NU shapes regional plans

New urbanist principles inform a growing number of large-scale planning efforts. For the past 10 years, the New Urbanism has been primarily defined by individual projects, built in reaction to the reigning auto-oriented, single-use planning policies. Now, new urbanists are increasingly creating the context in which such projects are built, using the tools of regional plans or other multimunicipal planning initiatives. The individual projects are invaluable as models, places where anyone can see new urbanist principles in action, but the large-scale initiatives help the New Urbanism effect systemic change. At this time, new urbanist firms and consultants are or have been involved in at least 14 regional plans and other large-scale planning efforts (see table on page 10). To date, this planning covers around 31,000 square miles. Some regional planning initiatives — such as those in Portland, Oregon, and Salt Lake City — include a full range of transportation and open-space planning, as well as comprehensive surveys of public values and attitudes. Others have more modest goals and resources — the plan for Woodford County, Kentucky, includes a rethinking of growth patterns, a new code, and specific suggestions for how to revitalize the downtown of a historic town. All large-scale new urbanist planning initiatives are based on using the neighborhood as the fundamental building block of the region and linking transportation and land-use policies. The nation’s first regional plan was created for the New York City metropolitan region by the Regional Plan Association (RPA) in 1929, and the association’s 1996 plan is included on New Urban News’ list. This plan may not be identified as new urbanist, but its vision and goals are consistent with the movement’s principles. It recommends shifting new development to urban centers, preserving open space corridors, enhancing public transit, and improving collaboration and coordination between governments. Origins and public involvement The impetuses for these plans come from a variety of sources. RPA has no official standing, but relies on well-connected members to exert influence on public policy. The 2040 plan for Portland has its origins in a land use and transportation study sponsored by the environmental group 1000 Friends of Oregon, while later planning and implementation was and is led by Metro, the regional government body. The Salt Lake City plan, Envision Utah, is the brainchild of the Coalition for Utah’s Future, an organization made up of civic, business, and political leaders. In Contra Costa County, California, a group of mayors pushed for a regional plan, while the plan for Onondaga County in New York has been spearheaded by the planning department. No matter who instigates the process, new urbanist regional planning involves the general public and community stakeholders to a greater degree than in the past. Envision Utah is a good example of this — Peter Calthorpe, whose firm led the planning, has characterized it as “more a process than a set of policies or a map.” Calthorpe Associates’ work in Utah was informed by a survey of the values of the region’s population, conducted before the firm was hired. This process revealed, for example, how people’s desire for a safe and secure environment was linked more to creating stronger communities than to beefing up law enforcement, and how “family values” manifested themselves in a strong concern for the quality of life for future generations. The next step in the public process was workshops where both civic leaders and citizens engaged in hands-on exercises. In the “Where Shall We Grow?” sessions, participants placed game pieces — representing the land area needed to accommodate population growth — on a map of the region. This exercise clarified the need to build in infill or redevelopment sites. “How Shall We Grow?” workshops gave participants more refined game pieces representing either auto-oriented or walkable development types. Along with a series of visual preference surveys, these maps guided Envision Utah in creating four scenarios for accommodating a population growth of 1 million people. The scenarios ranged from a low-density version of conventional suburban development which would need 409 square miles to accommodate the growth, to scenarios based on mixed-use neighborhoods built close to existing development. The two higher-density scenarios required only 126 and 85 square miles of new development. The competing visions were presented to the public in special newspaper inserts, and close to 18,000 Utahans responded to the included survey. The response was strongly in favor of the higher-density, mixed-use scenarios. “Wherever we go, we find that once you really show people the consequences of not doing anything, and once you give them some choices and calibrate the choices with consequences, you are able to strike quite an astounding consensus,” Calthorpe says. “The important first step is to establish a vision.” Such a high level of public participation is not found in all regional planning initiatives. The planning effort in Richland County, South Carolina, included inviting national speakers on growth topics, holding stakeholder forums, and conducting conventional market research paired with visual preference surveys. The Delaware planning firm Killinger Alberto followed up with an environmental analysis and a growth scenario based on Alberto’s Town and Country planning model. This model balances development in villages with preservation of open space. In Duany Plater-Zyberk’s (DPZ) Settlement Plan for Onondaga County, the public input was focused in a week-long charrette, where the firm designed eight pilot projects that exemplified the primary problems facing the region. According to Jeff Speck of DPZ, these included: how to fix a struggling urban neighborhood, how to redevelop brownfields and greyfield malls, how to retrofit a suburban strip center, how to repair a village overrun by state highways, and how to expand a rural hamlet. The overall goal, Speck says, was to show how a municipality could change its own planning and zoning policies and make them fit into a larger picture. This “tool kit” was supplemented by a Transect-based code that local jurisdictions can adopt and enforce. Speck notes that although the county government does not have power to enforce specific guidelines, it can encourage better growth management. The overall county plan therefore consisted of a number of suggested approaches, including transfer of development rights, purchase of development rights, as well as a map of county reserves and preserves. Open space preservation Just as regional planning guides where and how communities grow, it must also define where they should not grow. Mapping preserves, wildlife corridors, and essential agricultural land is often the first order of business in the planning process. Calthorpe notes that layering the form of the man-made environment with the elements of the open space network is essential to regional planning. Urban growth boundaries (UGBs) are one means of open-space conservation, albeit a controversial one. The Portland 2040 plan was created in the context of a UGB, and essentially provides direction for the form of development inside the boundary. But UGBs remain politically challenging in many parts of the US, and some new urbanists think a better strategy is to take the opposite approach — i.e., draw a boundary around rural areas. DPZ has used the “rural growth boundary” model in its work. “Rather than roping off urbanization, you designate what you wish to preserve, and then you focus on the quality of the urbanization,” Speck says. “That is particularly relevant and useful in a county with no teeth, like Onondaga. You have no hope of getting a buy-in to an urban growth boundary when it’s shared between 21 different municipalities,” he says. Sarasota County in Florida has chosen to divide the county into six “resource management areas,” including a spine of greenways and a villages/open space area, where the bulk of the land is preserved and new development concentrated in compact communities. This system is designed to preserve environmental systems and direct growth away from floodplains. Glatting Jackson of Orlando is working on the details needed to implement this approach. Transportation Clarifying the link between land use and transportation is perhaps the greatest achievement of recent regional planning initiatives. Though this link may seem obvious, it has typically been ignored in large-scale plans. In his book, The Regional City, Calthorpe explains the connection: “Land-use patterns dictate the need for travel, while at the same time the location, size, and character of our transportation facilities determines which land uses are likely to develop in given locations. Highways make suburban sprawl possible, and sprawl constantly requires more highways.” To varying degrees, the new urbanist regional plans focus on resolving this complex feedback loop. The work is complicated by the fact that land use is typically under local control, whereas investment in transportation usually comes from the state or federal level. In major metropolitan areas, development built around transit hubs can be part of the solution, but in a more rural setting like Woodford County, Kentucky, Dover Kohl & Partners employed a strategy of preserving and enhancing the existing urban fabric and building mixed-use neighborhoods with walkable destinations. New urbanists also focus on broadening the definition of thoroughfares — replacing ubiquitous arterials with boulevards, avenues, and main streets where appropriate. Leading by example Even with extensive public involvement and education, the regional process deals with issues of such magnitude that it is easy for a plan to become too vague to capture the attention of citizens and public officials. Specific case studies and pilot projects therefore become essential to getting the message across. The Smart Growth Twin Cities initiative in Minneapolis/St. Paul, for example, not only involves reevaluating the comprehensive plans of local communities, but it also has set aside six “opportunity sites” where Calthorpe Associates will design model neighborhoods in collaboration with local planners. The goal is to create detailed site plans that each community can present to a developer to begin work immediately. In the plan for Woodford County, the principles were applied to a revitalization of the downtown of the county’s biggest town and to a small traditional neighborhood development extending the town. A prime example of the importance of translating the regional vision into a specific project is Orenco Station, which originated in the 2040 plan for Oregon. That community has become an oft-visited model for greenfield transit-oriented development (TOD) on both a regional and national level. Moreover, many smaller TODs are emerging in Portland’s established, transit-rich neighborhoods. Regional plans are built on the best intentions, but their implementations are typically hampered by the lack of a regional government with the power to act on economic, social, and physical planning issues simultaneously. Of the plans in the table, only Portland and Minneapolis/St. Paul have a regional government body with any teeth. Even if a regional government can enforce a plan, a balance has to be struck with local communities. Few municipalities are willing to give up control of land-use planning. Thus the Quality Growth Strategy developed by Envision Utah does not deal in dictates, but in recommendations, incentives, and encouragement. However, according to Calthorpe, the regional plan is having dramatic impact. “Many of the jurisdictions are beginning to adopt zoning policies that support walkable neighborhoods. The region at large voted for a sales tax increase to provide for more transit, and they are expanding their transit network. This is something nobody could have foreseen two or three years ago,” he says. In the absence of a strong regional government, the key to success is better communication between local governments. “If we can get four or five counties on the same page, we can accomplish important parts of a plan without the formal structure of a regional government,” says Michael Busha, the director of Florida’s Treasure Coast Regional Planning Council. The next few years will test the strength of these regional and large-scale planning initiatives, but they have already set a precedent for how regions can grow smarter. Indications are that the trend is gaining momentum; in Chicago, for example, the Commercial Club has embarked on an update of the influential 1909 Daniel Burnham plan, and Austin, Texas, too, is about to begin a regional planning process.