Planning Commissioners Journal

Administration Announces High-Speed Rail Projects

It was really quite remarkable. After nearly half a century of ignoring rail's potential, the nation is finally making a major investment in developing high-speed rail corridors. The confluence of: the need for major infrastructure projects to create jobs; the track record of success of high-speed rail in Europe and Asia; the prospect of a continued long-term rise in gas prices; the energy/environmental benefits of rail; and the increased congestion on urban interstates (linked to the enormous cost of expanding highway capacity) helped result in an initial commitment of $8 billion for high-speed rail.

Of course, high-speed rail in America will generally still be considered low- or medium-speed rail in the many countries far in advance of the U.S. in developing their passenger rail networks. Nevertheless, it's an important start. See our May 9, 2009 post for more on how U.S. rail stacks up to high-speed rail in Europe.

Why $1.25 Billion for Florida

Of the projects awarded funds, perhaps the most interesting choice was the $1.25 billion to be invested in Florida. In fact, the very day after his State of the Union Address, President Obama along with Vice President Biden were in Tampa to highlight the significance of this project. As the President told the town hall crowd, "there is no reason why other countries can build high-speed rail lines and we can't. And that's what's about to happen right here in Tampa -- we are going to start ... building for the future, putting people to work." 

A press release issued by the White House described the project: "This investment will initiate the development of the Tampa to Orlando segment, with speeds reaching 168 mph and 16 round trips per day on brand new track dedicated solely to high-speed rail. Trip time between the two cities on the new line will be less than one hour, compared to around 90 minutes by car. This project will create jobs and generate economic activity as 84 miles of track are constructed, stations are built or enhanced, and equipment is purchased. Completion of this phase is anticipated in 2014." This is to be followed by completion of a link from Orland to Miami three years later. 

As Bryan Walsh explains in an interesting report just posted on Time's web site: 

"Demographically, Florida is an ideal state in which to launch the rail projects. Together, the metro areas of Tampa and Orlando are a major economic unit, home to more than 3.4 million people and close enough on the map to make high-speed rail competitive with air and auto travel. The region is also a tourist hub, which makes it likely that a Tampa-Orlando rail line will be well-used by Americans from around the country. That makes it a smart advertisement for other high-speed-rail projects back in their home regions.

Florida's project is also an optimal test case, having already been approved by the state and relatively free of red tape. The line is set to open by 2015, the environmental-impact assessment has already been done, and the state owns more than 90% of the route's right of way."

Moreover, in October it was reported that Disney will provide up to 50 acres of free land for a station serving Disney World and the huge Orange County Convention Center (the nation's second largest convention center, with 2.1 million square feet of exhibition space).

The very ambitious time frame for the Tampa-Orlando work also seems aimed at having a high-speed rail service in operation in the near future. As Walsh noted, this will help visibly demonstrate rail's benefits and keep momentum rolling. Moreover, it's a much shorter time frame than California will need for its much more complex & costly high-speed rail plans, having a target date of 2020. 

As many recognize, the $8 billion going to high-speed rail is really just a down-payment on what will be needed to develop the high-speed rail corridors designated so far. 

click on U.S. map to view larger image -- for list & information about the selected projects

The best initial analysis we've found of the Administration's selection of projects was posted by Yonah Freemark on theTransportPolitic web blog. As he notes:

"After months of speculation about which states will get funding from the Federal Railroad Administration to begin construction on new high-speed corridors, the news is in. As has been expected, California, Florida, and Illinois are the big winners, with more than one billion in spending proposed for each. But other states with less visible projects, including Wisconsin, North Carolina, and Washington will also get huge grants and begin offering relatively fast trains on their respective corridors within five years. The distribution of dollars is well thought-out and reasonable: it provides money to regions across the nation and prioritizes states that have made a commitment of their own to a fast train program. ... Despite the excitement, though, there is plenty of work that still needs to be done -- and huge amounts of money that still needs to be spent -- to get most of these projects up and running. Eight billion dollars of spending won’t be enough for even one true high-speed line."

Also of interest, remarks by John Robert Smith, President of Reconnecting America and former Mayor of Meridian, Mississippi:

"Hearing President Obama call high-speed rail 'the infrastructure of tomorrow' gave me great hope. Very rarely has transportation investment made the final cut in a presidential State of the Union address. The fact that it did make the cut this time really speaks to the president’s commitment to making high-speed rail a reality.

I’ve heard critics say over the years that the U.S. is too big for high-speed rail. China is the biggest country in the world and they built over the Himalayas and are now committing an additional $500 billion over the next 20 years. Saudi Arabia too is investing in high-speed rail in preparation for that certain day when oil reserves will no longer sustain the country. If they can do it, we can do it."

As Smith went on to note: "High-speed rail investment is about jobs, and not just temporary jobs, but long-term American jobs that cannot be outsourced. These jobs will employ Americans to build both rail networks and passenger rail equipment. I have seen first-hand what investment in rail infrastructure and transit-oriented development can do to lift a mid-sized city like Meridian, Mississippi. Now there are people living in downtown, there’s entertainment downtown and a conference center has been built. It all started with a public sector investment done right." 

Fact sheets on all the projects selected for funding are available to download (go to links near the end of the Press Release). Applicants submitted over $55 billion in project proposals for the initial $8 billion in funds awarded on Thursday.

It's a Wonderful City!

 You've got to see this video to believe it. It's a wacky takeoff of "It's a Wonderful Life" that only planners from Beverly Hills could create. Yes, it's a bit longer than most of our Friday video shorts, but it's a video I think you'll find entertaining -- especially if you're a planner or planning commissioner!

You'll meet George Buildley, Harry, Mary, and, of course, Clarence. It starts when George learns he needs to have a planned addition reviewed by the Planning Department. In response, George cries out: "I wish there was no planning department ... I wish the gosh darn Planning Department never existed." And his wish comes true. Then see what George discovers. Written & directed by Richard Gale.

Sales Up for Independent Retailers

Came across some interesting information from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance. Coincidentally, read this at about the same time we received a draft article for the Spring issue of the Planning Commissioners Journal highlighting the importance of strong local economies. See: Coping With Economic Meltdown, by Gwen Hallsmith, Planning Director for the City of Montpelier, Vermont. (Would welcome your feedback on this draft article)

Read complete Press Release; Download Survey Results

Excerpts: More holiday shoppers deliberately sought out locally owned businesses this year, according to a national survey of more than 1,800 independent businesses. 

The survey found that holiday sales for independent retailers were up an average of 2.2%. That contrasts with the U.S. Department of Commerce figures released today, which show that overall retail sales were down 0.3% in December and up 1.8% in November.

The survey also found that independent retailers in cities with active "Buy Independent / Buy Local" or "Local First" campaigns reported stronger holiday sales than those in cities without such campaigns. These campaigns have been launched in more than 100 cities and towns. Independent retailers in these cities reported an average increase in holiday sales of 3.0%, compared to 1.0% for those in cities without an active Buy Local initiative.

The survey was conducted by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a nonprofit research organization, in partnership with several business organizations, including the American Booksellers Association, American Independent Business Alliance, American Specialty Toy Retailers Association, Business Alliance for Local Living Economies, and National Bicycle Dealers Association.

B is for Budget

Automobile | Budget | Comp Plan | Design | Ecology | Farmland | Growth Management | Historic Preservation | Inclusionary | Justice | Knowledge | Land Subdivision | Maps | Neighborhood | Open Space | Public Health & Safety | Quiet | Regional Planning | Sustainable | Takings | Urban Sprawl | Vision | Water | X-rated Uses | Zoning

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The public aspects of cities include not only services (i.e., police and fire protection, education, and protection of the public health) but also things (i.e., capital goods) that require labor, materials, and finance to bring them into being. Acquisition of these capital goods requires careful budgeting.

A budget balances income sources against outgo items in the fulfillment of needs and aspirations. A municipal operating budget does this annually for the costs associated with the provision of on-going city services. A municipal capital budget does the same for facilities to be constructed on land owned by the community or to be acquired to fulfill the community's needs.

Responsible expenditure of public funds requires foresight into the emerging character of the community and its needs. Responsible encumbrance of public funds and credit (future income) calls for a plan for public construction prepared, in most cases, well ahead of actual needs.

One of the principal purposes of the comprehensive plan is to serve as a guide to the preparation of a capital budget to assure rationality and efficiency in the expenditure of public funds on capital projects.

Capital funds borrowed to construct municipal projects are commonly provided in the sale of 20-year or longer, bonds. Public facilities are constructed to serve, and are expected to endure, at least as long as it takes to pay off the bonds sold to construct them. For this reason, a carefully prepared forward-looking community comprehensive plan is valuable in assessing whether the proposed facility will meet the community's needs years into the future, and -- quite importantly -- whether it will be physically located where it can best serve current and future users. This means examining how the facility relates not only to current, but also to future land use patterns.

The capital budget (or "program") is often conceived as a six-year budget drawn from the recommendations of municipal departments with reference to a continuously updated comprehensive plan. The capital budget is periodically revised (commonly every other year) as elements are completed or revised, and as new projects are added.

The capital budget includes not only a list of projects and their estimated costs, but also the source of the funds to be used to pay for each project. Running totals are kept to track their impact on the encumbrance of the municipal borrowing power and on the municipal tax rate.

One of the key responsibilities of many planning commissions and departments is the preparation of a recommended capital program for the local governing body's consideration. This planning commission role, first undertaken in Cincinnati in the 1920s, has helped ensure that the municipality's capital expenditures serve to meet the goals and objectives contained in the adopted comprehensive plan.

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For more on the role of planning commissions in preparing the capital program, see the following article from the Planning Commissioners Journal: 

Capital Improvement Programs (by Michael Chandler)

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Text by Laurence C. Gerckens, FAICP. Illustration by Paul Hoffman.
Text & illustration copyright Champlain Planning Press, Inc. | contact: pcjoffice@gmail.com

Capital Improvement Programs

Series of three columns by Michael Chandler covering the basics of putting together a capital improvement program. From PCJ #25, 26, 27 (Winter, Spring, Summer 1997); 5 pages

Read excerpts from start of article: As you know, the comprehensive plan establishes policies for current and future land use throughout a community. However, we often forget that the plan, although an important instrument of public policy, cannot by itself produce change. Zoning and subdivision regulations are the most familiar "tools" used to implement the plan. Another important implementation tool is the capital improvement program, usually referred to as the CIP. Defining the CIP The CIP is a management and fiscal planning tool communities can use for financing and constructing needed public improvements and facilities. Properly designed, a CIP enables a community to identify its capital needs, rank them by priority, coordinate their scheduling, and determine the best method of paying for them within the community's fiscal capacity.

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Dream of Revitalizing Downtown

 This month and next on our News, Notes, & Quotes page we'll periodically be including excerpts from "State of the City" addresses given by mayors from across the U.S. These addresses can offer insights into both innovative programs and challenges facing cities.

Previously posted:

Shoreview, Minnesota, Mayor Sandy Martin

Salt Lake City, Utah, Mayor Ralph Becker

Ashland, Oregon, Mayor John Stromberg

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Topeka, Kansas, Mayor Bill Bunten's State of the City Address
to read his complete State of the City address (Jan. 19, 2010)

... If we’re going to be successful in this life as persons, we’ve got to have dreams or goals and attain them, and if this city is to grow and prosper we need to dream too. ...

The last dream is one I believe most Topekans have, and that is to revitalize our downtown, to make it special once again, a part of our city we can again be proud of. Let me speak briefly to this last dream.

The Heartland Visioning program began in 2008, and identified the concerns of the residents of our city. There were many, but the greatest concern was the deterioration of downtown, for despite substantial economic activity, there was an abundance of vacant space, the second stories of many buildings were empty, the infrastructure, water, gas and electric lines, are aging and showing it.

At 6:00 at night the downtown is pretty much vacant and it is not a destination for diners and revellers as it once was.

In November of this year the Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce held a retreat, the purpose of which was to consider ways to breathe life into this central and important area of our city. Committees were established and met during the day in an effort to find a spark, an idea we could embrace.

It came from a committee co-chaired by John Dicus of Capitol Federal and Jim Parrish, and had among its members, Mike Morse and former city manager and public works director, Neil Dobler.

They spoke to the 150 or so who attended the retreat of an idea so different, so surprising, that the place fell silent.

They spoke not of parades or events, not of a farmers market or a baseball stadium, although those willbe hopefully, a part of a plan in the future, instead they spoke of changing the look of our downtown area to create green space; make Kansas Avenue two lanes —- and make those lanes serpentine; to revive the 8th street corridor and to have fountains at 6th, 8th and 10th street intersections.

... This was the beginning of a serious effort to develop a plan for our downtown. That plan, now only a concept, must be developed over a period of time with input from citizens and the consent of those whose businesses are located on or near Kansas Avenue and are most affected.

There will be a host of problems to be addressed and there will be serious opposition from some. But it is the genesis of a plan that began with the Heartland Visioning process and will continue or end with the consent or rejection of your city council.

... We either do something, or we do nothing. If we do nothing the downtown could continue to decline. If we do something it costs money. ...

Energy Efficiency & Renewable Incentives

There's an excellent online reference source for information on federal and state incentive programs related to renewables and energy efficiency. DSIRE is a project of the North Carolina Solar Center and the Interstate Renewable Energy Council, funded by the U.S. Dept. of Energy.

The entry page shows a map of the U.S. (we've highlighted Missouri with our mouse).

 

You can click on any state to find links to all sorts of renewable energy & energy efficiency incentive programs. 

Dsire is a web site well worth bookmarking. We'll be adding it to our Key Sites for Citizen Planners online guide.

Pop Up Lunch

Have you ever had a hard time finding a spot downtown to sit down and eat your brown bag lunch. There's hope ... and inspiration from the very creative Alexandra Pulver and her Pop Up Lunch web blog. As she notes on her web page: "I am exploring how nontraditional public spaces - like sidewalks - might be easily transformed into lively places to lunch. This blog follows a series of Pop Up Lunches I have staged (some big, some small) and my development of mobile eating tools designed for the sidewalks of NYC. Ultimately, I hope that my efforts might inspire even a handful of my fellow urbanites to reconsider the potential for lunch - to be a joyful daily event - and for the sidewalks of NYC to serve as more than just pathways."

Browse through her site. It's fun! One of my favorite posts on her blog is: Who Needs a Designer When You Have Common Sense.

Thanks to the Inspiration Wall web blog where I came across Pop Up Lunch.

Now Available: Our Winter Issue

Subscribe to the Planning Commissioners Journal, and start with our just published Winter issue. Order online, or call our office: 802-864-9083. Note: government orders can call and request to be invoiced.

Contents of our Winter 2010 issue
See also our online Public Hearings resource pages	Dealing With Contentious Public Hearings by Wayne Senville One of the toughest challenges facing planning commissioners is how to deal with public hearings involving controversial development projects and zoning amendments. Planners and planning commissioners from across the country offer practical suggestions based on what's worked in their communities.
Building Your Planning Process From the Ground Up by Joel Russell It's time for the final public hearing on a zoning revision or comprehensive plan amendment that the planning commission has been working on for over a year. Suddenly, seemingly out of nowhere, massive opposition erupts as rumors spread around town about what they are about to do to us. You can minimize the chances of this happening if you build your planning process "from the ground up."
	Some Parting Thoughts by Elaine Cogan After writing some 70 columns for the Planning Commissioners Journal over the past 19 years, Elaine Cogan offers some parting thoughts in her final "The Effective Planning Commissioner" column.
Top New Stories of 2009 by the Editors of Planetizen A look back at the top stories of 2009 involving planning, development, and the state of our cities.

Recent Back Issues:	Special Focus Issues:
Fall 2009: Zoning for Religious Institutions | Stand by Your Plan | Public Transportation in Rural Communities | Where's Art in Planning? | and more	Winter 2006: Bright Ideas: 21 creative planning-related ideas & programs you should know about
Summer 2009: Libraries at the Heart of Our Communities | Learn to Speak So People Will Listen | Are We There Yet? | Circle the USA Reports | and more	Fall 2005: This Land Is Your Land: on "takings" and property rights, and how planners can respond
Spring 2009: Getting the Density You Want | Growing Safer: Improving Roadways for Everyone | Dialing for Citizens | Learning to Enjoy Your Service on the Commission | and more	Fall 2004: Back to School for Planners: on the impacts of school location, and the relationship between planning and school boards
Winter 2009: Managing Stormwater Runoff: A Green Infrastructure Approach | Taking Low Impact Development from Research to Regulations | The ABC's of Transit-Oriented Development | and more	Spring 2004: Sphere of Influence: water and its impacts
Fall 2008: Pattern Books: A Planning Tool | GIS & Planning | Where Do We Want to Go? | and more	Fall 2003: Planning for Historic Preservation: an introduction to historic preservation planning
Summer 2008: Greenways | Developing at the Edge | An Introduction to Charrettes | and more	Winter 2002: Opening the Door: planning for affordable housing
Winter 2008: Downtown Futures: continuing a series of reports from planners across the U.S., focusing on downtown issues	Spring 2000: The Promise of America: an historical look at 10 successes & 10 failures that having affected America's cities

"We Broke the Law Literally ... But All Stood There Together"

A fascinating project in Portland, Oregon, is described in this video. It focuses on bringing neighborhood residents together by building special places, often at local intersections. After seeing this video, I want to organize one of these for my hometown -- it looks like a creative idea that's also great fun! (Just don't tell our Public Works Department I said that). 

For more about City Repair.

Sustainability Key to Future of Ashland, Oregon

 This month and next on our News, Notes, & Quotes page we'll periodically be including excerpts from "State of the City" addresses given by mayors from across the U.S. These addresses can offer insights into both innovative programs and challenges facing cities.

Previously posted:

Shoreview, Minnesota, Mayor Sandy Martin

Salt Lake City, Utah, Mayor Ralph Becker

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Ashland, Oregon, Mayor John Stromberg
to read his complete State of the City address (Jan. 5, 2010)

... I believe Ashland is surviving because it is a genuine, archetypal, community in a world that has lost touch with what that actually means but when people come here, they feel the difference and respond to it. Most Americans live in big cities or suburbs and don't have an experience of what a geographically based, human scale, fully developed town is like. Nor do they appreciate, until they experience it, how different life can be in such a place as this.

I believe we are a seed community for where the world needs to go if the human race is to survive on this planet. That doesn't mean we're more virtuous that people elsewhere but that rather we have the good fortune to live in a geographically extraordinary location that has always attracted people who have responded to it and throughout its history created institutions and a culture that aspires to complement, or match, its physical qualities. And, beyond that, the current incarnation of our community is centered on a world class repertory theater inspired by and regularly producing the works of the greatest playwright in the English language.

You can go on to list many unusual components of our community that mutually support a unique atmosphere that has drawn us here and keeps us here, sometimes at great sacrifice. We definitely have our foibles - but in a largely unspoken way we are tending a flame of community and culture that is life giving and life affirming. I believe such a community is at the core of creating a sustainable future in all associations and aspects of the term. ...

With the world, to a certain extent, crumbling around us, and we being affected as well, I would argue we, as a community, are pursuing the following strategy:

Take full advantage of the old economy as long as it lasts but use this time to develop a new community and new culture that is in harmony with the world in which we live.

I will use the rest of this address to illustrate what I mean ...

The City Council has set goals for the next 12 to 24 months to continue Ashland’s history as a community that focuses on sustaining itself and its people. To us, sustainability means using, developing and protecting resources at a rate and in a manner that enables people to meet their current needs and also provides that future generations can meet their own needs.

The detailed Council Goals consist of 15 projects which the Council is currently focusing its attention and resources. Four of these projects, all of which are just beginning, are especially significant. ...

1. A collaboration with the community to produce an economic development strategy for the town and to identify ways that City government can support this strategy. (The community will have significant input in all four of these projects but I've emphasized City-community 'collaboration' in this case to clarify that the City is not trying to impose its notion of economic development on the community.)

2. A city-wide transportation plan for the future that is coordinated with changes to the City's land use patterns. I believe this must be organized around something(s) other than the private automobile as the primary means of transportation.

3. A comprehensive study of the City water system and all its sources, taking into account the latest research in climate change and the latest thinking in how water can be used most sustainability.

4. The Ashland Forest Resiliency Project to reduce fire danger in the watershed and wildfire zones by thinning nearly 8,000 acres of National Forest that borders the city and encompasses our watershed. ...

May 2010 be a rewarding and successful year for us all!

Suburban Development: Real or Imagined?

A few months ago I ran across some work by Ross Racine. See the two images below (posted by permission).

  

above: Sunshine Acres; below: Hickoryglen Estates

  

At first blush, they seem like real -- albeit bizarre -- aerial photos of suburban landscapes. They're actually remarkably detailed digital drawings. 

But then again, if you see work by aerial photographers like Christoph Gielen or Alex MacLean, the distinction between real and imagined becomes a bit tenuous. What does this say about the way American suburbs have been planned and layed out? I'll leave that to you to judge.

But in the meantime, I just enjoy seeing the work by these artists, whether they're photos or drawings.

p.s., here's a link to a 2008 show put on by New York's Cristinerose Gallery, From Above and Beyond: New Perspectives in Contemporary Landscape. It includes links to the individual artists' web sites.

A is for Automobile

Automobile | Budget | Comp Plan | Design | Ecology | Farmland | Growth Management | Historic Preservation | Inclusionary | Justice | Knowledge | Land Subdivision | Maps | Neighborhood | Open Space | Public Health & Safety | Quiet | Regional Planning | Sustainable | Takings | Urban Sprawl | Vision | Water | X-rated Uses | Zoning

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The automobile enabled creation of multi-million-person urban areas spread thinly over vast regional areas -- and shaped the character of the 20th century American city. The primary city-shaper until the mid-1920s was the trolley. Electric trolleys, running on fixed-rails, generated high density residential development within a few-block walking distance of the main streets on which they ran. Small mom-and-pop grocery stores and personal service shops were located at street corner trolley stops regularly spaced along the major streets radiating outward from the central commercial and manufacturing district: the "downtown."

The advent of the automobile changed all that. Not limited to fixed main-street routes, the automobile could travel anywhere there was a passable public way. The auto-owning seeker of a housing site could negotiate for a parcel of land beyond the limits of a few major streets. This dispersal of new residential development (generally for a population with higher disposable income than that of the average dweller along a trolley line) led, in turn, to strip-commercial development along auto routes radiating outward from the city center.

By the 1920s, the need for street-widening to relieve auto congestion in and near the city center was already triggering large and growing public expenditures. This required careful budgeting of community resources -- and stimulated the formal adoption of capital budgets and the preparation of long-range community plans for physical development.

Auto-accessed commercial and industrial developments beyond downtown made for increased demands on city services. Zoning was used to limit such developments to specific areas. This served not only to conserve community tax resources, but to assure the owners of single-family-detached homes in the newly emerging "suburbs" that the value of their property would not be threatened by the intrusion of undesired neighbors.

America's prosperity following the end of the Second World War encouraged both auto and new home ownership, stimulating the explosive growth of sprawling suburbs. Unfortunately, one outcome was that American families became increasingly dependent on the automobile. This auto-dependency was heightened by curtailment of suburban transit service in many communities. Reliance on the private auto generated the ubiquitous multi-car family as the varying transportation needs of family members required travel over long distances, at diverse times, and to widely scattered locations.

More cars, in turn, led to a dramatic change in the layout of residential developments as wider streets were provided to permit parking on both sides; wider lots to allow single-story houses with two-car garages to face on the street; and deeper front yard setbacks to enable on-site parking of two or more automobiles. The resulting increase in lot size -- coupled with a reduction in family size -- endangered the walk-in-school and the concept of an elementary-school-focused neighborhood. And for those on the lower rungs of the economic ladder, locked into central cities, the new auto-based suburbs meant reduced job and life opportunities.

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For more on the impact of automobiles and planning considerations, see the following articles from the Planning Commissioners Journal: 

Corridors Through Our Communities

No Such Thing As Free Parking

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Text by Laurence C. Gerckens, FAICP. Illustration by Paul Hoffman.
Text & illustration copyright Champlain Planning Press, Inc. | contact: pcjoffice@gmail.com

Corridors Through Our Communities

From the old riverboat world of the Mississippi to the crowded arterials of today’s cities and towns, transportation corridors have played a critical role in American life. Transportation planner Hannah Twaddell explains why planning for our corridors makes sense. by Hannah Twaddell; from PCJ #62 (Spring 2006); 3 pages

Read excerpts from start of article: Social creatures that we are, people need to live in communities. We also have a longstanding proclivity to explore new territory. Transportation corridors have provided the framework for this, ensuring that we stay connected to home while we satisfy our relentless curiosity about the land beyond the horizon. Corridors link communities. And sometimes the corridor itself becomes home to a community of travelers. From the 19th century riverboat world of the Mississippi to the great Appalachian Trail conceived in 1921 by Benton MacKaye, corridors are places in their own right, with their own cultures, infrastructure, and issues. Today, the transportation corridors connecting communities are primarily arterial roadways, stretching out over increasing distances. Our corridors set the stage for much of our development pattern, whether we plan it or not. ... For example, a winding, two-lane roadway links small towns and rural areas, accommodating clusters of residences and neighborhood-scale stores. As the area prospers, commercial activity begins to spread out, with developers jostling for front-row space along the highway. In a pattern we've all witnessed, farms and open space are converted into shopping centers and parking lots, while subdivisions mushroom along adjacent roadways. What follows (all too often) is more traffic congestion, leading to more road widening, triggering more sprawling development, and -- you guessed it -- even more traffic. Is the above scenario the inevitable price of progress? Not necessarily. But if you want to have some control over your community's pattern of development, you have to do some serious long-term corridor planning. Developing Corridor Plans A good corridor plan balances mobility and accessibility in order to achieve livability. It identifies the specific locations where access to developable land should be promoted, and where it should be limited. It also focuses on the type of networks needed to support the desired types of development. Corridor planning presents a rich opportunity to bring together residents and business owners (whose daily lives depend in some way upon the corridor) with a range of professionals from disciplines including transportation engineering, land use planning, community design, and environmental analysis.

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No Such Thing As Free Parking

Transportation planner Hannah Twaddell discusses some of the provocative ideas about parking in a much discussed book by economist and planner Donald Shoup. From PCJ #60, Fall 2005; 2 pages

Read excerpts from start of article: There's no question that Americans are utterly dependent upon cars. With 771 cars for every 1,000 people, gasoline consumption accounts for half of our country's oil demand. We make 87 percent of all our trips by automobile, and less than two percent by public transit. Every year, we drive longer and longer distances, and waste millions of hours sitting in traffic congestion. But if you ever get to your destination in America, you can be assured there will be plenty of parking. And ninety-nine percent of the time, it will be free. That's a good thing, because every one of our cars spends about ninety-five percent of its life sitting in a parking space. Imagine if you paid cold, hard cash for the full cost of every minute your car takes up space while you're at work, out shopping, and on a neighborhood street. Sure, it makes sense to pay for the electricity, gas, and food we consume, but paying to use the land we consume for parking? Whoa! Surprise, says transportation expert Donald Shoup, you already do. And so does everyone else in America, whether or not they even own a car. In The High Cost of Free Parking, Shoup (who teaches planning at UCLA) shows how the costs of "free" parking secretly work their way into every single dollar we circulate, from employee payrolls, to grocery bills, and even to mortgage payments. In his 750-page, meticulously researched book, Shoup argues that our unspoken national pact to provide plentiful free parking in every city is playing a key role in: the rapid spread of low-density, single-use development; the slow death of public transit; the growing lack of affordable housing; and the decline of many central business districts.

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Salt Lake City Mayor Focuses on Livability

This month and next on our News, Notes, & Quotes page we'll periodically be including excerpts from "State of the City" addresses given by mayors from across the U.S. These addresses can offer insights into both innovative programs and challenges facing cities.

Previously posted:

Shoreview, Minnesota, Mayor Sandy Martin

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Salt Lake City, Utah, Mayor Ralph Becker
to read his complete State of the City address (Jan. 12, 2010)

If I were to sum up the accomplishments of 2009 and our goals for 2010 in one word, it would be livability. Salt Lake City is a gem of an urban environment. It is a standout among American cities because of its livability. ...

The decisions we make as a City impact the livability we enjoy today - and hope for tomorrow. ...

We have worked to provide transportation options to those who live in the city and those who travel into the City for work, school, shopping and entertainment. These options provide alternatives to automobile use and support our efforts to address the air quality in our region. ... In the last year, we have installed 38 miles of new bike lanes within the city, representing a 32 percent increase in bike lanes and a total of 158 lane-miles. ... While just a year ago the vision of streetcars was decades away, we fast-tracked the dream, and have now, with the help of South Salt Lake and UTA, advanced the Sugar House Streetcar Project. Efforts are now underway to select the route for a Downtown streetcar line and begin detailed assessment for a line to South Davis County. ...

We completed Riparian Corridor Studies along the Emigration and Red Butte Creeks, laying the groundwork for guidelines to help us protect and preserve the valuable community asset our local streams provide. This coming year we will focus on completing studies for City Creek and Parleys Creek and developing recommended management plans for those corridors. ...

With funding from the Energy Block Grant, our Sustainability and Economic Development offices have designed the Energy Efficiency Revolving Loan Fund to help small businesses and commercial building owners upgrade their facilities with energy efficiency measures. Since over half the energy consumed in Salt Lake City is used in commercial buildings, this program will make a significant impact. The Revolving Loan Fund mitigates the impact of capital costs. And once the loan is paid back, the business owner will pocket the ongoing energy savings, while we all benefit from the decreased demand on our power supply and decreased emissions of green house gases ....

A city's livability factor is also measured by the opportunities for success that are shared by all residents. The inclusive nature of Salt Lake City's businesses, neighborhoods, and public places is vital to a strong sense of belonging. ... Through the Homelessness Prevention and Rapid Re-Housing Program, our Division of Housing and Neighborhood Development put an almost $1.7 million three-year grant to work to quickly re-house and stabilize those who were experiencing homelessness and help those who needed temporary help with utility and rent payments. And in December the City hosted a conference to present ideas for a long term strategy for homeless services in our City. ...

A City's livability is marked not only by its physical attributes, but also by its ability to engage its residents and visitors. A livable City is host to spaces that foster the arts and human interaction and recreation; provides a fertile business climate; and is a place where public input and participation in decision making are welcome and integral to an open government process. ... Main Street's cultural vitality and vibrancy will be further enhanced with the RDA's purchase of the historic Utah Theater, finalized just last week. Part of a continuing thread of the momentum led by the development of the City Creek Center, the historic space across the street from the future site of the Performing Arts Center will provide cultural and retail opportunities. A few blocks southeast of the Utah Theater, The Leonardo is taking shape to become the first science-tech-art center in the country. ...

Daniel Kemmis, a friend who is widely regarded as the Mountain West's leading contemporary thinker and writer on topics of community, regionalism and human society, spoke at our Sustainability Summit in March and had this to say: We must lead with an emphasis on livability. Sustainability will follow, indeed sustainable prosperity will follow. Livability has become the gold standard of our economy.

This is where we're heading, and all of us - working together - can make it happen. Please continue to join me in this journey.

Take the Stairs ... for Health

 How often do you use the stairs when there's an elevator available? Some public health advocates and architects are starting to give more attention to the value of stairs as a physical fitness tool.

See: If You Build It, They Will Walk, by Alex Pasternack in GOOD.Is (The Slow Issue)

Excerpt: "An idea quietly floated by New York City health commissioner Thomas Farley this summer might have sounded like a sinister joke to the city’s tired office workers and walk-up dwellers: make elevators smaller and slower. But to public-health experts, the notion -- part of an effort to encourage more walking-friendly design -- has legs. 'We have become very good at engineering physical activity out of our lives, and the price of this is staggering,' says Richard J. Jackson, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles School of Public Health, who considers stair-climbing a superior and cheaper alternative to gym membership.

Increasingly, designers are applying walking-oriented urban-planning ideas to buildings, and some see elevators as the architectural equivalent of the value meal: unhealthy, unsustainable, and bad for social exchange. Provide people with nicer, more centrally located stairs where they can interact with others, some designers say, and they’ll skip the elevator."

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See also:

• Architecture Can Make Us Fit (TreeHugger.com)
• Stairs as Fitness Tool? (NY Times blog)

Major Study on Effect of 20 mph Traffic Speeds on Injury Rates

 One of the most important issues facing cities and towns is traffic safety. For transportation planners and engineers, this has led to the use of traffic calming strategies designed to reduce vehicle speeds. But the underlying question is the extent to which the reduction in speeds reduces accidents and injuries. A comprehensive study was recently published in the British Medicial Journal that provides an important look at this -- by examining 20 years' worth of data in London on the effect of introducing 20 mph zones. We first heard of this study from a blog posting by the New Haven Safe Streets Coalition. Thanks!

Read the full article: Effect of 20 mph traffic speed zones on road injuries in London, 1986-2006: controlled interrupted time series analysis (British Medical Journal, BMJ, 10 December 2009).

Excerpts:

Road injuries are among the leading causes of loss of life and disability worldwide, and they are projected to make an increasingly important contribution to public health burdens over the coming decades, especially in low and middle income settings. There is good evidence internationally for the effectiveness of reducing the speed and volume of traffic for reducing injury rates.

One strategy for reducing speeds in urban areas is the use of road engineering interventions such as vertical deflections (humps), chicanes, and other physical alterations to prevent motorised traffic travelling at more than 20 miles an hour (32 km an hour). Zones in which traffic is limited to 20 mph are a type of area-wide traffic calming that uses road engineering measures to physically slow traffic. Over the past 15 years or so, 20 mph zones have been established in London and many other areas of the UK.

... By using a geographical information system (GIS), we linked ... casualty data to a detailed road segment database that included the characteristics of all classified and unclassified roads in London. For each financial year (April to March), we classified each segment of road between junctions according to the type of road and whether or not it was in a 20 mph zone or adjacent to a 20 mph zone 

... Results. The introduction of 20 mph zones was associated with a 41.9% (95% confidence interval 36.0% to 47.8%) reduction in road casualties, after adjustment for underlying time trends. The percentage reduction was greatest in younger children and greater for the category of killed or seriously injured casualties than for minor injuries. There was no evidence of casualty migration to areas adjacent to 20 mph zones, where casualties also fell slightly by an average of 8.0% (4.4% to 11.5%).

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See also the following from the American Association of Pediatrics Policy Statement on Pedestrian Safety (use link to access footnotes for the statistics noted below)

... Vehicle speed is a strong risk factor for pedestrian injuries and is associated with greater injury severity. Pedestrians who are hit by a car traveling 40 mph have a 15% chance of survival, but 85% survive when hit by a car moving at 20 mph. Because a faster-moving vehicle has a longer braking distance, impact with a pedestrian is more likely. Although several factors, such as driver reaction time, vehicle weight, brake quality, and road-surface conditions, play a role, the stopping distance for a vehicle traveling at 30 mph is considerably greater than that of a car traveling at 20 mph (197 vs 112 ft, respectively). In residential neighborhoods, an average vehicle speed of 30 mph, compared with 20 mph, was associated with more than a sevenfold greater risk of children being hospitalized for pedestrian injuries.

TransForm Baltimore

 Interesting zoning proposals under consideration in Baltimore, Maryland. This following article from the Baltimore Sun provides some background; for more details, go to the Transform Baltimore web site.

Read full article: New zoning would protect views of iconic buildings, by  Lorraine Mirabella (Baltimore Sun, Jan. 8, 2010)

Excerpts: "Baltimore's downtown would include designated districts that are defined by unique building structures, and regulations would prohibit blocking views of the city's iconic structures under a proposed vision for future development.

City planners offered preliminary ideas on Thursday for new rules and guidelines to replace downtown's zoning regulations, which haven't been updated in nearly 40 years. The new zoning also would prohibit any new surface parking lots. The proposals will be incorporated into a new zoning code for the entire city through the Transform Baltimore initiative.

'This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity ... to not be bound by the current rules and to improve urban design quality of the region,' said Thomas J. Stosur, the city's planning director. 'We need to address what is on the ground, but we can heighten the quality of the end product. This is a critical moment.' "

Recognize and Relieve Burnout

Tip 25 of 25
from Elaine Cogan

view all Tips posted to date

Let’s be honest. It is impossible to expect every commission meeting to be exciting and challenging. But if you rarely find them stimulating, you have three choices: change your attitude, try to change how things are done, or resign. Assuming you are still committed, the following are ways to deal with some common problems.

Meetings ... too frequent and too long. This situation, especially if it is more the rule than the exception, is unfair to citizen commissioners as well as the public. It is a rare commission meeting that should go over three hours. Moreover, it is important to start within five minutes of the agreed-upon time and end accordingly.

 
If overly long and crowded meetings are a common problem with your planning board, look critically at your agendas. Are they sensible for the time allocated? It may be more productive to hold shorter, more focused meetings. Place the most difficult or controversial issues early on the agenda when you, and the public, are fresh and alert. Appoint subcommittees to deal with issues that require in-depth review. And discipline yourselves to keep to the subject and avoid going off on tangents or irrelevancies.

Static roles and responsibilities. While only one person can and should be in charge of each meeting, it may be stimulating to rotate this responsibility. Even if you have a permanent chair, consider giving someone with specific experience responsibility to lead all or part of a meeting when that expertise is needed.

One format expected to fit all situations. Aside from formal hearings whose procedures are probably written down in state statute or your community’s code, there are many ways your meetings can be  flexible and innovative. Move out of city hall to a neighborhood school or community center. Hold a dialogue with the public before you make a decision. Consider “Robert’s Rules” as less than ironclad. There is no one “right way” or meeting format.

Different players / “same old” debates. Put yourself in each  applicant’s shoes. Though you may think you have heard it all before, it is probably a new and intimidating experience for that individual. Do not lose sight of the contribution you make to good planning by maintaining and respecting your layperson’s perspective. If everything were cut and dried, staff could make all the decisions. Be alert to the nuances that make each situation different. Challenge yourself each time and you can react to even the most routine matters with enlivened interest.

The big picture. Fatigue, boredom and burnout are more likely if you rarely have the chance to look at the larger overriding issues -- for example, to consider the distinct values of your community and how they can be enhanced by planning without the urgency of having to make a big decision. Schedule retreats or set aside time at some of your meetings and you will be refreshed and recharged to deal with even the most routine matters.

Is burnout inevitable? No. Can it be avoided or turned around? Most likely. If you try at least some of the above and they do not work for you, do not consider it a personal failure. Be proud of the contributions you have made to your community’s good planning health and accept the fact it may be time to move on.

This is the final installment of PCJ columnist Elaine Cogan's 25 tips for planning commissioners from her excellent Now That You're on Board publication.

The complete attractively-designed, spiral-bound, Now That You're on Board publication is available for purchase and delivery by mail.