Metro Baltimore to try Cool Spots

Metropolitan Baltimore is about to try the “Cool Spots” method of reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Criterion Planners of Portland, Oregon, will conduct three “digital charrettes” in September and October with the planning directors of the City of Baltimore and five surrounding counties. Cool Spots (see Jan. 2008 New Urban News) is a regional planning tool that uses the Transect and pedestrian shed concepts to determine where to encourage nodes of compact transit-oriented development, which can reduce automobile use by up to 75 percent and carbon dioxide emissions by as much as 40 to 50 percent in the selected locales. Data collection has begun, says Eliot Allen of Criterion, which is working on the program for the Baltimore Metropolitan Council and the Baltimore District of the Urban Land Institute.