Comprehensive New UrbanismFor Comprehensive Plans

Agenda

Session Overview and IntroductionsComprehensive Plans in the Age of New UrbanismForces at Work:

• Making the Invisible Visible: Understanding the Demographic and Economic Forces that Shape Land Use and Development

• What the Public Wants: The Case for VisualizingIn Practice:

• Nashville: Building Support for Form-Based Comprehensive Plans

• Tahachapi: General Plan Update• Glendale: Getting Started: The North Glendale Community

PlanChallenges and Group Discussion

Presenters

Gianni Longo, ACP Visioning+Planning

Abigail Thorne-Lyman, Strategic Economics

Jennifer Carlat, Metro Nashville-Davidson County Planning Department

Antony Perez, Moule & Polizoides

Alan Loomis, City of Glendale

Introductions

Comprehensive Plans in the Age of New Urbanism

A Foretold Course of Events

“The Congress for the New Urbanism views disinvestment in central cities…

A Foretold Course of Events

“the spread of placeless sprawl…

A Foretold Course of Events

“increasing separation by race and income…

A Foretold Course of Events

“environmental deterioration…

A Foretold Course of Events

“loss of agricultural lands and wilderness…

A Foretold Course of Events

“and the erosion of society’s built heritage…

A Foretold Course of Events

“AS ONE INTERRELATED COMMUNITY BUILDING CHALLENGE.”

A Foretold Course of Events

The comprehensive and principled approach offered by New Urbanism to that challenge should have elevated the comprehensive plan as the tool of choice to further the practice of New Urbanism

And it has, but sloooowly

Things I Will Not Talk About

I Will Not Talk About…

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood”

I Will Not Talk About…

“Make no little plans; they have no magic to stir men's blood”

I Will Not Talk About…

The erosion of a vision that is comprehensive and visual…

• Standard Zoning Enabling Act of 1926

• Standard City Planning Enabling Act of 1928

• Model Subdivision Regulations, 1936

• Section 701 program of federal Housing Act of 1954

• Etc.

I Will Not Talk About…

The “Canonical Texts” that have guided our practice…

• T.J. Kent: The Urban General Plan (1964)

• F. Stuart Chapin, Jr.: Urban Land Use Planning

• Etc.

I Will Not Talk About…

The haphazard State Requirements we deal with…• Almost half of the states have 1920s

vintage state laws on local planning• Most state statutes allow local

governments to ignore local planning provisions if they wish

• Land use is the most required Element• Many important plan elements are

omitted and not mandated in many state planning laws

I Will Not Talk About…

APA’s Growing Smart initiative that attempts to remedy the situation and recommends a minimum of mandatory elements:

• Issues and Opportunities• Land-use• Transportation• Community Facilities• Economic Development• Critical and Sensitive Areas / Natural Hazards• Optional Elements (forest/agriculture/scenic

preservation; historic preservation, human services, community design)

The Convergence

New Urbanism Smart Growth

Sustainable Development

The Charter of New Urbanism

Three geographic scales• Region: Metropolis, City, and Town • Neighborhood, District, and Corridor• Street, block, and building

Canons of Sustainable Architecture and Urbanism

Smart Growth and Sustainable Development

A convergence of principles…• Mix Land Uses • Compact Building Design• Housing Opportunities and Choices• Strong Sense of Place • Farmland, Open Space & Environmental

Preservation • Direct Development Towards Existing

Communities • Transportation Choices • Predictable & Fair Development Decisions • Community and Stakeholder Collaboration

Comprehensiveness of Plans

People

Prosperity

Place

Innovations in Comprehensive Planning

Three Major Shifts in the Planning Practice

Evolution from land use designation to form and character

A rigorous approach to analyzing and designing place

Deliberate integratioof land use and transportationn

Evolution From Land Use Designation to Form and Character

Typical Land Use Map

Established that Land Use Is Not the Same as Form and Character

Established that Land Use Is Not the Same as Form and Character

The Focus on Form and Character…

Identifies the uniqueness of a community

Allows for better integration of land use and urban design

Focuses effort on areas of change

Linking Policy to Place

Growth Opportunity Areas: Independence

Charter Homes, DPZ

A Rigorous Approach to Analyzing and Designing Place

Neighborhoods

Districts

Corridors

The Transect

The Transect

A Tool Both Rigorous and Flexible

Policy Framework Implementation

Deliberate Integration of Land Use and Transportation

The Linking of Land Use and Transportation

Large-scale pattern of origins and destinations allowing real transportation alternativesMid-scale pattern of streets and activities allowing walkability, livability, accessibilitySmall-scale patterns manifested through design of street network, site, building and open space design

Source: FTB

Lessons Learned

These innovations… • Move us away from “land use”

designations

• Enable us to deal with form and character

• Provide for a rigorous and principled approach to comprehehnsive planning

• Establish the regulatory geography to set the stage for coding

For More Informationglongo@ACP-planning.com