A Browner Shade of Green

Good intentions, half measures, and why that path to Hell is not paved with pervious concrete ……

About this Presentation

Bad Cop – Lisa NisensonGood Cop – Dan SloneGood Cop – Dave Sargeant

Themes

Just because there is green language in the plan and code…..

How language gets watered downIt’s not just the code – other factorsWhat to do about it

A quick review on why we are here

How do new urbanism and smart growth support the environment?

Prevents pollution through vertical density and compact design.

Responds to the interlinking aspects of place-making with mutually supportive policy bundles, economic development support and codes.

Orchestrates the public and private elements of place-making to exploit shared amenities and efficient use of land.

Promotes reuse of existing built-upon areas of a city, county or crossroads.

Facilitates tripmaking by multiple modes of transportation.

90 Seconds on what conventional codes and plans give us…

Let’s look at common green elements of plans and codes….

Clustering

Access

Impervious cover limits

Mixed Use

Clustering

Clustering

"Environmentally Sensitive Development" Qualifications: houses that cover 15% or less of the site on at least two acres or clustered housing in subdivisionsSource – Note zoning code, but stormwater permit – grants credits against stormwater requirements.

ACCESS and the end of the cul-de-sac

Planning with Power

Source: www.Sprawlaction.org

Impervious Cover Limits

Simi Valley Town CenterLifestyle center with connection to apartments

Walkway with stairs to the Town Center here

At the bottom of the stairs closest to apartments – Candy store and Abercrombe and Fitch

Planned Development Mixed Use“It is further intended that PDMU development shall be in complexes with carefully located

buildings, parking and service areas, open space and use mixtures which are scaled and balanced to reduce general traffic congestion, by providing interdependent uses and uses which are compatible with adjacent and surrounding land uses.”

CVS

Starbucks

Grocery Store

Understanding Reality – the Policy Environment

Obsession with Zoning

Just put it in codes and developers have to do it

Reinforces the Euclidian focus on individual sites

The Clean Water Act’s slow morph into Land Use Planning

Not altogether a bad thing

“By ordinance or other regulatory mechanism” zoning

Planning outcomes focus on a handful of “reportables” such as runoff, sediment removal, stormwater rate of release.

Maintains CWA emphasis on mitigation – not prevention◦ Power of smart growth & new urbanism lost - both are largely

preventative in nature.

Areas most in need of planning not regulated by CWA◦ Makes the uneven playing field between new development and

compact/redevelopment more uneven.

Understanding the Policy Environment

How to Pay for It

◦ Development-specific

◦ When mandates hit the Nolan/Dolan buzzsaw

Proportional share – cover impacts that are most readily measured

Nexus – easy to favor capacity in proximity to project

◦ Cities/Counties are broke – don’t have the resources to do plans at the important “middle” scales

Single Action Bias – “Why Isn’t the Brain Green?”

◦ Tendency to engage in one single action to remove threat or hazard

◦ Menu of Best Management Practices less of menu, more like “pick one”