Planning Commissioners Journal

Accentuate the Positive

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

Remember the Johnny Mercer tune ...
"You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative"

That might well have been one of the themes of the CommunityMatters07 Conference last week in Burlington, Vermont.

Ever hear about "appreciative inquiry"? Laverne Webb, one of its practitioners, described its value for planners as "an approach that helps people and communities change at the speed of imagination."

As Webb explained, appreciative inquiry asks communities to focus on what's working -- not what's wrong. "How can we do more of what's working?" is the key question.

Webb finds that focusing on factors of success instead of on problems is less threatening, and more productive. She put it to planners this way: "We're trained as problem solvers to fix things ... what we don't do as well in planning is understand what creates strengths and assets. But understanding this gives us greater resilience in dealing with problems." In other words, appreciative inquiry gets at problem solving "through the back door."

Webb outlined how this process was used a few years ago in Dubuque, Iowa, to deal with challenging customer service problems facing the city's Housing Services Department (coincidentally, I was soon to visit Dubuque).

Some 220 individuals were interviewed, including tenants, landlords, local officials, lenders, social service professionals, neighborhood leaders, and others.

[downtown Dubuque in photo to the left]

Instead of asking citizens to identify problems and focus on the negative, they were asked:
-- "what do you most value about living in Dubuque?"
-- "what was the best customer service experience you've had in dealing with housing services?"
-- "tell us what three wishes you have to best improve customer service in the housing department?"

These questions provided a wealth of information ("stories," as Webb puts it) on what's working and can be built on -- and (indirectly) on what's not working.

By accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative, Webb believes the resulting Dubuque Housing Summit was much more productive -- and greater consensus was reached on needed changes.

For more details on the Dubuque process (2 page pdf article).

Other sessions I attended also echoed the "accentuate the positive" theme. Two examples:

-- Randy Hester spoke of his experience in working with residents of a small North Carolina town on preserving the "sacred structure" of the community -- those places that residents "would most miss if they lost them." To Hester, identifying what is of most value yields energy and imagination in finding ways to preserve these places.

-- Planning consultant Jim Segedy, FAICP (photo on right) observed that one of the best ways of fighting sprawl is by strengthening our downtowns. "We can deal with sprawl if there's a better destination ... downtown."

"You've got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don't mess with Mister In-Between"

A Businessman Calls for Heart & Soul

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

Lyman Orton is a highly successful entrepreneur, one of the owners of the Vermont Country Store. While Orton's business -- founded by his parents Vrest and Ellen Orton in 1946 -- does operate two country stores in the small towns of Weston and Rockingham, Vermont, its primary source of revenue is through its national mail order and online business.

There are not many from the business community who, like Lyman Orton, have invested their time (and money) in promoting local planning. At this past week's CommunityMatters07 Conference he described what first got him interested in planning.

It involved a proposal to build "Wildlife Wonderland" -- a tourist-oriented attraction to be filled with African wildlife -- in his home town of Weston, Vermont (population about 600). Orton, who was a member of the Weston planning commission at the time, recounts that the project split the community, with some looking forward to the local revenue benefits, and others aghast at what was being proposed and how it could totally change the character of the town.

While a variation of the project was approved (substituting Vermont wildlife for African), Wildlife Wonderland went bankrupt within a year.

But the whole episode left Orton wondering why the town wasn't better prepared to deal with a proposal like this, and why the town plan hadn't provided more guidance on the town's core values.

Orton's Wildlife Wonderland experience certainly helped shape his (and his friend Noel Fritzinger's) 1995 decision to form the Orton Family Foundation, a non-profit with a mission of helping citizens and local goverments in small towns and rural areas "better define and shape the futures of their towns."

As Orton observed at the Conference, a town plan needs to focus on the "heart and soul" of the community. But most town plans, he noted, include "no statement of the things that really matter to us."

The focus on the CommunityMatters Conference was on ways of getting at the heart and soul of the community -- and I'll touch on several of the quite interesting presentations in my next posting. For now, let me at least steer you to the recently released Orton Family Foundation publication, Planning for Community Heart and Soul: A Review of Tools, Processes and Practitioners (available to download). As the report notes:

"A major block to planning with heart and soul is the difficulty of even defining many of the concepts involved. Communities vary immensely in their landscapes, citizens, histories, and resources, all of which contribute to sense of character. Communities and organizations also have very different ways of describing that character; heart and soul is alternatively described as community character, values, community identity, and sense of place, to name a few, and those terms are not even used in consistent ways.

However heart and soul is defined, it is impossible to identify and protect universal character without also defining community, agreement, protect, citizen, implement, and other words that we rarely pause to contemplate. ... Most planning focuses on discrete, quantifiable, and physical elements of a community; it is much more difficult to plan for something as abstruse as friendliness, healthiness, or rural feeling."

I found the above especially interesting given that much of what I heard about during my six weeks of conversations with planners and planning commissioners this Summer involved discussions about community identity, sense of place, and quality of life. I also reported on the challenges facing one small town (Middleburg, Virginia) and one small city (Gunnison, Colorado) facing major development proposals.

In his remarks, Lyman Orton noted that "we need to challenge the single-minded notion that if it's good for the economy, we must approve it." Coming from a  citizen planner who is also a highly successful businessman, those are words to especially take note of.

Not for realtors only

Just had a chance to read through a book by John Lewis, Land Use Controls and Property Rights: A Guide for Real Estate Professionals. Lewis is a former Loveland, Colorado, planning commissioner and zoning hearing officer who understands the nature of subdivision ordinances, development proposals, and comprehensive plans. And as a real estate professional, he also recognizes how these complex -- and sometimes confusing -- concepts affect potential home buyers and property owners. 

As the title suggests, this book is not specifically intended for planners or planning commissioners. However, most of the chapters thoughtfully cover issues that are at least indirectly related to the work of commissioners and zoning board members.

Lewis delivers information in a well-written and easy-to-read format that includes "Practice Pointers" within each section to reinforce the material. More often than not, he offers suggestions for planning professionals as well as citizen board members in these sidebars, which put a practical spin on sometimes abstract concepts. 

For example, one chapter concentrates on regulating uses in residential districts (such as family definition or home-based businesses) --  guiding real estate professionals in the necessity of understanding their city ordinances and accurately informing potential buyers of any restrictions. It is essential that citizen planners understand the practical ramifications of such ordinances when rewriting codes or comprehensive plans.

Lewis' publication warrants a broader audience than just real estate professionals. In fact, his book may be of especial interest to both citizen and professional planners since it covers many of the practical land use issues realtors find of particular significance -- topics often not covered in much detail in books written by planners (such as chapters on: title insurance; land surveys; the role of appraisers from a land use perspective; and on private land use controls, i.e., CC&Rs and homeowners associations).

Note: related to homeowners associations, we ran an article not long ago in the Planning Commissioners Journal focusing on the substantial "regulatory" role increasingly played by homeowners associations. See Alan Weinstein's, Homeowners Associations.

Opening the Door

From PCJ General Manager Betsey Krumholz:

Most planning commissioners are hard working individuals who want to do as good a job as possible for their community. For more than a decade, the Planning Commissioners Journal has been delivering publications that are easy to use, understandable to "citizen" planners, and that offer clear and useful information about the topics interesting to decision makers.

Several years ago we decided to collect articles that had appeared previously in the quarterly PCJ into topical reprint sets -- bound with a nice cover and designed for a "library" for commissioners and board members to refer to when issues arose during long-range planning sessions or during the project evaluation process. 

Our "Taking a Closer Look" series was born and Planning Law Primer, Ethics & the Planning Commission and Transportation Topics were just the beginning. I have recently been taking a look at all of our reprint sets and have been revising and revamping -- and finding terrific new material to draw from. Look for updated versions of our previous collections later this Fall.

Today I am very excited to introduce something brand new: our 10th reprint collection Housing: Opening the Door. Freshly designed, with topical sections delineated within the collection, this latest release confirms our commitment to providing timely, and attractively designed publications to help hard-working planning commissioners do their best.

HOUSING:  Opening the Door

Many communities are struggling to provide the kinds of housing their residents need and can afford. From multi-family housing, to community land trusts, to understanding the changing nature of the housing "consumer," this set of articles will help planning board members to better understand -- and deal with -- the issues facing their communities.

• Where does housing go? -- Articles that look at the history of single-family-only zoning, and thoughts about the changing concepts of land use management and housing.
• Housing for all -- Articles focusing on how we meet the housing needs of all the people in our communities.
• Public Participation -- Articles that include ideas about generating public support for housing and other controversial development.

Included are thoughtful observations on NIMBY's, a look at homeowner associations, innovative ideas for today's housing market, and much more. This collection will be useful to both new and seasoned members of planning commissions and zoning boards, providing an overview of key housing topics.

A neighborhood that works is one with a sense of place and a sense of community, which are centered in good design and good values. – David Brussat from "A Mix of Housing"

For a detailed list of the contents (or to order) go to:
plannersweb.com/index/housing.html

Meet Me in Dubuque ... Kansas City ... or Chicago

Note from Wayne Senville, PCJ Editor:

I'll be speaking at the Upper Midwest APA Conference in Dubuque, Iowa (pdf link), on Thursday afternoon, November 1st, and then at two sessions -- one in the afternoon, the other in the evening -- sponsored by the Mid-America Regional Council in the Kansas City area (pdf link) on Monday, November 5th.

In both Dubuque and Kansas City I'll be highlighting some of what I heard -- and learned -- during my six-weeks traveling across the U.S. this Summer.

I'll also be reporting on this blog from the International Greenbuild Conference in Chicago on November 7, 8 and 9th.

I'd welcome the chance -- time permitting -- to meet with PCJ subscribers or visitors to this blog. Just email our office at: info@plannersweb.com and we'll try to see if it's possible to get together over a cup of coffee. If you're in either the Dubuque or Kansas City area, I'd also certainly welcome your attending my talk. Use the above links for details and contact information.

Going to the dogs

The American Society of Landscape Architects web site has posted two stories about dog parks worth a look.

One, in ASLA's The Dirt blog, makes mention of the City of Santa Monica, California's conversion of a former airport runway into 8.5 acres of dog-friendly parkland.

The other is about two landscape architects, Jon Mueller and Keith Dixon, who engaged fourth- and fifth-graders to help design a dog park for the city of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. As Mueller told ASLA, in response to the question, "Why a dog park?" ... “We felt that kids have a natural affinity for dogs and that a park project would be a great means by which we could introduce kids to landscape architecture ... The biggest challenge was not being able to give enough to the kids ... They were really focused and were like little sponges. They just absorbed everything we laid out for them and wanted more. They really liked the connection with nature.” (in LandOnline, May 22, 2007)

We can relate to the benefits of dog parks, but know -- from personal experience here in Burlington, Vermont -- that they can also stir up just a bit of controversy. Amy Souza covered both sides of the story for us in her Planning Commissioners Journal article, "Planning for Dogs: Exercise vs. Restraint."

Photo below from Souza's article: Seattle's Golden Gardens off-leash area is one of eleven such areas designated by the City Council. A dog owners group, Citizens for Off-Leash Areas (COLA), shares responsibility with the city's park department for maintaining and monitoring these sites. photo provided by Jerry Malmo.

It's About Time

... time capsules, that is.

During my Route 50 cross-country trip, I took a photo of the marker for the Wood County Bicentennial time capsule. It's located in front of the historic County Courthouse in Parkersburg, West Virginia.

In doing some quick online research on the Wood County web site, I learned that: "As the rallying point for the County's 1999 Bicentennial celebration, a time capsule was placed near the west entrance. It is to be opened in 2099."

Just how common are time capsules?

I was startled, based on checking out the "customer list" for one of the time capsule manufacturers -- the appropriately named Time Capsules, Inc. -- just how many municipalities and other groups already have time capsules, many with 100 year due dates. They range from the Clinton Presidential Library (topping the customer list) to places like Charleston County, South Carolina; the City of Temecula, California; Tempe, Arizona; and -- believe it or not, the Village of Sleepy Hollow, New York.

There's also an International Time Capsule Society. It's headquartered at Atlanta's Oglethorpe University. They offer some practical advice for time capsulers. Here are just a few excerpts from their Eight Tips on How to Organize a Time Capsule:

"Select a retrieval date. A 50-year or less time capsule may be witnessed by your own generation. The longer the duration, the more difficult the task. Centennial (100-year) time capsules are popular.

... It is not recommended that time capsules be "buried" -- thousands have been lost in this way. It is important that the location be marked with a plaque describing the "mission" of the time capsule.

... Have a solemn "sealing ceremony" where you formally christen the time capsule with a name. Invite the media and keep a good photographic record of your efforts, including the inside of your completed project.

... Don't forget your time capsule! You would be surprised how often this happens, usually within a short time."

Note from PCJ Editor Wayne Senville: if your town, city, or county has a time capsule, tell us about it. What's in it? Any planning-related documents? Where's it located? Just use the Comment link below.