smartGrowth
Compiled by Gerald L. Allen, NAR Government Affairs
ALABAMA
The Saving Towns at Risk program
(STAR) was launched in March of 2004 to
fight urban decay and to revitalize downtowns throughout the state. The STAR
program is a cooperative effort between
the Urban Affairs & New Nontraditional
Programs unit of the Alabama
Cooperative Extension System (ACES)
and the Alabama Mayors’ Corporation for
Economic, Cultural and Educational
Development. The ACES has offices in
every county in Alabama, and the
Mayors’ Corporation represents 49 towns
and cities with nearly 400,000 residents.
The STAR program team is charged with
developing ways to spur public dialogue
and with forging diverse coalitions to create infrastructure and town revitalization
projects.
DELAWARE
A new procedure, the PLUS Process, allows
developers and state planning and transportation officials to address potential project problems before formal plans are submitted. A Rehoboth Beach developer
availed himself of the procedure to discuss
a proposed dense “rural village” on 842
acres north of Milton, Sussex County, with
state officials. His plan consultant, national Smart Growth expert Randall Arendt,
explained that the possible 1,672 variedstyle homes, including units for seniors,
would be built in clusters around a central
green to maximize open space and save a
tract of forest. Named Isaac’s Glen, the village would feature a town hall, an 18-hole
golf course, an artificial river, and perhaps
some commercial space along the intersecting state highway. The project would
require rezoning the area for higher residential density.
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in the states
CALIFORNIA
ARKANSAS
In Fayetteville, local developers, city officials, lenders and
attorneys are considering the
creation of a tax increment
financing (TIF) district to help
finance the redevelopment of
properties in the downtown
area. The city is adamant that
creation of the TIF district
would not mean that tax rates
will increase or that there will
be new taxes assessed. Rather,
the TIF project would be
financed in part by utilizing the
incremental tax revenues that
result from the improvements to
projects approved by the city
council in the TIF redevelopment district.
To maximize the economic and environmental advantages of California’s $14 billion investment in bus and rail systems
over the last decade, Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger signed a bill that will
facilitate the construction of mixed-use
“transit villages” within a radius of onethird of a mile of bus, rail or ferry stations.
The bill will let counties and municipalities proceed with their transit-oriented
development plans if they demonstrate
five, rather than 13, public benefits of
transit village projects. The list of benefits
may include relief of traffic congestion,
improved air quality, redevelopment of
depressed neighborhoods or marginal
areas, and better use of present infrastructure.
HAWAII
A 14-year plan is in place to ease road
congestion in the Honolulu area with a
25-mile Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line
between Kapolei west of the city and
the University of Hawaii in the Manoa
neighborhood, southeast of the city.
Site preparation has begun for six stations along the BRT line’s initial 5.6mile downtown-waterside segment
through Kakaako to Waikiki. Spending
$31 million from its own budget on the
initial segment, Honolulu just received
authorization by an Oahu Metropolitan
Planning Organization oversight committee to seek $20 million in federal
money. The BRT system will use hybrid
gas-electric buses, which will reduce
air pollution even further over automobile travel.
ILLINOIS
The City of Chicago has adopted a
new zoning ordinance, effective
November 1, 2004, that is designed
to promote new urbanist principles,
such
as
pedestrian-oriented
streetscapes. It is the first overhaul
of the city’s zoning rules since
1957, and although it follows a conventional ordinance structure, is
considered to be an innovative
“smart code.” The American
Planning Association’s June 2004
Zoning Practice report on formbased zoning lists the city as one of
the few municipalities to adopt this
new approach to zoning.
KANSAS
“Visioneering Wichita” is embarking
on a citizen-driven process to identify
the future the region wants and then
build that future through citizen participation. Visioneering Wichita involves
creating dialogue between interested
citizens and organizations that have
common interests and goals. It is a
vision-driven
strategic
planning
process that will produce a shared
vision of what the Wichita area wants
to be. The process will involve hundreds of residents in creating the
shared vision and provides a framework for collaboration that will make
the Wichita regional community a reality. The founding vision partners are
the City of Wichita government, the
Sedgwick County government, the
Wichita Community Foundation, the
Wichita Downtown Development
Corporation and the Wichita Area
Chamber of Commerce. The Vision
Final Plan is scheduled for completion
in December of 2004.
MASSACHUSETTS
The state has recognized three
towns for its “Smart Growth” initiatives. A June survey conducted by
the state’s Vision 2020 program
found Abington, Marion, and
Brockton to be the only towns
among 51 communities in southeastern Massachusetts to adhere to
Smart-Growth principles, which
are intended to reduce development sprawl. According to Town
Planner Daniel Crane, Abington
was cited for its recent establishment of a master plan and its efforts
to change zoning bylaws to allow
more intensive development of its
business zones. “We’re very much
proud of what we have been able to
achieve,” said Crane.
KENTUCKY
In 2000, in response to the
Kentucky
Department
of
Transportation’s decision to complete a five-lane road that would
require the relocation of the heart
of Union, the town adopted a Town
Plan that included a blueprint for a
new town center. City officials
feared that in the absence of planning that the city would lose its
way of life, with an influx of strip
centers and big box retail.
According to city officials and
planners, the plan, which includes
strict standards on issues such as
architectural design, is off to a
good start. A developer of a large
residential project agrees, saying
that “[t]heir plan was well thought
out. That made it easy to work
with them.”
NEVADA
The Clark County Community Growth Task
Force will present its proposals for curbing
sprawl, road congestion and air pollution in
January 2005. The task force’s proposals
focus on alternatives to leapfrog development toward the valley desert fringes in the
Las Vegas area as its first priority and on
affordable housing as the second. Task force
member and university history professor
Hal Rothman stressed, “Infill is the place to
begin to find a solution.” County officials
believe that with land prices increasingly
high, developers would take advantage of
possible county incentives for “mixed-use
communities” or urban villages, which
would help reduce car dependency, traffic
jams, air pollution and housing costs. As
part of the solution, the county should also
build a light-rail system, said Regional
Transportation
Commission
General
Manager Jacob Snow.
MARYLAND
Maryland has received 22 applications
from developers and communities across
the state looking to take advantage of
Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.’s new Priority
Places anti-sprawl program, which promises state help with building projects in
already developed areas. The projects
stretch from Frostburg in Western
Maryland to Caroline County on the
Eastern Shore, with two in Baltimore and
one in Annapolis. Sixteen came from city
or town governments, four from private
developers, and one each from a nonprofit group and a county. Building projects
and community revitalization plans
selected under the new program would be
offered the coordinated technical help of
all state agencies, given “fast-track” regulatory reviews and be put first in line for
any state grants that are available, though
officials acknowledge that because of the
state’s current fiscal crisis, the program
has no dedicated funding. Officials have
indicated they might pick up to a halfdozen projects, though the decision
depends on the quality of the applications. A decision on the projects is expected in December of 2004.
VIRGINIA
The
Fairfax
County
Planning
Commission unanimously recommended
approval of a plan for mixed-use development surrounding the Vienna Metro station. The development would replace a
56-acre suburban enclave of single-family homes with two office buildings of
roughly 12 stories, some shops and
roughly 2,200 apartments, condominiums
and townhouses. The project marks the
first steps of Fairfax County to mirror
other localities in the region by clustering
development around stops on the Metro
system. The plan is opposed by some in
the neighborhood, who feel that it would
create problems in its immediate vicinity,
straining roads and schools as well as setting a precedent that would lead to the
loss of the remaining leafy single-family
neighborhoods in the area.
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