It comes from near and far

The city development codes can either be your best friend or your worst nightmare depending on what you want it to do.  Should they direct buildings to be bigger or smaller, to be single or mixed use, to require sufficient parking or make allowances for less parking, to create skinny lots or not, and protect R-10 zones?  Who's goals and agendas are represented?

City codes are written, interpreted, approved, administered and enforced by the Planning Department.  It's pretty much a closed loop with stops at the Planning Commission and City Council along the way.  When help is needed, consultants who write codes for cities all over the Metro are, the state and nationally are hired.  Their viewpoints tend to be standardized because most cities have the same general "vision" of a "vibrant" and "walkable" town center and things that make them "resilient" and "sustainable."  Not to put too fine a point on it, but the planning profession has been listening to a messenger we have heard about and rejected.  How do citizens get the city they want?

How did things get so upside down?  When did public employees start telling the citizens how they should live instead of citizens telling the city how it's going to be?  How did citizens slip to the bottom of the barrel?

Maybe looking at the nation's premier planning association policies, sample codes and current thinking can give a clue where they plan to take us.  Why is another matter.

One last thing - on the APA Home Page, there is an item with a link to a nationwide survey of how Millennials and Boomers want to live.  You might think it would be useful information, but if you check out the fine print at the bottom of the summary, the Boomer cohort was limited to persons age 50-65 with at least 2 years of college.  This sampling is hardly the typical boomer.  The APA uses the Brahman class for its survey on attitudes, and then infers all boomers agree.  Back to school APA.

American Planning Association (APA)

The culmination of a seven-year research project, Growing Smart contains the next generation of model planning and zoning enabling legislation for the United States.

Growing Smart

States and their local governments have practical tools to help combat urban sprawl, protect farmland, promote affordable housing, and encourage redevelopment. They appear in the American Planning Association's Growing Smart Legislative Guidebook: Model Statutes for Planning and the Management of Change, 2002 Edition (Stuart Meck, FAICP, Gen. Ed.). TheGuidebook and its accompanying User Manual are the culmination of APA's seven-year Growing Smart project, an effort to draft the next generation of model planning and zoning legislation for the U.S.

Property Fairness

State Regulatory Takings Ballot Measures

In 2004, voters in Oregon approved a sweeping regulatory takings ballot initiative titled Measure 37. The measure undoes a wide swath of legal and legislative precedent by allowing individual landowners to claim compensation from the local community for any decrease in property value due to planning, environmental or other government safeguards.

As expected, radical property rights organizations have seized on the passage of Measure 37 to promote similar ballot measure in other states, and versions of Measure 37 are being quietly folded into ballot measures ostensibly aimed at eminent domain. Regulatory takings initiatives threaten a wide array of planning, environmental, historic preservation, and land conservation measures.

APA will monitor these proposed initiatives and provide regular updates, as well as resources to protect good planning, fairness, and communities of lasting value in your state.

From APA Fall 2013 conference:

"Policies for Building Stronger and More Resilient Communities"

Keynote Address

What will it take to move from "highways, houses, and hedges" to "trains, towers, and trees"? Explore the possibilities with Vishaan Chakrabarti, AIA, author of A Country of Cities: A Manifesto for an Urban America. His opening keynote will look at the broad policy changes needed to move toward a more prosperous, sustainable, and equitable future. Chakrabarti, a partner at SHoP Architects, directs the Center for Urban Real Estate at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. Earlier, he headed the Manhattan office for the New York Department of City Planning.