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Anchorage Planners Propose Reducing Minimum Parking Requirements
''Getting rid of excess parking saves cash and land,'' points out an Anchorage Daily News editorial in support of a city planning department proposal to reduce parking requirements to a rational real-use level, because recent sample counts of vehicles and empty spaces for condos and apartment houses at night and for offices during the day showed their large lots only partly filled.
As examples, the editorial cites an upscale apartment building required to provide 163 spaces though 90 would be enough and would cut construction costs by $3 million, and a complex with 137 spaces instead of 102, which would save its builder $245,000.
Finding similar underused lots at office buildings, planners want to make the parking requirements more neighborhood-oriented and flexible, including reduction of spaces for one-bedroom apartments from 1.7 to 1 per unit, and for some large retailers from 3.3 to 1.7 spaces per 1,000 square feet of floor.
In downtown Anchorage, where drivers can park on streets or in garages, businesses don't have to provide their own parking, the editorial notes, quoting city planner Tom Davis, who said that otherwise parking rules reflect ''a 1980s notion that one size fits all, whether you are on a transit route, near downtown or way out in South Anchorage.''
The editorial lists four key reasons for parking reduction.
It's less costly for builders, with the planner stressing that at $5,000 to $8,000 per lot space and $25,000 to $40,000 per garage space, parking accounts for 10 to 30 percent of housing costs.
It's also better for the environment since concrete increases runoff and drainage problems; better for pedestrian and cyclists, who don't have to traverse or evade a sea of asphalt; and better for the eyes, tired of its grayish dullness.
It is time for change, the editorial says, noting that the Anchorage Assembly will consider the proposal this summer, and concluding, ''The planning department has demonstrated we need a lot less asphalt than the city code now requires.'' -- Anchorage Daily News
6/21/2009
Resource(s): www.adn.com/
''Stars Aligning for Smart Growth,'' Says Greenbelt Alliance Chief
''I see the stars aligning for smart growth. At the federal, state and local levels, we are increasingly seeing a willingness to use legislation to encourage smart growth,'' said San Francisco-based Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director Jeremy Madsen, telling some 220 sustainability advocates and a panel of experts at a downtown forum that the nine-county Bay Area ''could create a model metropolis'' as it grows from 7 to 9 million, adds 1.7 million jobs and cuts greenhouse gas emissions by 2035 -- its way to the long-term economic, social and environmental success set forth in the alliance's new report, ''Grow Smart Bay Area.''
The report shows, notes San Francisco Chronicle writer Robert Selna, that the area can prevent sprawl and accommodate most growth on some 40,000 vacant or underutilized lots -- including 100 ''priority'' sites -- usually along key transit corridors and near services.
''We should focus on development where jobs, amenities and transportation already exist,'' stressed Director Madsen, pointing that even municipalities already on a smart-growth path can step up their efforts.
He called on local leaders to increase development density, make streets easy for cyclists and pedestrians, reduce parking, involve residents in the planning process, create urban growth boundaries and other safeguards against sprawl, and invest in municipal infrastructure, including transit and parks.
''There is no way to reverse climate change without going after how we get around,'' commented Greenbelt Alliance Field Representative (Marin and Sonoma counties) Whitney Merchant. ''The most effective way to do that is to let people who live in Marin work in Marin. That means more workforce housing in the county.''
Details at www.greenbelt.org and www.growsmartbayarea.org. -- San Francisco Chronicle, Contra Costa Times
6/11/2009
Resource(s): www.sfgate.com/ ; www.contracostatimes.com/
Highlands' Garden Village Hailed as Model for Economic Growth, Environmental Sustainability
Its compact mix of uses, diversified housing, environmental sensitivity and pedestrian-friendly layout having earned it the EPA 2005 National Award for Smart Growth Achievement in the Overall Excellence category and the Urban Land Institute 2007 Award of Excellence for creative land use and design, the 27-acre Highlands' Garden Village complex on a former amusement park site in northwest Denver has now been spotlighted by EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson as an example of President Obama's vision of urban development and less-car dependent lifestyles.
''Today President Obama called for America to lead the world in the clean energy future -- and that leadership begins in our communities. The planning, energy innovation and efficiency at Highlands' Garden Village provide a local model for economic growth and environmental sustainability that can happen all around the world,'' Administrator Jackson said on a village tour with Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) leaders, and developer Chuck Perry, Managing Member of Perry Rose, LLC, an affiliate of Jonathan Rose Companies. ''Our national transition to clean energy -- including sustainable communities -- can create millions of jobs, give us global leadership in the clean energy industry, and provide the security of real energy independence.''
With and near stores and services, just five miles from downtown Denver, and easily reachable on bus or bike, Highlands' Garden Village has 306 housing units: single-family and carriage homes, townhouses, live-work lofts, co-housing condos, and mixed-income and senior apartments -- 25 and 40 percent of each apartment type, respectively, reserved for renters making less than half and less than 60 percent of the city's median income.
Also incorporating recycled construction materials, energy-efficiency features and water-efficient appliances, pointed out Mayor Hickenlooper, the village shows ''that sustainability and economic development can go hand in hand,'' and that ''we can create an alternative to urban sprawl and reduce greenhouse gas emissions without sacrificing our quality of life.''
This community, he added, ''helps us mold public sentiment -- it is a livable city that helps us move away from relying on bigger and wider highways.''
Developer Chuck Perry echoed these remarks.
''America is going to grow by 90 million people over the next 40 years. We can either grow by sprawl, destroying the environment and diluting the economy, or we can grow by more compact urban infill. Highlands' Garden Village was created by Jonathan Rose Companies as a model to demonstrate that garden-filled, mixed-use, mixed-income urban infill has strong market appeal,'' he said, adding that the companies are working with the EPA, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) ''on policies to coordinate and target federal, state and local investment to promote smart growth.''
Click here for more on EPA Smart Growth Awards winners since 2002, including Highlands' Garden Village. -- Denver Post, Denver Daily News, Denver Business Journal, U.S. EPA
6/24/2009
Resource(s): www.denverpost.com/ ; www.thedenverdailynews.com/
Public Applauds South Fork SmartCode Zoning
The spectacular San Louis Valley scenery of mountains and national forests has been a magnet sextupling South Fork's population to some 4,000 in recent summers, but the recession hurts local businesses and the stubbornly speculative prices of empty lots delay commercial development, with Mayor Larry Heersink and the Board of Trustees, reports South Fork Tines writer Stan Moyer, expecting to spur private investment in and within the 1,500-foot radius of the planned Wharton Town Center through its newly adopted SmartCode zoning ordinance, a decision greeted by ''enthusiastic (and loud) public applause.''
Their firm chosen last year by the South Fork Vision Council and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs to conduct a three-day design charrette and use the input to draw up the town center plan, Salida-based Crabtree Group President Paul Crabtree and Project Manager Joe DeLuca called the SmartCode adoption the first ''initiated by a municipality'' in Colorado.
Nevertheless, the writer observes, the Colorado Department of Transportation expressed concerns about some of the development details, specifically about the planned access to State Highway 149 and US 160, and about intersection spacing, with state traffic engineer James B. Horn notifying the town it needs to change a few elements, apply for access permits, and prepare a traffic impact study. -- South Fork Tines
6/19/2009
Resource(s): www.southforktines.com/V2_main_page.php
Editorials Slam Gov. Crist for Signing Pro-Developer Bill
Frustrated like most other newspapers by Governor Charlie Crist's signature under a bill certain to cripple Florida planning and anti-sprawl efforts (SB 360), the St. Petersburg Times told him he ''clearly values the voices of developers and big business -- and their campaign checks for his U.S. Senate campaign -- over the concerns of environmentalists and local governments,'' while Melbourne Florida Today said this Community Renewal Act ''should really be called the 'Pave Paradise And Put Up Another Parking Lot Act' because it eviscerated 25 years of growth management laws that required builders to pay their fair share for roads and protected the environment.''
Noting broad recognition that ''transportation concurrency is unnecessary in urban settings such as downtown St. Petersburg or Tampa'' and that ''the Development of Regional Impact (DRI) process was too cumbersome and needed an overhaul,'' the St. Petersburg Times editorial pointed out that the new law ''goes well beyond any reasonable definition of urban and will end transportation concurrency in small towns and suburbia,'' and that elimination of the entire DRI review will leave ''communities adjacent to giant projects outside their own boundaries with little recourse for coping with the fallout.''
Dismayed by this ''free pass'' for developers, the editorial calls the bill enactment ''one of the most serious mistakes Crist has made since taking office in 2007,'' and also ''at odds'' with most of his record.
''The governor who appointed growth management expert Tom Pelham to head the Department of Community Affairs has just eviscerated growth management,'' the editorial concluded. ''The champion of restoring the Everglades has just endorsed urban sprawl. And the booster of better mass transit and visionary rail systems has just become Governor Gridlock.''
The Florida Today editorial took the political implication further.
''The measure was pushed by the development industry, which used the recession as a smoke screen to claim it was needed to remove restrictions that stymied construction and hurt Florida's economy,'' the editorial said. ''But that's nonsense because the laws didn't stop the over-development that led to the collapse of the state's housing market, with 300,000 housing units sitting vacant and development plans already approved for 630,000 more.'' -- St. Petersburg Times, Florida Today
6/3/2009
Resource(s): www.sptimes.com/home.shtml ; www.floridatoday.com/
Panel Reviews, Offers Advice on Volusia/Brevard County Land-Use Amendment
Although Miami Corporation has no immediate need to develop some of its long-owned 59,000 acres south of Edgewater in Volusia County and in northern Brevard County -- known as Farmton and now used for tree farming, grazing and hunting -- its officials are already seeking changes to both counties' comprehensive plans for an eventual mixed-use development in line with smart growth, concerned that the Florida Hometown Democracy group, despite counteraction by business-based Floridians for Smarter Growth and 130 other organizations, may force a November 2010 ballot on a state constitutional amendment to make such government-approved changes dependent on local referendums.
If that happens and if area voters were to bar any comprehensive plan changes for greater density, ''then we're stuck with ranchettes,'' said Miami Corporation local attorney Glenn Storch at a recent all-day public forum, held at the Daytona State College campus in New Smyrna Beach. The current Farmton land-use designation, he explained, allows 1,600 to 4,692 housing units; the proposed change would leave half of the land, or almost 30,000 acres, for permanent conservation, while ensuring higher density on the other half -- up to 29,500 dwellings and 4 million square feet of business and commercial space, with initial development mostly in the tract's northern sector, south of Edgewater, and nothing else projected until after 2025.
At the forum, report DeLand-Deltona Beacon writer Pat Hatfield and Daytona Beach News-Journal writer Dinah Voyles Pulver, company representatives sought and got both advice and criticism from a nine-expert panel, led by former Florida Department of Community Affairs (DCA) Secretaries Jim Murley and Steve Siebert, and from the audience, including many county and municipal officials.
The panelists liked the land conservation efforts, advised the company to set up a ''stewardship council'' involving area communities in long-term development oversight, stressed the need for overall clear design and sustainability standards, and called for plan details, especially on water and wastewater systems, energy efficiency, transportation and schools.
Florida ecology expert Richard Hilsenbeck, conservation director for the state chapter of the Nature Conservancy, pointed out that since the Farmton tract abounds in wetlands unsuitable for development, they should be excluded from calculations of its prospective residential density, and that its wildlife corridors would not only cross roads, but also be too narrow and too wet for bears and other large animals.
The company's proposal will go to local planning agencies and the Volusia Planning and Land Development Regulation Commission in August, after which it would need approval from the Volusia County Council and Brevard County Commission, and eventually from the Florida Department of Community Affairs.
More about the proposal and the fight over the state constitutional amendment ballot at www.farmtontreefarm.com/news-mc-comp-plan.html, www.florida2010.org and www.floridahometowndemocracy.com. -- Beacon, News-Journal
6/6/2009
Resource(s): www.beacononlinenews.com/ ; www.news-journalonline.com/local.htm
Gov. Crist Signs Controversial Community Renewal Act
A month-long campaign by local governments, public interest groups and the media against enactment of Senate Bill (SB) 360 -- the Community Renewal Act, which exempts many projects from the state's transportation concurrency requirement and Development of Regional Impact (DRI) review -- had only one effect: Republican Governor Charlie Crist signed the bill in private instead at a photo event, with the Florida Chamber of Commerce grateful for his ''courage'' to resist ''a last minute push to politicize smart growth,'' and with a disappointed 1000 Friends of Florida ready to gather opponents in work on strategies ''to promote smart growth within the new parameters.''
In a ''terse'' announcement, news writers note, the governor's press office said the bill does five things to stimulate the economy and create jobs.
It ''incentivizes entrepreneurs'' for economic development in designated urban areas; prescribes ''a study of a mobility fee system'' to replace lost developer transportation-impact fees; extends the validity of current development permits for two years; changes affordable housing programs ''to ensure affordable homes'' for the needy, including young adults who leave the state foster care system; and ''encourages green building and storm resistant construction.''
The next day, Tallahassee Area Chamber of Commerce Growth Management Committee Chairman Todd H. Sperry and 1000 Friends of Florida President Charles Pattison continued the debate about the prospective results in their Tallahassee Democrat guest opinions, the former assuring readers that the bill ''keeps decisions at a local level,'' the latter warning that taxpayers ''will feel the cost of sprawl.''
Calling the governor's signature ''a step in the right direction,'' the chamber official and an Oliver Renovation and Construction partner wrote that through ''concurrency-exclusion zones in urban areas,'' the new law will help steer construction to areas like Tallahassee, without affecting land use in surrounding Leon County.
The definition of an urban area as one with 1,000 residents per square mile (640 acres) ''was not picked arbitrarily,'' but taken from the Federal Census Bureau, and it means a square mile with all non-residential uses, including right of ways, commercial and industrial space, schools, universities, government property, and parks, he noted, considering interpretation of its density as roughly one house per acre ''very misleading.''
Elimination of the concurrency mandate ''gives more control to our local government'' on growth and transportation, he asserted, expecting the city to become ''more creative with mass transit, bike and pedestrian-friendly design'' and to allow development ''where it makes sense and not just where road capacity exists.''
If the bill were so economically advantageous as supporters claim, countered 1000 Friends President Pattison, it would not have been opposed by the Florida League of Cities and the Florida Association of Counties, which joined many other organizations and most major newspapers in a call for the governor's veto.
Its ''good stated intent'' to spur jobs and economic recovery through development in ''dense urban land areas'' with incentives such as waivers for transportation concurrency and regional impact review, he pointed out, was eroded by the qualifying ''1,000 people/square mile'' density standard, which automatically qualifies 245 cities and eight counties, with all others allowed to designate some areas for the same rule rollback.
''For the Tallahassee area, this new law would mean that projects inside our urban services area, such as Fallschase, Welaunee Plantation and SouthWood, would have paid no road-improvement costs,'' he explained. ''Unless the public wants to pay, all of those impacted roads will only get more congested.''
Similarly, the job-creation argument ignores ''the current backlog of more than 300,000 vacant dwelling units,'' with hundreds of thousands more approved in addition to millions of square feet of commercial and institutional space.
''Relaxing growth controls has nothing to do with 'creating' jobs -- the jobs are there, and the projects are ready to go, but the financing is missing,'' he observed, also concerned that despite the ''positive'' community land-trust language in a broad affordable-housing amendment, ''unnecessary limitations on new affordable-housing developers'' remain, together with other obstacles to better growth.
''What was intended as a scalpel for some selective, focused growth-management improvements turned into a sledgehammer with many unintended consequences,'' he concluded. ''Think of it as a 'tax' either falling onto taxpayers to cover what should be legitimate developer costs or a further decline in our quality of life, which is already strained.''
More at www.1000friendsofflorida.org/reform/09session.asp. -- Tallahassee Democrat, Florida Chamber of Commerce, 1000 Friends of Florida
6/1/2009
Resource(s): www.flgov.com/ ; www.flchamber.com/
Honolulu Hosts Rail Symposium, Prepares for Bidding on Elevated Rail Line
''Every $1 invested in public transportation projects generates approximately $6 in local economic activity,'' says a five-company Honolulu Rail for Growth team on its just-launched web site, ready for international bidding on a $250 million contract to supply train cars and systems for Honolulu's 20-mile elevated rail line -- arching from East Kapolei northwest to Waipahu, then southwest through downtown Honolulu to Ala Moana -- which the city will build in phases between late 2012 and late 2018.
Led by Sumitomo Corporation of America, reports Honolulu Advertiser writer Sean Hao, the Honolulu Rail for Growth team includes Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, KinkiSharyo International, Thales Transport & Security and Wasa Electrical Services.
The other bidding competitors that showcased their products and technology during the third annual Honolulu Rail Transit Symposium on the planned rail included Montreal, Canada-headquartered Bombardier, the world's largest train and business aircraft maker, and Italian corporation Ansaldo Breda, with a French entrant, Alston Transport, also possible.
''We are thrilled to be participating in this bid,'' said Sumitomo Corporation of America vice president of transportation systems and equipment Gino Antoniello, ''and believe very strongly that we bring a unique mix of expertise and proven experience to this landmark project in Hawaii's history.''
Reviewing transit benefits on its Honolulu project web site, the team says commuters taking the future rail could reduce their individual carbon (CO2) emissions by 4,800 pounds per year, ''equal to a 10 percent reduction in a two-car household's footprint,'' with each family saving ''roughly $935 per month in transportation costs,'' which means more than $11,000 a year in its regained disposable income.
Since each train can carry 300 passengers while running every three minutes during rush hours, which amounts to taking 200 cars off the roads every three minutes and accounts for some 34,000 fewer cars in use each day.
As a result, the state will cut tailpipe emissions, ease traffic and conserve energy.
At the same time transit-oriented development around and near rail stations will provide varied-income housing and spur business creation and expansion, with 11,000 jobs created over the next eight years alone and more later. All this ensures growing ridership and cost-effectiveness.
The city envisions eventual extensions of the line to the international airport, Waikiki, University of Hawaii-Manoa, and Kalaeloa, expecting ridership to reach 30,000 a day by 2030.
More at http://honolulurailforgrowth.com and www.honolulutransit.org. -- Honolulu Advertiser
6/24/2009
Resource(s): www.honoluluadvertiser.com/
Land Use Workshops Reach Out to Louisiana Communities
Having put its new Louisiana Land Use Toolkit online, the Baton Rouge-based Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) took it on a ten-workshop road show across the state in the past two months, during which CPEX Planning Director Camille Manning-Broome, Roadshow Manager Bennett Hilley and other experts familiarized more than 700 parish (county) and municipal officials, real estate professionals and activists with the requirements and basic implementation of smart growth and sustainability in different local contexts and according to local priorities.
''A valuable resource to Louisiana communities that are feeling the pinch of sprawling, uncontrolled development that isn't compatible with historic growth patterns,'' pointed out Director Manning-Broome, the toolkit can help community leaders ''make fair and predictable development decisions, save on infrastructure costs, protect property values, preserve rural landscapes and encourage attractive, walkable neighborhoods.''
Funded by the Louisiana Department of Economic Development (LED), with the ten introductory workshops made possible by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), the 214-page toolkit defines and meticulously explains given land character and related zoning categories with graduated development density and complexity -- from entirely natural, with only rudimentary agricultural use possible, through rural, estate, suburban and urban to downtown-type center, leaving as a special category uses otherwise difficult to fit into other contexts, such as heavy industrial, institutional, civic or conservation.
The CPEX posted the toolkit online alongside a User Guide, which facilitates direct access to toolkit sections that may be especially important for some visitors.
For example, the CPEX says, those interested in bicycling ''would find links to bicycle-friendly streets, bicycle parking requirements,'' and other related details throughout the text.
The toolkits' importance can't be overstated.
Reporting from the first toolkit road show workshop, in Gonzales on April 15, Baton Rouge Advocate writer John McMillan quoted Austin, Texas-based Code Studio Principal Lee Einsweiler, a consultant on an Ascension Parish master plan being drafted by Boulder, Colorado-based Winston Associates, who said, ''Louisiana is behind the rest of the country in development standards.''
Mentioning insufficient housing and neighborhood variety, he added, ''There is a need for attractive and walkable communities.''
A draft version of the Louisiana Land Use Toolkit is available online at www.landusetoolkit.com/.
See also www.code-studio.com and www.winstonassociates.com. -- Advocate
6/3/2009
Resource(s): www.planningexcellence.org ; www.2theadvocate.com/
Ascension Parish Launches Process for New Long-Term Master Plan
Its 2003 plan still timely in some respects, but guidelines and infrastructure too scant for Ascension Parish (county) to maintain its key assets -- rural character, good schools, petrochemical industry, and Mississippi River access -- as it grows from 90,500 residents in 2005 to 196,000 by 2030, reports Baton Rouge Advocate contributor Aaron E. Looney, parish leaders launched a new master plan process to meet long-term land-use, transportation, service, environmental and other needs, with Parish President Tommy Martinez stressing, ''Smart growth is big on the agenda for me.''
The process, led by Boulder, Colorado-based Winston Associates consultants, and helped by Baton Rouge's Center for Planning Excellence (CPEX) and the parish's 23-member Master Plan Support Committee, co-chaired by Chamber of Commerce President Sherrie Despino and planning and zoning official Alan Krause, will include a series of 12 public input sessions, beginning in early August.
''We plan to have a large public involvement process,'' said Winston Associates principal Jeff Winston. We're going to try our best to reach out to everyone in the parish.''
CPEX Director of Planning Camille Manning-Broome called the parish well positioned for success, thanks to its ''great leadership,'' broad-based support committee, and planning director, a position absent in many communities her center helps.
Earlier this year, Advocate writer John McMillan reported that Parish President Martinez and Planning Director Ricky Compton aim for new zoning codes, a comprehensive sewer system, better roads and traffic flow, expanded green space, and more development within infrastructure and service areas, seeking both a smart-growth plan and the right ordinance for its implementation.
Parish Chief Administrative Officer Cedric Grant expects the plan to be completed next year. -- Advocate
6/16/2009
Resource(s): www.2theadvocate.com/
Montgomery County Planners Recommend Incentives for Infill Projects
''There is no room left for large single-family home tracts, nor is the market for such growth the same as it was just two years ago,'' state Montgomery County planners in their 2009-2011 Growth Policy draft, recommending incentives for dense infill projects within a half-mile of transit stations or 10 basic services -- such as groceries and libraries -- to accommodate 195,000 more residents by 2030, writes Washington Business Journal reporter Sarah Krouse, finding reaction split along ''the traditional fault lines'' as the county Planning Board began consideration of the policy, which would go into effect in July 2010.
''Big developers and smart growthers love it. Single-family home builders and suburbanites are not so sure,'' she observes, a difference expected by Planning Board Chairman Royce Hanson.
''Developers will generally like the idea of increasing densities around transit, but there are members of that industry that don't develop in those kinds of areas and they will be less enthusiastic,'' he said ahead of a public hearing scheduled for June 22.
With only 4 percent of land zoned for development left, county planners point to successful smart growth implementation in Silver Spring and Bethesda, envisioning 80 percent of housing built over the next 20 years as multifamily units, which use about 40 percent less energy than single-family houses.
Under the new policy, the reporter notes, all new residential projects would reach at least 75 percent of maximum zoning density, provide a minimum of half of the floor space for residential use, include affordable and work force units, and meet higher energy efficiency standards both for construction and renovation.
The incentives for infill near transit and services would help reduce car dependency and foster walking, with the proposed increase in residential high-rise units expected to alleviate road traffic further.
The county, the reporter adds, released the new policy draft the day the Planning Board announced it wouldn't approve new subdivisions in Bethesda, Chevy Chase, Clarksburg, and Seneca Valley, because projections of 2014 school enrollment show it would exceed the 120 percent classroom capacity cap set by county law. -- Washington Business Journal
6/12/2009
Resource(s): http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/
Sen. Dodd: Time to Provide More Transportation Choices for Families
''It's time to re-think the way we plan the futures of the places we live, work and raise our kids,'' said Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, welcoming the interagency Partnership for Sustainable Communities, announced at his committee hearing by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Environmental Protection Administrator Lisa Jackson, and reflecting that until now, ''federal policy has often treated transportation, housing, and environmental protection as separate issues,'' with bad consequences for each.
''Between 1980 and 2000, the growth of the largest 99 metro areas in the United States consumed 16 million acres of rural land -- that's about an acre for every new household,'' Senator Dodd observed. ''And with our population expected to grow by over 150 million people between 2000 and 2050, this land-use trend simply cannot continue.''
Presenting the hearing as a follow-up of his February letter to President Obama about the need for ''a White House Office of Sustainable Development to coordinate housing, transportation, energy, and environmental policies,'' Senator Dodd said, ''One important piece of the work we have to do is to provide more transportation choices for families.''
He referred to his own state.
''Few states suffer from worse traffic congestion than Connecticut, and the lack of good transit options costs families more than just inconvenience,'' he pointed out. ''In large part due to congested roadways and the lack of affordable housing and transit options, Connecticut ranks 49th in the country in keeping our young people in the state. Meanwhile, living in a transit-rich neighborhood saves money -- on average, as much as ten percent of a family's budget.''
Noting that his state's new HOMEConnecticut program offers grants for towns ''to plan Incentive Housing Zones for higher-density, mixed-income housing in downtowns and redeveloped brownfields, close to transit options and job centers,'' he said his committee will include a similar competitive grant program in currently drafted legislation.
The legislation will ''provide incentives for regions to plan future growth in a coordinated way that reduces congestion, generates good-paying jobs, meets our environmental and energy goals, protects rural areas and green space, revitalizes our Main Streets and urban centers, creates and preserves affordable housing, and makes our communities better places to live, work, and raise families.''
Reporting on Senator Dodd's statement and the committee hearing, Hartford Courant writer Don Stacom wrote they publicized ''a shift in public policy under the Obama administration, with a heavy focus on getting Americans to drive less, stop suburban sprawl and cut foreign oil consumption.'' -- Hartford Courant, U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
6/17/2009
Resource(s): http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Home.Home
New Healthy Communities Toolkit Targets Childhood Obesity
Alarmed by the American obesity epidemic, with more than 23 million children and adolescents overweight or obese, $117 billion in annual costs, and concerns that ''this generation of young people may be the first in U.S. history to live sicker and die younger than their parents' generation,'' the national Leadership for Healthy Communities program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation partnered with 11 policy-maker organizations at every level of government to promote school, community and child health, releasing their joint smart-growth-friendly ''Action Strategies Toolkit: A Guide for Local and State Leaders Working to Create Healthy Communities and Prevent Childhood Obesity'' last month at a Washington, D.C. summit, followed by a June 10 presentation for the Healthy Communities Network Webinar.
''Through daily decisions about budgets, laws, regulations or zoning, policy-makers can help develop healthier and more viable communities,'' write Leadership for Healthy Communities Director Maya Rockeymoore Cummings and the partnering leaders in the introduction to the toolkit. ''For example, government leaders can facilitate land-use policies, such as mixed-use development, and support public parks and transit options, including walking paths and bicycle lanes. They can create incentives to attract supermarkets and farmers' markets to underserved communities and improve the nutritional quality of foods and beverages in schools.''
The signatories stress that their toolkit strategies ''have tremendous potential to change the trajectory of our children's future.'' Signatories include:
- Council of State Governments Executive Director David Adkins
- National League of Cities Executive Director Donald J. Borut
- National School Boards Association Executive Director Anne L. Bryant
- United States Conference of Mayors Executive Director Tom Cochran
- Local Government Commission Executive Director Judy Corbett
- American Association of School Administrators Executive Director Daniel A. Domenech
- National Association of Counties Executive Director Larry E. Naake
- International City/County Management Association Executive Director Robert J. O'Neil, Jr.
- National Conference of State Legislatures Executive Director William Pound
- National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials Educational Fund Executive Director Arturo Vargas
- National Association of State Board of Education Executive Director Brenda L. Welburn
The first part of the toolkit addresses active living and the built environment, including transportation, land use, open spaces, parks and recreation, quality physical activity in and near schools, and safety and crime prevention.
The second part focuses on healthy eating, specifically on quality school nutrition, supermarkets and healthy food vendors, farm-fresh local foods, restaurants, and food and beverage marketing.
Both specify issues and cite research in each category, list and explain terms, identify potential stakeholders, outline policy and program options, and offer advice on getting started.
Access the toolkit online at www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/actionstrategies -- Leadership for Healthy Communities
6/1/2009
Resource(s): www.leadershipforhealthycommunities.org/
House Panel Oks Funding Boost for EPA
In yet another step to align federal outlays with the new environmental and climate change policies, the House Interior and Environment Appropriations Committee unanimously cleared a bill to increase funding for the Environmental Protection Agency, the Interior Department and the Forest Service from $27.6 billion to $32.3 billion, just $25 million less than sought by President Obama, but with the fund structure especially advantageous to the EPA, whose current budget of $7.6 billion would reach $10.6 billion, or over $80 million more than the President expected.
''During the previous administration, the programs and activities funded by this subcommittee really suffered,'' said its Democratic Chairman Norm Dicks, ''Now we are beginning to address major shortfalls and invest in America's environment.''
Republicans praised his handling of the bill, note Greenwire reporters Robin Bravender and Taryn Luntz, but also voiced reservations.
''Providing a 17 percent overall increase in funding -- and an astonishing 38 percent increase for the EPA -- when our country is experiencing the worst economic situation in decades is not a responsible way to govern,'' commented House Appropriations Committee Ranking Member Jerry Lewis. ''We must hold the line on spending and make budget choices that are sustainable and that do not rely on continued deficits and borrowing.''
House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey, his committee scheduled to review the bill on June 18, stressed the need to create jobs and reinvigorate underfunded programs.
''I make no apology for the role that this bill plays in trying to help put this country back to work at the same time that we take care of woefully long negligence that has reflected in areas such as ... clean water and in, yes, in areas including climate change.''
The bill, the Greenwire reporters add, includes $419 million for climate change adaptation and research -- $189 million above the fiscal 2009 level, and $24 million more than requested by the President.
It also leaves intact the presidential request to boost water infrastructure funding from $1.5 billion to $3.9 billion, but increases allocations for great water bodies from $123 million to $667 million -- $89 million above the presidential proposal -- with $475 million dedicated to a major Great Lakes restoration initiative.
Noting that the bill requires the EPA to set an ''action agenda'' as part of the restoration plan due in 2011, Subcommittee Chairman Dicks said ''we want a plan that will lead to the recovery of the Great Lakes, and we want it to be independently, scientifically verified by an outside group of experts.'' -- Greenwire
6/10/2009
Resource(s): www.eenews.net/gw/
EPA Joins HUD, DOT in Partnership for Sustainable Communities
''Where you live affects how you get around, and how you get around often affects where you live. Both decisions affect our environment. In order to have the most effective greenhouse gas reduction strategy, we should have a strategy to reduce vehicle miles traveled. In order to provide truly affordable housing, we should take into account what residents must pay for transportation, energy, and water,'' testified EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson before the U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, announcing EPA's entry into the three-agency Partnership for Sustainable Communities -- spearheaded by Department of Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan and Department of Transportation (DOT) Secretary Ray LaHood -- and stressing that ''(s)mart growth principles are equally important in urban, suburban and rural areas.''
The partnership, Administrator Jackson said, gives the agencies ''an opportunity to share knowledge, resources, and strategies that will improve public health and the environment, cut costs and harmful emissions from transportation, and build more affordable homes in communities all over the country.''
Noting that land use decisions ''are, and should be, primarily made at the local, state, and tribal level,'' but also that ''federal policies, rules, and spending influence development patterns,'' she told the committee: ''We have an interest -- indeed, an obligation -- to ensure that our actions do not favor development that adversely affects the environment and public health.''
When it pollutes the air, waterways and drinking water or ''disproportionally harms disadvantaged communities,'' she stated, ''it is a federal responsibility in general -- and specifically an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) responsibility -- to protect Americans from these problems.''
Through their partnership, she continued, the three agencies will work together for well-designed, energy-efficient, and affordable housing; for an integrated transportation, land use, and environmental planning system, with more options for reaching jobs, schools and services; and for clean waterways, air and land.
''We have created a framework that will guide the cooperative development of policies, regulations, spending priorities, and legislative proposals,'' the administrator said. ''Together, these development strategies emphasize environmental, economic, cultural, and social sustainability. Our collective implementation of those policies at state, local, and tribal levels will assure that we accommodate our nation's anticipated growth in smarter, more sustainable ways.''
As ''a real world example,'' she cited EPA-championed reclamation and redevelopment of the 138-acre Atlantic Steel Mill brownfield in Atlanta, Georgia into dense mixed-use Atlantic Station --''a national model for smart growth.''
With 6 million square feet of LEED-certified offices, 2 million square feet of retail and entertainment space, 1000 hotel rooms, Atlantic Station will eventually offer 3,000 to 5,000 residential housing units.
Its shuttle to a commuter rail stop already circulates 1 million people a year, space for anticipated light rail is reserved, and residents drive ''an average of less than 14 miles per day,'' in contrast to 32 miles driven by other Atlantans.
What's more, compact and efficient land use ''reduced annual stormwater runoff by almost 20 million cubic feet a year.''
Turning to healthy communities and equitable development, Administrator Jackson focused on the prospect of joint EPA-DOT-HUD work ''to revitalize neighborhoods that have suffered from decades of disinvestment,'' and that contain many of the estimated 450,000 brownfields nationwide.
Though brownfield redevelopment is often difficult, especially for disadvantaged communities, she testified, their proximity to transportation and services are crucial ''to transforming years of disinvestment into a future of prosperity,'' with ''employment and educational opportunities, safe and affordable homes, access to recreation, health care, and other needs of daily life, all close enough together that people can choose to safely walk, bike, or take transit instead of driving.''
Since market demand for such neighborhoods all over the country is so strong that it ''has driven up housing costs in many smart growth area, too often putting them off-limits to lower-income residents,'' EPA is already working ''to create more environmentally responsible affordable housing in these neighborhoods,'' she said, mentioning recent EPA Smart Growth Program help for four communities in the Hartford, Connecticut area.
''As a nation, we face the most serious economic downturn since the Great Depression,'' Administrator Jackson concluded. ''At the same time that we face this economic crisis, there is not a moment to lose in protecting public health, the environment, and confronting the rapid advance of climate change.'' -- U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs
6/16/2009
Resource(s): http://banking.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=Home.Home
EPA Administrator Jackson Energized by Cooperative Work With Federal Departments
The best part of her job ''is being a part of President Obama's administration,'' feeling ''the real change in attitude about the environment, the fact that the president sees the environment as a crucial step towards our economic recovery,'' said EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson in an exclusive interview for Grist TV, happy both to have had her agency ''come out swinging'' and to join top presidential energy and climate change advisors and several department secretaries in his ''green Cabinet'' at work to ''break down the silos that have traditionally stymied federal policymaking and action.''
The team includes Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change Carol Browner, Assistant to the President for Science and Technology John Holdren, White House Council on Environmental Quality Chair Nancy Sutley and the secretaries of transportation, agriculture, commerce, labor, energy, interior, and housing and urban development -- Ray LaHood, Tom Vilsack, Gary Locke, Hilda Solis, Steven Chu, Ken Salazar, and Shaun Donovan, she noted, recalling a recent Senate hearing on smart growth, where Secretary LaHood followed her testimony with an extraordinary message on ''the importance of thinking smartly about land-use planning as part of the transportation bill.''
Asked about the ominous ''Global Climate Change Impact in the United States'' report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), Administrator Jackson said her agency used much of the same science in its ''draft finding that greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare.''
Once the finding is fully detailed and verified, EPA will fulfill its legal obligation, affirmed by a Supreme Court decision almost two years ago, to regulate these gases ''in the context of the Clean Air Act.''
Still, she said, ''we have to watch Congress because if a law passes that takes away that authority or changes it in some way, we have to be ready for that.''
But as discussions proceed, ''we're going to continue to carry out our responsibilities to the American people'' and work with the DOT and California on auto regulations.
She expressed optimism about prospects for a national climate policy in time for the global negotiations in Copenhagen, Denmark this December, but she also pointed out that EPA has an agenda ''broader than climate change,'' including renewal of its commitment ''to science, to the law and transparency.''
With research showing that 60 percent of Americans inhabit areas failing air standards for other than CO2 pollution, with the percentage higher in some urban areas, Administrator Jackson said, ''Climate change is a long-term threat, but things like ozone pollution and particulate pollution is much shorter and can have acute health impacts, even death.''
She also emphasized EPA obligations to improve water quality, clean up brownfields, control toxic chemicals, and ensure environmental justice, an issue long sidelined.
Those who made it ''their life's passion,'' Administrator Jackson said, should know ''that they have a seat at the table and a voice and that they're listened to, that (environmental justice) is not an afterthought to be redressed later, but that in decision making, in policy making, we give consideration to make sure that those who are poor, those who are disproportionally impacted for whatever set of reasons, aren't being asked to accept an additional share of environmental burden because it's easier or because they're disenfranchised,'' which includes ''people of color.''
Equally important ''is that we don't just deal with the bad stuff, but as we see this new economy growing -- green jobs, green collar, green energy . . . -- that we get some of that good stuff going as well, so that a lot of communities who may feel separate from environmental issues suddenly have a real stake in them, because they literally make their living through green energy or through site cleanup,'' she stressed, concluding, ''And you don't just give someone a job when that happens, you build an environmentalist from the ground up.'' -- Grist TV
6/23/2009
Resource(s): www.grist.org/ ; www.globalchange.gov/
CCAP Reports Highlight Economic, Environmental Benefits of Smart Growth
In two major reports this month -- ''Ask the Climate Question: Adapting to Climate Change Impacts in Urban Regions'' and ''Cost-Effective GHG Reduction through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices: An economic case for strategic investment of cap-and-trade revenues'' -- the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Clean Air Policy (CCAP) documents the urgent need for the federal government to ''help advance local climate adaptation efforts,'' and to dedicate ''10 percent of cap-and-trade allocation values toward smart planning and low-carbon transportation investments,'' promising further analysis of the profitability of such outlays in a ''Growing Wealthier: The Economic Benefits of Smart Growth'' report this summer.
Pointing out in the ''Ask the Climate Question'' report that the ten cities and counties in its 2006 Urban Leaders Adaptation Initiative have already found their ''experience in hazard mitigation, flood management, water conservation and land use planning'' useful for their climate change strategies, the CCAP recommends four federal steps to advance local preparations for climatic impact.
The federal government should ''improve climate science and modeling, including regional downscaling; support local adaptation by creating climate extension service networks to provide local governments with technical assistance on implementation of adaptation solutions; expand programs that encourage proactive, pre-disaster adaptation, such as FEMA's Hazard Mitigation Grant program; and facilitate dialogues among cities, counties, and states to share best practices in adaptation planning and implementation.''
In the subsequent ''Cost-Effective GHG Reductions through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices'' report, the CCAP notes that Congress has moved to reduce transportation's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by requiring better fuel economy and lower GHG content so far, and now should focus on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) and make it possible for people to drive less.
Since typical analyses assume a high ''cost per ton'' for GHG reductions, and overlook smart growth, improved transportation choices, and congestion pricing as means to cut VMT, reduce infrastructure costs, and increase consumer savings on fuel, insurance and time, while boosting local tax revenue, the CCAP focuses on these missed issues, finding that ''comprehensive application of best practices could reduce VMT per capita by 10 percent and reduce annual GHG emissions 145 MMTCO2 (million metric tons of carbon dioxide) in 2030 -- equivalent to the annual emissions of some 30 million cars or 35 large coal plants.''
Viewed holistically, ''many transportation-related emissions reductions are not only cheaper than reductions in the utility and petroleum sectors, but also would help ease the cost of compliance on those sectors,'' the CCAP observes, identifying five economic benefits of integrated smart growth planning.
It can ''reduce infrastructure costs by approximately 25 percent or more; attract private investment, increasing municipal revenues through real estate taxes; reduce household costs, freeing up disposable income, especially for working families; improve energy security by reducing dependency on oil; and increase walking and bicycling, improve public health and reduce medical costs.''
Given the range of the benefits, the federal government could immediately ''remove barriers to low-carbon transportation'' by funding ready-to-go transit, bicycle and pedestrian projects, nationwide, with $3.7 billion for unmet cyclist and pedestrian needs, and with $248 billion sought by 78 regions in 37 states to launch 400 projects for mass transit. CCAP Director of Transportation and Adaptation Programs Steve Winkelman, principal report author, expects the data, economic benefit calculations, and policy recommendations to carry their weight in congressional debates on the next six-year transportation-funding bill, to replace the one expiring September 30.
''It is time to invest in our citizens, to improve their health, their quality of life, their neighborhoods and their employment opportunities -- by supporting smart growth and improved transportation options,'' he said. ''The U.S. should seek investments that bring the greatest benefits to society, particularly during this economic downturn. This study shows that smart growth pays dividends to all citizens.''
Read the reports: Ask the Climate Question: Adapting to Climate Change Impacts in Urban Regions (44 pages) and Cost-Effective GHG Reductions through Smart Growth & Improved Transportation Choices (25 pages). -- Center for Clean Air Policy
6/18/2009
Resource(s): www.ccap.org/
Smart Growth Leaders Hail EPA-HUD-DOT Partnership
Having respectively championed smart growth's concepts, goals and practices from inside and outside EPA since the mid-1990s, gradually expanding its knowledge and support on the federal, state and local levels, Smart Growth America President Geoff Anderson -- until last year the EPA Development, Community and Environment Division director, earlier aiding his predecessor Harriet Tregoning, now DC Planning Director, to launch EPA's Smart Growth program -- and the capital area's Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Stewart Schwartz applauded EPA-HUD-DOT teamwork in the new Partnership for Sustainable Communities as long overdue and crucial for the nation's future.
''Government agencies tend to focus exclusively on their own issue areas. But the issues of housing, transportation and the environment are so deeply linked that any true solutions will involve all three of these agencies,'' pointed out President Anderson. ''Smart Growth America is encouraged to see these agencies working together to solve problems rather than trying to solve just their own piece of the puzzle. These goals will help all three agencies in their partnership to do the same thing SGA is trying to do: make our growth, development and transportation fair, equitable, environmentally sustainable and affordable for all Americans.''
Coalition for Smarter Growth Executive Director Schwartz focused on regional opportunities.
''The Coalition for Smarter Growth has worked for 12 years to promote smart growth policies in the Washington, D.C. region and as a result we are well situated to be a national model. Our region must take advantage of this shift in federal policy,'' he said. ''With our nation facing huge financial strains, we need to use existing resources more wisely, and that's just what can happen with this integrated approach. Whether it is the redesign of Tysons Corner, the Purple Line, development at the 15 underutilized Metro stations in Prince George's County, or revitalization of commercial corridors like Route 1 in College Park and Fairfax or Route 234 in Manassas, the new federal approach could ensure that we combine revitalization with transit investment, repair and replacement of aging water and sewer systems, and preservation, enhancement and energy efficiency retrofits of a broad mix of housing. The result will be smarter land use, a cleaner environment, and a more efficient use of our tax dollars.''
Other smart growth advocates expressed the same satisfaction and optimism.
National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Smart Growth Program Director Kaid Benfield wrote that a March announcement of joint HUD and DOT work on ''metro-area coordination of housing, transportation and land use planning'' left him wondering about EPA's absence.
''After all, both the Clinton and Bush administrations maintained a truly committed and innovative smart growth division (DCED) in their policy office (OPEI), now headed for the Obama administration by Maryland smart growth veteran John Frece,'' he observed, now reassured by EPA's entry into the partnership.
''EPA's smart growth staff really has the best and the brightest, in my opinion and I'm not just saying that because they are friends of mine,'' he added. ''They are very, very good at what they do, and even with a relatively small budget have produced some of the best research in the field. HUD and DOT will be fortunate to have them as a partner, and so will the country.''
In Seattle, the diverse Quality Growth Alliance, which works on the best ways to accommodate another 17 million residents and 1.2 million jobs in the four-county Central Puget Sound region by 2040, gave much credit for the federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities to former long-time King County Democratic Executive Ron Sims, now HUD Deputy Secretary.
''We're blessed to have benefited from Deputy Secretary Sims' tireless work ethic and leadership on the issue that affects so many individuals and families through the Central Puget Region,'' said its member John Hempelmann, principal of the Cairncross & Hempelmann law firm, with Alliance Chair Pat Callahan, Urban Renaissance Group CEO, stressing that the partnership ''signals a different, rational approach to growth in America; an approach marked by an understanding between transportation, land use, and the environment.''
More on the subject at www.smartgrowthamerica.org, www.smartergrowth.net, and www.nrdc.org. -- Smart Growth America, Coalition for Smarter Growth, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, National Resources Defense Council, Quality Growth Alliance
6/17/2009
Resource(s): www.smartgrowthamerica.org ; www.smartergrowth.net/
Court Rejects Lockport Smart Growth's Suit Against Supercenter
First proposed in early 2004, a 186,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter on a vacant mall site just a mile south of central Lockport provoked strong neighborhood opposition and a Lockport Smart Growth Inc. lawsuit against the town and the company, but the big-box may soon get built, writes Lockport Union-Sun & Journal reporter Joyce Miles, because a five-judge panel of the Appellate Division of state Supreme Court has now unanimously backed Supreme Court Justice Richard C. Kloch Sr., who threw out the suit last year.
Describing Justice Kloch's hearing in March 2008, the reporter noted his frequent challenges to Smart Growth attorney Daniel Spitzer's arguments that the town planning and zoning boards shouldn't have granted Wal-Mart a series of ''extreme difficulty waivers'' and zoning variances, that the town's Commercial Corridor Overlay District law gives the planning board no power to grant these waivers, that zoning variances depend on a zoning board of appeals, that the overlay code requires any project of more than 150,000 square feet to obtain a special use permit, and that Wal-Mart could easily scale down its Supercenter.
In combination with the Justice's benevolence toward the defendants, his tilt was obvious to attendees, the reporter observed, quoting mall area homeowner Jim Garlock.
''It went exactly the way we knew it would go,'' he said. ''The judge had his mind made up before he ever stepped foot in the courtroom.''
Rejecting Smart Growth's plea for reversal, the reporter writes, the appellate panel agreed that the town broke neither local nor state law to accommodate the big box.
Town Attorney Daniel E. Seaman gloated over plaintiffs' setback.
''They didn't win on any of their allegations. The (court) made short shrift of every single point Smart Growth argued,'' he said. ''It's very, very special to have this (ruling) come out. It validates the hard work of our planning board, our zoning board, the engineers, everyone.''
Attorney Morgan Jones, special counsel for the town, thought the same.
''The ruling underscores the fact that the town did a very thorough job of reviewing the project,'' he declared. ''The Commercial Corridor Overlay District regulations were found to be in complete compliance with state law.''
Smart Growth's attorney Spitzer felt shortchanged.
''Clearly they looked at all of the issues we raised . . . but there's no elaboration by the panel,'' he pointed out. ''They ruled (the town met) legal standards but they didn't say why. The question is not answered: If a zoning variance and an extreme difficulty waiver (give) the same relief, how can there be different standards for each?''
Since the ruling was unanimous, Smart Growth has no basis to appeal, but if the neighbors want to fight the current Wal-Mart plan further, he added, ''the question is whether other aspects that haven't been challenged should be.'' -- Lockport Union-Sun & Journal
6/5/2009
Resource(s): www.lockportjournal.com/
''No Time to Waste:'' Binghamton Smart Growth Commission Releases Final Report
Convened by Binghamton Mayor Matt Ryan and the City Council in April 2008, the Commission on Sustainable Development and Smart Growth has now released its final report, calling for a comprehensive effort to ensure the city's long-term well-being, with a focus on economic development, green construction, land use, stormwater management, and strong climate-change measures.
Having defined sustainable development as the kind that meets the present needs while ''safeguarding and improving economic, social and environmental resources and the ability of future generations to meet their own needs,'' the commission researched best Smart Growth practices and worked out recommendations for progress in nine broad categories.
Specifically, the commission said the city should reduce greenhouse gas emissions and join the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI), now ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, in its Cities for Climate Protection (CCP) campaign; and to embrace Smart Growth principles by gradual integration of SmartCode into city planning, policy and development rules.
The commission also suggested more city efforts to detect and eliminate illicit discharges; to encourage buildings' preservation, renovation and adaptive reuse; promote economic development ''in ways that produce livable jobs, strengthen low- and moderate-income communities, and protect the natural environment;'' and to support local businesses.
''There is no time to waste. The City of Binghamton can and should choose to initiate action on climate change rather than wait and be dragged toward compliance with future State and Federal law,'' the commission said. ''Movement toward climate protection and preservation and improvement of city resources should be a prioritized criterion in all City decisions.''
Click here to read the complete report, or visit the City of Binghamton web site: www.cityofbinghamton.com/ -- Empire State News
06.04.2009
6/4/2009
Resource(s): www.empirestatenews.net/index.htm
Sen. Schumer Is Surprise Speaker at 2009 Vision Long Island Awards
''Smart growth is the future,'' said New York Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, a surprise guest speaker at Vision Long Island's 2009 Smart Growth Awards presentation luncheon in Woodbury, commending smart growth advocates and pledging his continued support for their immediate and long-term sustainability goals, especially for expansion of mass transit.
''All of the investment we've made in the quality of life and education on Long Island will be seen in the next 50 years,'' he told about 600 officials, planners, conservationists, developers and other luncheon participants, stressing the importance of dense mixed-use projects like the planned 150-acre Lighthouse redevelopment in Uniondale, Nassau County, for which he seeks federal funds to improve roads, sewers and other area infrastructure.
Expected to generate some $4 billion in private investment and create 19,000 permanent jobs, reported New York Times writer Peter Applebome earlier, the megaproject would include a renovated Nassau Coliseum, sports complex and sports technology center, a convention center, canal and pedestrian plaza, office buildings, and 2,300 high-rise hotel and residential units.
Promoted by Nassau County Executive Thomas R. Suozzi as the centerpiece of his smart-growth vision for ''New Suburbia,'' the project has encountered ''pretty muted'' criticism so far, the writer observed, perhaps because Long Island residents, mindful of the area's invention of tract houses and suburban sprawl in the late 1940s, ''realize that, particularly in this miserable economy, Nassau desperately needs a second act, and this may be the only game in town.''
Still, Executive Suozzi disclaims a ''postsuburban'' shift, expecting 90 percent of the county to remain unchanged.
''We want to be a new suburbia,'' he told the writer. ''We want to keep the good stuff about suburbia and get rid of the bad stuff about suburbia. But the old model of suburbia began 60 years ago with Levittown. It's no longer sustainable.''
And that's exactly the conclusion at the root of Vision Long Island and its annual Smart Growth Awards program, launched in 2002.
This year's winners, selected from among nearly 50 submissions in 11 categories, report Long Island Business News writer David Winzelberg and Long Island Press writer Michelle Regalado, included 12 individuals, municipalities, organizations, companies and plans, all committed to change in land use and development patterns.
They included Lori Baldassare of the Mount Sinai Heritage Center, Trammell Crow Residential, the North Shore Land Alliance, TRITEC, Kingdom Family Holdings, the Nassau Suffolk Coalition for the Homeless, Islip Town Councilmen Steve Flotterton and Phil Nolan, the Dennis Organization, the Town of Brookhaven, the Village of Amityville, and Glen Cove Mayor Ralph Suozzi.
See details at www.visionlongisland.org. -- New York Times, Long Island Business News, Long Island Press
6/19/2009
Resource(s): www.nytimes.com/ ; www.longislandpress.com/
Apex Officials Receptive to Mixed-Use Development
Ranked by Money Magazine as the best small town in the state and the 14th nationwide in 2007 -- population of 4,900 in 1990, reaching 20,200 in 2000 and 34,800 now -- Apex, some 10 miles southwest of central Raleigh -- has ''jealously guarded'' its 1,000 acres south of the U.S. 1-Highway 55 junction from any ''piecemeal'' development over the past 15 years in anticipation of a wholesome project such as Veridea, now proposed by area-based Lookout Ventures principal Tom Hendrickson, said Mayor Keith Weatherly at their joint press event, both noting that the planned 8,000 housing units, and a total of 15.5 million square feet of offices, stores, businesses and high-tech industry could mean almost $6 billion in new town tax revenue.
''We're creating the footprint for the next generation Research Triangle Park,'' said the developer, who partnered with New York City-based Hudson Realty Capital, reports Triangle Business Journal writer Frank Vinluan, explaining the Veridea name by its Latin roots for verity, verdancy, and idea.
A Wake Forest University School of Law graduate, former state Democratic Party chairman and now major fundraiser, the writer observes, Tom Hendrickson envisions parks, greenways and a mix of apartments, condos and houses -- all likely to seek Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification -- with the first phase of $50 million-$60 million core infrastructure construction possible in 2010 or 2011.
''All of these components should be exciting to any community, particularly the $6 billion in new taxable value,'' commented Mayor Weatherly, with Apex Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Director Jim Stella convinced that once completed, Veridea would balance the town's precarious 78-22 percent residential-business ratio at a fiscally healthy 59-41 percent, just short of the exemplary 60-40 percent proportion.
Should the population growth continue without more business and commerce, residents would eventually face higher taxes to ensure services, he thought, saying, ''This development is really a precedent-setter and it's going to be a model for the future.''
As to possible local concerns over future traffic, overcrowded schools and other impacts, reports Apex Herald writer Shawn Daley, Mayor Wheaterly pointed out that the state's planned I-540, or Western Wake Expressway, would run just south of the tract and made its eventual development unavoidable.
''One of the primary things people should look at when they think of 1,000 acres and 8,000 homes and say, 'Golly, what are they thinking bringing something like that here?' is that the land would have been carved up in 100- or 200-acre tracts and developed hodgepodge at different times with different concepts,'' he stressed. ''But from a planning perspective it's an opportunity to integrate 1,000 acres and make sure that schools and infrastructure are complementary for that tract.''
More on Apex, including Veridea location sketch at www.apexnc.org, with www.apexnc.org/docs/plan/devPlans/09CZ07.pdf. -- Triangle Business Journal, Herald
6/10/2009
Resource(s): http://triangle.bizjournals.com/triangle/ ; www.theapexherald.com/
Marysville to Begin Utility Extension to ''Delayed'' Jerome Village Project
Describing his planned mixed-use Jerome Village of some 7,700 dwellings on 1,350 acres in the far northwestern reaches of the Dublin school district as ''smart growth,'' the ''next frontier,'' and ''cradle-to-the-grave housing,'' reports Columbus Local News writer Kevin Corvo, Highland Real Estate Development CEO Scott Mallory assured anxious district officials, who rely on the project for two new schools, that the economic slump did not derail, but only delayed construction for about a year.
He said that Jerome Township leaders have already approved all necessary zoning, that the city of Marysville will provide utilities, and that work to extend its water and sewer lines for almost two and five miles, respectively, will begin this summer.
Expecting to launch infrastructure preparation for the first new school on a 38-parcel in mid-2010, and to have both schools ready in the 2012-13 school year, he promised the Dublin City Schools Board of Education to reserve a 12-acre site within the development for a sale to the district whenever yet another school is needed.
Planned in three phases over the next nine years, the upscale village will include varied type housing -- with prices starting below $300,000 -- and inter-connected shops, offices and parks, the writer observes, noting that residents will be able to ''accomplish virtually all they need without leaving the development.'' -- Columbus Local News
6/2/2009
Resource(s): www.columbuslocalnews.com/
Jenks City Council Approves Village on the Main Project
Promising smart growth, enhancement of downtown Jenks' antiques district, and a new tax revenue stream, local Oak Properties owner Duane Philips won unanimous City Council approval for his 450,000-square-foot Village on Main project, which will feature some 300 housing units, a hotel, and retail, office and medical space, reports Tulsa World writer Susan Hylton, quoting the developer who said, ''We're trying to get away from this urban sprawl and developments where there is a large building and a sea of parking.''
Designed by the Kinslow, Keith & Todd architectural firm, the writer notes, the project ''borrows somewhat from the pedestrian-friendly downtown concept before shopping malls and 'big box' developments became popular,'' with most of its parking behind the buildings to spare patrons of outdoor cafes from inhaling exhaust fumes.
Located in an older area, whose vacant land was overgrown and strewn with trash and collapsed fences, she writes, the site is ''within the Jenks One tax-increment financing (TIF) district,'' formed in January 2006 and set to expire by 2018 or whenever city officials divert $2.3 million in new property taxes to the district.
The money will go for roads, sewers, waterline extensions and drainage improvements.
Happy that ''no one objected'' to the project during the council's hearing, the developer said his prospective tenants are waiting and he wants to begin construction immediately. -- Tulsa World
6/2/2009
Resource(s): www.tulsaworld.com/
Carrollton Readying Downtown for Arrival of Light Rail
Scheduled to open December 2010, the 17.6-mile Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) light-rail extension from Dallas West End north to Carrollton promises a long-term economic boost for this city of about 124,000 as it works to enhance its competitiveness and focuses on transit-oriented development near a new DART station, just north of ''a gazebo-studded downtown plaza that leverages historic cachet and funkiness,'' reports Dallas Morning News writer Dianne SolĄs, with entrepreneurs, preservationists, and scholars agreeing that ''it takes restaurants, specialty shops, pedestrians and urban density to make 'new, old towns' out of aging Main Streets.''
Hopeful that the downtown DART station, one of three the city will have, will eventually serve two more light-rail lines throughout the region, Carrollton leaders are counting on and enticing high-density development.
''If you have a good project, we are ready to put it on a fast track,'' said Mayor Ron Branson, while Economic Development Director Brad Mink stressed, ''Old downtown is a destination already. We already have the entertainment; we just need the audience that lives there.''
The audience will be there, the writer predicts, with the city investing $13.2 million in a $38-million complex of 295 apartments across from the station, to help the developer, Dallas-based Trammell Crow Co.'s High Street Residential, build a parking garage and improve sidewalks and landscapes.
Another apartment project, tentatively called Silos on the Square, she reports, is planned south of the plaza, where old building reuse, business and traffic have greatly increased since late 2004.
A former lumber factory and yard now hosts a popular restaurant, grain silos serve as a climbers' gym, an old theater became a dance studio and performance hall, a century-old bank building features a boutique and spa, and many shops carry antiques, quilts and country-style gifts.
Calling preservation essential for downtowns' revival and the success of their small business, the Texas Historic Commission's Texas Main Street Project Coordinator Debra Farst said, ''There are no two (downtowns) that act and look alike, and that gives a community its character.''
Another essential need is dense upscale housing, said both local transit-oriented development expert Peter J. Braster and University of North Texas Center for Economic Development and Research Director Bernard Weinstein.
''Dallas-Fort Worth is a mecca for young people, and when the economy recovers, we are going to see lots of young people come back in,'' Director Weinstein observed. ''They tend to like to live in higher density neighborhoods. They want to walk to a restaurant, walk to a bar and walk to a movie theater. That is some of the appeal of these new old towns.''
More on DART light-rail expansion and on Carrollton at www.dart.org/about/expansion/expansionmaps.asp and www.cityofcarrollton.com. -- Dallas Morning News
6/10/2009
Resource(s): www.dallasnews.com/
Utah Transit GM Calls for ''Robust Investment'' in New Transit Starts
As the Utah Department of Transportation (DOT) and Utah Transit Authority (UTA) prepare for the biggest construction season ever -- with the federal stimulus bill (ARRA) sending $240 million for their projects, plus $63 million straight to localities, and state lawmakers approving $2.2 billion in transportation bonds over the next four years -- UTA General Manager John Inglish told a recent U.S. Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs committee symposium on Federal Transit Administration's (FTA's) ''New Starts'' program that ''(a) national transportation system should be established as the 21st-century version of the interstate highway system, including a top-notch public transportation system with robust investments in new starts.''
He knows well the mobility and economic advantages of transit from its success in the Salt Lake City region, where the two TRAX light-rail lines and the northern segment of the FrontRunner commuter line enjoy ridership markedly higher than projected, with work under way along three more light-rail routes and the FrontRunner southern segment.
Shortly after its inauguration in late April last year, the $630 construction cost covered partly by the FTA, the 45-mile FrontRunner North between Ogden/Point Pleasant and downtown Salt Lake City carried about 8,700 passengers a day.
The $850 million, 44-mile FrontRunner South is expected to draw perhaps more riders when it begins service between Salt Lake City and Provo in early 2013.
The segment higher price includes the costs of 30 bridges, while the northern route necessitated only two.
In his testimony at the congressional symposium, reports Salt Lake Tribune writer Brandon Loomis, the UTA general manager said the FTA should set a time frame for review of projects funded solely from local revenue to speed them up, and to count such local investments as the match toward federal dollars for projects in the future.
See UTA ongoing and planned expansion map at www.rideuta.com/files/FrontLines2015map.pdf. -- Salt Lake Tribune
6/25/2009
Resource(s): www.sltrib.com/
Spotsylvania Supervisors Ask Planners to Focus on Urban Development Areas
Its population up by 57.5 percent between 1990 and 2000, Spotsylvania County is among the 67 fast-growing jurisdictions required by Senate Bill 3202 -- part of Virginia's 2007 Transportation Act -- to lessen the traffic impact of sprawl and advance smart growth through designation of Urban Development Areas (UDAs) in local comprehensive plans by 2011, with most Spotsylvania supervisors, reports Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star writer Dan Telvock from their first UDA working session, reluctant to exceed the county's planned 2-percent annual growth rate or consider dense mixed uses for rural tracts as recommended by the County Planning Commission.
''It doesn't make sense to me that the county overall has a 2 percent growth rate (policy) yet we propose something that goes above that,'' said Supervisor Benjamin Pitts about the recommendation to select a 1,437-acre tract near the Spotsylvania Courthouse Historic District, some 10 miles southwest of Fredericksburg, as one of two from among 11 possible UDA locations, needed to accommodate at least 10 years of the county's growth at the minimum density of four housing units per gross acre.
This and the other recommended UDA, a 541-acre site near the Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center being built in Massaponax, the writer reports, could host a total of 14,000 new dwellings for 29,000 people -- almost 4,000 more inhabitants than the 2-percent-growth policy projects.
Thus, supervisors asked planning commissioners to follow the comprehensive plan and concentrate on its envisioned ''primary settlement district,'' which includes nine potential UDA tracts, totaling some 4,900 acres, but excluding the courthouse district and about 1,600 acres near Thornburg.
Although developers could propose projects outside UDAs, the writer notes, they would have to apply for comprehensive plan amendments at the cost of thousands of dollars, a condition problematic for Planning Commissioner John Gustafson.
Since Supervisor Emmit Marshall voiced concern about the prospect of barring UDA-type projects in the countryside, the others accepted his motion to suspend the discussion for the 60 days he needs to sound out landowners about such limits, but Supervisors Pitts and Gary Jackson indicated they wouldn't change their minds.
''I am certainly going to focus on what I consider the more urban areas,'' said Commissioner Jackson. ''I'd hate to see us have a UDA outside the designated growth area.''
Read more about the state UDA requirements and the Courthouse District:
-- Free Lance-Star
6/10/2009
Resource(s): http://fredericksburg.com/
How Will Zoning Changes Shape Ridership at Seattle's Sodo Station?
The industrial Sodo district south of downtown Seattle has some 40,000 to 50,000 jobs so far and expects more shops, restaurants and other businesses in the next decade, but Seattle Times transportation reporter Mike Lindblom wonders if the Sodo light-rail station on Sound Transit's new Seattle-Tukwila line that opens July 18 will really see many commuters soon, because few live near other stations and because the place lacks housing and is ''chaotic'' to walk -- both making Seattle Weekly writer Damon Agnos think that the City Council may have missed a big chance for transit-oriented development in Sodo ''by cramming through an industrial land downzone'' in December 2007.
Drawn up after a Planning Commission study concluded that the city may need to protect industry from potential non-industrial pressures and passed quickly 6-3, wrote Councilman Richard Conlin in a West Seattle Herald op-ed about his ''no'' vote, the legislation ''effectively rezoned some 12 percent of the city's area,'' without public input and due consideration.
It omitted a key logical step, ''which would be to figure out the right amount of land that should be protected and where protection would be most needed and appropriate without possibly compromising commercial, retail and residential development that is likely more appropriate for areas such as Sodo and Georgetown.''
Nevertheless, the Seattle Times reporter observes, Sound Transit predicts some 1,700 daily boardings for its Sodo Station within a decade and 4,000 once three other suburban light-rail lines open in the early 2020s, with Sodo Business Association President Mike Peringer stressing its immediate importance for low-wage workers from the southeast, who now must take a bus north to downtown Seattle for southbound transfer to Sodo.
On the other hand, Starbucks Coffee Company transportation supervisor Brent Stavig doesn't expect the first light-rail line to ease Sodo traffic or help many of the 3,300 employees at the company headquarters five blocks from the station.
''It's not going to enough places where people live,'' he said about the line, noting that Starbucks provides shuttle vans, discounted transit passes, and rideshare subsidies for a third of its Sodo employees, while the others drive or are dropped off.
Sodo business leaders also worry, the reporter writes, that their workers may be ''crowded out by 'hide-and-ride' train users -- drivers who park on the street and ride into downtown for $1.75, instead of paying the high prices at downtown parking garages.''
Planning to restrict parking around the line's stations next month, the City Council has just voted to let the Department of Transportation impose restricted parking zones in 27 neighborhoods, with non-residents allowed to park for two hours, and residents required to buy passes -- maximum four per household -- for longer park times. -- Seattle Times, Seattle Weekly, West Seattle Herald
6/9/2009
Resource(s): http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ ; http://blogs.seattleweekly.com/dailyweekly/
High School Class Presents Eau Claire City Council With Smart Growth Plan
''We are kind of at a turning point in history,'' said Eau Claire Memorial High School senior Seth Hoffmeister at a public meeting held by an environmental sciences class on its smart growth project for the city, telling City Council members, business leaders, planners and other students that people will become less dependent on cars and will need more transit and urban design focused on pedestrians -- a direction already set by Eau Claire in a long-range plan and through such projects as a bike trail system, Phoenix Park and North Barstow Street redevelopment.
He and other students, reports Eau Claire Leader-Telegram writer Joe Knight, also would like the city to ensure a shuttle for Oakwood Mall; to narrow, landscape and build a pedestrian bridge over South Hastings Way that leads to a mixed-use area near the Mega Pick'n Save parking lot; and to construct a downtown bus transfer station with ground-level restaurants and commercial space, topped by second-story condos and apartments.
The city is working on some similar suggestions, said Eau Claire Public Works Director Brian Amundson, mentioning a bike trail link and a possible roundabout, both for South Hastings Way.
Mega Vice President Brick Hopkins called students' vision of a pedestrian mall interesting, noted that the Hastings Way store needs an overhaul, and added, ''I think it opened our eyes to think outside the box a little for the redevelopment of the site.'' -- Leader-Telegram
6/4/2009
Resource(s): www.leadertelegram.com/
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