Community Matters Placemaking Conf Call Notes 2.10.11

8/7/2019 Community Matters Placemaking Conf Call Notes 2.10.11

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www.communitymatters.org Placemaking Conference Call Notes 2/10/11

PlacemakingConference Call Notes

Thursday, February 10, 2011, 4-5pm EST

We used a live version of this document to collaboratively add questions, collect thoughts, and transcribe important talking points, before, during and after the Placemaking conference call. You can access this document via this link: http://bit.ly/gtjNLK

Moderating Bonnie Shaw , Partner, BYO Consulting, LLC

Speaking Ethan Kent , Vice President, Project for Public Spaces http://www.pps.org Paul Dreher , Planning and Zoning Director, City of Newport, VT

http://www.kevaco.com/NEWPORTVERMONT/

Agenda 15mins Introduction to Placemaking 35mins Open for questions/discussion 10mins What actions can you take?

Call Introductions

Ethan Kent: Placemaking = the Community is the expert When you focus on place, you do everything differently It requires broader set of skills than any one person can hold The urban disciplines are becoming Facilitators It takes a community to create a place and a place to create a community 5 trends in PPS Placemaking:

a. Transportation - biggest limiting factor is how a community relate to itstransport infrastructure

b. Local Economies - healthy food hubs, a combination of public markets,farmers markets, etc

c. Architecture of Place - The role of architecture is to create greatdestinations, not just create beautiful objects - focus on civic buildings,libraries, community anchors

d. Multi-Use Destinations - places set up for public purposes first andforemost

e. Lighter Quicker Cheaper - shorter low cost projects, test ideas thatcan be made permanent later - how can we help communities buildthemselves


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o Form based codes were designed specifically to tackle the challenges of the suburbs

o The suburbs are outreaching to us! How do we get that crossroads feelingagain?

o Sprawl repair

What should ideally come first--programming/policy or design? (Andrew Deci)

Are placemaking initiatives more likely to succeed if they aregrassroots generated or initiated by planningstaff/governments/decision makers? (Andrew Deci)

Please also further explain form-based codes What is form basedcode and why is it important?

o A form-based code (FBC) is a means of regulating development toachieve a specific urban form. Form-based codes create a predictablepublic realm by controlling physical form primarily, with a lesser focus on

land use, through city or county regulations.o See Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form-based_codeo See Form-Based Codes Institute: http://www.formbasedcodes.org/

Should form based codes and place making always go hand-in-hand?In other words, does a form-based code ensure one is creating greatplaces or do we need more?

Is placemaking a tool to build social capital, or is it a product of acommunity with healthy social capital? Or both? Do we need to focuson building social capital through programming first, and then deal

with design and places? (Andrew Deci)o Social Capital: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_capital andhttp://www.bowlingalone.com/ o PPS uses the term place capital - the idea that investing in place may be

a way to build social capitalo In Newport, creating a new code was most important as a way to build

capacity, community strength, identity and involvement.

How does new technologies integrate into Placemaking? How are youcollecting data or engaging in open data? How can this informPlacemaking?

o Digital Placemaking - crowd sourcing placemaking efforts, sharing withan international audience.

o Bristol Rising uses a Ning site to connect people online -http://bristolrising.com/

o Keypad polling - http://www.planitex.org/tool/keypad-pollingo Google Sketchup - http://sketchup.google.com/ o Survey Monkey - http://www.surveymonkey.com/ great, easy way

(reasonably priced!) to deploy a survey to an entire community andreceive the data in an easy way to digest and share

o Use Google maps as an open tool to let people identify and share placesthat they like - http://maps.google.com


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o Collect data through online surveys or forums and conduct forums that best serve the issues in the community

What tools can PPS bring to a town and how do we get you to assistour town? Is it a day long process or multi-day process to evaluate andassist a town? costs?

o And what is your process for partnering with different orgs/entities?

Resources (Reading, weblinks, great examples of Placemaking projects) CommunityMatters on Placemaking:

http://communitymatters.posterous.com/vibrant-places-happening-spaces-join-a-confer

Check out Placemaking 101 Articles, Resources and Tools at www.pps.org Ethan mentioned: The Power of 10 and the Origin of the Power of 10 An article by PPSs Gary Toth How Can Transportation Support Rural Livability ? We are just beginning a process in the North Fork Valley in Western Colorado.

We have an incredible sense of place and are needing to build out from that

platform. Listening to the FBC info, it sounds like what we are doing.o I helped write and now review variances for the form based code in

Colorado Springs. If you like, you can contact me with any [email protected].

Actions You Can Take (how can you get involved in Placemaking in yourcommunity?):

How can you think differently? o what are your favorite 10 places?

How can you start small and scale? o http://my.parkingday.org/

How can you get people engaged in the conversation? o Build life long placemakers! Find the youngest people we can! o Look into janeswalk.net - great event to get people talking about their

communities (design, planning, art, personal stories, etc) - can be startedanywhere

Documents

Community Matters Placemaking Conf Call Notes 2.10.11