More than 100 trip reports from PCJ Editor Wayne Senville's meetings with planners along Route 50 during May-July 2007 -- available on our companion site.
Unfortunately, given our budget situation I've had to postpone further travels for now. In the meantime, we'll keep posted the trip reports from April and June 2009 (links are in the left hand column of this blog). Also, during the Summer of 2007 I traveled across the U.S. -- from Maryland to California -- on U.S. Highway 50, meeting with dozens of planners and planning commissioners. Take a look at the more than sixty trip reports I posted.
Most importantly, I hope you'll bookmark or "subscribe" to our main PlannersWeb blog. You'll find a variety of interesting postings and resources there. You'll also find information on our print publication, the Planning Commissioners Journal, and can search through excerpts from more than 400 articles we've published since 1991 -- many can be immediately ordered & downloaded.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
The sign warned that it would be a strenuous climb. Could this really be the case in flat, northwestern Indiana? And for a trail just a few hundred feet long? But that's what you face in climbing Mt. Baldy, a magnificent 126 foot high, moving (4 feet/year) sand dune that's part of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. If you've never climbed a steep trail made of sand, it's quite a treat!
When you reach the top you're rewarded with a remarkable view of a dune landscape, framed by a man-made industrial landscape. For more on the formation of dunes, see the end of this post.
What you see to the east are the cooling towers of the large coal-fired power plant in nearby Michigan City (click on photos to pop-up larger size images).
Indeed, what's most striking along the 46 mile stretch of Indiana bordering Lake Michigan is the intermixing of natural beauty and heavy industry -- primarily steel mills, transmission lines, and power plants.
photo on left shows view from Dunbar Beach within the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore in the town of Beverly Shores; below: marshes less than a mile inland.
Northwestern Indiana is the heart of America's steel industry. But it's an industry that's been steadily shrinking. See the chart below prepared by the Northwestern Indiana RPC (you'll note that the steel industry has gone from 66,400 jobs in 1979, to 34,500 in 1990, to 16,900 in 2007, becoming a much smaller sector of the economy).
What is less well known about northwest Indiana is the natural beauty of the lakeshore area, even though it is interspersed with industrial sites.
One of the priorities of the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission (NIRPC) the past five years has been developing -- and now starting to implement -- a comprehensive plan for the lakeshore portion of the region.
It's called the Marquette Plan, and it reflects the changing realities of northwestern Indiana. Phase I of the Plan, completed in 2005, focused on some sixty square miles of land, much of it close to the Lake Michigan shoreline. Phase II extended the lakeshore study area eastward from Portage, Indiana to the Indiana/Michigan state line. Many of the Plan's recommendations underscore the shift in focus from an industrial-based economy to one featuring recreational and natural resource based amenities.
photo left: private residences overlook the lakeshore in Beverly Shores and several other small communities.
photos below: the Village in Burns Harbor, not far from the lakefront, follows new urbanist principles. It has been specially recognized as a green neighborhood by the NAHB. And, yes, there was even construction underway the day I visited -- with five houses being built (bringing the total to 70, about 1/4 of the ultimate build out).
Developer Clifford Fleming told me house prices range from about $180,000 to $350,000, attracting many parents with young children as their "first buy-up home," but also some empty nesters. It's just an hour's commute to Chicago from the nearby commuter station. A downtown mixed-use district is planned next to the Village (detailed in the town center/subarea plan available from the web site). Fleming is committed to "the idea of developing a workingman's town" and "enhancing the image of northwest Indiana," where he grew up.
As highlighted on the very first page of the Marquette Plan (phase I): "In a region that is losing population, losing jobs and losing its identity in the process, we haven't lost sight of our greatest resource -- Lake Michigan. It is our drinking water, our climate, our economy, our scenery ... our lifeline.
... the Marquette Plan aims to ... change perceptions of the lakefront and the lakefront communities as a destination and a place that attracts new residents and investments."
photo on right: passengers getting off the Shoreliner train from Chicago at Beverly Shores.
To achieve this, the Plan largely focuses on a series of recreation-based actions aimed at creating a large-scale, linked network. (I don't want to imply that the Plan dismisses the steel industry, especially as its still a major employer; the Plan does call for trying to "find potential synergies that could improve the operational effectiveness and vitality" of the cluster of industries around the Port of Indiana).
As the Plan puts it, "At the heart of this effort is a green ribbon of connected dune and swale landscapes, river corridors, lakes, beaches, reclaimed industrial canals and a range of diverse habitat that provides the natural counterpart to the industrialized brownfield setting that has dominated the past century. ... The plan capitalizes on green space linkages, improved infrastructures and resulting community enhancements to lay a framework for reinvestment ..."
Among the Plan's ambitious goals, increasing public shoreline access from the current 57 percent to over 75 percent of the shoreline, and "to provide generous minimum setbacks for new development to ensure this access."
I spent part of the day with John Swanson, NIRPC's Executive Director. Swanson is a long-time regional planner, having previously served as deputy director of the Northeast Illinois Planning Commission.
For the past four-and-a-half years he's been at NIRPC, and a good portion of his time has gone into the Marquette Plan. Phase I of the Plan, as I noted, was adopted in 2005, and Phase II just last year. Interestingly, the Plan was first conceived back in the mid-1980s by then newly elected U.S. Representative Pete Visclosky. Not surprisingly, Visclosky has remained involved in the Marquette Plan's development.
The challenges facing the regional planners at NIRPC are multiple. To begin with, they're dealing with 41 municipalities in three counties. Add to that an incredibly diverse population, both economically and ethnically, and an economy still largely based on heavy industry. Note: NIRPC also serves as the region's transportation planning organization/MPO.
Swanson spoke to me about how the planning process has engaged a very diverse "public," including groups often "not in the loop," such as low-income advocates from cities like Gary. The process also involved local elected officials, industry representatives, and members of the Save the Dunes Council, the area's principal environmental advocacy organization.
The overarching goal, Swanson said, "is to create a unified vision for the entire 46 miles of shoreline." That also means closely coordinating with the National Park Service, which manages 15,000 acres of federal holdings in the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore.
At the same time, however, plan implementation priorities are largely determined by the individual jurisdictions. As Swanson explained, "each community was asked to identify a catalytic project." These projects are very visibly displayed on a large map of the project area, a constant reminder both that the plan aims to satisfy a variety of constituencies, and that implementation of projects is of critical importance.
We visited one of the priority projects, just completed, the 57-acre Portage Lakefront and Riverwalk Park -- on a former brownfields site. It includes a dramatic new structure (holding classroom/meeting space and refreshment stands) and a 900 foot breakwater/fishing pier jutting out into Lake Michigan.
While at Lakefront Park I met with Olga Velazquez, Portage's mayor. Portage has a population of just under 40,000 and, as Velazquez put it, "is mainly a blue-collar city, with reasonable housing prices."
Velazquez, who also serves on the NIRPC Board, grew up in Gary. "The Lake has always been part of my life," she says. She also fully supports the Marquette Plan's aim of providing, as she puts it, "opportunities to develop around natural resources." Velazquez stressed the importance of connecting natural areas along the lakeshore, and looks forward to trails linking Chicago -- visible on the horizon -- to Portage and beyond.
Velazquez described the special arrangement behind Lakefront Park, with the National Park Service owning the land, but the City managing the facility. Funding for the improvements also came from a novel source; more on this in a moment.
There's also a walkway built along Burns Waterway, a channel that borders both the huge U.S. Steel Plant (on the east) and Portage Lakefront Park and Riverwalk (on the west). It was quite a sight.
Click on photos to view them at larger size.
It's early to say how well the Plan will be implemented. Phase II of the Plan calls for a state-enabled (but not yet operational) Shoreline Development Commission "to continue leading the planning process through implementation and establish a consistent 'Waterfront District' for the entire Indiana lakeshore." Till this happens, NIRPC will take the lead.
I asked Swanson how the Plan and the many projects called for were to be funded. Preparation of the Plan itself was largely funded through NOAA's Coastal Zone management program, which provided 80% of the funding for Phase I of the planning process, and 50% for Phase II.
photo left taken along U.S. Route 12; natural areas and industrial facilities are never far apart along the northwest Indiana lakeshore, providing the area with a very distinctive character.
Development of projects identified in the Plan benefit from a unique source of funding: revenues from the Indiana Toll Road. About $10 million a year of toll revenues for the next ten years will go to the Northwest Indiana Regional Development Authority (a partner in developing the Marquette Plan), which will help fund the Plan's priority projects -- including the number one priority, the Portage facility I just discussed (it received about $6 million for design and construction of the building, and nearly $3 million for the fishing pier and walkway).
As an aside, the State of Indiana in 2006 entered into a 75 year lease of the 157 mile long Indiana Toll Road with a private Spanish/Australian partnership, receiving a remarkable sum: $3.85 billion. See articles on the lease arrangement from Toll Road News and from the Chesterton, IN, Tribune.
Many other funding sources are to be drawn on. In fact, Phase II of the Plan lists more than a two dozen federal and state grants programs relevant to the Plan's recommendations, along with local sources (such as impact fees for open space land acquisition, and community development funds).
Private foundations, as well as steel companies like ArcelorMittal, have also provided financial support for various projects, including the development of a "Greenways and Blueways Plan" that calls for a series of connected waterway trails.
Having a major National Park Service presence is also of tremendous benefit. The Park Service not only provides management and visitor interpretation services, but it brings a "cachet" to the region, something especially beneficial in bringing in visitors who might not otherwise associate industrial northwest Indiana with natural resources and beauty.
To the Northwestern Indiana Regional Planning Commission and others, thinking green is the way to rebuild the region's economy. As planners know, this is no longer a novel approach. Citizens and local officials are increasingly recognizing that what's good for the environment most often corresponds to what's good for the economy.
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On the formation of dunes:
From Indiana: A Guide to the Hoosier State (1941) one of the books in the outstanding WPA American Guide Series:
"The formation of a dune is a curious process. Sand swept upon the shore by the waters of Lake Michigan is carried inland by the prevailing north and northwest winds. Then a struggle begins between the invading and shifting sand and the hardy vegetation that may spring up and threaten to block its way.
Grasses, vines, shrubs, and small cottonwood trees sink long surface and lateral roots and provide a nucleus around which small cones of sand are formed. In time the cone is increased in size by the wind-driven sand, and slowly a dune is formed ... "
Part of Main Street in Niles, Michigan (click on image for larger size photo).
It was raining hard when I pulled in to Niles, Michigan. But stepping inside the offices of the Niles Downtown Development Authority/Main Street, Lisa Croteau was in a sunny mood. Despite the economic blues facing Michigan, her small city's downtown has been more than holding its own.
Croteau is the executive director, program manager, and staff of the organization, all rolled into one upbeat, engaged person -- good qualities to have in a Main Street program director.
She told me how Niles' downtown had changed dramatically over the past decade, pulling out "before and after" sets of photos of blocks along Main Street -- including the pair on the right.
The Niles DDA/Main Street, Croteau told me, has benefitted greatly from its membership in both the Michigan and National Main Street programs.
The state program is "a phenomenal resource for us," Croteau noted, providing quarterly training opportunities, including sessions on fundraising techniques and, more recently, social networking. Recently, an expert on retail merchandising came to Niles and spoke with a number of business owners, offering very specific suggestions.
This year eight of Lisa's board members attended the National Main Street conference, a "great networking and learning opportunity."
But let me back up a bit. Niles itself is a small city (population 12,000), tucked into the southwest corner of Michigan, just ten miles due north of South Bend, Indiana (more on this later).
The downtown is compact, running from the St. Joseph River, up a low hill.
Niles' Main Street fared very well in the 1950s and '60s, but then started to slump as retailers pulled out for nearby strip malls.
The City tried urban renewal in the 1970s, tearing out one large corner of downtown. By 2000, downtown vacancies were over 25 percent. The Main Street organization has been at the heart of the turnaround. As Lisa describes it, the change resulted from lots of one-on-one conversations, trying to convince residents that downtown was worth saving: "we went to people who had given up on downtown, and we re-engaged them, and we got the community to realize that local businesses will be there only if you shop there, if you want them to stay, you've got to support them."
One of the downtown business I visited with Croteau was Veni's Sweet Shop -- like many of the downtown retailers, locally owned.
Besides making individual connections, the Main Street group focused on creating enjoyable events, including a weekly French Market, and the annual "Hunter Ice Festival," featuring home made ice cream in the middle of January.
Resources were also funneled into facade and sidewalk landscaping improvements, and the look of downtown started to improve noticeably.
The City's design guidelines stress the importance of facades: "The front facades of buildings are one of the most important physical components of downtown -- economically, functionally and aesthetically."
Ironically, one of the "blights" on downtown was the 1960s-era installation of "Shadowform," a Kawneer aluminum facing put on many downtown storefronts (see the photo at the top of the page, and the photo below -- one of the few remaining Shadowform facades).
I say ironic, because Kawneer (before moving to Georgia) was a Niles-based company. Indeed, in an even stranger twist, the Kawneer Foundation has helped fund the removal of some of its own facades. One result, the downtown has been designated a National Historic District. Altogether, about 30 downtown facades have been restored, many assisted by small grants (in the $5,000 range).
On Friday I met again with Croteau. We were joined by Juan Ganum, the city's community development director for the past 11 years. Our discussion covered a broad range of challenges and opportunities facing Niles.
1. The need for a more pedestrian-oriented street design. Right now, the Michigan Department of Transportation controls Main Street. Given the state's primary orientation towards keeping the state highway/Main Street flowing smoothly, features like mid-block crossings or angled parking have not been possible.
The hope is that the State will yield control over Main Street to the City in the near future, enabling the City to plan for a stronger pedestrian orientation.
2. The lack of an attractive gateway into downtown. In fact, much of the nine mile stretch of the main artery, Route 933, between South Bend and Niles is chock full of strip development.
Within the downtown district itself, part of the "renewal" provided in the late 1970s -- in the form of River Front Square, a parking dominated shopping plaza on the southwest corner of downtown -- is now viewed as part of the problem.
As the rest of downtown has regained its historic character, River Front Square (above) stands out as increasingly out of character. Click on image to view at larger size.
3. A major vacant space close to downtown. The Simplicity Pattern Company facility, which closed two years ago, now stands vacant.
The City, Ganum noted, hopes to find a new use for this 750,000 square foot space, possibly for movie production. In fact, Michigan offers a package of incentives for movie production, but there are also lots of large, empty buildings across the state. Photo of Ganum inset in shot of the Simplicity building.
4. Theater restoration in the works. Niles' old downtown movie theater is being renovated. When back in operation, it will contribute to more night-time activity downtown. Croteau notes that the long-range plans call for a fly screen that would allow the stage to be used for theatrical presentations.
5. The lack of any public transit connection between Niles and nearby South Bend. This is something, Ganum said, the City needs to work on. One problem has been an absence of much coordination across state lines.
6. Heritage tourism has tremendous potential. There's excitement about a recent major find by archaeologists from Western Michigan University: the remains of Fort St. Joseph, built by the French in 1690. As both Croteau and Ganum noted, this could have a huge impact on the city, especially given its location just half a mile from downtown (the specific site location has not been publicized).
Even now, tourism from French-Canadians interested in history has been growing. There's already a terrific resource, the City-owned Fort St. Joseph Museum. As Director Carol Bainbridge told me, the Museum will house the finds from the archaeological dig, strengthening the story it already tells about the sequence of French, British, Spanish (for just 24 hours!) and then American control over the Fort.
7. High-speed rail is coming. Niles is located along Amtrak's Chicago-Detroit line, which has been designated for development as a high-speed rail corridor. To Croteau this has the potential of bringing Niles within commuting distance of Chicago, which would provide a further boost to the city. photo: Amtrak arriving from Chicago at Niles.
8. The riverfront is key. Located on the west side of downtown, the riverfront has long been perhaps the single most important asset for downtown. Not only is it the location of summertime concerts, but it's the site of a well-used park.
The playground in Riverfront Park is near a movie complex, which is located in a former discount store. It's a fascinating & successful resue. As a fringe benefit: park users are free to use the theater's restrooms, while the theater gains from park users purchasing refreshments at its concession stand. You'll also note the screen on the theater's exterior -- used during the Summer.
There's also a bicycle path along the river, which will soon be extended both north and south, making use of the former right-of-way of the interurban line that once connected South Bend and Benton Harbor, Michigan. This extension, Ganum noted, was the number one priority expressed in a citizen survey.
9. Diversity. Finally, one of the most important strengths of Niles, as Ganum explained, lies in the fact that "we're a diverse community racially and economically." This is also now reflected on the Planning Commission, though, Juan acknowledged, this has taken some recruitment effort.
That's a long list of challenges and opportunities for a small city. But underlying much of the progress at the heart of the city -- its downtown district -- has been the work of the Main Street organization, its 400 volunteers, its many supporters, and local businesses. The bottom line so far is this: there are now 183 businesses in the downtown district, a gain of 46 over the past five years; and the number of jobs downtown has also grown, from 415 to 548.
Not bad for any city of 12,000 these days, let alone one in hard-pressed Michigan.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
Elkhart County, Indiana. Some quick facts. Population: 198,000. Location: northern Indiana, just south of the Michigan line. "Capital" of America's RV industry. Unemployment rate: 18%. Close to South Bend (20 miles) and Chicago (110 miles).
I spoke with members of the Elkhart County Plan Commission about the impact of the economy on planning and development -- and I'll touch on this later in this post.
But I just happened to be in Elkhart County on the day the Plan Commission's meeting was focusing on a proposed zoning amendment to regulate digital electronic signs, LED's. In fact, it's one of a series of meetings the Commission has had on this.
It's a fascinating, and challenging issue -- one facing communities across the country.
There's been a surge in digital signs in Elkhart County. This, in turn, has led to a growing number of complaints, especially from residents. As staff planner Robert Nemeth (at podium in above photo) told me, the main concern he's heard is about their brightness and intensity, and the way "they can light up the whole neighborhood." Moreover, as Nemeth pointed out to the Commissioners, "we're looking to the future ... as digital signs are becoming cheaper, more and more businesses will be using them."
Video above of Horizon Bank sign in Elkhart County, just up the road from where we were meeting. Below: also nearby, this gas pricing sign is the kind of digital display of information that seldom raises any concerns.
Right now, all such signs are permitted in Elkhart County. Planning staff drafted a zoning amendment, drawing on regulations used in other communities. Staff also got input from Lyle Ryman, who runs Sign Image, a local business that has installed some 50 LED signs. Ryman told the Commissioners that billboard size electronic signs "will be the wave of the future in a big way," and he has a client currently planning to install five of them in Elkhart County.
Nemeth outlined some of the objectives of the proposed zoning amendment: -- prohibiting flashing, swirling, and animations, but allowing the sign display to change enough "so that it can convey information, but not distract drivers." -- limiting the intensity of the light, to reduce glare at night and on overcast days. -- controlling signs in residential and agricultural areas, "where they're just incompatible."
One concern Ryman noted about the proposal was its restrictions on animations. For businesses, Ryman said, "animations are really important." In fact, he added, "every one of our full color signs has animation." He also pointed out that the City of Elkhart just purchased a large digital sign for their downtown plaza that will have animated displays.
The presentations triggered a series of questions from the commissioners. They ranged from technical (i.e., how do you define "night"; how do you measure and enforce light intensity standards) to philosophical (i.e., the degree to which government should regulate private businesses, though everyone on the Commission seemed at least sensitive to the business impacts of regulation).
photo: from left to right: plan commissioners Dennis Sharkey, Meg Wolgamood, and Mike Yoder.
There was also disagreement on basic issues such as how distracting digital signs, especially those with animation, are for motorists. Chairman Mike Yoder had few concerns, and noted that, "there's a huge market telling us we have to have motion in these signs." But Commissioner Steve Warner was concerned about having their impact at high traffic intersections where they might especially distract drivers. For Commissioner Meg Wolgamood, "it's so complicated, because we're not looking at just one sign, but at possible strips of signs in motion that could be distracting and confusing."
See video below prepared by the South Carolina Chapter of Scenic America on potential impact of strip digital billboards.
As I noted, Lyle Ryman, the sign industry's "representative," has been working with Planning Department staff, and offered several constructive suggestions. He also mentioned the next generation of digital electronic signs that will convey holographic images.
See example of a holographic billboard installed in Peru, visible from about 1,000 feet:
Large billboard size digital sizes are increasing across the country. Here's one example along the Bay Bridge in California.
But there was no one at the table representing "the other side." Indeed, how would the Elkhart County Plan Commission even find someone to represent a different point-of-view on signs? Organizations such as Scenic America which have campaigned against digital signs are small and far removed from places like Elkhart County.
The Commissioners also discussed what to do about grandfathering existing signs. One intriguing difference that comes into play with digital signs, as Ryman pointed out, is that almost all are computer programmed. That means things like the speed of display and whether or not animations are displayed, can be turned on or off by the program. In other words, setting new zoning standards would not require the business to replace its existing sign.
While this should ease concerns about the financial impact of new criteria on existing signs, Commissioner Blake Doriot was still troubled by restricting a businesses' right to use an existing digital sign in whatever ways allowed when they purchased it.
photo: Elkhart County Plan Director Bob Watkins (rear left) and county planner Robert Nemeth (front center) listen to the Plan Commission's discussion.
After over an hour's discussion, the zoning amendment was tabled, so staff could address the concerns raised during the meeting. I'll try to update this posting once Elkhart County takes action. I'd also welcome feedback on whether the topic of digital electronic signs is something we should address in a future issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal.
------------------------------- Let me take a minute to touch on some other issues several planning commissioners told me about in an informal post-meeting discussion.
One big concern is how to diversify Elkhart County's economy, and how planning and zoning relates to this. Plan Director Bob Watkins said that planners need to do a better job selling the public and elected officials on the importance of good zoning to economic development. As Watkins put it, "why would a big company want to come to Elkhart County if they didn't know who might be setting up next to them?"
Mike Yoder (who is also a county commissioner) seconded this. "Too many developers," he observed, "believe all you need to do is put up something cheap." Meg Wolgamood (who used to be a planner for Elkhart County) added, "we've all talked about raising the bar, and we've improved our standards, but with the economy the way it is here, there's a temptation to backslide." Yoder nodded, saying "we're trying to move from basic manufacturing to advanced manufacturing ... raising the bar is actually pro-business."
The future of manufacturing is a major concern here in a county that for long has thrived from the RV industry, which has been especially hard hit by the recession (one reason why President Obama paid a return visit to Elkhart this February to speak about his economic stimulus plan). Watkins pointed out that there's some 94 million square feet of manufacturing space in Elkhart County, noting that it will be a challenge to find new uses for this space.
But Elkhart County has some competitive advantages: very good road and rail infrastructure, low housing and business costs, proximity to Chicago, and the fact that the County sits on a huge aquifer. It also, as Watkins added, has a long history of being home to many entrepreneurial individuals and businesses.
For an interesting article on some of the challenges facing Elkhart County, see "Can Elkhart County Save Itself?" (published in the Elkhart Truth, March 29, 2009).
In part I of this post, I discussed the tough economic situation the city of Flint, Michigan finds itself in, and the role the growing role of the Genesee County Land Bank.
But while in Flint, my focus was more on what the Land Bank's planning staff does, not on how the parcel acquisition process works. I spent part of the day with planners Christina Kelly and Jeff Burdick, visiting two Flint neighborhoods.
Our first stop was the Thread Lake neighborhood.
Kelly and Burdick have been working closely with the local neighborhood association, headed up by Barbara Griffith-Wilson. Thread Lake is one of 28 "clean and green" neighborhoods, which qualifies it for attention -- and resources -- from the Land Bank.
I spoke to Griffith-Wilson about her neighborhood and asked her to briefly describe it:
Clean and green neighborhoods are required to maintain at least twenty Land Bank properties, and implement at least two gardening projects. In return, they have access to Land Bank financial and technical support. In fact, while I was visiting Thread Lake, Roxanne Adair, the Land Bank's Urban Food Gardening Coordinator, stopped by to find out what kind of vegetables the neighborhood was most interested in having planted.
Several high school students are earning money helping with community gardens; they'll also be clearing a large vacant lot (above left) across the street from where they're planting. Lower left, Barbara Griffith-Wilson lists some of the garden needs to the Land Bank's Roxanne Adair.
As we walked through the neighborhood, Kelly and Burdick explained some of the Land Bank's programs. One involves "side lots." Homeowners with vacant Land Bank property adjacent to the side of their home have the opportunity to purchase that property as a side yard. The cost is typically under $75.
There are at least three benefits from the program. First, it brings properties back onto the tax roll. Second, it eliminates the public cost that would otherwise have gone into maintaining the vacant land. Third, it benefits the homeowners by allowing them to take control of what has often become an eyesore next to their home; unkempt vacant land can significantly reduce their own property's value. Note: the Land Bank also operates a related program allowing for residents and businesses to "adopt" a Land Bank owned lot, and then be given priority for purchasing it.
There's evidence that Thread Lake is stabilizing. One hopeful sign is that a local developer, Charles Young, has purchased and rehabbed an abandoned housing complex, Village Shores.
Not far from the Thread Lake neighborhood, and close to downtown, is the Grand Traverse neighborhood, another area Land Bank planners have been assisting. For the Land Bank it's one of their "strategic reinvestment areas."
Among the positive factors for the Land Bank: the neighborhood is close to downtown; it has a strong neighborhood association; Habitat for Humanity is active there; and the Land Bank already owns considerable property in the neighborhood.
One other more fortuitous factor: Genesee County transportation planner Heidi Phaneuf moved into the neighborhood in 2000, and has been active in the neighborhood association and is now its president.
Working with the Land Bank, the Grand Traverse neighborhood association (which has about sixty members) has put together a strategic plan. It set five goals, Phaneuf told me: increase home ownership; improve housing conditions; improve neighborhood recreational areas; build partnerships with nearby businesses; and build the neighborhood association's capacity as an organization.
From top, clockwise: the neighborhood some blocks with considerable abandoned housing; vacant house owned by the Land Bank; former school also owned by the Land Bank; Habitat for Humanity's Margaret Kato (left) and neighborhood association president Heidi Phaneuf; one of several Habitat signs dotting the neighborhood; lot acquired by homeowner through the Land Bank; and Habitat house under construction.
This May, neighborhood residents helped install a playscape in the local park (see photo, provided by Heidi Phaneuf). Progress has also been made towards cleaning up Spring Grove a brownfield site, where the illegal dumping used to occur. The site has a natural spring and is part of a wetland restoration and nature park development project.
Habitat for Humanity has also taken a strong interest in the neighborhood. Margaret Kato, Habitat's county director told me that seven new Habitat homes will be completed by the end of the year. As Kato explained, "it was important to us that there was a plan for the neighborhood, and that the neighborhood association was welcoming and wanted to see infill housing." Moreover, Habitat has found there's "more impact to have a concentration of homes than scattered sites throughout the county."
My visit to Flint -- and earlier this Spring to Scranton and Wilkes-Barre -- also makes me wonder about the declining capacity of city planning departments. There's no city planner working for the City of Flint, a city of 117,000. Instead, the Land Bank has (at least in part) taken on the role of local planners. In Scranton & Wilkes-Barre it's the staff at the Chambers of Commerce who have, in various ways, done the work of city planners.
Photo above: downtown Flint is compact, and still largely "in business." Below right: the former Durant Hotel, which has sat vacant for many years, is now being converted into 93 apartments, thanks to work from the Land Bank, the Mott Foundation, and other area organizations.
Christina Kelly probably best summed up the situation: "planning in cities like Flint is always first to go." But at least in places like Flint and Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, other organizations have stepped into the vacuum.
While Flint has received lots of negative attention in the media -- in some ways becoming the poster boy of urban disintegration -- what's also clear is that there are many who are not giving up on Flint.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
Doug Wieland, Executive Director of the Genesee County Land Bank, pulled out a sheet of paper and pushed it across the table towards me. This is the hard reality of Flint, Michigan, today. Population falling from 195,000 in 1970 to 117,000 in 2006. Abandoned housing units since 1970: 31,200.
A staggering 32 percent of all residential parcels in Flint are abandoned.
Flint for decades had been a solid, middle-class city, home to many General Motors employees. According to the Flint Journal (June 1, 2009), "at its peak, GM employment in Flint reached more than 82,000." But that number has dropped "to about 8,500 by the end of 2007."
photo: from left to right: Doug Wieland, and planners Christina Kelly and Jeff Burdick.
One of the central missions of the Land Bank is to purchase, hold, and then resell abandoned structures and vacant lots.
The Land Bank is an independent County authority (Dan Kildee, the County treasurer, serves as its President). It receives funding from the County, as well as from state and federal sources (such as brownfields and land revitalization funds; note that under Michigan law, land held by a land bank is considered a brownfields site). Revenue also comes from private foundation grants (including the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation) and from the resale of the properties the Land Bank holds.
This past year, the Land Bank acquired 1,545 foreclosed properties; its total inventory currently stands at 4,823 such properties.
One of its major accomplishments, Wieland told me, is that "the Land Bank has largely taken speculators out of the market." But it's impossible for the Land Bank to physically care for all the lots it has acquired, and some in the community have complained about this, Wieland noted. (As you'll see in part II of this post, one way the Land Bank addresses this concern is by encouraging neighborhood groups to maintain Land Bank properties, in return for technical assistance from Land Bank staff).
One concept that I noted during my recent visit to Cleveland, Ohio, is the idea that older, industrial cities may need to plan to shrink, not grow. In Cleveland, the strategy calls for reusing vacant land for urban agriculture, stormwater management, or recreational purposes. This would, at least over time, save the city money by enabling it to focus its infrastructure dollars (as well as resources supporting housing and economic development) on fewer areas.
The same approach is taking place in Flint. As reported in the Flint Journal (June 19, 2009) "the idea of planned shrinkage became a viable concept in Michigan a few years ago, when the state changed its laws regarding properties foreclosed for delinquent taxes. Prior to that, abandoned buildings and homes tended to be tied up in the courts, adding to blight. Now they're being snatched-up by county land banks, which have a powerful tool to change the face of communities. 'The idea is to reshape the city so we have a small collection of sustainable neighborhoods with open green space,' said Kildee, a Flint native and chief executive of the local land bank."
But compared to Cleveland, Flint -- through use of the Land Bank -- has been much more aggressive in dealing with vacant, tax foreclosed properties. Note: a land bank is being formed in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, which includes Cleveland.
Take a look at a map of Flint. The red shows vacant lots currently owned by the Genesee County Land Bank Authority.
The Land Bank "bundles" many foreclosed properties coming up for auction by the County Treasurer's office. That is, Land Bank staff, based on personal inspections of the tax foreclosed parcels, determine which should be included in one huge single "bundle" of properties up for auction. This has helped ensure that these bundled parcels will end up in the hands of the Land Bank, not in the hands of speculators, as it's unlikely any one speculator will bid on a very large package of assorted properties. If property is not sold at auction, it goes to the Land Bank.
As Christina Kelly, lead planner for the Land Bank told me, too many planners across the country are unfamiliar with the importance and mechanics of the foreclosure process. At the same, she added, local officials (often in the Treasurer's office) have little knowledge of the spatial and planning-related impacts foreclosures have. Tip to planners: it might be a good idea to sit down with those in your city or county who handle tax foreclosures.
in Part II to be posted on Wednesday: visiting two Flint neighborhoods
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
Troy, Michigan, is a spread out (6 x 6 mile), auto-oriented suburb (population 81,000) about 19 miles northwest of downtown Detroit. You'll find many elements typical of the suburbs that boomed in the 1970s and '80s: corporate office parks, wide arterial roadways, pleasant single-family residential neighborhoods, ample parks, high quality schools, shopping and commercial strip malls, large auto dealerships, and many fast food outlets.
Above: Office buildings along Big Beaver Road; immediately below: corporate offices along Stephenson Parkway; second below: Troy's Auto Mall.
Over the last few decades Troy has thrived, becoming an economic hub in the Metro Detroit region. But, as Planning Director Mark Miller pointed out to me, the growth curve has flattened. With the sharp decline of the automotive industry in Michigan, Troy has certainly felt the impact. Much of the city's economic prosperity has been based on automotive-related business, especially small-scale manufacturing and supply operations.
In driving through Troy with Miller and Principal Planner Brent Savidant, we passed building after building with "For Lease" or "For Sale" signs out. Some were large office buildings (including a major complex that served as a headquarters for K-Mart), but even more were modest industrial facilities, "Mom and Pop" type, as Miller noted. Here are some photos I took along one block in a light industrial district.
While its economic foundation has become a bit shaky, Troy is still a relatively prosperous suburban community, with a larger day-time workforce than resident population (daytime population of 136,000). Interestingly, nearly 20 percent of Troy's population is foreign-born, and of that, a surprising 62 percent are of Asian background. Miller attributed this to the high caliber of the K-12 schools, which has long served as a major draw for this group. Charts from the Troy Master Plan.
The evolving economy, with a reduced role for manufacturing, has provided Troy an opportunity to rethink its future. Indeed, the new City of Troy Master Plan 2008 sets out the framework for a major shift in Troy's direction. The very first paragraph of the Plan makes this clear: "Fueled by necessity and inspired by a changing population, economy and region, the City of Troy has determined that the development of a new Troy Master Plan is critical to help the community cope with the realities of the 21st century in Michigan."
As an aside, I found Troy's Master Plan very well-written and organized. I'd highly recommend browsing through it. To download a .pdf of the plan.
In reading through the Master Plan, there's a certain amount of disconnect between what's "on the ground" now and what's called for. Especially striking is the Plan's emphasis on increased transit and walkability, and on mixed-use development. As Miller told me, in Troy today "everything is designed for the car." Yet, he noted, one of the priorities residents expressed during input sessions on the Plan was more places to ride bikes and walk.
The Plan does not call for developing a town center or downtown for Troy (in contrast to what I reported on in suburbs such as Creve Coeur, Missouri). Instead, the focus is on reconfiguring some 21 "nodes" -- each with an area of 40,000 square feet or more encompassing a key intersection and adjoining land (there are plenty of major intersections, given the regular rhythm of arterial roadways in Troy).
Part of the reason for favoring mixed-use is due to its tax advantages compared to purely residential development. The boxed material on the left is from the Troy Master Plan.
Implementation will involve developing a form-based optional overlay zone for each node, seeking to encourage mixed-use development. Euclidean, hierarchical zoning will fade as developers see the higher economic value from what they can do using the overlay zoning. In fact, Miller doesn't foresee any major controversy since the optional overlay "will be creating value for the properties."
Here's a portion of the philosophy behind nodal development set out in the Master Plan (p. 93):
"Neighborhood Nodes are the concentrated, commercial and mixed-use centers situated at major intersections of Troy thoroughfares that serve as the center of the City's Economic Neighborhoods. The nodes are specifically identified on pages 95 and 96. Economic Neighborhoods are destinations created as "go to" places that take on a social role, serving both as a place to meet basic needs of the community and as 21st century village centers. ... The nodes will typically permit a mix of commercial, office, and high-density residential, although the predominant uses in any Neighborhood Node development must be in keeping with the node characteristics described on pages 95 and 96. ... Each of these nodes serves four quadrants of the overlapping social neighborhoods and has the ability to bring residents of four neighborhoods together. ..."
Take a look at the map of the nodes at key intersections; they're designated by the letters A-U. Tthe numbers indicate the city's mile square sections.
I stopped with Miller and Savidant at one of these nodes (I highlighted the intersection in yellow on the map). The photos below will give you a feel for what it looks like now -- click on the panorama to view it at a larger size.
Here are the characteristics for this node set out in the Master Plan:
"G. Rochester Road and Wattles Road. A careful blend of commercial uses and office uses, effectively transitioned into the adjoining residential neighborhoods, should be the main uses at this intersection. Recent residential development in the area has taken pedestrian access to the intersection into consideration with effective pathways and sidewalks, and any new development at the intersection must continue this positive trend."
Obviously, it's going to be a tall order to change the existing land use pattern. As Miller put it, "it's going to be a real long-term endeavor." But over time, he believes that changes will start becoming more evident.
Just as the nodal approach will depend on incremental change, so does improved design and an increased pedestrian orientation. One example that Miller is proud of is a new Starbucks along Big Beaver Road, Troy's "Main Street" thoroughfare.
It's located where a gas station had stood. For the first time, people are actually sitting outside and eating along Big Beaver. The City insisted on the parking being pushed towards the rear, and did not allow for a drive-thru.
Troy is also investing in a new multi-modal center, to be located along an existing rail line (used by Amtrak) on ground near a major "power center" and housing development. it will also encompass the Oakland/Troy airport.
Rendering of the center, which will serve Amtrak, regional bus transit, taxi & car rentals, and connect with the airport.
photo below of Planning Director Mark Miller (right) and Principal Planner Brent Savidant (left) taken at site of planned multi-modal center.
The center is being jointly planned with the neighboring city of Birmingham, and straddles the two communities. One key reason Troy wants better transit is that the city relies on workers coming from Detroit and other places; the idea is that this will make working in Troy a more realistic option for many. The aim is also for the center to stimulate housing & other development.
Troy is a suburb that is proactively planning for a changing future. It will be fascinating to see how the city evolves, and how the policies called for in its new Master Plan play out.
------------------------- I also had the privilege of attending an evening meeting of the Troy Planning Commission while in town. It was well-run by Chairman Robert Schultz, with active participation by all members of the Commission.
Interestingly, the most controversial item on the agenda was a special permit application for a Sonic drive-thru restaurant -- probably one of the few chains not already in Troy! Among the concerns: the potential safety impacts on pedestrians and traffic flow.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
At 8 am on Tuesday (June 9th), I'm sitting in Campus Martius Park, a 2.5 acre urban park/open space in the center of downtown Detroit, waiting for Bob Gregory to arrive. Workers are busy cleaning the park, but they're not city employees. Instead, they work for the Detroit 300 Conservancy, a non-profit, business-supported organization that Gregory heads.
Campus Martius is noteworthy on at least two counts. First, it's a vivid demonstration of the desire Detroiters have for a downtown open space. Second, it's an indicator of the trend towards privately managed public space in our downtowns. For a report on another aspect of privatization, see my posting Doing Your BID-ing in Washington, D.C. (June 1, 2007).
Campus Martius -- for more on the strange name see the end of this post -- is actually in its second incarnation. There had been a public park in this location early in the 20th century. Back in the 1930s, Gregory tells me, downtown Detroit had the densest concentration of pedestrian traffic of any major U.S. city (note: haven't been able to verify this). But as automobiles replaced transit, Detroit's leaders replaced the park with roadways. See photo below for site of today's Campus Martius.
Detroit's business leaders have eliminated the asphalt roadways and returned a public space to the heart of downtown, in the form of a new, "souped up," Campus Martius.
The open space is pleasant enough early in the morning. But it comes to life at lunch time, when nearby office workers crowd in with their brown bags, or swing through the Au Bon Pain cafe.
As Gregory explains, the Detroit 300 Conservancy is responsible for programming at Campus Martius. In fact, programming is central to its mission, because it is the programs and planned activities that draw people not just at lunch time, but during evenings and cold Winter days.
Gregory ticked off some of the events: Saturday night movies; outdoor theater and dance; the Jazz Festival in September; the Motown Winter Blast; car festivals; daily ice skating from November through March; and more. Campus Martius also draws many going to Detroit Tigers games in Comerica ballpark, just a few blocks away. (note: aerial, skating, & night concert photos provided by Detroit 300).
Campus Martius is loaded with high-tech features designed to enhance the visitor experience. Gregory pointed out two carefully tucked away hydraulic stages used for concerts, and described the sophisticated lighting and specially zoned sound systems.
The capstone, at the center of Campus Martius, is its fountain, with 100 programmed jets of water (obviously not operating at full power at 8 am!). It was designed by WET Design, the firm responsible for the fountains in front of Las Vegas' Bellagio Hotel.
The impetus of the re-born Campus Martius, Gregory told me, came from a plan prepared for Detroit's Downtown Partnership in the late 1990's by the Toronto firm, Urban Strategies. The business community, in celebration of Detroit's 300th birthday, wanted to leave a "legacy gift" to the City, in the form of this new open space.
As the City didn't have the financial resources, this was the only way Campus Martius could be built and maintained. The model drawn on was New York City's Bryant Park and Central Park, also maintained by private non-profit conservancies. Twenty million dollars was raised from Detroit corporations and private foundations. The result, an attractive, well-used, open space (opened in 2004, and expanded in 2007), managed by the Detroit 300 Conservancy under contract from the City.
It's an interesting question whether one of the key downtown open spaces for a wide range of events should be developed and managed by a private entity, even if it's a non-profit with the best interests of the city at its heart. But that's the reality of 21st century America, at least in fiscally-strapped cities, where the only money available to invest comes from the private corporations (motivated by civic values, a desire to preserve the value of their own corporate assets, or perhaps some combination of the two).
There are some restrictions on use of the park. As Gregory informed me, "there is no soliciting, leaflet distributing, etc. in the Park, except for companies and organizations that are approved Park sponsors and partners."
One of the key aims of Campus Martius, Gregory told me during my visit, is to be "a catalyst for economic development" and "counter the view of Detroit as a devastated, bombed out city."
Compuware, a major provider of information technology services, moved its headquarters from the suburbs to a new 1.1 million square foot building overlooking the open space.
Gregory also pointed to the restoration of the nearby Book-Cadillac building (left) as a new Westin hotel -- something that Preservation Wayne Director Karen Nagher also mentioned to me as a positive sign.
But there's still no major retail businesses downtown in America's 11th largest city (population 917,000). Part of the site of the huge Hudson Department store demolished in 1998, just a block away from Campus Martius, is still vacant. Photo below left shows this site; the other photo is of the Compuware headquarters, which also occupies part of former Hudson's property, while fronting on Campus Martius.
In today's tough economic climate, Gregory notes, "the challenge is to keep Campus Martius going." That was further highlighted during my visit to Detroit by talk about General Motors possibly pulling its headquarters out of downtown.
------------------------------- Why "Campus Martius"? The name is from the Latin for "field of Mars," and was used in the early 18th century to reflect the military origins of Detroit as a French, and then British, controlled Fort. The only military aspect that I spotted in the Park today are the Civil War figures sculpted on the Soldiers & Sailors Memorial located at one end of Campus Martius.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
For several generations it was one of the iconic images of Detroit: the majestic Michigan Central Railroad Station & Tower. For newcomers to Detroit, the Station was often the entry point to this once prosperous city, capital of the world automobile industry.
The image of the Station today still carries a message -- but it's a message of a city in decline.
But does that mean the best solution is for the City to tear down the structure?
The city's economic development agency is advocating demolition. The structure's a health and safety hazard, they say. Moreover, the 500,000 square foot building -- listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- has stood vacant since the mid-1980s, and, they argue, there's little likelihood of it being restored. [Many more photos of the station are posted on seedetroit.com]
The alternative approach, described to me by Karen Nagher, Executive Director of Preservation Wayne (a citizens advocacy group for preservation in the Detroit area), is to "mothball" and stabilize the building for now, and wait for the economy to improve.
The hope is that sometime in the future an innovative adaptive reuse will emerge. Moreover, as Nagher points out, the City has no plans for the site after the Station is demolished; there will just be one more large vacant lot in the heart of Detroit.
Complicating matters is the fact that the Station's billionaire owner Manuel Moroun (also owner of the nearby Ambassador toll bridge, which handles one-fourth of all commerce between the U.S. and Canada) has not invested much in the structure. It's time for the structure to come down, city officials argue.
But once torn down, preservationists point out, Detroit will have lost an important part of its heritage -- one more structure among many that have been demolished.
Indeed, on the very same day I was in Detroit, Preservation Wayne had just lost a court hearing to try to prevent the final demolition of old Tiger Stadium, not far from the Michigan Central Station. In fact, in this photo both are visible.
Demolishing buildings like the Michigan Central Station and Tiger Stadium may actually carry an economic cost. Not only does a city's historic fabric draw tourists, it also makes a city more attractive for business -- and it helps instill that "pride in community" city officials often talk about.
There's one other benefit that Michael Boettcher, a city planner who also volunteers for Preservation Wayne, mentioned. Younger people are especially drawn to authentic places, where historic structures are valued. The bottom line is that cities that care about their past are also investing in their future.
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update June 16, 2009: shortly after posting my report from Detroit I learned of an effort in Buffalo, New York, to restore that city's old New York Central Terminal (see photo below). It's an example of how hard work is starting to pay off in a restoration comparable to what may be needed in Detroit. I hope that Detroiters will take a look at the Central Terminal Restoration Corporation's web site, and pay a visit to Buffalo. Success can happen even with a building that poses daunting challenges.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
I started off the second leg of my CircleTheUSA travels today with a fascinating visit to the Ford Motor Company's huge River Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan.
Ten years ago Ford reached the decision point on whether to close down its River Rouge Auto Assembly Plant or make a significant investment in it. In addition, the Company faced EPA concerns about stormwater management and runoff from River Rouge.
According to Ford Motor Company President Bill Ford, "I wasn't about to let the Rouge turn into an industrial relic." In part, this reflected the significance of the Rouge plant to the Ford family, which takes pride in the Company's history.
Opened in the 1920s, River Rouge was Ford's breakthrough manufacturing plant. It was here that Henry Ford incorporated for the first time at such a large scale the principles of vertical integration: raw materials arriving by ship at the facility's docks; the materials then being manufactured into parts on site; and those parts then being used on the auto assembly line.
At its heyday, the Rouge employed 100,000, providing good paying jobs. After contributing to the War effort in the 1940s, the plant went on to assemble several popular models, including the Mustang and the Thunderbird.
One of the key decisions Bill Ford made was to retain noted environmental architect William McDonough and his firm to turn River Rouge into a "green" auto plant. At the heart of the transformation is the new Ford Assembly building (opened in 2004) and its 454,000 square foot green roof -- currently the largest green roof in the world.
Looking out over the roof, you see acres of planted sedum: 10.4 acres to be precise.
There are more than a dozen varieties of this plant material in use, forming the upper layer of a three inch "sandwich." Immediately below the sedum is a layer containing a fleece-like material designed to absorb water; and under that a drainage layer, and finally a waterproof membrane. The green roof weighs, when wet, less than 15 pounds/square foot. For more detailed information on the roof (from GreenRoofs.org).
The Ford Motor Company cites several major benefits from the green roof: -- it retains stormwater, and slows the rate of runoff, meeting EPA requirements. In fact, the $13 million cost of the green runoff is far cheaper than the approximately $35 million alternative Ford would have faced of constructing stormwater detention facilities on site. -- the roof is expected to save substantial energy costs by absorbing solar heat (note that the ivy that is growing along the walls is also designed to provide natural insulation). -- the green roof is also expected to have a much longer life than a traditional roof. -- the roof provides additional habitat area for birds.
While the roof is the environmental centerpiece of the new River Rouge, there other green features, including: -- 16 acres of porous pavement parking lots for employees. -- the planting of some 1,000 trees, including an array of crab apples in front of the assembly plant (I was told that this also honors Henry Ford's love of apple trees).
-- several large skylights placed in the roof, designed to allow for a substantial amount of natural light inside the plant (which will save on lighting costs, while also allowing for better working conditions).
While they're manufacturing Ford F-150 trucks inside, above the busy assemby lines is a thin layer of green. River Rouge has made a big start at turning green.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years ...
During this first "interlude" between legs of my Circle the USA travels I had the good fortune of seeing a performance of "First Person: Stories from the Edge of the World," written and edited by National Public Radio's Neal Conan. The program opens with a reading of the poem Ithaka, by Greek poet Constantine P. Cavafy.
For all travelers, whether your destination is near or far, it's a poem you need to hear.
Here the poem is read by actor Sean Connery, with music by Vangelis.
From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:
Heard about a fascinating range of local issues during the first leg of my CircleTheUSA trip. You can read my reports by using the links in the left sidebar, or by scrolling down this page.
Now that the first leg is complete, I want to ask for your help:
1. We're beginning to plan my schedule between Cleveland and Chicago (leg 2) and Chicago and Minnesota/North Dakota (leg 3). Next Spring, I'll be continuing to the Pacific Northwest, and then south to California. We'll keep the schedule information posted in the right hand sidebar. If you'd potentially be interested in my reporting from your community (or county/region), send me a note at: pcjoffice@gmail.com and I'll get back to you. In a nutshell, we're looking for how communities are dealing with challenging planning and land use related issues (of all sorts) so that others can learn from their experiences.
2. Our CircleTheUSA blog will be more effective & informative for everyone if you take a few minutes and add your comments to those reports that most interest you, or that relate to something you've dealt with in your own community. Comments can be just a sentence or two, or longer.
3. As you may know, I'm publisher & editor of the Planning Commissioners Journal, a small, independent quarterly with a dedicated staff of three (Betsey Krumholz, our general manager; Peggy Ellis-Green; and me). Given our size and modest budget, doing this trip is an expensive undertaking. To cut costs, most nights I'll be staying in peoples' homes or at low cost B&B's. But if you find the reports posted here of value, please also consider Chipping in a small amount, by using the "Chipin" button in the sidebar to your right. We need to cover about one-quarter of our projected travel costs, including airfare and car rentals, this way.
Wayne Senville, Editor/Publisher, Planning Commissioners Journal
What's the star attraction in your town? What's the place where the widest range of residents, from kids to seniors, visit and spend their time? Where do people go to hear interesting speakers and discuss new ideas? And, by the way, where can they go to take home a book, CD, or DVD at virtually no cost?
In more and more places, the answer I'm hearing is the one you've probably guessed by now: the library. As part of my research for an article I'm preparing for the Summer issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal, I stopped by Hudson, Ohio, at the end of the first leg of my Circle The USA trip to learn about their new library.
I met with Community Development Director Mark Richardson, a North Dakota transplant, and Margie Smith, Assistant Director of the Hudson Library & Historical Society. And, yes, the star attraction in Hudson, Ohio, is its library.
Hudson is a small Ohio city (population 22,439), midway between Cleveland and Akron. It has elements of both a suburb and a small town. One key part of Hudson is its historic Main Street business district. More on that in a minute, as it's related to the library.
But first take a look at the library itself. It's a stately brick building, with functional but very attractively designed interior spaces. The heart of the library is its rotunda (see photo below), showing that the design of libraries today -- even in smaller cities -- can match that of the classic Carnegie library buildings of a century ago.
As I've been learning, however, new libraries tend to need considerably more space than their earlier counterparts. That's the case in Hudson, where the new library building (at 50,000 square feet) is much bigger than the old building (at 17,000 square feet).
At first blush this seems counter-intuitive. Why in today's internet and digital age would libraries need to be larger? More importantly, why do they seem in even greater demand? What I've been finding so far (see also my report from Putney, Vermont) is that in today's digital age there's even more demand for public libraries. The role of the library has also been evolving, taking on a broader range of community-related functions.
What's draws people to the Hudson library? I asked Smith. "It's become the cultural, entertainment, and social hub of Hudson," she replied. "The library programs a lot of readings, there are musical performances every week, and we also have meeting rooms."
Add in over 50 public computer terminals, access to state and local databases, and a collection of more than 7,000 DVDs. Plus a coffee shop to hang out in, and an outdoor patio. You can even borrow laptops from the library, and use them anywhere in the building or on the patio.
The library also benefits from the fact that it's home to the Hudson Historical Society, which has its own space on the second floor, and to the Burton D. Morgan Center for Entrepreneurship Research.
While the library has a large children's reading room, Smith told me that perhaps the smartest move the library made was to also include a separate room for teens. The Hudson library doesn't close till 9 pm, Monday through Thursday, and is open a total of 69 hours each week.
The library is funded primarily through a property tax levy (raising $1.4 million), with just over $1 million more from the State of Ohio (income tax revenues). The library also makes extensive use of volunteers, including "techwizards" who help out in the computer center.
The residents of Hudson have decided that the library is a key service they want for their community. The numbers attest to this, as there are more than 23,000 registered library users, who checked out 736,000 items last year. The library counted more than 700,000 visits, an average of well over 2,000 every day it was open.
For planners, however, I want to touch on what may be the most interesting aspect of the Hudson library: its location. It is part of an expansion of Hudson's Main Street district.
Indeed, you could say it is the star attraction. As Community Development Director Mark Richardson told me, "you can't just rely on retail in downtown expansion, you need an activity center like a library." (apologies for the quality of the video clip I shot, as you can tell I'm not a skilled cinematographer! but it's still worth a look)
The Main Street extension (called First & Main) consists of a mix of retail, office, and housing. The City has architectural design standards for the area. As Richardson explained, "the idea was for it to be a natural extension, not a replication, of Main Street." The streets are laid out in a grid, connecting with the old village.
While there's a modest parking garage, there's also surface parking. As Richardson noted, "there's an expectation here for that being available."
You'll note that the housing in Main Street extension (top right) parallels the look of houses in Hudson's old village (lower right). Richardson also foresees a future phase of the project including substantially more housing, as "there's strong interest from empty-nesters."
Hudson is ready to grow. But the library will remain at its heart.
Audacious.definition: showing a willingness to take surprisingly bold risks. Realistic.definition: having or showing a sensible and practical idea of what can be achieved or expected.
-- Cleveland, Ohio, as home to farms supplying a quarter of local food needs? -- Cleveland, Ohio, as a green oasis, with interconnected trails and parkland accessible to all? -- Cleveland, Ohio, as a city managing its stormwater while reducing environmental contaminants? -- Cleveland, Ohio, as a healthy city with thriving commercial & residential centers?
Those are some of the goals of Cleveland's planners, as they seek to steer the city's land use pattern towards what they term a more sustainable direction. Audacious ... or realistic?
Trends in past decades have been grim. The city's population has been steadily dropping from 915,000 in 1950 to 478,000 in 2000, to 438,000 (2007 estimate), to a projected 387,000 in 2016. Blighted areas can be found in many parts of the city, with some 15,000 vacant buildings and 3,300 acres of vacant land.
In fact, Cleveland Planning Director Bob Brown told me that the City will be demolishing some 2,000 houses this year, a staggering number for a city this size.
Yet at the same time, there are a number of strong neighborhoods. In fact, as Terry Schwarz, AICP, of the KSU Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative, noted, many times these neighborhoods are close by distressed areas. That was vividly demonstrated to me as Schwarz drove us from our lunch spot in the vibrant Ohio City commercial district (home to the West Side Farmers Market) to the nearby "Slavic Village" (hard hit by foreclosures) and then on to what's known locally as "the Forgotten Triangle" neighborhood (see photos above; for more on the Forgotten Triangle see "Cleveland's streets are emptying" on the Cleveland Plain Dealer blog, August 19, 2007).
Take a look at a typical scene in Slavic Village today (below) and then compare it to a rendering of what part of Slavic Village might look like one day. The drawing is from a fascinating report called Re-Imagining A More Sustainable Cleveland: Citywide Strategies for Reuse of Vacant Land (link to large .pdf), a report initiated by the Cleveland City Planning Commission and Neighborhood Progress, Inc. (a non-profit that works with the city's community development corporations) as part of a broader planning process.
Schwarz, who worked on Re-Imagining Cleveland, pointed out that in the past "new housing had always been the goal for vacant land." But the new approach outlined in the report focuses on implementing a variety of "green" initiatives instead.
As Schwarz explains it, there are many advantages in developing hundreds of community gardens, along with larger scale urban farms; planting vacant lots with native turf grasses; establishing green areas for use in retaining and filtering stormwater; and putting in place an interconnected network of recreational paths and trails.
One is the simple fact that the current situation, with thousands of vacant houses and empty lots is corrosive not just to particular neighborhoods, but to the city as a whole. Not only does it foster drug-dealing and other crime, but it's daily evidence of failure and abandonment that only inspires a feeling of hopelessness.
There are also serious health impacts. As the Re-Imagining Cleveland report notes, "vacant sites with exposed soil contribute to airborne lead levels in the city's neighborhoods ... in many neighborhoods, over 30% of children test positive for lead poisoning each year ... this is a public health crisis and a major social and economic challenge." There is even research being conducted, Schwarz told me, on using spinach and other plants to extract lead from contaminated soil, something that would mesh with expanded urban farming.
The key point, Schwarz says, is that "green space needs to be viewed as more than just vacant land." In addition, she offers several practical, financial advantages to the strategy being advocated:
For one, it will allow the city to concentrate its long-term commercial revitalization and housing efforts in fewer areas, rather than spreading them out through a city's whose population is shrinking. (Planning Director Bob Brown also told me this should lead to infilling at higher densities).
Second, by using already vacant land to serve as an extensive "green" network for treating stormwater (and the City is under EPA requirements to address stormwater-related pollution) the City will avoid having to spend enormous sums on laying down new infrastructure and building new treatment facilities.
Third, less infrastructure in the form of water and sewer lines, and even streets, will need to be maintained and might even be removed. Schwarz acknowledges, however, that this is not on the immediate horizon, and would only be done if it could be shown to actually result in cost savings.
Above slide is from a presentation on Re-Imagining A More Sustainable Cleveland.
The big challenge lies in implementing this huge change in direction. Schwarz sees using a series of environmental, soil, and other overlay maps to identify areas most suitable for agricultural use, those which might work best for managing stormwater, and those where development makes most sense. This follows the ecological approach Ian McHarg first laid out in 1969 in his ground breaking book Design With Nature -- a book most professional planners and quite a few citizen planners will be familiar with.
According to Bob Brown, the City Planning Commission supports the vacant land strategy set out in Re-Imagining Cleveland -- in fact, it officially adopted the report. Moreover, zoning amendments are being considered to allow overlay zones in certain areas that would permit the kind of agricultural uses needed for larger-scale farms.
In some ways, the renewed interest in local agricultural harkens back to the earliest roots of city planning in America. I'm referring to colonial Governor James Oglethorpe's 1733 plan for Savannah. As planning historian Laurence Gerckens observed in a short article on the origins of regional planning (available on our PlannersWeb site), "The plan ... provided for Savannah's urban center to be bounded by small allotment gardens for growing food for family consumption. These gardens were, in turn, rimmed by a network of larger farm plots. Each grouping of ten farms shared a wood lot, providing fuel and game."
Interestingly, Bob Brown also pointed out that the Cleveland Clinic, the city's largest employer, has committed to buying a greater proportion of locally grown food.
Bobbi Reichtell, NPI's Senior Vice President for Programs, told me there's strong interest in local, and even national, foundations in helping support Cleveland's approach (the Surdna Foundation, for example, provided funding for the Re-Imagining Cleveland report). One early goal of NPI is to help coordinate efforts to raise $1 million to support up to 100 vacant land projects in various Cleveland neighborhoods.
Reichtell stressed that implementation of the Re-Imagining Cleveland report is much more than "pie in the sky." As she wrote to me after my visit:
"We have a commitment of $600K towards our goal of $1million for vacant land demonstration projects. $500K of it is coming from the City of Cleveland’s Dept. of Community Development ... NPI, in partnership with the City of Cleveland, a number of environmental non-profits, and Cleveland State University, has also applied for a $300K U.S. EPA CARE grant to pilot phyto-remediation projects around the city to test plant-based strategies to remove toxins like lead and arsenic in soil to enable land reuse.
We have also received a commitment from the U.S. EPA Region 5 for $100-200K of environmental assessment work of vacant brownfields that might be appropriate for phyto- or bio-remediation. And finally, we are partnering with the Trust for Public Land’s Ohio office to make their Ohio Greenprint online data base and GIS mapping tool relevant for urban land reuse."
Also about to be released is a Re-Imagining Cleveland pattern book (link is to pdf of final draft). As Reichtell notes, it will include "plans, budgets and resources for vacant land reuse strategies." [Planning Commissioners Journal readers may recall our recent article on the growing use, and impact, that pattern books are having]. According to Reichtell, "2,000 copies will be printed and distributed to CDCs, block clubs, urban farming advocates and other non-profits to stimulate imaginative thinking about what vacant land can become."
Yet in driving through just a small part of Cleveland's distressed neighborhoods, the scale of vacant lands and boarded up housing is vast. Is what Schwarz, Brown, Reichtell, and others have in mind audacious ... or realistic ... or perhaps a mix of the two? But the bottom line may be this: is there any better choice?
p.s., Carol Coletta, one of the best interviewers covering city planning issues, recorded a terrific conversation with Terry Schwarz that can be downloaded from her Smart City web site. It's definitely worth listening to. I also reported last year on efforts in Philadelphia to deal with vacant lands, see Greening Up Vacant Lots. Other cities, especially in the Northeast and Midwest, are looking at vacant land strategies similar to what Cleveland is embarking on.
"Flexibility ... that's the most important part of my job," Shaker Heights Planning Director Joyce Braverman told me. She even carries a small reminder of this in her purse, the world famous -- and very flexible -- Gumby.
As Braverman peered out over stacks of maps and reports, I asked her what her job in this inner-ring Cleveland suburb involved. She ticked off a long list of "to do's": working on the Shaker Town Center redevelopment project; seeking funding for a major transit-oriented development plan at a key intersection; attending numerous public meetings; staffing an active planning commission and architectural review board; coordinating with the City's separate housing and economic development departments; dealing with a growing number of foreclosed homes; and "doing a lot of grant writing." You need to be flexible to handle such a diverse assortment of tasks.
Flexibility also is a good way of thinking about Shaker Heights. I say that because Shaker provides its residents a considerable amount of flexibility in their housing choices. You'll find a very wide range of housing types and housing prices in this suburb of 27,245. About 40% of the housing stock consists of two-family homes and apartments. At the other end of the spectrum, you'll find no shortage of million dollar homes.
Historically, Shaker Heights as a community has pro-actively sought to maintain a mix of housing and, as a result, a mix of incomes and ethnic backgrounds. "Diversity helps make a place," Braverman noted.
Years ago, Shaker Heights even had a city department titled "the Department of Pro-Integration" -- sending out a message that Shaker wanted to be an racially integrated community.
This viewpoint is still reflected in city policy and programs, and in community attitudes. For example, since 1986 the non-profit "Fund for the Future of Shaker Heights" has provided home loans for owner-occupied housing "in areas in which the purchasers will enhance the racial diversity of the neighborhood." The Fund matches up to 10% of the purchase price up to a maximum of $18,000.
Census data for 2000 shows that Shaker Heights has remained integrated, with 61.7% white population, and 34.5% African-American. There has also been a growing proportion of Asian and Hispanic residents, though the total is still relatively small (for example, the Asian population grew from 1.9% to 3.8% between 1990 and 2000).
Interestingly, Shaker Heights' diversity is part of what attracts quite a few people to the community, including those who work at the nearby Cleveland Clinic and Case-Western Reserve University. In fact, my sister-in-law, Cheri Shapero (a Shaker Heights resident) handed me a copy of the April/May issue of Shaker Life Magazine* which featured articles on "Shaker's International Flair," highlighting why families from Lebanon, India, the Netherlands, and Serbia chose Shaker Heights as their new hometown.
In reading through the articles, it also struck me how diversity, when paired with high quality public schools and an attractive, walkable environment, seemed to especially resonate with those from abroad.
* yes, Shaker Heights even has its own magazine, published by the City's Communications & Outreach Department and distributed free every other month to all Shaker Heights residents.
I started my previous post by mentioning Amara Geffen's background as an artist and art teacher. So let me give you one striking example of the role art -- as worked on by Allegheny College students -- plays in Meadville, Pennsylvania. And it truly is striking, because as you enter the city on U.S. 6/322 you see hundreds of feet of recycled road signs lining the side of the highway.
But you wouldn't know they were recycled road signs unless you got out of your car (which, Geffen told me, several visitors do every day) and took a closer look.
Putting it together has involved not just Allegheny students but local high school students as well. Penn DOT has also been an enthusiastic partner in this project, even helping out with some of the welding. The art serves not just to highlight different features of Meadville, but to hide from view Penn DOT's maintenance facility, which used to be set off by an unattractive 6 foot high chain link fence.
For those of you who might want to visit Meadville and see this amazing work of recycled art, it's just opposite the intersection listed below. Zoom in for better visibility. You can see the Penn DOT maintenance yard just above the pointer when you zoom in -- that's what "the Fence" hides from ground-level view.
Art, college, community. There's much to learn from Allegheny College and Meadville.
Too often these days, you hear about frictions between colleges and the communities they're located in. But my visit to Allegheny College in the northwestern Pennsylvania city of Meadville (population 13,253) proved this doesn't have to be the case. Indeed, the relationship between Meadville, Crawford County, and Allegheny College is best viewed as a partnership that brings benefits to all.
Let me back up first. Allegheny College is a small, well-respected liberal arts school, with an enrollment of 2,100. Meadville is a city with a strong industrial heritage. County Commissioner Morris Waid described to me how the area was stunned back in the mid 1980's when two of its largest manufacturers closed down, putting over 2,000 people out of work.
[photos above show some of rehab of the huge (1.4 million square foot) American Viscose plant in Meadville -- Pennsylvania's first brownfields restoration project; over 20 businesses employing 900 workers now occupy 900,000 square feet of this space, including Acutec Precision Machining and Universal Well Services. The wall art was an Allegheny College project illustrating some of the plant's heritage. For detailed background on the project -- pdf file]
Over the past decade, the paths taken by the city and county in their efforts at economic recovery and by the college in its focus on student "service learning," have become increasingly intertwined.
Amara Geffen is an artist and professor of art (since 1982) at Allegheny College. Twelve years ago she became involved in the creation of an interdisciplinary environmental studies program. And, before you ask the question, the answer is "yes, there's a link between art and the environment." Many of the faculty participating in the environmental studies program were interested in applied learning opportunities. This led, in turn, to the creation of the Center for Environmental and Economic Development, or "CEED" as its called, which Geffen now directs.
As Geffen explained, the CEED program was aimed at linking students with the Meadville community, with a focus on projects involving "sustainability." "CEED has provided a mechanism for place-based education tied to the educational curriculum," she told me. When Geffen saw my puzzled look, she added, "think of it as an applied liberal arts education where students learn by being engaged with the community while working on different projects."
Elise Swanekamp is an Allegheny College freshman, already active in CEED. She's from West Seneca, New York, and was drawn to Allegheny in large part by the school's reputation for service learning and its political participation programs. She's particularly interested in working with area farmers and finding ways of helping them out.
Right now, she's involved in assisting the downtown farmers' market. In fact, Geffen took a ten minute time-out from her meeting with me to go over the design and contents of a brochure Swanekamp has been working on for the downtown Meadville Market House-- the oldest continuously operating market house in Pennsylvania (since 1870). As Swanekamp told me, working on projects like this will help her gain valuable experience. "Volunteering at a soup kitchen is great, but I wanted to extend my effectiveness into the community."
[Photo of Market House. According to Alice Sjolander, the Market House Master, 60 vendors sell products there, primarily locally grown food. The Market House Authority rents the building for $1/year from the City. It's open 6 days/week, year-round. Last year, it generated $188,000 in sales, and is on pace to reach $200,000 this year.]
Allegheny students last year put in a remarkable 25,000 hours of time on service learning projects. Some 60 percent of students participate in community service and/or community-centered learning activities.
But at Allegheny College it's not just students who are actively involved with the community, it's also faculty. Twenty-four faculty members have participated in the College's "Community Based Research" program. One of several examples that Geffen related to me involved a faculty member who recently worked with the City to write up a grant proposal for a greenhouse gas inventory of the city. Another faculty member has worked with the Crawford County Head Start program on developing and conducting a community survey.
Another key element in cementing the working partnership between city (and county) and college has been through Pennsylvania's Keystone Innovation Zone ("KIZ") program. The map on the right shows KIZ zones within Meadville in light red (green is the historic district).
As County Commissioner Morris Waid told me, the goal of the KIZ is for "faculty to have a way to bring their research into the marketplace." Eligible businesses in designated KIZ's can gain valuable tax credits and small grants. They also gain access to paid interns, such as students at Allegheny and other area colleges.
One point that nearly everyone I met with in Meadville made is that the community has a strong "sense of place."Indeed, the CEED program and Allegheny College's commitment to the city and county is evidence of the value it puts on this place. As Crawford County Planning Director Jack Lynch added, "this is also a pretty pro-active place, with strong collaboration between government, business, and the academic community."
[in photo from left to right: Etienne Ozorak, CEED Coordinator; Andy Walker, Northwest Region Director of the Pennsylvania Environmental Council (and former CEED student); County Comm'r Morris Waid; Amara Geffen; County Planning Director Jack Lynch; and Meadville city planner Gary Johnson]
I'll return with just a bit more on Allegheny College and Meadville in my next post.
just a quick p.s. for those of you following my search for that strong cup of morning coffee -- you can hit the jackpot in Meadville at the Artist's Cup, located inside what used to be a bank. With a local artists' gallery also inside, it's a great meeting place in Meadville (it's also where our group met for lunch).
I walked along Oil Creek in Titusville, Pennsylvania, on a sunny afternoon. But if you could find a time machine and go back 150 years, 4 months, and 22 days (that is, to August 27, 1859), you'd be with Colonel Edwin L. Drake as he struck oil right here for the first commercially drilled oil well in the United States.
This year, this part of northwestern Pennsylvania, which promotes itself as "Oil Heritage Country," is celebrating this groundbreaking event which marked the birth of America's petroleum industry.
Visiting this part of northwestern Pennsylvania offers fascinating glimpses into the past. But you often have to use your imagination. In Titusville, once a city flowing with oil money, you can still see some of the stately old homes. But many key oil-related sites in the downtown are just remembered with historical markers.
Not far from Titusville, you'll find the site of perhaps the most remarkable of America's "boom towns." Pithole City, was born on January 7, 1865, when oil was struck along Pit Hole Creek. Just nine months later, Pithole had exploded to a population of 15,000.
Pithole boasted 16 hotels, a daily newspaper, an opera house, two banks, and many oil related businesses. But by 1867, its economy -- and population -- were collapsing, as the local oil field went dry. While the rest of the region continued to export crude oil (production peaked in 1891), Pithole had long since vanished back into the woods and creeks (see photo below).
But let's end on a more contemporary note. Interestingly enough, the very same region which created America's oil industry is now leading the way in developing one potential alternative to the use of oil -- geothermal energy.
Perhaps furthest along is the city of Warren, Pennsylvania (see photo below). With a population of just over 10,000, Warren is located along the Allegheny River, about 30 miles northeast of Titusville. Warren was another oil hub in the late 19th and early 20th century.
"Low-temperature geothermal -- or aqua-thermal-- provides a steady, and predictable cost of energy over long periods of time. ... Warren joined with developers Impact PA and Geothermal Energy Systems Inc. for a project called Impact Warren. ... Impact Warren broke ground with an eco-friendly parking garage. Then, in a move that makes Warren’s system distinct, they installed a central geothermal line that can serve multiple buildings with multiple building owners, offering each of them the opportunity to cut utility costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To date, high-end waterfront condominiums, a new transit building, and two mixed-use buildings with commercial space and apartments—several serving elderly residents on a fixed income -- are connected to the central line."
As Rogers went on to note, "The whole basis of the Impact Warren program is to establish an environment with low cost energy that will attract new companies and people to area. ... Moving into downtown Warren means businesses can run at operating costs 20-30 percent lower than outside of the zone."
From oil to geothermal. All it took was 150 years.
"It took some convincing," says Jim Brozena, but the Corps of Engineers agreed to punch two large "portals" through the massive flood control levee that separates downtown Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania from the Susquehanna River. With that agreement, Luzerne County and the City of Wilkes-Barre have moved towards once again integrating the riverfront with downtown.
[see photo below of one of the portals; the flood door can be seen on the right side of the photo; a pedestrian bridge passes above the portal, part of the mile long walkway]
I said "once again," because before massive flooding in the 1930s and '40s, a delightful, well-used riverfront park graced the one side of downtown, with stately buildings lining the south side of River Street for about a mile (buildings still standing) between the towering County Courthouse and Kings College on the northeast and the Wilkes University campus on the southwest. Then a huge flood control was erected. As Brozena put it, "we had cut ourselves off from the river that gave birth to the city."
Postcard image of what the river front park looked like circa 1910.
Jim Brozena for many years served as the County engineer. But in his capacity working for the Luzerne County Flood Control Authority, he was uniquely situated to take the lead in a remarkable project, called River Common, that has the potential to provide a huge boost to the economy -- and psyche -- of this economically battered city of some 41,000. Larry Newman of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business & Industry told me that without Brozena's passion and creativity, Riverfront Common would never have happened.
Brozena took me for a tour of the project site, and we walked from end to end, dodging downpours on an overcast April morning. But let him tell you part of the story in the following two short video clips:
The $22 million downtown segment of the flood control project (a piece of a much longer flood control effort) is being financed in equal shares by the federal, state, and local government.
Some of the key components include an amphitheater with seating for 700 (and standing room for many more); boat launch facilities on the opposite side of the river (also part of the project); and new gardens to front the Courthouse.
But most of all, it will be a place for Wilkes-Barre residents and visitors to stroll, sit on the grassy slopes, or enjoy the various events and concerts that will be scheduled for the riverfront.
Also in the works is the narrowing of the four-lane wide River Street, down to two lanes. This is intended to reinforce the pedestrian-oriented nature of the riverfront area. Other parallel streets downtown can easily absorb the traffic shifted from River Street. In fact, as Newman noted, it should help downtown merchants to have more traffic moving through downtown instead of along the river.
Both Brozena and Newman are convinced that the River Common project is critical to Wilkes-Barre's future -- and given the array of local support they've garnered for the project, many others share that view.
River Common is expected to generate a substantial amount of spin-off activity downtown. The large vacant former Sterling Hotel building along River Street (at the main gateway into downtown after crossing the river; you can see it on the left) will likely come back to life, while a new museum is planned for the smaller building next to it.
The Chamber also owns the huge, vacant Irem Temple (see photo and rendering), one of the city's architectural gems. The eastern portal was placed to align with this building, so that when this landmark building is redeveloped it will have direct access to the riverfront.
Wilkes-Barre's two downtown colleges -- Wilkes University and Kings College -- have been actively involved in the project plans. In fact, the materials used in the project have been designed to blend in with the campuses color palette.
