Planning Commissioners Journal

Practical Tips for Citizen Planners

Are you as effective as you can be in your job as a planning commissioner? Some tips for your consideration. by Carolyn Braun, AICP; from PCJ #81 (Winter 2011); 3 pages Read excerpts below; to order & download the full article use Shopping Cart button at bottom of this post. See other articles by Carolyn Braun published in the Planning Commissioners Journal

Read excerpts from article: Article starts with: 1. Getting Started, and 2. Getting Ready for the Commission Meeting then continues with: 3. The Meeting To make this work for both you and the community, take the job seriously. That means arriving on time and attending all meetings. If you must miss a meeting, let the staff and commission chair know as far in advance of the meeting as possible. This is particularly important when there are citizen requests on the agenda and a quorum of members must be present to take action. Show respect when addressing fellow commissioners ("Commissioner Johnson"), the audience ("Ms. Smith" or "Mr. Olson"), and Chairman ("Chairman Nelson"). Always address the chair before speaking. When speaking to staff, show that same respect. Don't assume that the staff is always wrong and the citizen is always right (and don't assume the converse, either). Planning cases are not a matter of who is wrong and who is right. It is more important to make decisions based on the best information available and be fair. Agree or disagree in a respectful manner. You can expect applicants, as well as those opposing an application, to often be emotional. Their request or opinion is very important to them, especially when it involves their property or neighborhood. You need to control your emotions in response. When someone is emotional, repeat or summarize what was said. Narrow down the issues. Focus on issues that the planning commission can address. Don't promise anything and don't try to answer questions without having the information at hand. Realize that you can't please everyone -- nor should you be trying to. Don't do things to disrupt the meeting. Don't have side discussions with the person next to you. Don't make personal attacks, faces, whisper, or exhibit body language that show displeasure. All of these behaviors can reflect badly on the commission and the community. Remember that most commissions represent a variety of views. As such, decisions may not always be unanimous. That's okay. Don't feel you have to compromise. Sometimes the commission can broker a win-win situation for everyone, but compromise is not always the right answer. 4. Making a Decision The most important part in making a good decision is to keep an open mind and be fair. Decisions will be upheld if you work through them using due process. Applicants are entitled to a fair hearing. You need, at the start of a hearing, to declare any potential conflicts of interest, even if it is only a perceived conflict. This generally means recusing yourself from participating in the hearing and deliberation on that application. During hearings on an application it is essential that commissioners listen to the evidence, weigh it carefully, and give everyone a reasonable opportunity to be heard. Remember, your decisions will not be upheld if they are unreasonable, arbitrary, or capricious. Decisions must be made on factual evidence and based on what your code or ordinance does or does not allow. Be careful in the weight you give to petitions submitted to you in support or opposition to a project. There is often no way to know what information was given to signers to encourage them to sign the petition. Likewise, do not be unduly swayed by a show of hands in the audience (and certainly, don't ask to see a show of hands!) Again, your job is to be guided by the criteria in your regulations, not by popular opinion. Resist the temptation to redesign the applicant's request. Your job is to review and identify concerns; it is the applicant's job to design the site to meet the requirements of your zoning or land development regulations. If you need more information, ask for it and don't feel compelled to make an immediate decision. On the other hand, don't unreasonably delay a decision simply because it is going to be a difficult one to make. Review proposals based on their merits, not simply on what the developer states is best in order to make a profit. In many states, the planning commission is not the final decision-maker on development applications (and in almost all states, does not have final say on rezoning requests), Instead, planning commissions are typically charged with providing a recommended decision to the governing body. While governing bodies usually give weight to the commission's recommendation, don't be offended if they do not accept or follow your position. Your ultimate goal is to make the best decision possible -- based on clear, solid findings of fact, in conformance with your adopted regulations -- and doing so in a manner that allows you to maintain the respect of the community. .. article continues with: 5. Ways to Improve, and 6. Have Fun, plus a sidebar by planner Joyce Allgaier: "What Planning Staff Can Do"

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The Tee-Ball Approach to Development

Planning for the impacts of new development can make a difference to your municipality’s fiscal well-being. by Jim Segedy, FAICP, and Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy, AICP; from PCJ #81 (Winter 2011); 2 pages Read excerpts below; to order & download the full article use Shopping Cart button at bottom of this post. See other articles by the Segedys.

If you've been a parent, a grandparent, an aunt, or an uncle, no doubt you've been to a tee-ball game. The youngsters on each team can hardly sit still in the dugout, and the bleachers are full of family members eager to cheer on their budding sports heroes. A pint-size batter steps up to the tee, winds up for the swing, and clips the ball, which rolls four or five feet towards the pitcher. The crowd goes wild, cheering as the batter runs as fast as little legs will go ... towards third base! That's how it sometimes goes with our local communities' attempts at development. The community gets so excited about a proposed development that it can head off in the wrong direction -- without having the infrastructure needed to support the development. Some examples: A subdivision is approved in an area with lots too small for replacement septic drain fields and/or where the population density is too low to be feasibly served by public sewer. An office park is platted in an area where water lines are too small to provide adequate fire protection. A large retail/dining/lodging facility is proposed for an area where road capacity is already maxed out and there's no land available for additional parking. In other words, communities are commonly enticed by development for which the infrastructure is inadequate. This not only burdens the community, it also minimizes the long-term return on private investment. It's just like a tee-ball player running the wrong direction. Before we offer solutions on how to avoid unsustainable development, it makes sense to examine WHY this happens so frequently in communities. In many cases, it comes down to looking at only part of the equation: short-term gains -- without considering long-term, life-cycle costs. If you find that recent developments have placed a burden on your water, sewer, roads, public safety, schools, and so on, this points to the need for some improvements to your community's planning and development strategies to ensure that the costs of community services are factored into your development review process. ... article continues The full article can be ordered & downloaded. Click lightning bolt icon at top left.

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Billboards: The Case for Control

Why cities and towns benefit when they just say “no” to the continued proliferation of billboards. by Edward McMahon; from PCJ #81 (Winter 2011) Download this article (pdf format); no charge for download. See our interview with Ed McMahon about this article | see response from Outdoor Advertising Association of America | see perspectives from PCJ Editor We welcome you to weigh in. Join the discussion on the Planning Commissioners Journal Linkedin group page (you need to be a Linkedin user to view our group page; if you're not using Linkedin, I encourage you to try it out). For information on other articles by McMahon published in the Planning Commissioners Journal.

Come see America the beautiful, if you can. Amber waves of grain? It is more like a ride through the yellow pages: a windshield vista of 50-foot beer cans and towering casino signs. Many thought billboards were an endangered species in 1965 when Congress passed the Highway Beautification Act. But the law was so riddled with loopholes and enforcement so lax that in recent years, billboard companies have put up thousands of new, bigger, more obtrusive billboards. In a relatively short time, outdoor advertising has gone from Burma Shave to Blade Runner: from small and folksy to huge and intrusive. We've now entered the era of digital billboards -- giant outdoor TV screens wasting energy while degrading the landscape and distracting drivers. Billboards are the definition of a roadside distraction. Their entire purpose is to take your eyes off the road and put them on giant outdoor advertisements. Safety is just one of the reasons why many communities have been trying to regulate billboards for decades. Curbing billboards is not easy, but it can be done. This article lays out the case for billboard control. It discusses the reasons beyond safety for why we need to halt construction of new billboards and strictly regulate those that remain. 1. Billboards are a form of pollution -- visual pollution Over the years, billboards have been described as the "junk mail of the highway," "litter on a stick," "visual kudzu," "urban blight," and more, but in their simplest form billboards are a form of visual pollution. Regulating billboards is no different from regulating noxious fumes, sewage discharges, or excessive noise. The U.S. Supreme Court has said: "Pollution is not limited to the air we breathe and the water we drink; it can equally offend the eye and ear." While the messages on a billboard can be ugly or ordinary when they are enlarged to the size of a house, placed on poles 50-100 feet high, randomly strewn along every street, even covering entire buildings, they become a visual and environmental hazard. Like overly loud noise -- strictly regulated in many communities -- billboards thrust a discordant commercial note into our environment. They deprive us of visual access to scenic vistas and create a strident, hectic atmosphere in cities. 2. Billboards are out of place in most locations Our landscape is one of America's greatest resources. Its value is economic as well as aesthetic, psychological as well as recreational, spiritual as well as physical. Every landscape, rural or urban, has its own kind of beauty and uniqueness. In every kind of landscape billboards are a disturbing alien intrusion. Like empty beer cans in a mountain stream, they simply don't belong because they commercialize, homogenize, and degrade our natural landscape. Visual clutter may be appropriate in a few limited locations, such as a city's entertainment district (e.g., Times Square or the Las Vegas Strip). In most cases, however, billboards obliterate architectural character and ruin natural beauty. They also undermine community livability and sustainability. Doug Kelbaugh, of the University of Michigan, School of Architecture put it this way: "If a building, a landscape, or a city is not beautiful, it will not be loved, if it is not loved, it will not be maintained. In short it won't be sustained." 3. Billboards destroy distinctiveness Billboards look the same whether they are in Mississippi, Montana, or Malaysia. As a result, billboards homogenize our communities. They help turn unique places into "Anyplace." In fact, almost nothing will destroy the distinctive character of a place faster than uncontrolled signs and billboards. This has negative economic consequences. "Community differentiation" is a key concept in economic development today. If you can't differentiate your community from any other community you have no competitive advantage. Put another way, the "image of a community is fundamentally important to its economic well being." Every day, people make decisions about where to live, invest, or vacation based on what communities look like. Attractive, well-ordered communities have an advantage over ugly, chaotic ones. Take tourism: the more one community comes to look like every other community, the less reason there is to visit. On the other hand, the more a community does to protect and enhance its distinctive character, whether natural or architectural, the more reason there is to visit. Billboards destroy distinctiveness and undermine our sense of place while they commercialize our neighborhoods. ... article continues with: 4. Billboards are the only form of advertising that you can't turn off or avoid 5. Billboard companies sell something they don't own -- our field of vision 6. Billboards are ineffective and unnecessary 7. Billboard companies exercise almost no restraint in the placement of outdoor ads 8. Billboards are both a cause and a symptom of urban blight 9. Billboards are bad for business 10. Digital billboards, use huge amounts of energy contributing to greenhouse gas emissions and global warming

Building Invisible Walls: Growth Center Strategies

How urban growth boundaries work, and why a growing number of metropolitan areas are using them. by Beth Humstone; from PCJ #81 (Winter 2011); 3 pages -- read our interview with Beth about this article Read first section of article below; to order & download the full article use Shopping Cart button at bottom of this post. For information on other articles by Beth Humstone published in the Planning Comm'rs Journal

Just as walls once created clear distinctions between town and countryside, today's urban containment strategies aim to keep urban places urban and rural places rural. Urban containment -- the constraint of growth to limited geographic areas -- is of great interest to planners for its potential benefits of preserving open space, saving money on public services, reinvesting in cities, and providing a more predictable permitting process. In fact, the American Planning Association estimates that over 100 metropolitan areas now have some form of urban containment strategy. Of the three principal kinds of urban containment strategies -- urban service areas, greenbelts, and urban growth boundaries -- in this article, we'll be focusing on urban growth boundaries. What is An Urban Growth Boundary? An urban growth boundary encompasses an area defined on a map where: development is permitted at a higher density or intensity than surrounding areas, mixed uses are typically encouraged, and a full complement of public services is provided. The size of the area within the boundary typically is configured to provide sufficient land to meet population and land use needs for a 20-year period. Over time, the boundaries may be adjusted -- either by expansion or contraction -- to meet changing conditions. In the United States, urban growth boundaries have been established through local initiatives, regional strategies, and state mandates and/or incentives. Why Plan for Urban Growth Boundaries? Communities and regions plan for urban growth boundaries in order to meet the goals of their comprehensive plans, because they are mandated or encouraged to do so by state government, or because they have a particular need such as revitalization of a downtown or protection of important farmland. Within a comprehensive plan, places are delineated both where growth will be encouraged and development limited. The plan typically contains projections for population, employment, and housing so the community knows how much land is needed for different uses. The plan also identifies existing development, the location and capacity of services, and important environmental and natural resource features. By designating a growth boundary, a community or region can provide for infill and contiguous growth that reinforces and reinvests in existing settled areas, limits urban services to avoid costly extensions to rural areas, and protects environmental or natural resources outside the center. A few examples: Lexington, Kentucky uses an urban growth boundary to meet its planning goals. The Lexington urban growth boundary, which includes Fayette County, was first adopted in 1958 -- the oldest growth boundary in the United States. Its primary purpose was to protect the bluegrass and horse farms for which the region is famous by requiring most development to take place within the boundary and severely limiting development outside the boundary. Over the years, the boundary has been adjusted, and planning and zoning for the area has been altered to meet changing needs and political pressures. The urban growth area was initially 67 square miles (comprising 22 percent of the county's total land area); it is now 75 square miles (30 percent). In New Jersey, the State (in conjunction with the National Park Service) established the Pinelands National Reserve in 1979. Within the 1.1 million acre Reserve, a comprehensive management plan guides the management and protection of environmentally sensitive and agricultural lands threatened by sprawling land development. A joint county-state-federal Pinelands Commission reviews local ordinances for consistency with the management plan. The plan also delineates regional growth boundaries. The Commission uses a transfer of development rights (TDR) program to protect important open space and natural areas, as well as encourage more development in Pinelands' town and village centers. To date, over 58,000 acres have been protected and nearly 4,500 development rights have been transferred to projects proposed within "Regional Growth Areas." ... article continues with discussion of six key planning issues that need to be addressed when considering urban growth boundaries.

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Interview with Beth Humstone about her article "Building Invisible Walls: Urban Growth Boundaries"

From PCJ Editor Wayne Senville:

In our Winter issue you'll find an interesting article about a much discussed approach to managing growth: the use of urban growth boundaries (or "UGBs" as they're often called). PCJ contributing writer Beth Humstone, who has long experience as a planner -- and also served for several years as Director of what's now Smart Growth Vermont -- explains the basics of "UGBs" in her latest article.

I asked Beth to take a few minutes to respond to some questions I had about some of the points she makes in her article:

Wayne Senville:

One of the concerns I've heard about growth boundaries is that they increase housing costs within areas inside the boundary because the supply of developable land is constrained. Is this true? -- and what ways are there to prevent this from happening, or to minimize the impacts?

Beth Humstone:

Housing prices need not rise with urban growth boundaries, particularly where there has been adequate planning for growth. While land values may increase by constraining the supply of land available for development, higher densities may keep housing prices stable or even lower them. That's what Arthur C. Nelson and Casey J. Dawkins found in their 2004 report for the American Planning Association (Urban Containment in the United States, Planning Advisory Service Report 520).

To avoid raising housing prices, it is very important that the area within the growth boundary is sufficient to meet population growth for a reasonable time period, usually 20 years. The amount of land needed will be determined primarily by zoning densities and the supply of undeveloped or underdeveloped land that is appropriate for housing. In addition, some factor should be applied that takes into account that not all land needed for development will be available for this purpose within the twenty year time frame.

Because market demand and the availability of land for development are difficult to precisely project, it is important to monitor growth rates, housing and land prices, and densities of development within the growth boundaries over time. If prices rise to unacceptable levels, there are several options: increase the boundary to increase the land supply; increase densities and/or institute minimum densities; or adopt inclusionary zoning.

Wayne Senville:

In your article you point to municipal public service cost savings from having urban growth boundaries. Can you explain why that's the case?

Cultural Asset Mapping

Lessons learned from a project to map out four towns' cultural resources. by Rob Voigt; from PCJ #81 (Winter 2011); 2 pages Read excerpts below; to order & download the full article use Shopping Cart button at bottom of this post.

In recent years, urban planning, arts and culture, economic development, and city administration have found common ground in a raised awareness of the importance of culture to a community's livability and prosperity. In fact, cultural vitality is increasingly referred to as one of the four pillars of sustainability, along with social equity, economic health, and environmental responsibility. Numerous cities across North America have begun to leverage cultural assets for attracting business, investment, and people. Smaller municipalities often have serious challenges in competing with their larger urban cousins to achieve these kinds of successes. Cultural asset mapping (CAM) is used to understand and interpret the complex interrelationships of cultural elements for use in strategic planning and economic development and is scaleable for use in smaller municipalities. Cultural asset mapping has been defined as: "a process of collecting, recording, analyzing, and synthesizing information in order to describe the cultural resources, networks, links, and patterns of usage of a given community or group." Maps are most often understood as the indispensable tools that help us navigate our physical world. Cultural asset maps, by representing the spatial relationships between such things as artists, markets, fairgrounds, heritage sites, and buildings, help tell us about who we are, based on our unique identity, history, and cherished stories -- in other words, our culture. There are two categories for these maps: (1) resource maps, identifying and recording tangible cultural resources, such as buildings or locations; and, (2) community identity maps, identifying intangible cultural resources, such as the stories and traditions that define community identity. Cultural resource information that is spatially-based allows it to be integrated into municipal projects and land use planning in a number of ways: Awareness and marketing -- promoting culture with residents and tourists. Economic development -- targeting or facilitating entrepreneurial investment in creative cultural industries. Planning and policy -- informing municipal decision-making relating to land use, social planning, heritage planning, urban design, and place making. Networks and collaboration -- facilitating partnerships with cultural groups and identifying opportunities to maximize assets. From an Idea to a Strategy The cultural asset management project that I'll be describing has brought together four communities in a broad-ranging undertaking linking planning, culture, and economic development. ... the article continues with a look at the project Voigt worked on, involving four neighboring Ontario towns, and some lessons learned.

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Now Available -- the Winter 2011 Issue of the Planning Comm'rs Journal

Several articles from our Winter issue can now be individually ordered & downloaded; click on the article titles below for details and to order.

Subscribe to the Planning Commissioners Journal, and start with our Winter issue. Order online, or call our office: 802-864-9083. Note: government orders can call and request to be invoiced. Just want a copy of the Winter issue? Download a pdf for $14.75 or Order a print copy for delivery by mail for $15.75, plus postage

Contents of our Winter 2011 issue
Read PCJ Editor Wayne Senville's introduction to the Winter issue.
	Finding Your Local Economy's Hidden Treasure by Gwendolyn Hallsmith Recognizing your community's natural and cultural assets can lead to big economic benefits.
Cultural Asset Mapping by Rob Voigt Lessons learned from a project to map out four towns' cultural resources.
	Billboards: The Case for Control by Ed McMahon Why cities and towns benefit when they just say "no" to the continued proliferation of billboards. Available at no charge; use link above.
Eleven Principles for Creating Great Community Places by staff of the Project for Public Spaces Basic principles for transforming under-utilized public spaces into vibrant community places.
	Building Invisible Walls: Urban Growth Boundaries by Beth Humstone How urban growth boundaries work, and why a growing number of metropolitan areas are using them.
Practical Tips for Citizen Planners by Carolyn Braun Are you as effective as you can be in your job as a planning commissioner? Some tips for your consideration.
	The Tee-Ball Approach to Development (and How to Avoid It) by Jim Segedy, Ph.D., FAICP, and Lisa Hollingsworth-Segedy, AICP Planning for the impacts of new development can make a difference to your municipality's fiscal well-being.
Planners Central to a Changing American Dream by Dave Stauffer Some thoughts on the future of the great American dream: home ownership.