After a $250,000 public process aimed at

After a $250,000 public process aimed at adopting Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company’s SmartCode, the City of Vicksburg got cold feet. Mayor Laurence Leyens and other officials in the Mississippi city decided not to go forward with the SmartCode. As a result, community planning director Ann Daigle, whose goal was to make the Vicksburg the first municipality in the US applying the SmartCode to an entire city, has resigned her position and joined a private firm, PlaceMakers. Opposing sides in the 26,000-population city disagree on what led up to those events. Daigle had overseen extensive educational efforts — including neighborhood sessions and two large charrettes — to introduce the SmartCode concept to the populace. “We didn’t get much negative feedback,” said Daigle. “Once we explained the concept, the majority of people came over to it.” How, then, did the effort fail? “A very few, very vocal people who did not show up for the meetings” disliked the plan, Daigle said. “I think the mayor crumbled underneath them.” Wayne Mansfield, who was hired as Vicksburg’s planning director and Daigle’s superior a few months ago, offered another explanation. “The Smart- Code was very difficult to understand,” Mansfield said, “and I had concerns that it did not comply with state law.” He said he was uncomfortable with the degree of autonomy the official overseeing the SmartCode would have enjoyed; he feared it might be found to infringe on due process for property owners. “It was pretty much the consensus of the general public that they were not in favor of the SmartCode,” he added. The Saratoga Springs, New York, City Council unanimously adopted a zoning package May 20 that includes new gateway design overlay districts’ for prominent entrances to the city, and T-4, T-5, and T-6 zones, based on Andres Duany’s concept of the urban Transect. Oakland and San Gabriel are the latest cities to benefit from the California Treasurer’s Sustainable Communities Grant and Loan Program, a $2.5 million fund to help local governments pursue smart growth initiatives. San Gabriel has received a $328,000 grant to assist in revitalizing the city’s Valley Boulevard Corridor. The grant will help fund the creation of a plan to cope with rapid growth by increasing open space, initiating transit strategies to reduce traffic congestion, designing livable neighborhoods with higher density housing, and promoting building methods that reduce pollution and energy consumption. A $350,000 grant to Oakland will fund planning for the proposed Coliseum BART Transit Village which will include affordable housing and homes for first-time owners, retail development, and a city park. In all, 14 cities have received grants for projects to expedite sustainable development and revitalize economically struggling neighborhoods. More density, taller buildings and mixed uses. That’s city planning director Robert J. Scott’s prescription for the future growth and development of Virginia Beach. With the northern half of the community almost fully developed and a no-growth boundary protecting rural lands to the south, Scott’s department is focusing on infill strategies. Planners have mapped out a dozen “strategic growth areas” — half of them along the I-264 corridor — where aging and abandoned shopping centers and big-box stores offer prospects for redevelopment emulating successful urban models like Norfolk’s revitalized Granby Street. City council is expected to consider the proposal, which would require changes in zoning codes and public investment, this summer.