Category Archives: New Urbanism

New Urbanism, Peak Oil

Another reason for good urban design: Peak Oil

35 Comments

Here’s a thought-provoking documentary from 2004 called “The End of Suburbia.” It’s basically about how much energy suburban lifestyles consume, and how that lifestyle will be threatened by peak oil. In light of the challenges peak oil presents, a return to good urban design (traditional town planning, New Urbanism, whatever you want to call it) will be a way that we can consume less energy.

Here’s the thing: I don’t see why we should have to wait for some apocalyptic scenario to scare us or force us into efficient use of our natural resources. We should be doing that anyway as good stewards of the earth. But I guess I’m being a bit too idealistic.

This video is about 52 minutes long:

City of Peoria, Form-Based Code, Heart of Peoria Plan, HOPC, New Urbanism

LDC misunderstood by developers

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Attorney Bob Hall thinks the Land Development Code “certainly has a lot of bugs,” according to today’s Journal Star. But it doesn’t really. It just has a lot of things he or the developer he represents either doesn’t like or doesn’t understand, which is typical regardless of what zoning regulations are in place.

Still, some comments made by Mr. Hall deserve a response.

Hall said the reason [council deferred approving a variance for 741 W. Main] was because other requirements within the code were preventing the redevelopment from occurring.

One of those requirements focuses on the size of awnings required along Main Street. Hall said the zoning requirements maintain that an awning six-feet horizontally would have to go up.

“It would probably stretch out into Main Street,” he said.

Not quite. I went out today and measured. From the front of the building to the curb, it’s seven feet. A six-foot awning would do exactly what it’s supposed to do — cover the sidewalk to within a foot of the street. Awnings have a purpose, and it’s not to be merely decorative. They provide shade and shelter for pedestrians and patrons, as well as additional signage for the business. They’re also not required; the code simply says when you have them, they have to be a certain size. In any event, there’s nothing about the awning requirement that should be “preventing the redevelopment from occurring,” other than the developer just not liking it.

Also, Hall said there is no requirement for a street wall or any decorative fencing at newer developments at nearby properties, such as the Peoria NEXT Innovation Center.

“Newer” developments to be sure, but approved before approval of the Land Development Code took effect. Had the LDC been in place when those projects were approved, they would have had to follow the same guidelines.

But [Hall] said he has other clients wanting to redevelop in the city’s older neighborhoods and that the code’s detailed specifics are causing problems. For instance, Hall said Knoxville Avenue – where one of the developments is to occur – “should not have been included” as part of the land development code, which highlights the principles of New Urbanism to make older neighborhoods more pedestrian friendly.

“Knoxville is a thoroughfare,” Hall said. “New Urbanism is for neighborhood stuff.”

These statements illustrate the need for education, something the Heart of Peoria Commission was working on when it was unceremoniously disbanded. New Urbanism is not just about making older parts of town more walkable, nor is it restricted only to neighborhoods. The principles of New Urbanism were only applied to the older parts of Peoria because those were the bounds set by the city council for the Heart of Peoria Plan project. New Urbanism is a comprehensive philosophy of town planning that covers private and public space, commercial and residential areas, streets and thoroughfares. In fact, all these things have to work in concert with each other to create great places; it’s the dis-integration of these things that has caused many of our urban (and suburban) problems.

The Land Development Code is going to get challenges like this until developers understand the purpose behind it, adapt to it, and hopefully embrace it. It’s incumbent upon the Planning and Growth Department to provide this education and to defend the code — within reason, of course.

And here, I should mention that I’m not saying the code cannot ever be questioned. But challenges to the code must be made in context with the intent of the code. The street wall requirement, for example, was worth taking under consideration. There was some disagreement over where that requirement in the code came from — Ferrell-Madden claimed it was the architectural review committee that insisted on it, but one of the members of that committee claims it was Ferrell-Madden’s decision to include it. Ultimately, the ad hoc group that is reviewing the form-based code portion of the LDC, with input from Ferrell-Madden, decided to modify this provision, but only because such revisions could be done while still fulfilling the code’s intent.

2008 Campaign, New Urbanism

A new urban look at McCain and Obama

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The Congress for the New Urbanism has published a summary of the presidential candidates’ stances on issues regarding new urbanism and sustainability. They looked at the candidates’ websites, voting records, news sites, and position papers to come up with as much information as they could gather. So far, Obama is the only candidate that has really addressed those issues at all, other than the issue of climate change, on which McCain has weighed in.

The biggest difference between the two candidates in this area, based on available information, is regarding Amtrak funding. McCain wants to cut all funding for Amtrak. Obama, in contrast, was a cosponsor of the Passenger Rail Investment and Innovation Act of 2007 which continues support for Amtrak. He also supports the development of high-speed freight and passenger rail.

City of Peoria, Heart of Peoria Plan, New Urbanism

The new LDC: Do whatever the heck you want

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I’m not quite sure why we even have a Land Development Code or a Form Based Code. We spent a lot of time meeting with citizens and stakeholders to come up with the vision of what we want to see. We spent a lot of money codifying that vision. But all of that work was for naught if we’re not going to enforce it.

Once again, someone has blatantly violated the Land Development Code (this time in the Sheridan Triangle Form District). And once again, the city has rolled over and played dead.

The new owner of the old Dairy Queen at Sheridan and Loucks put vinyl siding on his building, even though the Form Based Code for that area explicitly disallows vinyl siding. Then, after the fact, he asked for an administrative deviation from the Planning and Growth department. He got it, natch.

Message received by the development community: “Ignore the code. Do whatever the heck you want. Yeah, it would be best if you asked beforehand so we can rubber-stamp your variance in advance. But if that’s too much trouble, hey, just do whatever and ask for forgiveness later. We’re flexible.”

2008 Campaign, New Urbanism

Callahan offers up zero-sum price “relief”

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Congressional candidate Colleen Callahan is proposing a cut in the gas tax to be replaced with heavier taxes on oil companies. The oil companies will pass those increased costs onto consumers, resulting in little to no net difference in the price at the pump.

The solution is not cutting gas taxes or taxing oil companies more — the solution is to reduce demand. One way is to come up with alternative fuel sources. But there’s another, more basic problem, and Callahan inadvertently expressed it when she said:

“In central Illinois, we need our cars and trucks to get to our jobs, take our children to school or our families to the doctor. The automobile is not a luxury for us, it’s a necessity.”

This is sadly the case. Because of the way the city has sprawled and the lack of accommodation for other forms of transportation (pedestrian, bicyclist, public transit), traveling by car is indeed a necessity in Peoria. If you want to save gas money by walking or biking to work, or taking the bus, it’s largely impractical if not impossible, especially the further north you go. In many places, it’s downright dangerous.

Until we do something about that, all the token gas-tax reduction and oil company tax threats in the world aren’t going to improve our situation.

City of Peoria, New Urbanism

How the other Peoria does things

10 Comments

Peoria Arizona LogoIn Peoria, Arizona, it appears they have a new Wal-Mart opening in their town (two of them, actually), but it won’t look anything like the ones here:

The façade of the Oldtown Wal-Mart at Peoria and 79th avenues will make it appear as if it is broken into small shops, said James Mason, assistant to the city manager.

With such features as upper-story windows with awnings and shutters, changes in elevation and materials, the store will give the impression of a variety of stores that developed over time.

“It has that . . . old Main Street kind of look, even though it’s a large, big-box store,” said Mason. “That’s one of the best things you can do with a large, contiguous space. It breaks it up, it makes it more pedestrian-friendly, it makes it more pleasant to look at.”

I hate Wal-Mart, but I quote this article to make a couple points: First, even big box stores (and there’s no bigger box than Wal-Mart) can adapt their cookie-cutter templates to conform to a community’s design standards, in this case making their store façades attractive and consistent with existing architecture.

And second, this didn’t happen by accident. Although the newspaper article made it sound like it was Wal-Mart’s idea, in fact Wal-Mart was simply complying with Peoria, Arizona’s Non-Residential Design Manual. Some of the requirements of that manual can be seen here in this excerpt from their Planning and Zoning Commission’s minutes regarding another Wal-Mart that is being built on the north side of town:

Section 20-70-4 of the Non-Residential Design Review Manual requires rooflines to be varied in height, form, and materials. Building mass is to be broken into small components through the use of recesses and projections, wall plane off-sets and changes in texture and color. The elevation plans for the Wal-Mart structure demonstrate conformance with Design Guidelines. The elevation plans provide ample horizontal and vertical articulation to break up the mass of the buildings. The buildings also incorporate a diverse color and material palette. Decorative cornices along the roof parapet, fenestration and wainscoting have been included in the design. Upon completion of this building and supporting landscaping, the development will provide a significant aesthetic enhancement to the existing commercial node at the intersection of Thunderbird and 75th Avenue.

See, if Peoria, Arizona, can dictate to Wal-Mart what form their big box store should take, surely Peoria, Illinois, can do the same for big and small developments within the Heart of Peoria Plan area… such as on the old Sears block… or along Knoxville between Downtown and McClure. All it takes is a little willpower.

Amtrak, City of Peoria, General News, New Urbanism, Ray LaHood

Morning briefing

15 Comments

I’m too busy to do a lot of blogging today, but here are a few comments on the news of the day:

  • West Main Street needs to be narrowed from five lanes to three, the on-street parking restored, and sidewalks widened. That’s the only way to slow traffic on the street. The 30 mph speed limit is a joke — the street is built for speed and people are going to go the speed the road is designed to accommodate. There’s a meeting planned to discuss this issue on Tuesday, May 29, at 6:00 somewhere at Bradley University (exact location TBD).
  • I see the Journal Star caught up with WCBU today by reporting how Ray LaHood has been throwing cold water on the Peoria Amtrak plan. LaHood’s comments are devoid of logic. He thinks no one will take a train to Chicago from Peoria unless it can get there quicker than driving, but on the other hand he thinks people will take a bus to Normal or Galesburg and take a train to Chicago from one of those stations. Who’s whispering in LaHood’s ear to try to sabotage this effort? Auto makers? Oil companies?
  • Now that’s what I call a “happy meal.”
  • Whenever I try to go to WMBD radio’s website, it crashes my Firefox browser. However, it works in Internet Explorer. It’s really annoying.

Feel free to discuss anything else you want. This is an open thread.

City Council, City of Peoria, Form-Based Code, Heart of Peoria Plan, New Urbanism

New era begins in Heart of Peoria

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On June 15, four areas of Peoria will be the first to benefit from a new kind of zoning (some might even call it an alternative to zoning): form-based codes. The City Council last night unanimously adopted ordinances that put the new coding into place for the four form districts which are the West Main corridor, Warehouse District, Sheridan/Loucks Triangle, and Prospect Road corridor.

Form-based codes differ from our current zoning (aka “Euclidean zoning) in some significant ways. Whereas Euclidean zoning is primarily concerned about land use and only marginally concerned about design or form, form-based codes are just the opposite. Form-based codes stress limits for height, siting, and building elements, and have only a few limits on uses.

If you want to build a new building along Main street, right now you have to follow the same zoning regulations as if you were building out in a cornfield on the north side of town — setbacks from the street, surface parking requirements, etc. Just take a look at Jimmy John’s on West Main and you’ll get the idea. That’s what infill looks like under suburban zoning code.

Under the form-based codes, infill development will instead be consistent with the current built environment. For instance, on West Main street, any new buildings will have to be built up to the sidewalk and utilize nearby shared parking with other businesses or provide private parking in the rear of the building. Whereas Euclidean zoning separates land uses into residential, commercial, office, etc., form-based codes allow these uses to be mixed, thus making it possible for someone to build an apartment over their store, or to have office space above a retail business.

The council also voted to bring off the table the rest of the Land Development Code (which would apply to the Heart of Peoria Plan area outside of the four form districts) with the Heart of Peoria Commission’s recommendation for the Knoxville corridor, and a recommendation that there be a four-month transitional period following its enactment. This could come before the council as early as next month for adoption.

The transitional period would be a four-month time frame during which projects could still be approved under the old zoning ordinance if the developer can prove that he was relying on those ordinances when making plans, acquiring property, etc. That’s a reasonable request. The council often makes zoning and especially fee changes without any kind of consideration for what that would do to pending projects, so this is really a step forward.

New Urbanism

New Urbanism in 10 minutes a day, Pt. 9

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Part 9 of Andres Duany’s lecture on new urbanism is the final video in this series and it covers: “Back to the 11-hour workday: Spending our lives in our cars; Gold-plated highways at the expense of our civic and public buildings; Vertical vs. horizontal infrastructure; Affordable housing cont’d, by allowing families ‘one car less’ they can afford $50k more house! Conclusion; Year 2010 and 2015 projections.”