Featured Articles
Irvine Embraces Infill
Submitted by jstephens on 2 August 2010 - 10:02amJamboree Road might not become the next Park Avenue, but a new vision plan recently completed by the City of Irvine signals a major shift away from the suburban lifestyle of Orange County. One of the early cities to pioneer the strict segregation of office-park style commercial development from master-planned residential areas, Irvine will be allowing thousands of new residential units into its business core in the coming decades.
Vision California: Science or Value Judgment?
Submitted by jstephens on 19 July 2010 - 12:54pmThe Vision California modeling exercise, however meticulous in its calculation methods, still relies on a slate of assumptions that call for some vigilant critiques. Calthorpe & Associates, which devised Vision California based on previous work, have stated elsewhere that the key to the global warming crisis lies in curbing “sprawl,” that pejorative term for low-density suburban development. To the extent that a large lot, single-family home with a multi-car garage represents a choice, it is in Calthorpe’s view neither a preferable nor sustainable one.
One Spreadsheet to Plan Them All
Submitted by jstephens on 18 July 2010 - 9:59pmOf the many raps on urban planning post-World War II, one of the biggest was that it was led by the head and not by the heart. Engineers made precise calculations that yielded efficient highways but not much by way of soul. Though that trend has largely been abandoned, the release of a new, ambitious study may usher in a new approach to empirically based planning.
MPOs, ARB Hone In On SB 375 Emissions Targets
Submitted by jstephens on 10 July 2010 - 7:44amAs national debates about climate change have raged and federal action has grown ever more unlikely in the shadow of -- take your pick -- economic woes, mid-term election jitters, and the blackening of the Gulf of Mexico, the State of California last week edged closer to implementing its own land use based program to curtail climate change. Per a June 30 deadline stipulated in Senate Bill 375, the staff of the California Air Resources Board (ARB) released its draft regional targets for carbon emissions reductions.
The targets are based on what participants have said is an extraordinarily sophisticated scenario planning and modeling.
Cities Consider How to Plan for Legalized Marijuana
Submitted by jstephens on 28 June 2010 - 12:25pmTo this day, the State of Kentucky forbids the sale of alcohol on election days. This momentary dry spell – which hearkens back to frontier times – is meant to encourage sober voting and discourage bribery via alcohol, turns a legal substance into something illegal for the public good.
On Election Day in California this November, quite the opposite might happen.
Supreme Court Redefines 'Taking'
Submitted by jstephens on 24 June 2010 - 2:47pmJudged by the result, the Supreme Court's June 17 decision in Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection looks like a model of judicial restraint. The court unanimously rejected a claim by landowners on Florida’s northern Gulf Coast that they had suffered an unconstitutional taking of property after beach restoration by local governments turned their oceanfront homes into ocean-view lots separated from the water by 75 feet of new sand.
Loss of Redevelopments Funds Hinders SB 375
Submitted by jstephens on 19 June 2010 - 9:22amRedevelopment agencies in California are often asked to carry a heavy load: fighting blight, promoting economic development, transforming brownfields, and creating communities. Now add to that list the modest task of combating global climate change – at the very moment when they have fewer funds than they have had in decades.
Senate Bill 375 seeks to reduce California’s greenhouse gas emissions through the coordination of land use and transportation planning. But the state’s most recent $2 billion raid on redevelopment funds is merely the latest shift of funds away from redevelopment agencies, many of which were already coping with lean budgets.
Transit Woes Threaten to Undercut Regional Sustainability Plans
Submitted by jstephens on 7 June 2010 - 3:38pmTo supporters, the wisdom of Senate Bill 375, the 2008 law that promotes emissions reductions through coordination of transportation and land use, lies in its holistic approach to planning and its kitting together of disparate elements of the urban fabric. But, in light of budget crises at all level of government, one piece that is essential to SB 375’s success is rapidly coming off the rails: money to run buses and trains
Planning Departments Struggle To Cope With Budget Cuts
Submitted by jstephens on 30 April 2010 - 8:55pmThough the economic prosperity and real estate boom of the past decade may seem like a distant memory, it wasn’t more than two or three years ago that planning departments around the state were buried in paperwork. From sprawling subdivisions to loft renovations, developers sent them all the work they could handle. Some planning agencies even complained that attention to case processing prevented them from actually planning.
Today, planning departments are as overburdened as ever, but for completely different reasons.
AB 32 Backlash Clouds Future of Smart Growth
Submitted by jstephens on 19 April 2010 - 8:32pmNot long ago, when California's economy was booming and concerns about rising seas were mounting, California tapped into its environmentalist traditions to pass popular laws that promised to lead the nation in greenhouse gas mitigation. While there are no sure signs that the global climate has cooled, the same cannot be said for the state's support of anti-climate change legislation.