Renovate or Replace Community Schools?

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday February 12, 2008

The Pennsylvania Department of Education released a report titled Renovate or Replace? The case for restoring and reusing older school buildings. [PDF] Smart growth expert and report contributor Thomas Hylton said it was nearly a miracle to get all of the cabinet secretaries to approve the document. Walkability guru Dan Burden had this to say about the report:

This is an excellent report on how to restore and resplenish a community school, versus tear it down and move children into a mega school that is unwalkable, unhealthy, and cruel.

Tom Hylton worked on getting this process underway. On a more local level Tom got five members of the school board booted off when they planned on shutting down five of Pottstowns schools in order to build an 1800 student mega-box for elementary school age children. The new board supporting renovating the neighborhood schools came on with an 82% plurality vote.

I feel this report, and Tom in particular, deserve a national award for excellence.

Make it so.

I concur with Dan. By the way, Thomas Hylton also put together an excellent documentary called Save Our Land, Save Our Towns.

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: General •• Comments [1]

Back from Los Angeles, With New Partners!

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday February 13, 2007

I’ve returned from Los Angeles and the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference. There was quite a collection of speakers there and I saw some data presented in a very interesting way.

One particular presentation by David Crossley of the Gulf Coast Institute regarding Garden Cities and the City of Houston stands out in my mind . It’s pretty complicated to explain without a good visual, but I’d invite you to check out Ebenezer Howard’s Garden Cities concept. I think it invokes many of the concepts of New Urbanism and Traditional Neighborhood Development and maximizes open and agricultural space. Plus, the densities are quite high. In the Houston example, dozens of Garden Cities could fit into the boundaries of the City of Houston, with the exact same population – yet with about 200 times more open space (perhaps a bit exaggerated, but impressive). Regional transit would be so easy in this model. I was previously aware of this concept from my days in planning school, but I’d never seen the concept presented in this fashion before.

Another fantastic presentation I attended was led by Dan Burden, Michael Ronkin, and Dan Gallagher on road diets. I volunteered to compile a list of road diets around North America. I will add a section to the site for this list and make a more formal announcement seeking help at a later date. Some have already volunteered to help me.

Speaking of partners, I made some great partnerships down in L.A. We should have some exciting news to announce in the upcoming months. I don’t want to jump the gun on it, but I’m very excited.

Overall, the conference was great. Mostly because of the speakers. The format made for very exhausting days and left little time to socialize and explore the city. The best speakers seemed to be reserved until the end when most conference attendees were worn down. Still, I’d love to attend future ones just because there are so many great sessions to pick from.

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: Los Angeles •• comments [3]

Progressive California Planning Evident in the Book of Lists

Eric Fredericks • Friday August 18, 2006

California is known for being on the cutting edge of progressive planning policies, and this is evident in the recently published 2006 California Planners’ Book of Lists. The Book of Lists is published annually by the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. Hundreds of cities and counties were surveyed for the publication on a wide-range of planning issues. Some of the more interesting topics in the survey related to this site include form based codes, bicycle and pedestrian plans, healthy community policies, urban growth boundaries, and so on. There are some very interesting facts in this report. One example survey question was “Do you include provisions for walkable or PEDESTRIAN FRIENDLY neighborhoods or development in your general plan?” The jurisdictions that responded “yes” are as follows (as you can see, there is a whole slew of them):

Agoura Hills
Alameda, City of
Anaheim
Arcata
Bellflower
Biggs
Blue Lake
Brawley
Brea
Brisbane
Buellton
Burlingame

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: California •• comments

ETE: On SWISS Smart Growth...

Lauren Hilliard • Friday July 28, 2006

I find it very amusing that Americans consider the idea of having housing on top of retail a ‘new’ form of development. That’s all they have here! It’s quite funny seeing century-old buildings containing Starbucks and McDonald’s – with apartments on top nonetheless.

Saturday night I stayed in a 5-story loft apartment in the heart of Zurich…while similar in idea to the 800 J Lofts that I’ll be moving into when I return to Sacramento, it was built in the 1300’s! You can see it in the picture here — it’s the building just to the left of the (really loud!) church bell towers, right on the Lake of Zurich (with great walking paths!). I was staying in the corner loft on the left-hand-side of the building. Absolutely incredible place!

This article is part of the Exploring Transportation in Europe series.

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: Switzerland •• Comments

The Ontario, Canada Greater Golden Horseshoe's "Smart" Growth Plan

Eric Fredericks • Thursday July 6, 2006

Press Release

June 30 – The Government of Ontario launches historic plan to manage growth and development in Canada’s most populous region.

The Provincial Government of Ontario, Canada released the first ever Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe on June 16, 2006.

The Greater Golden Horseshoe (with Toronto at its centre) is the third fastest growing urban region in North America. This region represents two-thirds of Ontario’s population, and it is projected to attract an additional 3.7 million people and 1.8 million jobs by 2031.

Upon its release, the Growth Plan won praise from municipal, business and environmental leaders in Ontario and beyond.

“This plan will be a model for all of North America. In my work as Smart Growth Leadership Institute President, it is among the very best I have seen anywhere,� said Parris N. Glendening, President of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute.

The Growth Plan for the Greater Golden Horseshoe, part of the province’s Places to Grow initiative, sets out a vision and strategic policy direction for managing growth in the Greater Golden Horseshoe and will establish a number of firsts for planning in Ontario. The Growth Plan includes a system of urban nodes connected by transit, policies supporting transit and pedestrian-oriented development with minimum targets for urban intensification and new greenfield densities, and clear linkages between infrastructure investment and land use planning. These policies are focused on creating more livable and complete communities, with the right mix of housing, jobs and services that reduce sprawl and help protect important natural areas and agricultural lands. >>Continue Reading This Article>>

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: Canada •• Comments

Wal-Mart Embracing New Urbanism?

Eric Fredericks • Tuesday March 21, 2006

I have been meaning to write about this for quite some time, but I think the news is still relevant. The Hurricane Katrina tragedy might actually turn out to be a fortuitous event in the history of the retail giant Wal-Mart. Tired of receiving backlash from the public, Wal-Mart has been an important player in the recovery of the South. They were very pro-active in rebuilding and reopening their damaged stores following the hurricane and the company has played a major role in post-Katrina relief efforts. Now Wal-Mart appears to be embracing the New Urbanist movement of the rebuilding efforts (see the Mississippi Renewal charrette). John Massengale writes about his recent meeting with Wal-Mart executives about the rebuilding the Pass Christian, Mississippi store with mixed-use buildings surrounding it, creating a new town center with a traditional neighborhood feel. Here are a couple of highlights from the discussion posted on John’s blog, Veritas et Venustas:

2. Architecture: They are actively considering the mixed-used, multi-level Wal-Mart design that Ben Pentreath drew for Pass Christian during the Forum charrette. They did call us on the carpet about the architectural style, though. One of them said he had heard that Ben was from England, and that although he thought his drawing was beautiful, he respectfully said that it looked like Buckingham Palace! They said they were more interested in an architecture for the Pass Christian store that reflected the South. (Yes, you’ve read this correctly.)

4. SmartCode: We told them that the Pass Christian SmartCode could enable the development of the Wal-Mart Village. As a group, they were interested in learning more about the SmartCode. None of them had heard about it before. One of them said that it sounded like a great idea because the same rules would then apply to everyone – not one set of standards for Wal-Mart and one set of standards for everyone else as is often the case in the communities where they work. At least two of them are now planning to attend the SmartCode workshop in Biloxi in March.

I think this is very good news, but I am not confident that this trend will spread to other Wal-Mart stores across the world. I am not a fan of Wal-Mart, but to be fair, I am not a fan of hardly any big-box development and corporations. My opinions of them, at least from a planning sense, could change significantly if they engaged the public, planners, and architects more in their building architecture and development designs. I do understand that a lot of times these developers are just “adhering to the zoning codes”, which is a major problem, but so is the numbing architecture and sprawl that is plaguing North America. So, a combination of the creation of SmartCode and engaging Wal-Mart in the planning process could be a precedent for future developments to come.

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: Mississippi •• Comments

The Ahwahnee Principles for Resource-Efficient Communities

Eric Fredericks • Wednesday December 7, 2005

The Ahwahnee Principles are an essential set of guidelines for land-use and community development. Here are the Principles in their entirety courtesy of the Local Government Commission:

Preamble:

Existing patterns of urban and suburban development seriously impair our quality of life. The symptoms are: more congestion and air pollution resulting from our increased dependence on automobiles, the loss of precious open space, the need for costly improvements to roads and public services, the inequitable distribution of economic resources, and the loss of a sense of community. By drawing upon the best from the past and the present, we can plan communities that will more successfully serve the needs of those who live and work within them. Such planning should adhere to certain fundamental principles.

Community Principles

1. All planning should be in the form of complete and integrated communities containing housing, shops, work places, schools, parks and civic facilities essential to the daily life of the residents.
2. Community size should be designed so that housing, jobs, daily needs and other activities are within easy walking distance of each other.
3. As many activities as possible should be located within easy walking distance of transit stops.
4. A community should contain a diversity of housing types to enable citizens from a wide range of economic levels and age groups to live within its boundaries.
5. Businesses within the community should provide a range of job types for the community’s residents.
>>Continue Reading This Article>>

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: General •• Comments

Privatization Over True Regional Planning

Eric Fredericks • Thursday October 20, 2005

Is planning at the regional level useless when it comes to land use planning? You could make strong arguments either for or against regional planning. An op-ed article on Planetizen by David Renkert argues that the future of regional planning lies in private property owners. He argues that they are in the best position to shape regional land use, which would essentially make planners the liaisons between these private owners and the “public good.” Renkert writes, “When was the last time you saw a property owner involved in a planning meeting that didn’t specifically address the owner and the owner’s property? The public, property owners in particular, have grown apathetic to planning. They know that a few years down the road “something” will change and any decision made today will simply be decided again later.” This is an excellent point.

I can perhaps offer a unique perspective on this article. I have worked for both a regional planning commission and currently work for a city that is beginning to implement the exact type of planning Mr. Renkert is talking about (See: The Laguna Ridge Specific Plan). These type of partnerships between private owners and public agencies can help manage growth, ensure quality development in the region’s best interest, and still give financial security to private property owners. I do not believe that this renders regional planning useless, it can still serve as the backbone of a healthy region (or the contrary). What most people do not realize is that Federal transportation funding is controlled at the regional level to a large extent. Therefore, most major transportation decisions are made by the regional planning agency, and there is no greater effect on land use than transportation. So, saying that private property owners will be the entire future of regional planning I do not think is necessarily true, unless they start attending those meetings that no one attends. Because their land cannot reach its maximum potential without the proper transportation connections to the major urban cores. If these public/private partnerships are to be successful, planners need to educate the public and elected officials on the importance of walkable, compact places and the effects on quality of life in places that are not developed using smart growth concepts.

 

Category: Smart Growth •• Region: United States •• Comments [2]

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