Chapter 6: Design with Nature for People: Sustainable, Livable, and Smart Land Use Development

Discussion Questions
Exercises
Links

Summary:
Since 1950 land development patterns in the United States have been dominated by urban flight, suburban consumption of agricultural and natural areas, auto dependency, and growing transportation gridlock from congestion. In the last 10 years, architects and planners have responded with new, more sustainable models of development intended to protect natural areas, relieve auto dependency, and at the same time create more livable neighborhoods and communities. These models are land-conserving, compact, walkable, and often transit oriented; have mixed-income residential and commercial uses; and set aside greenspace for recreation and environmental protection. They also focus on revitalization of existing communities through infill, brownfield, greyfield, and downtown redevelopment to create more livable neighborhoods and town and city centers and relieve development pressure on greenfield working landscapes and natural areas.
These sustainable models have grabbed the attention of government officials, builders, and consumers alike. Government officials call it Smart Growth. Builders and realtors call it green building and development. Designers call it New Urbanism. Consumers call it livable communities.

The movement appears poised to take off. Projects carrying these various labels are increasing exponentially. New Urbanism development projects have grown from a handful five years ago to more than 400 according to the inventory kept by the CNU. People are returning to live in center cities and towns. Studies show a growing market for compact and walkable neighborhoods as many empty nesters and young families are choosing the walkable community and cultural life of cities and towns over the car-dependent private isolation of the suburbs. The key elements of this movement include: regional integration, conservation design of rural and greenfield development, suburban revitalization, village and small-town development, and urban infill and brownfield redevelopment.
Regional integration (think regional): The many new urbanism projects are site specific, but solutions to sprawl require a regional perspective. The region is the scale at which large metropolitan economic, ecological, and social systems operate. Although the task of coordinating many, often competing jurisdictions is a daunting one, it is critical for metropolitan areas to achieve a regional identity and develop a regional growth plan that includes growth centers and protection of environmental and working landscapes. Calthorpe’s experience in the Twin Cities; Utah’s Wasatch Basin; Portland, Oregon; and other areas shows that not only is such a plan possible, but it can be formulated through a participatory planning process.

Neighborhood features (act local): Calthorpe and Fulton see the region as the superstructure of human communities and neighborhoods as the substructure. Neighborhoods are a region’s ground-level social fabric and community identity. The focus on the neighborhood scale is perhaps the greatest contribution of the new design orientation—compactness, walkability, mixed use, open space, natural drainage, community space.
Urban infill and brownfield redevelopment: A key to Smart Growth is taking advantage of development opportunities in existing urban areas through infill and brownfield redevelopment. The EPA estimates that development of an acre of brownfields prevents development of 21 acres of greenfields. In addition, the contamination and aesthetic blight of brownfields and other vacant properties detract from the integrity of communities, preventing other investments. Redevelopment not only heals the sores of the city but also acts to cure other social and economic ailments by spurring medicinal investment in surrounding properties.
Village and small-town development and revitalization: A region’s villages and small towns serve as critical nodes for revitalization and development, building on existing culture and physical infrastructure. Like urban infill, small-town revitalization relieves development pressure on greenfields.

Suburban revitalization: Suburbs can become more livable communities through revitalization projects, such as shopping center greyfield redevelopment, infill with traditional neighborhoods, mixed use, and transit connections.
Rural and greenfield development: Despite existing community revitalization, development of some greenfield areas is necessary. Arendt and others have shown that rural development can occur while protecting working and natural landscapes. This requires cluster housing and permanent protection and management of agricultural, forestry, wetlands, and other sensitive lands.

Chapter 6 Discussion Questions:

1. "New Urbanism" is a label attached to a current movement in land development design that aims to incorporate traditional compact and walkable neighborhood features to create more community oriented developments. Characterize New Urbanism and its variations in your own words and critique it from the perspective of the elements of environmentally and community sensitive design and development given in Table 6.2. Use information in Chapter 6 and related links and references as needed.

2. Chapter 6 reviews the recent environmental land development design work and concepts of Michael Corbett, Peter Calthorpe, Andres Duany, and Randall Arendt among others. List three design concepts from their collective work and briefly describe how these concepts contribute to "environmentally and community sensitive development design."

3. While there are many advocates of the New urbanism movement, there are critics as well. Critique is important for social movements in an effort to make them more responsive to the needs of society. Some of the criticisms of New Urbanism were raised in this chapter but not explored in depth: affordability, rigid design standards that do not foster innovation, location, access to transit and jobs. The critical literature on New Urbanism is growing, often with accompanying debate among critics and advocates. Find three sources of critical assessment of New Urbanism on the Internet and write a one-page review of the critique and response.

Chapter 6 Exercises:

1. Explore the Congress for New Urbanism and New Urbanism News websites (www.cnu.com and www.newurbannews.com) and select three to five examples of New Urbanism developments. Describe the projects in terms of land area, number of units, amount of open space, mixed income housing, mixed use development, walkability, transit orientation, and others indicators of livable communities.

2. Explore websites of Calthorpe Associates; Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Company; and other related design firms and select one project each that exemplifies their work. Compare the projects to the elements of environmentally and sensitive community design given in Table 6.2 and to each other.