for bans on key farmer activities after 8 a.m., demand more soccer fields, full-time fire protection and special patrols, and local costs ''begin to add up,'' he observed, hoping more and more municipalities will see the answer in regional governance. -- Union Leader
4/20/2005
Resource(s): www.theunionleader.com/
Garden State's S.G. Ombudsman Says Fast Track Key to Promoting Growth in Designated Areas
''Perhaps, it is a sign of our times that the debate on growth issues in New Jersey has grown so polarized and polemic, just as the debate on so many issues in Trenton and Washington has,'' writes New Jersey Smart Growth Ombudsman Patrick M. Gillespie in his Asbury Park Press guest opinion on the Fast Track construction permitting controversy, stressing on behalf of Acting Governor Richard Codey the need for ''a consensus to advance the policy goals embodied in the State Plan for Development and Redevelopment.''
Adopted in 1992, he writes, the plan encourages growth ''in the state's Metropolitan Planning Areas, designated centers and older suburbs,'' with the other part of the equation discouraging policies and investments ''that promote the development of the state's rural and environmentally sensitive areas.''
Convinced that the state must find more incentives for growth in designated areas to avert rapid consumption of open space and farmland, the ombudsman explains, ''The intent behind streamlining permits in growth areas is to provide some regulatory incentive to lure developers away from the rural areas and back to the growth areas.'' He sees the current controversy as stemming ''from context rather than content'' and having more to do with ''the legislative process than the policy goals that underlie the law.''
Coming on the heels of the Highlands preservation bill, he continues, the Fast Track created the perception that ''state policymakers were on one hand preserving thousands of acres from development while on the other hand permitting the rampant over-development of the rest of the state.'' Pointing out that ''(t)he Whitman and McGreevey administrations took deliberate steps to curb sprawl by using the State Plan to limit state investment and permitting decisions that promoted growth in the fringe planning areas,'' the ombudsman stresses, ''The logical extension of that policy is to have official state policies that promote growth in the places the State Plan has designated for growth.''
He agrees that many aspects of Fast Track ''could be changed and improved,'' and regrets that the important debate on the subject is delayed as ''both sides continue to bash each other.'' -- Asbury Park Press
5/11/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/
Garden State Budget Shortfall May Threaten Habitat Protection and Park Repairs; Funds for Fast Track Permits Remain for Now
As the state struggles against a potential $4 billion-plus 2006 deficit, environmentalists and officials are at odds over the planned reduction of its environmental budget to $347.1 million, including $20 million for the Division of Smart Growth to implement the controversial 2004 Fast Track construction permit law.
Still suspended through this month, the law is targeted by Acting Democratic Governor and Senate President Richard J. Codey for substantial revisions, but by 58 of 120 lawmakers from both parties for repeal.
According to the state Sierra Club, the New Jersey Audubon Society and the New Jersey Public Interest Research Group, reports New York Times writer Tina Kelley, the state cut the environmental budget by a third, providing too little for critical habitat, wildlife protection enforcement and clean air, and nothing at all for repairs in state parks, while misusing money to help developers through the fast permitting process.
Even though 58 lawmakers urged the acting governor to repeal the law, said Sierra Club chapter director Jeff Tittel, ''his response is to put in money for 165 people to implement Fast Track.'' He called it ''outrageous that we have $20 million to fund Fast Track and destroy open space.''
But according to Environmental Protection Secretary Bradley M. Campbell, the environmentalists' budget calculations are wrong and their charges unwarranted. He told the Assembly Budget Committee that his budget was cut by only four percent, and that it still would ''provide better service to New Jersey residents and the regulated community, and stronger protection of the environment and natural resources.''
He also noted that the Fast Track application would be limited to ''a few programs initially,'' that the bond-financed Garden State Preservation Trust Fund will invest more than $10 million in parks, and that the state will invest money recovered from polluters in Bayonne's park and waterfront and in Liberty State Park. -- New York Times
5/7/2005
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/
It's a Slow Road for Repeal of Fast-Track Construction Law in Garden State
Cutting across party lines and traditional alliances, the controversy over the ''fast-track'' construction permit law, signed by then-Governor James E. McGreevey last summer, but suspended before his November resignation till May, is heating up, with 58 of 120 state lawmakers -- 32 Democrats and 26 Republicans -- sponsoring repeal legislation and calling for quick floor votes, but with Assembly Democratic Speaker Albio Sires non-committal and Acting Democratic Governor, Senate President Richard Codey, against any hasty action.
Gubernatorial spokesman Sean Darcy says the governor ''is open to discussing measures to reform this smart growth law.'' But critics think the law is too flawed to be reformed. The Senate Republican Minority Leader calls fast track ''an abomination'' that ''allows developers to pay to pave.'' Democratic Assemblyman Robert L. Morgan observes, ''No more compromises with special interests can be made.'' And New Jersey Environmental Federation campaign director David Pringle stresses, ''The greatest threat to our environment this year is fast track,'' with the Save New Jersey Coalition promising a lawsuit should the state continue work on final fast-track guidelines in June.
Democratic Senator Stephen Sweeny, the fast-track law sponsor and the one most involved in its passage last summer, doesn't mince his words either. ''This is (the Sierra Club) trying to scare every legislator out there by saying it doesn't matter how strong your record is; if you disagree with them once, they will destroy your reputation,'' he asserts, vowing to fight attacks from ''wisdom-resistant, no-growth zealots.''
The fast-track law, note Gannett writer Sandy McLure in the Asbury Park Press and Express Times correspondent Terrence Dopp, requires three key state departments -- Community Affairs, Transportation, and Environmental Protection -- to accept special developer fees and review growth-area project applications for completeness within 45 days, with another 45 days for ruling; failure to meet either deadline would allow construction by default. In contested cases, the law gives power for final decisions to a state smart-growth ombudsman.
Senate Environment Committee Democratic Chairman Robert G. Smith thinks there's ample time to amend the law, which is not likely to take effect until early next year, saying its intent is to prevent lengthy project delays in urban areas. -- Asbury Park Press, Express Times
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.app.com/ ; www.nj.com/expresstimes/
Editorial Applauds Smart Growth Remake for Albuquerque's East Downtown
''To many, the American dream is not at the city's edge, far from their jobs, shopping and entertainment,'' but at ''a home in an older part of town, down the street from work and restaurants and up the stairs from places to shop,'' writes 1000 Friends of New Mexico Executive Director Randolph Barnhouse in his Albuquerque Tribune guest commentary, happy that Albuquerque has finally approved such a ''smart-growth'' remake for east downtown (EDO) and hopeful that it will take less than another four years to approve mixed-use infill projects in other neighborhoods.
Pointing out that about half of the city's 150 square miles (96,000 acres) ''is given to the automobile -- streets, parking lots, driveways, garages and drive-up lanes,'' the writer urges officials to remain firm on implementation of the 2002 Planned Growth Strategy, which promises redevelopment of the city's idle land, better use of its trail network and transit system, and more housing choices for all demographic groups.
Barnhouse would like to see old mall parking lots taken for mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly projects, and cautions against putting six-story buildings on vacant West Side land, which would contradict current planning and ''repeat the 'sea of asphalt' problem we're trying to fix in older areas.''
He notes that Bernalillo County officials asked developers of an empty site near a Wal-Mart in the South Valley to ''think mixed use'' and more density, and that such projects are gaining popularity across the country, because consumers attracted to urban life create a market for them. The writer concludes, ''But that market will never get a chance here without dedication to the principles of the Planned Growth Strategy.'' -- Albuquerque Tribune
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.abqtrib.com/
Wal-Mart Submits Revised Proposal for Lockport Supercenter
Six months after local outcry forced it to withdraw a plan for a 203,000-square-foot, 24-hour Supercenter at an old mall site in Lockport, Wal-Mart presented officials with a reworked proposal, initially seen as much better by Town Supervisor John B. Austin and Planning Board Chairman Lester G. Robinson Jr., yet still not good enough by Lockport Citizens for Smart Growth activist Margaret Magno.
Wal-Mart planners, reports Buffalo News writer Thomas J. Prohaska, reduced the proposed Supercenter to 185,600 square feet, increased the back buffer for a 10-foot wall that would protect adjacent residential backyards from 50 to 100 feet, extended the wall northward to shield homes on another road, included a long 40-foot-wide rainwater ''detention pond'' between the back of the store and the protective wall, and added other minor enhancements.
The old mall would be redeveloped, with the exception of the 81,000-square-foot Bon-Ton store, which would share Wal-Mart's 1,452-space parking lot.
Town officials, the writer notes, were especially pleased that the plan no longer calls for gas pumps on the site. But smart-growth advocate and area resident Magno wants Wal-Mart closer to the street, which would provide an even larger rear setback. ''I guess I'm going to have to make them do that,'' she said. ''If they'd move the store forward so they'd have parking on the sides and more green space in back, less noise, I think the neighbors would be less freaked by it.'' -- Buffalo News
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.buffalonews.com/default.asp
Gov. Pataki Introduces Anti-Sprawl Plan With Community Preservation Act
Upsetting the New York State Association of Realtors, Republican Governor George Pataki sent lawmakers his proposed anti-sprawl Community Preservation Act, which would let communities run referenda to impose a real-estate transfer tax for open space programs, a measure modeled after 1998 legislation that has enabled five Long Island towns to raise more than $165 million so far.
The act, reports Oneonta Daily Star Albany Bureau writer Paul Ertelt, would allow an up-to 2-percent transfer tax on the portion of a sale price in excess of the local median home value. For example, the writer notes, if a county median home price is $200,000 and a house sells for $300,000, the open space tax would apply to $100,000.
Going farther than similar bills sponsored earlier in the session by Republican Senator Carl Marcellino and Democratic Assemblyman Tom DiNapoli, which target only towns and lands with public access, the act includes cities and villages, and permits acquisition of conservation easements on farms and timberland closed to the public.
Both lawmakers welcomed the governor's involvement. Expecting it to help bring all sides together, Senator Marcellino announced, ''I have said it before, and I say it again: They aren't making any more land.'' Assemblyman DiNapoli added, ''We're happy when he (the governor) is on the same page as we are.'' -- Oneonta Daily Star
5/25/2005
Resource(s): www.thedailystar.com/
Union County Recasts Board of Adjustment in Wake of Criticism Over Wal-Mart Variance Approval
Determined to restore balance in Union County's land-use permitting process and the full intent of its 2001 ''smart growth'' policy, County Commissioners voted to remove and reconstitute the county board of adjustment, and to eliminate developer density bonuses -- the first, due to the ''blatant bias'' shown in last fall's approval of a Wal-Mart permit for a Supercenter near Marvin; the second, due to frequent misuse by previous commissioners.
The board of adjustments, which controls zoning variances and special use permits, reports Charlotte Observer writer Jen Aronoff, was sharply criticized in the Marvin area -- south of metro Charlotte -- for the Wal-Mart permit. Currently, the permit is being appealed by residents in court, with commissioners unanimously joining them in December.
Commissioner Hughie Sexton, who led the push against both the board and developer density bonuses, said the board's ''abdication of responsibility'' now burdens the county with ''unfair legal cost'' due to the pending court case. Commissioners Kevin Pressley and Stony Rushing voted against abolition of the board at this time, preferring to wait for the court ruling.
''I do not agree with the decision to allow Wal-Mart to build more than what our zoning allows,'' said the latter, explaining that he doesn't want to vote for board removal until a judge tells him that board members ''were wrong, or their term ends.'' As to the density-bonus provision, commissioners said it favored developers and increased the strain on infrastructure. Their vote against the provision, the writer observes, left developers in the audience visibly dejected. -- Charlotte Observer
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.charlotte.com/
Davidson Mayor Kincaid Says Smart Planning Hinges on Smart Decisions Concerning the Automobile
Proud that his town is among jurisdictions following ten U.S. EPA smart growth principles and doing it well enough to win the agency's 2004 National Achievement Award for Overall Excellence in Smart Growth, Davidson Mayor Randall R. Kincaid points out in The Charlotte Observer that smart planning and ''(b)uilding community requires dealing intelligently with the car,'' a task hopeless in conventional subdivisions, whose four principles make property lines sacrosanct, require separation of uses, impose homogenous housing, and demand maximum use of the automobile.
This conventional post-World-War-II model, the mayor writes, ''has served us well in many respects,'' and its inseparable automobile ''has generated untold increases in GDP (Gross Domestic Product),'' but not without drawbacks: ''prime land gets gobbled up; the air and water become polluted; global warming sets in; and, in my view, the most serious consequence, communities break down.''
All this seems irrelevant to Observer community columnist Bill Reeside, who lives in Davidson, works for a global nuclear power plant company, and asserts in his recent ''People's Republic of Davidson'' column that he loves the town -- which he chose in the 1980s for its location and schools -- but regrets its ''dark side.''
As if unaware that these are smart-growth ingredients, he applauds the town's amenities, its Village Green, downtown businesses, educational energy and effective public efforts ''to locate a new elementary school within the town limits and to turn the old elementary school into a successful magnet middle school.''
At the same time, he is troubled by traffic signs reading ''No Passing On The Right, assumes that future intersection signs will read, ''Left Turn Only,'' and wonders about ''the town's hatred of the automobile,'' when the mayor formulates his anti-car thoughts while driving and ''the Charlotte Area Transit System buses are empty 99 percent of the time.''
But even though local property rights ''don't get much respect'' from Davidson's ''commissars,'' and ''the Presbyterian-affiliated college voted to worship diversity ahead of worshiping Jesus Christ,'' the columnist doesn't plan to leave, confident that his ''libertarian flavor'' also enhances diversity in his ''favorite town'' and should be welcome ''with open arms.''
Judging from the courteous matter-of-fact response by Mayor Kincaid, he is right. ''Community building is a difficult task, but I view it as the principal task of local government,'' the mayor writes. ''We have a community when we know each other, take care of each other in times of need, raise each other's children, and, in general, believe that we are all people of worth.'' -- The Charlotte Observer
4/7/2005
Resource(s): www.charlotte.com/
Charlotte Developer Plans to Convert City Block of Apartments to Mixed-Use Condos, Retail
Already a hot national trend, center city living is picking up in Charlotte, where developer Tom Thornburg has asked the City Council to rezone a 3.5-acre Fourth Ward block for mixed use, which would let him replace its 154 apartments with some 450 condos above 20,000 square feet of shops, restaurants and garage space.
His proposed Citadin would be the city's largest conversion of apartments to condos, reports Charlotte Observer writer Doug Smith, quoting the developer, who says he plans to redevelop the block in stages so he can react ''if the market leans more toward efficiencies or more toward larger units,'' and adds, ''We'll vary materials, designs and building heights so everything doesn't look homogenous.''
Ranging from 700 to 1,750 square feet, the condos in six buildings, including two 10-story towers, will likely cost between $180,000 and $450,000. The first four-story building will offer four penthouses, mostly one-to-two bedroom condos, and a fitness center. The condos, the writer notes, will feature Jenn-Air appliances, hardwood floors, granite counter-tops and Italian porcelain tile baths, plus underground storage and one garage space per bedroom.
Construction could start by early fall, with the first building to be completed in about 13 months. -- Charlotte Observer
5/14/2005
Resource(s): www.charlotte.com/
Charlotte Mayor McCrory Secures $193M in Federal Funds for City Light-Rail Line
Having pushed for transit since he was first elected 10 years ago, Charlotte Republican Mayor Pat McCrory has finally secured $193 million in federal money for a $427 million light-rail line -- from uptown 9.6 miles south to Interstate 485, thanking the project's two key backers, North Carolina Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole and Federal Transit Administrator Jennifer Dorn, but also recalling his anxiety that it may never happen.
''There were moments where I was worried that the financial, political and sweat equity that we had put in was for naught,'' he said at the project's launching ceremony. ''Today, I'm at peace.''
Applauding him and other city officials and activists for their ''bold and brilliant vision'' of a transit system and transit-oriented development, reports Charlotte Observer writer Richard Rubin, Administrator Dorn pointed out that far from being a trendy idea driven by governments, transit-oriented development is an effective smart-growth concept, with a proven demographic market. There is, she said, ''an exponential growth in older people, in empty nesters, in the immigrant community seeking opportunities near transit.''
Still, transit-oriented urban development remains more difficult and more costly than typical suburban projects, the writer observes, noting that in addition to its light-rail funding share, the city is spending $60 million for streets, sidewalks and storm trains in the south corridor to spur redevelopment, and that its economic development office is assigning staff to help developers with projects near the 15 planned stations.
Crosland firm CEO Todd Mansfield counts on the South End area's improvements, saying he would like to convert his former headquarters near the Scaleybark Station into a transit-style complex, but right now he wouldn't succeed with high-enough rents to justify the construction cost. The South End light rail, the writer adds, will start running in spring 2007. -- Charlotte Observer
5/7/2005
Resource(s): www.charlotte.com/
''Greater Ohio'' to Make Suburban Sprawl a Key Issue in 2006 Gubernatorial Race
Formed in January 2004 after two years of preparation, to rally the public and lobby lawmakers for ''intelligent land use'' and smart growth, the Greater Ohio advocacy group will make suburban sprawl a key issue in the 2006 gubernatorial race, stressing the need for city revitalization, a ''fix-it-first'' road and bridge policy in the context of other transportation options, and less dependence on property taxes for school funding.
Having secured almost $500,000 from the Cleveland-based Gund Foundation and other donors, reports Akron Beacon Journal writer Bob Downing, Greater Ohio steering committee chairman and EcoCity Cleveland founder David Beach says the next governor must take a firm anti-sprawl stand and lead as former or present governors in Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania have done.
His diverse 26-member steering committee represents a whole spectrum of interests. It includes Ohio Environmental Council leader Vicki Deisner, Scenic Ohio head Christine Freitag, AFL-CIO Cleveland Federation of Labor representative John Ryan, Catholic Diocese Commission on Catholic Community Action representative Len Calabrese, Greater Cleveland Growth Association member David Goss, Home Builders Association of Dayton and Miami Valley official David Bohardt, and retired Akron public relations expert David Meeker.
But, the writer notes, the committee is more than the sum of its parts. Nevertheless, Columbus-based Ohio Home Builders Association executive vice president Vincent J. Squillace calls Greater Ohio little more than EcoCity Cleveland's lobbying arm, noting that only 14 percent of Ohio land is developed and denying sprawl economic and land-use impact. He agrees that the state needs better planning and urban revitalization, but he also argues for more growth, and cautions against burdensome restrictions on development.
Gund Foundation staffer and national Funders' Network for Smart Growth and Livable Communities board chairman Jon M. Jensen points out that Greater Ohio has done ''a very thorough job of scoping out the political climate in Ohio ... and planning what to do,'' and the group's Cleveland office head Pat Carey adds, ''Some say that Ohio has taken a thousand bad positions. Now we're trying to reverse that -- one decision at a time.'' -- Akron Beacon Journal
4/23/2005
Resource(s): www.ohio.com/
Developer's New Urbanist Visions for Cleveland Gaining Support
Tired of generic malls he has built for years, developer Robert Stark made a mid-career switch to New Urbanism, put $420 million into his 37-acre mixed-use Crocker Park project, which created ''an instant downtown'' in suburban Westlake, and now is winning potential allies for similar multi-block redevelopment of the Warehouse District and nearby areas in Cleveland, to avert its further deterioration.
Lenders are eager to fund such transformation projects, he tells Cleveland Plain Dealer architecture critic Steven Litt, stressing, ''They know the answer to bums and pigeons and whistling winds and perceptions of a wasteland is active neighborhoods where people work and live, that are self-policing, urban and safe.''
Owning no city land himself, the New Urbanism advocate has been talking to Cleveland leaders, Cuyahoga County officials and other developers since February, expecting to convince Warehouse District parking-lot owners that they would make even more profit by letting builders fill the lots with high-end shops, hundreds of upper-floor apartments and some office space.
One of these parking-lot owners, Solon-based Weston Management Co. President T. J. Asher, likes the idea and appreciates that it comes from someone with no land downtown. ''People will listen to him,'' he notes, ''and can't say he's doing this for his own good.''
The developer not only urges mixed-use city overhaul, but also cautions against developer Mitchell Schneider's proposed suburban-style Steelyard Commons shopping center on a former steel-mill site in the industrial Flats as contrary to attracting retailers downtown.
''The answer for urban America,'' he points out, ''is not to create its own sprawl, like Steelyard Commons, but to make the city more urban.'' -- Plain Dealer
5/1/2005
Resource(s): www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/
Mixed-Use Zoning, Greater Density Would Raise Pittsburgh Region's Quality of Life
The Pittsburgh region's economy and quality of life could be much better if more jurisdictions permitted mixed-use zoning, encouraged greater density, and were as walkable as Ligonier is, said Westmoreland County Smart Growth Partnership executive director Alex Graziani at the annual dinner meeting of the Ligonier Valley Chamber of Commerce, stressing that demographic changes create a new market demand for other than big-lot-only housing opportunities.
Over the past three decades, the county lost 6,000 people, but its ''human footprint'' increased to more than 77,000 acres and ''it's taking us longer to get everywhere,'' he said. ''As we get older, many of us will be driving-challenged,'' he continued, ''Yet we're building for the automobile-dependent.''
Calling it ironic that many people very concerned about their weight problems drive ''to a fitness center to ride a stationary bike,'' the speaker urged the business community to get closely involved in local government decisions.
''You are the driving force,'' he told chamber members. ''And as taxpayers, you need to demand that your elected officials pay attention to these things. Because you're paying the freight.''
The county's Smart Growth Partnership, notes Pittsburgh Tribune-Review writer Dwayne Pickles, was formed at the University of Pittsburgh in Greensburg in 2001, to promote better ways of boosting economic growth and urban revitalization. -- Tribune-Review
4/1/2005
Resource(s): www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribune-review/westmoreland/
''Walkable'' City of State College Urged to Keep Local High School Downtown for Student Health Concerns
Since the city of State College remains ''very walkable,'' with ample sidewalks and bike trails that allow easy access to the high school off Westerly Parkway near downtown, officials should let the school be, instead of moving it to ''the outer reaches of the developed area,'' beyond the regional growth boundary, if only because of their concern about students' health, writes Penn State University landscape architecture associate professor Kelleann Foster in the Centre Daily Times, pointing out that such a move would deprive many students of the ''important daily physical activity'' of walking and biking to school.
''By building places that are designed for drivers rather than walkers,'' the professor observes, ''our society has been inadvertently changing lifestyles and becoming more sedentary.''
This contributes to the epidemic of obesity, with Pennsylvania's childhood obesity rate of 18 percent exceeding the national average, he notes, quoting from the March issue of the New England Journal of Medicine that ''(f)or the first time in two centuries, the current generation of children in America may have shorter life expectancies than their parents.''
With the surgeon general confirming that people need only moderate daily physical activity, such as 30 minutes of walking, to gain health benefits, with Pennsylvania law stating that children within a mile of a school ''are 'walkers' and not entitled to bus service,'' and with most people able to walk one mile in 15-20 minutes, the professor finds no clear reasons for relocating the school several miles away, to the area where most students would have to be bused. --Centre Daily Times
4/18/2005
Resource(s): www.centredaily.com
Greenville Columnist Follows Trail of Missteps from Community Classrooms to District Megaschools
When it comes to schools, ''bigger isn't better,'' partly because the notion of ''big'' has overgrown any rational school proportions, observes Greenville Daily News columnist Jeanne Brooks, pointing out that when former Harvard University president James Bryant Conant called for big schools in his 1958 book, ''The American High School Today,'' he meant 400 to 500 students, not 1,000 to 3,000, as is common today.
Writing soon after the Soviet Union shocked Americans with its first Sputnik, raising public concerns about the state of American education and technological superiority prospects, the Harvard scholar believed that to catch up, school districts had to switch from small high schools to big ones, to secure better equipment and more staff. People followed his advice, the columnist writes, and ''built big'' -- elementary and middle schools, too -- but they ''forgot the part about 400 or 500.''
But since buildings for some 2,000 kids, plus ball fields and parking, don't fit in most neighborhoods, school districts had to build them at town edges or beyond, which necessitated busing or car use, and pushed down the numbers of students walking or biking from 48 percent in 1969 to below 15 percent for walkers and to 1 percent for bikers in 2001.
With the 2003 EPA study, entitled ''Travel and Environmental Implications of School Siting,'' which showed that increased driving to distant schools worsens traffic and can ''exacerbate already serious air quality issues,'' and with other data on low financial and educational effectiveness of big schools, the columnist notes, at least 41 states have opened small schools.
''What if Greenville County had kept, maintained, renovated more neighborhood schools and built smaller new schools only where the growth was, not leaped ahead to where it wasn't yet?'' she wishfully asks. ''Might we now have a little more breathing room over air quality ratings?'' -- Greenville Daily News
5/11/2005
Resource(s): http://greenvilleonline.com/news/
Architect Outlines 178-Acre Bull Street Neighborhood Project for Downtown Columbia
''I believe in new urbanism,'' said Republican Governor Mark Sanford, summing up his view on a neo-traditional master plan for mixed-use redevelopment of the 178-acre Bull Street state hospital campus in downtown Columbia and shrugging off a question on design changes to increase profitability in these words: ''I'm not going to trade off higher quality of life for more dollars. I'll leave it to the planners to strike the balance.''
New Urbanism founder, Miami architect-planner Andres Duany, sought to ensure that balance, both social and economic, reports Columbia State writer Jeff Wilkinson, by mixing some 771,000 square feet of offices and 60,000 square feet of small shops and stores with 1,178 different type housing units -- 167 single-family homes and cottages, 285 townhouses, 561 condos and apartments, and 165 live-work units.
Some of the 10 renovated historic buildings at a civic square are targeted for a theater, gymnasium, chapel and library, and most old trees will be saved, with each one cut down replaced by three new ones. The back of the site will feature a creek and pond with a greenway park that eventually could be extended to the Three River Greenway.
''There is no rich area or poor area,'' the architect said about his project. ''No division between classes like you would see in some suburbs.''
The revamped Bull Street neighborhood, with its parks, pedestrian-friendly streets and diversified housing, the writer observes, is expected to attract a ''creative class'' of professionals, researchers and medical workers downtown, and coupled with the new University of South Carolina research campus and the revitalization of Main Street, the riverfront and other areas, to help transform Columbia's future economy.
To launch the Bull Street redevelopment as soon as possible, the architect would like preservationists to ask the City Council to consider the site's 10 old buildings immediately for the landmarks registry, hoping officials will also quickly provide more attractive tax credits for renovation.
''Developers hate uncertainty,'' he pointed out. ''They need to know if these buildings are going to be protected or not.'' Mayor Bob Cole promised to deal with the issue soon, noting, ''Anytime you have an incentive to help revitalize an historic building, it is beneficial to the city.'' -- State
5/29/2005
Resource(s): www.thestate.com/
Blount County to Ask EPA for Smart Growth Implementation Assistance
In line with a new growth-management report by Hunter Interests consultants, drafted for Blount County and its largest city, Maryville, County Planning Director John Lamb sought and received the Maryville Regional Planning Commission's support for submitting to U.S. EPA his Smart Growth Implementation Assistance Request, which may secure EPA help in tailoring city and county planning and zoning ordinances to advance smart growth.
With metro Knoxville some 10 miles north and Great Smoky Mountains National Park extending over the county's southeastern quadrant, the county planning director told his Maryville regional colleagues, ''We're kind of joined at the hip on this growth strategy.''
If EPA approves the assistance request, notes Maryville Daily Times writer Thomas Fraser, it will send in three smart growth experts to evaluate area circumstances and needs and outline the best local way to limit sprawl while promoting development. -- Daily Times
5/17/2005
Resource(s): www.thedailytimes.com/
Plan for ''Traditional'' Neighborhood in Emerging City of Lakeland Needs Support from Local Zoning Codes
''One cannot propose a new Annapolis, Marblehead or Key West without seeking substantial variances from current codes,'' writes Congress for New Urbanism co-founder Andres Duany in the Memphis Commercial Appeal, expressing hope that Shelby County's young city of Lakeland, some 20 miles northeast of central Memphis and in the path of its growth, will complete the ongoing land use and zoning revaluation with ''a progressive code'' that allows implementation of his firm's plan for the traditional Lakeland Green neighborhood.
The mixed-use, walkable, 1,200-acre neighborhood, with half of the land set aside as open space and 165 acres for a municipal center, he writes, is modeled after those that defined America from the first settlements to the Second World War. In contrast to the post-war suburban sprawl model, which ''contains environmental, social and economic deficiencies that inevitably choke sustained growth,'' he points out, the traditional neighborhood accommodates a majority of the population within a five-minute walk of its center; the center ''provides an excellent location for a transit stop, convenient workplaces, retail, community events and leisure activities;'' streets, in a network, are relatively narrow -- with parking, trees, sidewalks and buildings -- and ''suitable for both vehicles and pedestrians;'' mixed uses include a variety of houses, small apartments buildings, shops, offices, warehouses and restaurants, with civic buildings often placed at squares or ''at the termination of street vistas,'' and with parks, playgrounds, greenbelts and other common spaces.
''The challenge to Lakeland is to redefine the way the city will grow by allowing a new choice for developers,'' the architect stresses, ''one that will encourage neighborhoods, not urban sprawl.'' -- Commercial Appeal
5/1/2005
Resource(s): www.commercialappeal.com/
Memphis' Infill Homes Meet Demand for Location-Based Housing, Create Tax Windfall for City
Part of Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton's ''smart growth'' agenda, infill homes within the I-240 loop have plenty of eager buyers, create a tax revenue boon for Memphis and help spur ambitious mixed-use redevelopment projects in the city's core, reports Memphis Commercial Appeal writer Tom Charlier, quoting city-based MarketGraphics president Don Berge, who says, ''You don't find any of these things sitting around empty.''
With the number of infill permits jumping from 104 in 2002 to 265 since then, the writer notes, Memphis officials are promoting Uptown, just north of the downtown area, a mixed-use and varied-income neighborhood of 1,200 homes and apartments, envisioning hundreds of other units in place of razed public housing nearby.
Once centered mostly in East Memphis, where they often cost $500,000-plus, infill homes are also in demand now in Midtown and other city sections, the writer observes, and they become ''something of a salve both for Memphis' frail tax base and Shelby County's swelling debt.'' Instead of requiring heavy public investment for new roads, schools and utilities, they boost property values and hence tax yield.
As an example, the writer cites a seven-home infill being build by developers John Gallina and Rob Hansom in place of a dismantled 60-year-old rancher on its 2.4-acre lot. Starting at $675,000, the new homes are expected to generate at least $85,000 a year in city and county taxes -- over nine times more than the old home paid. The project would have produced even more tax revenue, but the developers scaled it back from the originally planned 10 homes in response to local concerns about density.
Infill builders say their customers, usually retired empty-nesters, want to live near restaurants, shops and other city amenities, while having a low-maintenance lot and peace of mind about house security when they travel. -- Commercial Appeal
5/15/2005
Resource(s): www.commercialappeal.com/
Memphis Editorial Cites Smart Growth as Answer to City's Leapfrog Development
Although ''a lot of people want big, inexpensive homes on large lots, with low taxes and good access to highway,'' a growing number of others increasingly realize that this model can't be sustained and that it puts a heavy burden on taxpayers, the environment and ultimately ''those who choose to live at the edge of urban sprawl,'' observes a Memphis Commercial Appeal editorial, stressing that ''smart growth policies give homebuyers more options'' in their search ''for the kind of lifestyle and the kind of neighborhood that suits them best.''
Before the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission vote on the forthcoming Unified Development Code later this year, the editorial says, residents will have ample time for input on their long-term preferences for the area.
''What good is a private car if you're stuck in traffic on Germantown Parkway, choking on exhaust fumes, wasting gasoline at more than $2 a gallon, and there's no land left on either side of the road to widen it some more?'' the editorial asks, confident that the answer to leapfrog development, which ''has put county taxpayers $1.7 billion in debt,'' lies in smart growth.
Vouching for walkable mixed-use neighborhoods and redevelopment of older areas ''that don't require a lot of new infrastructure,'' the editorial expresses hope that ''the leapfrog pattern will finally be seen for the costly and limiting model that it really is.'' -- Commercial Appeal
4/24/2005
Resource(s): www.commercialappeal.com/
Recognizing Need for Diverse Housing, Developer Shifts from Suburban Housing to New Urbanist Projects
''For years, a lot of consumer groups bought houses that did not fit their needs,'' said Lenox Village LLC President David McGowan in a conversation with Nashville City Paper writer William Williams, describing his 1998 mid-career switch from conventional suburban housing to the underserved demographic market eager for New Urbanism, Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND), urban infill and smart growth.
''In my recent demographic studies,'' he pointed out, ''I have learned that 75 percent of the homebuyers in the marketplace do not have kids 18 or younger.''
Having earlier studied Kentlands, Lakelands, Harbor Town, Seaside, Celebration and other successful neo-traditional projects, he discovered ''very diverse housing needs'' and responded to them with his Lenox Village (LV) in South Nashville, where he offers housing in the $90,000-$300,000 price range.
''You can have a single home with (two or) three generations of a family because many LV homes have 'bounce-back' above-garage apartments for recent college grads or aging parents,'' he said, noting that low-density zoning in cities like Brentwood and Franklin -- one unit and 1.7 units per acre, respectively -- ''puts a high burden on future generations that will maintain and operate these communities.'' It also separates classes economically, because service workers and others who make under $100,000 can't afford large-lot houses and have to live elsewhere.
Both cities allow office condos at 12 units per acre, creating jobs without housing to support these jobs, he stressed, observing, ''Workers are driving from other communities, and city officials complain about the main roads being clogged with traffic.''
In contrast, he is readying a $5.5 million four-story residential infill project, with underground parking, in West Nashville, and ''looking forward to moving into the core of the city'' with many other infills.
Asked about his recent visit to Oklahoma City, where he outlined TND issues, the developer commended its officials for ''looking to Nashville to find solutions for housing and planning problems,'' adding, ''It says a lot about Mayor Bill Purcell and Metro Planning Department Executive Director Rick Bernhardt and how they support New Urbanism/smart growth.''
A former president of the Homebuilders Association of Middle Tennessee, still holding its various key posts, the writer observes, the New Urbanism and smart growth advocate said his hypothetical dream job would be the Tennessee governorship. -- City Paper
5/11/2005
Resource(s): www.nashvillecitypaper.com/
New Urbanist Neighborhoods Off to Slow Start Near San Antonio's New Toyota Plant
Determined to ensure a traditional feel and 1940s look for new neighborhoods around the new Toyota plant in the city's southern section, San Antonio officials set strict New Urbanism requirements in their master plan for the area, but developers are slow to meet the challenge, with only one mixed-use commercial project under way so far, and the first residential developer to seek and get approval for his varied-type housing subdivision, Hausman Holdings Ltd. principal Harry Hausman, saying, ''I almost threw in the towel several times.''
His Hunter's Pond II subdivision, south of Palo Alto College, reports San Antonio Express-News business writer Adolfo Pesquera, will have single-family lots of different sizes between garden homes, duplexes and townhouses. It will also feature front porches, detached garages, alleys and a wide boulevard with a landscaped median.
But the developer had to spend $7.5 million for a three-quarter-mile extension of utility lines and for seven off-site acres to a build a second subdivision entrance. And since he obtained tax increment financing (TIF), he had to set aside extra land out of the 90-acre site for open space, by reducing the number of housing units from the 550 that would have been allowed elsewhere to 447.
As a result, he had to ask builders to pay about $5,000 more for his lots, which wasn't very popular. Nevertheless, the writer notes, ''Hausman has no doubts about the viability of the new urbanism mixed-use neighborhood.'' He attributes much of builders' reluctance to their lack of experience with the 1940s-style design. ''Tract builders have a set of plans that are all costed out,'' he explains. ''For them to change what they know is successful, they feel it's too much trouble.'' -- Express-News
4/15/2005
Resource(s): www.mysanantonio.com/
Utah DOT Considers Tolls for Lone Drivers Using HOV Lanes on I-15
''We want to move more people, not cars, and having managed lanes is one way to do this,'' pointed out Utah Department of Transportation (UDOT) Deputy Director Carlos Braceras, briefing lawmakers in the Transportation Interim Committee on the UDOT's almost-done Managed Lane Study, which examined the effectiveness of high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes, high-occupancy toll (HOT) lanes, and reversible lanes in other states, and the prospects for toll roads in Utah.
Calling the HOV lanes in use along I-15 in Salt Lake and Utah counties since 2001 ''very successful,'' especially for carpooling, he stressed that HOT lanes would also generate revenue for road construction and maintenance.
HOT lanes require lone drivers to pay a toll, while others may drive free, notes Salt Lake Tribune writer Andrew Weeks, reporting that the state Senate is looking at legislation (SB 25) that would allow such lanes, with a pilot lane possible in summer 2006.
''We are painfully aware of Utah's transportation needs,'' commented Republican Senator Sheldon Killpack. ''The thing is, there are always naysayers when you mention something like toll roads, but I believe we need to look at every option available to us, otherwise we're being very foolish.'' -- Salt Lake Tribune
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.sltrib.com/
University of Utah Receives Commuter Vision Award for Efforts to Reduce Car Use on Campus
In recognition of its early and constant efforts to lessen car-dependency among staff, students and visitors through greater use of Salt Lake City buses since 1987 and light rail since 2001, the Utah Department of Transportation (UTA) presented the 2005 Rideshare Commuter Vision Award to the University of Utah, with University President Michael K. Young proud of his school's success in promoting mass transit.
''We have many more people who commute to and from the university than we did 18 years ago, but there are far fewer cars,'' the president said at the award ceremony. ''We expect these trends to continue.''
Since 1987, the number of university students, faculty, staff and visitors has increased from 25,000 to more than 39,000, but about a quarter of them take bus or light rail and the reduction of the school's 14,600 parking spaces by almost 900 still leaves many available at most times of the day.
Initiated in 1991, the free UTA Education Pass for university students and employees, reports Salt Lake Tribune writer Andrew Weeks, is paid for through parking fees and valid for both bus and light rail. -- Salt Lake Tribune
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.sltrib.com/
Salt Lake City Envisions Pedestrian-Friendly District for Former Industrial Area
Having envisioned its south downtown transit hub as the anchor of a busy 24-hour neighborhood after 2008, Salt Lake City commissioned a transit-oriented development (TOD) study for the 19 adjacent blocks, and now will be gathering public input on the initial plan to transform the old industrial area into one of its most dense and pedestrian-friendly districts, with TRAX light rail, commuter train and extensive bus links.
''It's reorienting our thinking away from such reliance on the automobile to public transportation,'' says Mayor Rocky Anderson's hub project manager Mary Guy-Sell, glad that nearby property owners want to know all the development details in advance.
City residents are already familiar with some TOD features, the writer observes, mentioning street-level store fronts, parking lots behind buildings, and 10-acre blocks broken up with new streets. But the hub plan also includes new ideas, such as making the station a gathering place, with food, meeting rooms for business and perhaps a bowling alley.
What's more, the neighborhood could be better connected to residential areas west of Interstate 15, its old underpass enhanced with outdoor furniture, artwork and retail catering to pedestrians and bicyclists.
Downtown city planner Doug Dansie notes that developers are already advancing some TOD goals nearby. He points to the big mixed-use Gateway center, the remake of a paint warehouse into a development company headquarters, ongoing conversion of warehouses into lofts, and a hotel-office-retail project under way.
''I've heard comments, 'If you were looking to get in on the ground floor to make money (here), you're too late','' he tells the writer. ''Twenty years from now people will look at it and say, 'I'm surprised it was ever an industrial neighborhood.''
4/8/2005
Resource(s): www.sltrib.com/
Harvest Park's 100-Acre Mixed-Use Project Receives Top Honors at Envision Utah Governor's Quality Growth Awards
In the fifth annual round of the Envision Utah Governor's Quality Growth Awards, Republican Governor Jon Huntsman Jr., a former Envision Utah chairman, presented the 2005 Grand Achievement Award to Harvest Park Development in Mapleton, Utah County, for its mixed-use, pedestrian-friendly blueprint of the 100-acre project, which in five years will offer residents 500 neo-traditional homes, an elementary school, several small parks and 35 acres of green space.
''It will be quite a bit more dense than the rest of the city,'' said Mapleton Mayor Dean Allan, with architect and developer Jerry W. Robinson pointing out that his objective was to make Harvest Park resemble old Mapleton and inspire ''a sense of community.''
Robinson stressed the importance of architectural styles, colors, materials and outside vistas. There will be no cul-de-sacs, reports Provo Daily Herald writer Chris Peterson, noting that all homes will have a large front porch and garages in the back. And small lots, added the developer, will give ''an alternative to people who didn't want to maintain a couple of acres, which is typical for Mapleton.''
The governor, adds Salt Lake Tribune writer Matt Canham, also presented three Awards of Excellence, four Awards of Merit and three Quality Growth Commission awards for land conservation. Awards of Excellence went to West Valley City's proposed walkable City Center Vision community near a future light rail stop; to Park City's Rail Central Master Plan Development, which will restore an old building to commercial and residential uses; and to Midvale City's Bingham Junction Master Planned Development, which will reclaim a formerly contaminated Superfund site for a mixed-use project.
''This really does represent the theoretical that has been turned into applied,'' said Governor Huntsman, addressing all award recipients. ''We really salute you for your projects.'' -- Daily Herald, Salt Lake Tribune
5/21/2005
Resource(s): www.harktheherald.com ; www.sltrib.com/
Bennington Voters Reject Cap on Big-Box Stores After Tense Campaign
Having forced a special election, outspent ''smart growth'' advocates and used class face-off innuendos, foes of a four-month-old Bennington zoning bylaw that would have put a 75,000-square-foot cap on big-box stores, including a new Wal-Mart, gained the upper hand in a record turnout of 3,913 voters, defeating the cap by a nearly 56 percent margin.
''They can't afford to shop at L.L. Bean ... and Lord and Taylor,'' said former state Republican Representative Michael Silver about cap opponents, while former state Democratic Representative Richard Pembroke said he heard from many voters that they thought the cap would simply make Wal-Mart move its goods and tax dollars some seven miles west, to Hoosick, N.Y.
Wal-Mart wants to raze its 50,000-square-foot store and build a 112,000-square-foot one, with Ohio developer Jonathan Levy submitting a permit application just days before the Selectboard passed the size-cap last January, reports Rutland Herald writer Peter Crabtree. He notes that the bylaw, in the works for about three years, also required developers to fund community impact studies for projects larger than 30,000 square feet.
Cap foes argued that a larger Wal-Mart promises almost 150 new jobs and some $100,000 more in property taxes. On the other side, Citizens for a Greater Bennington and the Vermont Preservation Trust warned voters that an expanded Wal-Mart poses a threat to small local businesses, which will cause a net loss of jobs and tax revenue.
''I'm sure there's a compromise out there somewhere,'' said disappointed Selectboard Chairwoman Sharyn Brush after the vote. ''We'll just have to find out what it is.''
Preservation Trust coordinator Margaret Campbell restated support for smart growth, voicing optimism. ''We're not giving up,'' she stressed. ''We'll be there helping the community come up with the best large retail bylaw that we can.'' -- Rutland Herald
4/6/2005
Resource(s): www.timesargus.com/
Vermont's Governor Shifts Policy Priorities Away from Affordable Housing to Job Creation
In a sudden shakeup of policies set mainly under Vermont Democratic governors, Republican Governor Jim Douglas' administration changed the top priority of the ''consolidated housing plan'' from home affordability to job creation and left out some of its previous anti-sprawl language, with Housing Vermont nonprofit finance group member Kenn Sassorossi concerned about the arbitrariness of the changes and Vermont Affordable Housing Coalition spokesman Erhard Mahnke alarmed by the omission of a promise that the Department of Housing and Community Affairs ''will generally not support projects that constitute sprawl.''
Under federal HUD regulations, the department must substantially rewrite the housing plan every five years and make minor changes annually, reports Associated Press writer David Gram in the Barre Times-Argus, quoting Commissioner John Hall, who expects the plan's annual funding of $12 million to decline in years ahead, defends the planned shift of $8 million from affordable housing to job creation, and explains the lack of some key phrases in the almost-completed draft by the need to shorten the 150-page document.
''There are two components to affordable housing,'' he observes, naming unit prices and personal incomes, the latter dependent on jobs. He also argues that ''(i)f everything's a priority nothing's a priority,'' but notes that the draft will be worked on till May 20 and promises to heed some of public input.
Draft critics, the writer adds, see the housing crisis as the most harmful, pointing out that the state's unemployment rate has long stayed below the national average, but some working people can't find housing in their income bracket and must live in emergency shelters. -- Times-Argus
4/8/2005
Resource(s): www.timesargus.com/
Rep. Davis Could Seek Congressional Intervention to Scale Back Fairfax County Transit-Oriented Project
Having settled last spring in suburban Vienna, Fairfax County, a few miles from the planned 56-acre Fairlee-MetroWest mini-city, Northern Virginia Republican Representative and House Committee on Government Reform Chairman Thomas M. Davis III told a local crowd of plan foes that he will use his position to make Pulte Homes scale back its high-density, transit-oriented project as overwhelming nearby roads, the capital Metro's Orange line and the larger area, including his single-family neighborhood.
He wants to intervene through legislation attached to the upcoming $1.5 billion capital spending bill, reports Washington Post writer Lisa Rein, quoting the Congressman, who rejects strong criticism from Fairfax County supervisors, saying, ''I'm sorry, but unfortunately, the Congress of the United States has jurisdiction over Metro. The Board of Supervisors doesn't.''
His legislation, the writer observes, would bar Metro from the sale or lease of 3.2 acres next to its area Orange line station, which would force Pulte Homes to redraw the MetroWest plan and bring it again before the county board.
On a public task force's recommendation, the board approved the plan unanimously in December and now members are more than upset. ''All of us need to be careful in public life that we're not legislating our personal pet peeves just because we can.'' said Board Democratic Chairman Gerald E. Connolly. ''I think it's unfortunate that there would be a threat from Congress to intervene with local land use.''
Democratic Supervisors Linda Q. Smyth and T. Dana Kauffman, also the Metro board chairman, concur, the latter noting that Congressman Davis' move ''might get him short-term points,'' but undermines the smart-growth goal of reducing car dependency. Yet Pulte Homes Vice President Stan Settle remains determined. ''We're in the business of building homes,'' he said, ''and the project's going to be built.'' -- Washington Post
4/21/2005
Resource(s): www.washingtonpost.com/
Lieutenant Governor Kaine Suggest Virginia Work with Localities to Discourage Large Home Lots, Prevent Sprawl
Virginia Democratic Lieutenant Governor Timothy M. Kaine -- a former civil-rights lawyer and Richmond mayor, and the presumptive party gubernatorial candidate this November -- told students at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville that the state should work with localities on incentives or controls to discourage large home lots, because such lots perpetuate sprawl and ''make it harder for a teacher or a firefighter or a policeman to live in the jurisdiction where they work.''
In his address to the ''Introduction to American Politics'' class, taught by scholar and political commentator Larry J. Sabato, reports Richmond Times-Dispatch writer Tyler Whitely, the lieutenant governor pledged a pro-business administration, pointing out that the likely Republican contender in the gubernatorial race, former state Attorney General Jerry W. Kilgore, ''has not done any economic development deals.''
Having challenged the Republican -- scheduled to address the class a week later -- to monthly debates until the election, he expressed pride in the Democratic commitment to diversity. ''As I go into Democratic meetings all across the state, the one thing I know is,'' he said, ''that it's going to be a diverse group, white, black, rich, poor, young, old'' -- all people ''who aren't afraid of Americans who come here from other countries, who aren't afraid of people with other skin colors.'' -- Times-Dispatch
4/5/2005
Resource(s): www.timesdispatch.com/
Wisconsin Legislators Strike Blow Against Smart Growth in Vote to Repeal State Law
Prodded by rural area Republican Representatives Dan Meyer and David Ward, the legislative Joint Finance Committee working on the 2005-07 budget voted 10-6 to repeal the state's 1999 Smart Growth law and eliminate its annual $2 million in aid for local governments that are preparing comprehensive long-range land use and development plans required by 2010.
According to 1000 Friends of Wisconsin, reports Milwaukee Journal Sentinel writer Walters, about 40 percent of local communities have been participating in the smart-growth planning process. ''You're dictating it from the top,'' argued Representative Meyer, former Eagle River mayor.
Smart Growth, echoed Representative Ward, forces local officials to plan ''with a gun to their head.''
Joint Finance Committee Co-chairman, Republican Senator Scott Fitzgerald noted that in Dodge County, where he comes from, officials think the Smart Growth law is ''anything but smart,'' because instead of letting communities plan at their own pace, it treats them all the same. ''Let's allow development to be controlled at the local level,'' he added.
Lawmakers from Milwaukee and Madison opposed the move to kill the law, with Democratic Representative Mark Pocan pointing out it would spur ''helter-skelter'' development throughout rural areas. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett's chief of staff Pat Curley said repeal of the law would ''toss out the window'' five years of work by many communities on joint growth and transportation programs.
''If (legislators) are not for Smart Growth, are they for 'dumb' growth?'' he asked, stressing that Democratic Governor Jim Doyle should veto the repeal provision if the full legislature keeps it in the budget bill sent for his signature. Gubernatorial aide Melanie Fonder said the governor believes the Smart Growth law has helped stem sprawl and will try to keep it alive. -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
5/11/2005
Resource(s): www.jsonline.com/
Criticism Mounts Over Elimination of Wisconsin's Smart Growth Law
In the two weeks since conservative Republican lawmakers in the Joint Finance Committee engineered its 10-6 vote to eliminate the 1999 Smart Growth law as part of the state's 2005-07 budget, criticism of the move has steadily mounted, with Democratic Governor Jim Doyle telling the Wisconsin Radio Network the law leaves development in local hands and repealing it would take the state in the wrong direction, and with similar objections voiced by local, environmental and real estate officials.
''It's one of the best ways to get people involved in the planning process,'' said Onalaska Town Chairman Dave Paudler about the law, while land-use and development director Jason Gilman pointed out that it ''gives all municipalities a very strong basis for comprehensive planning.''
Like two other La Crosse County communities, Holmen and La Crosse, reports Onalaska Community Life writer Paul Sloth, the town has almost completed its comprehensive land-use and development plan, required by the Smart Growth law by 2010, and now is beginning to seek public input on the draft. Chairman Paulder, who also heads the town planning commission, observed that even though the law's opponents aren't very vocal or very organized, they try online to incite lawmakers against Smart Growth.
1000 Friends of Wisconsin, the writer notes, issued a statement urging lawmakers to keep the law alive, an appeal echoed by the Wisconsin Realtors Association (WRA). ''Good planning is critical to protecting Wisconsin's quality of life and enhancing our local economies,'' said WRA President William Malkasian in his statement. ''If communities fail to plan effectively for new growth and development, they will be unprepared to take advantage of the new economic development opportunities as they become available.'' -- Onalaska Community Life
5/20/2005
Resource(s): www.wrn.com/site/index.cfm ; www.onalaskalife.com/
Newspaper Blasts Wisconsin Legislators for Rhetoric Over Smart Growth Law
Taken aback by the legislative Joint Finance Committee's 10-6 vote against the state's 1999 Smart Growth law, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel laughs at the law's three main Republican foes, Representatives Dan Meyer and David Ward and Senator Scott Fitzgerald, for ''an entertaining array of fanciful claims'' about forcing local governments to plan their future, calling these claims ''overblown rhetoric intended to cloud the issue.''
The vote came with little discussion, says the daily's editorial, quoting equally upset Republican Representative Sheryl Albers, whose press release revealed that the matter was decided in ''not more than a few hours'' and that ''the explanatory note accompanying the motion wasn't even an accurate reflection of current law.''
The law, the editorial reminds the foes, requires local communities only to adopt comprehensive long-range land use and development plans by 2010, while creating such plans openly with broad public involvement, which doesn't negate but ensures local control.
The law tells communities to address some elements but ''not what to do'' about them -- it ''does not require communities to provide a certain amount of green space or allow specific kinds of development or bar other kinds of development.'' And since no community exists as an island and since whatever one does has an impact on some others, the editorial continues, ''(p)lanning together to create communities that serve all citizens is a matter of simple common sense, not a matter of Big Brother government.''
In fact, the editorial points out, ''the real Big Brother here appears to be the state legislators who prefer making deals and decisions about this budget behind closed doors, with little or no public debate.''
Glad that Democratic Governor Jim Doyle is expected to try to keep the Smart Growth program intact, the editorial says he will need help, concluding, ''We hope that smart legislators on both sides of the aisle will vote in the interest of their constituents and provide that help.'' -- Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
5/15/2005
Resource(s): www.jsonline.com/
Current, Former Officials Debate Repeal of Wisconsin's Planning Law
''If Republicans were to do a poll and ask people whether its's appropriate to do long-term land-use planning, they'd probably find most people are in favor of it,'' commented former Republican Governor Tommy Thompson's state Administration Secretary Mark Bugher on the legislative Joint Finance Committee's sudden 10-6 vote to repeal the 1999 Smart Growth planning law, calling the law ''a classic example of Republicans and Democrats, environmentalists and business people working together on a problem facing this state.''
The law, notes Madison Capital Times writer David Callender, requires local jurisdictions to have comprehensive land-use plans by 2010 and observe them in development decisions, providing $2 million in annual state grants to craft and adopt the plans.
''It was one of the most important pieces of legislation passed by the Thompson administration, real landmark land-use legislation,'' said Secretary Bugher, head of a state task force that envisioned the law and now director of the University of Wisconsin Research Park in Madison.
Joint Finance Committee Co-chairman, Republican Senator Scott Fitzgerald, responded that in 1999 most lawmakers felt the need to prompt action on the local level and ''to put incentives together to lure people into planning,'' but now local officials just want to ''grab cash for stuff they're going to do anyway,'' without state help. ''It's just one of those programs that -- people hear 'Smart Growth' and it makes them feel good,'' he argued. ''But it's not really having an impact on anything.''
Madison Mayor Dave Cieslewicz and Dane County Executive Kathleen Falk, the writer reports, countered that view. ''This is not stuff that communities would be doing anyway because before the law, they weren't doing it,'' stressed Mayor Cieslewicz, who helped draft the law when he led 1,000 Friends of Wisconsin, calling the committee's vote ''a huge setback and a big step in the wrong direction.''
Dane County Executive Falk credited the law for bringing the area's rural and municipal leaders together and helping them end a protracted battle over farmland development. And since the law promotes inter-jurisdictional agreements on future growth, she pointed out, ''people see this as at least an opportunity to talk to their neighbors and try to resolve things.'' -- Capital Times
5/17/2005
Resource(s): www.madison.com/
Editorial Sees Need for Balance Between Wisconsin's Smart Growth Law Proponents, Critics
''Abrupt cancellation of Smart Growth planning would disrespect what's already been done'' since 1999, warns a Beloit Daily News editorial, agreeing with the law's critics that some local governments may not see the need for comprehensive plans by 2010, but also confirming the obvious environmental and economic value of regional planning, although ''it may make more sense in more densely populated area such as southern Wisconsin, (where Beloit is), than in remote regions of the north.''
Smart Growth opponents ''want growth issues to be handled without interference from the state,'' the editorial says, noting that since development ''depends on money put up by private investors'' and since some who are ready ''to build a factory, a distribution center, a discount department store or a restaurant'' may not be receptive to investment instructions, ''(e)xcessively restrictive planning can take a community right out of the development game.''
At the same time, the state must care about its multi-billion-dollar tourism business. ''Environmental stewardship is not a nuisance in Wisconsin. It's a way of life,'' the editorial stresses. ''Perhaps what is needed is a third way,'' it remarks, ''somewhere between what some see as oppressively restrictive requirements and the abrupt cancellation of the Smart Growth program.'' -- Beloit Daily News
5/13/2005
Resource(s): www.beloitdailynews.com/
Despite Endorsements for Teton Village Mixed-Use Expansion Plan, County Commissioners Reject Latest Offering
After two years of hot public debate and quiet negotiations over a Teton Village mixed-use expansion plan, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance welcomed Snake River Associates' (SRA) adjustments -- an increase of open from 1,116 to 1,302 acres, a reduction of the clustered housing on 510 acres from 477 to 450 units, and conservation easements for adjacent land -- as meeting ''minimum standards of 'smart growth','' but the five-member Teton County Board of Commissioners split along party lines against the project, with three ''no'' votes cast by Republicans Leland Christensen, Jim Darwiche and Larry Jorgenson.
Democrats Mike Gierau and Andy Schwartz voted ''yes,'' agreeing with environmentalists and planning commissioners that the changes bring the resort expansion plan in line with principles of smart growth and the guidelines of the county's comprehensive plan. All together, the project would include 81,000 square feet of commercial space, parks, walking paths, skier parking, an 18-hole golf course and other facilities, with 186 of the planned housing units affordable for lower-income residents and resort employees.
Before the latest series of hearings, the Jackson Hole Conservation Alliance's Community Planning Director Christine Walker wrote in a Planet Jackson Hole guest opinion that compared to the alternatives, the SRA proposal ''creates a good balance between the rights of the community and the rights of private property owners.''
After the vote, a project opponent from the Committee to Save Historic Jackson Hole, fourth-generation resident Darrel Hoffman, said the group knows growth must happen, but wants to see ''serious open space,'' not another golf course.
But resort vice president Jack Lewis blasted the 3-2 vote against the project as a ''travesty,'' calling the three Republican naysayers ''myopic.'' He added, ''It is amazing to me to think that when the Alliance, chamber of commerce, every review board in this community, both town and county, could come to the same conclusion that this was the right thing to do, and then to have three commissioners vote the way they did, I thought was totally irresponsible.'' -- Planet Jackson Hole
5/21/2005
Resource(s): www.jhzone.com/index.cfm ; www.planetjh.com/
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