Sustainable Communities Volume 1, Issue 1

Sustainable Communities Volume 1, Issue 1 • www.p4sc.org

IN THIS ISSUE

Cities Discover Economic Benefits of Sustainable Development

Multi-Use Development: The Secret to Higher Sales Taxes . . . . . p. x Money for Transportation, Land Use Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. x Why Cities Are Adopting Form-Based Codes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p. x

Sustainable Communities Volume 1, Issue 1 www.p4sc.org

Sustainable Communities Magazine President Andre Shashaty andre@p4sc.org Managing Editor Deirdre Greene dg@p4sc.org Office & Member Services Manager Carol Yee carol@p4sc.org Board of Directors Rev. Betty Pagett, Community Acceptance Strategist Todd Sears, Vice President of Finance, Herman & Kittle Properties Patrick Sheridan, Senior Vice President for Housing Development, Volunteers of America Dianne Spaulding, Executive Director, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California Leadership Advisory Board Richard Baron, Chairman and CEO, McCormack Baron Salazar Doug Bibby, President, National Multi Housing Council Henry Cisneros, Executive Chairman, CityView; former secretary, U.S. Dept of Housing and Urban Development

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR

Welcome to the world of Sustainable Communities

W

hen I founded the Partnership for Sustainable Communities (PSC) in 2009, I was acting on my own personal belief that it was time to start reversing the suburban sprawl that unfolded before my eyes in the 60s, 70s, and 80s.

I was born in Youngstown, Ohio, a once-thriving steel city. I watched as the city center shriveled into a high-rise ghost town while the suburbs lost whatever charm they once had in a sea of asphalt and a traffic-choked maze of strip centers, malls and big box retail.

In the brief time since PSC opened for business, I’ve realized that millions of people shared my desire to see healthier, less car-dependent communities.

As I dug deeper, I saw that sustainable community planning and development is not only a nationwide trend but a worldwide movement.

The breadth of change in American cities is impressive. But the international viewpoint is even more eye-opening, as I learned at the World Expo in Shanghai, China, which was all about creating better cities, and in so doing, better lives. Cities all over the world are pressing ahead to become more sustainable, and make their buildings not just green but “zero carbon.”

Policies and practices in land use planning, real estate development, construction, building management and transportation are changing so rapidly, it’s hard to keep up.

William C. Kelly, Jr., President, Stewards of Affordable Housing for the Future (SAHF)

That’s why I want to invite you to read this free sample issue of Sustainable Communities magazine, the official journal of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities. It’s just one part of our information and advocacy work to help people like you achieve the promise of this exciting new way of thinking about the future of our communities.

Kerry Mazzoni, public policy consultant, former state legislator and former California Secretary of Education

For the very latest information and more in-depth coverage, visit our website at www.p4sc.org.

F. Barton Harvey, Former chairman and CEO, Enterprise Community Partners

Nicolas P. Retsinas, Director, Joint Center for Housing Studies, Harvard University Caleb Roope, President/CEO, The Pacific Companies Sustainable Communities Magazine is published

by Partnership for Sustainable Communities a non-profit organization

PSC is a national nonprofit organization that helps city officials, politicians, civic leaders, and real estate professionals work together to create communities that are more environmentally, economically and socially sustainable.

PSC has a particular focus on the provision of affordable housing near jobs and transportation and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions through changes in land use practices.

It also has a strong interest in best practices around infill and transit-oriented development, preservation of existing housing, revitalization of declining cities, and “densification” of suburbs.

To become a member or to make a tax-deductible contribution, contact

Memberships are available for $79 per year. Please check out this abbreviated sample issue of our magazine and our web site, and if you share our vision, please join us.

900 Fifth Ave Suite 201 San Rafael, CA 94901 415 453 2100 ext 303 www.P4SC.org PREMIER ISSUE • SUSTAINABLE COMMUNITIES

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U.S. promotes sustainability, When President Barack Obama took office, no agency in the federal government needed a new direction more than the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Nearly two years later, the housing agency is leading the way in the new era of holistic urban planning and sustainable real estate development.

▲

Salt Lake City will be at the center of continued expansion of transit-oriented land use planning under a $5 million grant Salt Lake County received under HUD’s new Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program.

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HUD

Secretary Shaun Donovan has been working hard since taking office to make sure that “federal dollars stop encouraging sprawl and start lowering the barriers to the kind of sustainable development our country needs and our communities want.” He has committed HUD to creating what he calls “the geography of opportunity” for people of all types and at all income levels.

Donovan has launched a new era of active cooperation on policy and funding programs between HUD and the federal agencies in charge of transportation and environmental protection. His department is also helping cities and regions develop and implement inter-jurisdictional sustainable land use and transportation plans using one of the only pots of new domestic funding in the entire government. The $140 million in grants is being administered by HUD’s Office of Sustainable Housing and Communities. [See the following interview with Shelley Poticha, the head of that office.]

In a speech to the Congress for the New Urbanism in May 2010, Donovan said he was determined to bring a holistic and interjurisdictional view of community development into the mainstream.

Donovan explained the need for this fundamentally new

‘geography of opportunity’

Donovan explained the problem as follows:

AP PHOTO BY HARRY HAMBURG

approach in the context of home mortgage foreclosure patterns. He said they showed that “hidden costs like transportation can put families over the edge into increased financial vulnerability,” and that the highest foreclosure rates were often in the places with the least access to transportation.

During the housing boom, real estate agents suggested to families that couldn’t afford to live near job centers that they could find a more affordable home by living farther away. Lenders bought into the “Drive to Qualify” myth as well—giving easy credit to homebuyers without accounting for how much it might cost families to live in these areas or the risk they could pose to the market.

And when these families moved in, they found themselves driving dozens of miles to work, to school, to the

▲ HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan

movies, to the grocery store, spending hours in traffic and spending nearly as much to fill their gas tank as they were to pay their mortgage—and in some places, more.

Donovan admitted that past federal intervention in

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community planning was not always successful. He said he wanted to reassert the federal government’s role in helping cities but without “returning to the one-size-fits-all approach we saw during urban renewal. Rather, we must use new tools that help us partner with local governments in ways that recognize the variations of communities—and neighborhoods within those communities.”

MAINSTREAMING SUSTAINABILITY Donovan said HUD is trying to integrate principles of sustainable planning and development into decision-making for all its funding programs. He said that for all HUD notices of funding availability this year, HUD has established criteria that will incentivize grantees to think about how they can incorporate green building and features into their plans.

HUD has also decided to try to make up for the federal government’s role in encouraging sprawl—”whether it’s building the beltways and highways in the second half of the 20th century that connected employment centers outside city limits or, more recently, a housing finance system that perpetuated the ‘drive to qualify’ myth.” ▲

St. Paul, Minn., was among the cities that received an award in the very first round of grants made under HUD’s new Sustainable Communities Planning Grant Program.

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He said more and more people are “voting with their feet—in search of walkable neighborhoods with transportation options,” and cited the threat of global warming to explain why HUD will be using location-efficiency to score grant applications.

According to Donovan, HUD will use the LEED-ND green neighborhood rating system CNU developed in partnership with the National Resources Defense Council and Green Building Council, to make sure “federal dollars stopped encouraging sprawl and started lowering the barriers to the kind of sustainable development our country needs and our communities want.”

Donovan evoked the idea of “equitable, inclusive neighborhoods, with opportunities for people of all ages, incomes, races and ethnicities.” He said that “diverse, inclusive communities offer the most educational, economic, and employment opportunities to their residents.”

He tied the movement toward sustainable, inclusive development directly to the struggle for racial equality, saying “We don’t accept a worse set of health outcomes for one population—and another for everyone else. So, why should we when it comes to housing and community development— with all that we know about how central it is to creating a geography of opportunity?”❧

PSC LEADERSHIP FORUM:

HUD’s Poticha Takes the Lead on Sustainability SHELLEY R. POTICHA IS DIRECTOR OF THE OFFICE OF SUSTAINABLE HOUSING AND COMMUNITIES AT HUD. The office is presiding over $100 million in new Sustainability Planning Grants intended to encourage metropolitan and rural regions to plan for the integration of economic development, land use, and transportation investments.

The office is also awarding $40 million in Challenge Grants to fund land-use related planning activities that are linked to a future transportation investment—modernizing building codes, zoning laws, and other barriers to sustainable development.

Poticha previously served as president and CEO of Reconnecting America, where she became a national leader for the reform of land use and transportation planning and policy with the goal of creating more sustainable and equitable development. Prior to joining Reconnecting America, Poticha was the executive director of the Congress for the New Urbanism.

Andre F. Shashaty, president of the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, spoke with her recently. Here are highlights of their conversation: Shashaty: What are you able to tell me about the competition for HUD’s $140 million in Sustainable Communities Planning grants and challenge grants?

Poticha: We had a lot of interest all over the country and expressions of interest from every state. The application due date was August 23, and we got a really great crop of proposals. Grant awards were announced after this interview; see related story in this issue.

Do you have any thoughts on what cities are ahead of the curve?

The thing that is just amazing to me, in a very gratifying way, is that we are seeing an interest in the program from the biggest metro areas in the country. We are also seeing [interest] from mid-size cities. A lot of interest from communities that have been hit by the economic issues in the country.

I noticed that you have an article posted on your website by Angela Glover-Blackwell. Do you agree with

PHOTO BY DENNIS WHITEHEAD

her that bad planning and sprawl are “a hidden cause of our economic woes”? She implies that better planning and compact development, transit-oriented development, and green building can help solve our economic problems. How do you see it?

We are finding a tremendous alignment between the issues that sustainable communities are looking at and the mission that HUD is now engaged in: to be a key player in rebuilding the economy.

We have, for lots of reasons, disconnected our thinking about where people live and where they work and what kinds of options people have about getting around in their communities. The regions that are showing the highest rates of foreclosures are also the regions that we call the “drive till you qualify suburbs”— the places where, if you just keep going out farther, the houses will be less expensive.

And one of our concerns is that when people are in one of those places and they have to do every trip by car and commute a long way, they rack up expenses. Some of these [expenses] are hidden and you don’t really think about them as part of your calculus when you are going to buy a house.

One of the things that we are investigating right now is the connection between the cost of transportation based on where households are located and the viability of different communities in terms of affordability. There are ways in which we could reduce that burden for working families.

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much does it concern you that public transit >> projectsHowseems to be so troubled these days and are raising their fares and cutting service?

There are a couple ways to look at this. The first is that the demand for public transportation options is probably the highest it has been in the last 50 years. The American Public Transportation Association has been documenting this. [Demand] just [keeps] going up, and simultaneously the number of local ballot measures to self-fund public transportation projects is also at an all time high. Parts of the country are doing it on their own: Salt Lake City, Houston, Dallas, to some extent Denver. They are all working out agreements with private-sector partners to invest in public transportation projects.

The issue of a lack of funding for operating transit systems is a huge problem. But I don’t think this initiative around sustainable communities is tied to the fate of public transportation. A lot of the places that we are going to be working with don’t have a lot of public transportation. So, for those places, creating opportunities for people to safely walk, bike, be able to take shorter driving trips, or park in one place and take care of a whole bunch of errands is key.

When you look at how people move around in this country, 80% of trips are local trips to shopping, to school, to the park—those kinds of trips are not commuting trips.

How do you deal with the fact that Americans tend to love their cars, they love highways, and they are okay with government spending on highways—and at the same time, they hate density—any kind of density, low-income density, high-income density. Does that make it harder to encourage less dependence on cars?

The federal government is not here to tell somebody to do something that they don’t want to do. This is a program that is about supporting communities that already want to do this kind of work. This is not imposing rules on anybody to live and invest in a way that they don’t want to do. Public support has to be there for any of this work to move forward.

The wake-up call is that we received thousands of letters from every possible place in the country expressing support for this program when we sent out our advance notice for public comment on the planning grant program. There’s a big group of communities out there that understand the economic imperative and see that there’s a shift in demand. Not everyone is going to want to get out of their car, but there is a sizable group that’s ready for some options.

What is your thought about implementation on

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PHOTO BY DENNIS WHITEHEAD

California’s Senate Bill 375, and does that factor into what you are doing in any way? Certainly, your California applicants are going to dovetail what they applied for with their California obligations under SB 375, but what are your thoughts about SB 375?

Well, this is not an official opinion…this is my personal opinion. I think that it is ground breaking that the state of California has ambitious goals (for GHG reductions through changes in land use). I think it’s probably one of the first in the nation to acknowledge specifically that our pattern of development has a connection to climate. Also, that it is not just pollution from cement plants and factories that causes our global warming challenges, but transportation emissions. We are not going to be able to get a grip on our contribution to climate change without looking at the pattern of development in our communities and promoting the ability for people to not have to drive for every single trip.

The fact that the state is recognizing that it is going to need a bundle of tools in order to combat global warming is really important.

Do you want to say anything about the extent to which you think that other states will come to see the wisdom of California’s path?

I really think that what communities and states are struggling with is the economy. They are looking at every possible way in which they can rebound. The places with diverse economies, the places that responded to the real estate market, to demographic changes, and market preference changes, have weathered the economic cycle (this latest one) better than others.

I really think that that’s the key to getting the community and states engaged. There are also, along the way, a whole bunch of other benefits, including climate benefits. ❧

FEDERAL GRANTS:

Money flows for integrated planning of development, transportation WASHINGTON – After a very long retreat from supporting regional and local urban planning, the federal government got back into the game to the tune of $168 million this fall. But this time, the feds are not dictating what cities must do or how they do it, and they are not neglecting rural areas either.

Forty-five regional planning agencies were chosen to receive close to $100 million under the first round of new Sustainable Communities Planning Grant awards from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD).

Meanwhile, a groundbreaking collaboration between HUD and the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) has awarded $68 million in “challenge grants” for 62 local and regional partnerships seeking to create a more holistic and integrated approach to connecting affordable housing, job opportunities and transportation corridors.

The funding included $40 million in new Sustainable Community Challenge Grants to help support local planning designed to integrate affordable housing, good jobs and public transportation. Meanwhile DOT awarded nearly $28 million in TIGER (Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery) II Planning Grants to implement localized plans for projects that integrate transportation, housing and economic development.

The $98 million in Sustainable Communities planning grants will support state, local, and tribal governments, as well as metropolitan planning organizations, in the develop-

ment and execution of regional plans that integrate affordable housing with neighboring retail and business development, according to HUD. The funding will help regions devise new plans for economic competitiveness by connecting housing with good jobs, quality schools and transportation, HUD said.

“Regions that embrace sustainable communities will have a built-in competitive edge in attracting jobs and private investment,” said Shaun Donovan, HUD secretary.

“In awarding these grants we were committed to using insight and innovation from our stakeholders and local partners to develop a ‘bottom-up’ approach to changing federal policy as opposed to ‘top-down.’ Rather than sticking to the old Washington playbook of dictating how communities can invest their grants, HUD’s application process encouraged creative, locally focused thinking,” Donovan stated.

HUD’s Sustainable Communities Challenge Grants will be used in conjunction with transportation projects to increase the efficiency of local transportation while encouraging mixed-use or transit-oriented development. Such efforts may include amending or updating local master plans, zoning codes, and building codes to support private sector investment in mixed-use development, affordable housing and the re-use of older buildings. Other local efforts may include ret-

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For more details on grant awards, go to www.p4sc

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NEW ERA FOR DOT: main streets to provide safer routes for children >> rofitting and seniors, or preserving affordable housing and local

Federal Transportation

businesses near new transit stations.

TIGER II Planning Grants will prepare or design surface transportation projects that would be eligible for funding under the TIGER II Discretionary Grant program. These projects include highways, bridges, transit, railways, ports or bicycle and pedestrian facilities.

Rather than require applicants to navigate two separate grant application procedures that might be on different timelines and with different requirements, HUD and DOT joined their two new discretionary planning programs to create one point of entry to federal resources for local, innovative sustainable community planning projects.

Meanwhile, DOT also awarded TIGER II grants for 42 capital construction projects. “These are innovative, 21st century projects that will change the U.S. transportation landscape by strengthening the economy and creating jobs, reducing gridlock and providing safe, affordable and environmentally sustainable transportation choices,” said Secretary Ray LaHood.

Roughly 29% of TIGER II money goes for road projects, 26% for transit, 20% for rail projects, 16% for ports, 4% for bicycle and pedestrian projects, and 5% for planning projects.

An example of projects funded is $47.6 million to the City of Atlanta to construct a new streetcar line connecting many of the most important downtown residential, cultural, educational and historic centers.

TIGER II funds are being used to support a $546 million TIFIA (Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act) loan for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority to build the Crenshaw/ LAX Light Rail Line, a key piece of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s 30/10 initiative to construct 12 major transit projects in 10 years. ❧

The biggest Sustainable Communities Planning grants went to these major metro areas: BOSTON CHICAGO CLEVELAND FRESNO HARTFORD KANSAS CITY

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KNOXVILLE SAINT LOUIS SAINT PAUL SALT LAKE COUNTY SEATTLE SOUTH FLORIDA

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Community development professionals have long decried the destructive impacts of federallyfunded highways on America’s cities. In fact, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has probably done more to encourage suburban sprawl than any other federal agency.

Under the Obama Administration, however, there’s a new attitude at DOT. For the first time ever, the agency is actively cooperating with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to make sure federal transportation spending makes communities stronger, and that funding decisions are considered in coordination with housing and other development needs.

PSC President Andre Shashaty caught up with one of the key architects of the new policy, Beth Osborne, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Transportation Policy at DOT. Here is a summary of their conversation.

What’s the significance of DOT’s collaboration with HUD on holistic regional planning for cities, and regions, and people concerned about the sustainability of our cities?

BETH: I think the significance of this program is that it gave folks the opportunity to bring a wide range of stakeholders to the table. Having a little bit of federal money there to help pay for planning may be enough to convince folks to go ahead and join together and look at their regions holistically.

From your vantage point in Washington, is this a milestone in terms of federal policy?

BETH: Absolutely. We have had a lot of programs that were developed looking at very particular things, like how to build a good roadway network, or how to build affordable housing. And programs like this allow local government and regional entities to look at all of the needs of their community over the next several decades and make sure they’re not making disjointed investments; that they are looking at them as a whole, how each investment will affect the other. When they do these comprehensive looks at their community and they focus their development where infrastructure already exists, they avoid the need to build more and more things, and that also saves money.

And at a time when we’re all facing stretched budgets, a little bit of planning money can mean a lot of savings for the tax payer and these governments down the road.

Policy Supports Sustainable Communities

▲ Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood travelled to Atlanta to announce TIGER II grants to 75 innovative projects in 40 states. The Department of Transportation said the nearly $600 million in competitively awarded TIGER II grants will put people to work “building a 21st century foundation for tomorrow’s economic growth.”

The Secretary of DOT has talked about livability, and he has talked about the extent to which you can get people out of their cars. How much of a change has taken place in the last two years in DOT’s orientation on the alternatives to private cars?

BETH: Well, we have certainly taken opportunities with our discretionary dollars to make sure we’re looking at the end goal and not the mode. So, if the goal is to make sure that somebody can get to work conveniently, affordably, and cleanly, a community gets to figure out what that means for them. And if they can track the results of their project in a meaningful way, we use our discretionary dollars to reward that. And that has certainly in many cases meant good funding for good transit programs like the Tucson street car or the New Orleans street car. It has also meant replacement of deteriorating bridges [and work on roads and highways]. So it feeds a lot of different things in a lot of different places.

In California, Southern California’s regional governments responded to state directives setting very ambitious goals for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, saying they could only do it if the state could promise them significantly more public transit funding. Can you give me a comment on that given that so many public transit systems are financially challenged right now.

BETH: We have certainly underfunded transit in the past and so it’s not to say that part of the solutions isn’t to build a lot more transit. One of the reasons that Secretary LaHood has been so interested in the initiative is because he hears people talk about these issues every time he goes out on travel. He hears people come to talk about wanting better

transit and wanting to be able to let their kids walk to school and things like that. So, you know, a lot of this is making sure the government supplies people with what they want. One thing I talk a lot about is that market surveys show the sort of communities people want to move into, and they tell you over and over they want vibrant walkable connected communities. And yet we don’t really build a lot of them.

The formation of our partnership with HUD began between federal transit and HUD because when a new rail transit line is planned, we found that developers gobbled up every strip of land along that new line for high-end develop ments. So one of the reasons we need transit is for those who depend on transit because they can’t afford to own four cars, for a family of four. And so we recognize that the supply and demand were far off kilter that it was resulting in all of the land with transit accessibility going to people who frankly needed it less, but enjoyed the lifestyle.

Give me a brief snapshot of the TIGER program. It seems to be the DOT’s main program that does the most for communities and sustainability. Tell us a little bit about it and what’s coming up in the next few months.

BETH: I think you’re right to point to TIGER as the program where we’ve embodied our five priorities. The Secretary has laid out five priorities. They are improving safety, economic competiveness, community livability, environmental sustainability, and state of good repair. And so there’s a lot of things we’re trying to address with TIGER. And you will see in our first list of awardees, which came out in February, that we hit on all of those areas.

I think that the program helps harness innovation at the state and local level by showing people the sort of things that we were looking for and inviting their best ideas. And we got way more great ideas than we could have ever funded. We got $60 billion in requests for $1.5 billion in funding.

TIGER is the first DOT initiative that really is, you used the phrase multi- modal, but I would say it gets to the issue of how transportation plays into a community’s development goals, whether that be walking, biking, driving, or public transportation.

BETH: I think that’s a good way to put it. It is outcome based. We were not looking at any particular mode; we were looking at what projects state and local government could bring to us that would have the best impact on the communities where they’d be built. ❧

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Cities discover economic benefits of sustainable planning, land use

BY ANDRE SHASHATY

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Global View: Our city’s greener than yours

Mayors of the world’s major cities know better than most national governments why being green and sustainable matters. They know they have to compete globally to attract investment and jobs, and that they must offer a good quality of life to the highly educated people that today’s economy needs. If they can make their cities a haven for green businesses, all the better.

In Shanghai, China, shown on a planning map at the city’s museum of urban planning, a key priority is to create more badly needed green spaces.

PHOTO BY DENNIS WHITEHEAD

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all it smart growth, sustainable planning, transit-oriented development or even pedestrianism, but make no mistake: City after city is discovering that it pays to reform land use planning and redirect real estate development to make their communities more compact and less dependent on private vehicles.

California and Oregon have jumped out front by passing state legislation to push cities in this direction. However, this is not a “left coast” phenomenon. City officials all over America recognize the need for more sustainable land use patterns. Cities like Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Salt Lake City, and Oklahoma City realize that reducing sprawl and cutting the rate of growth in private vehicle use opens the door to a better quality of life and renewed economic vitality.

With $140 million in new federal grants for sustainable community planning announced this fall, the momentum for reform and new approaches to planning and development is only increasing. After all, American cities have a long way to go to begin to reverse the impact of 60 years of suburban sprawl and ever-increasing numbers of cars and vehicle miles travelled per capita.

The effort to change land use began as a response to the threat of global warming due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Fuel efficiency standards alone won’t cut GHG emissions enough—we also have to reduce how many miles we drive to make a dent in emissions.

This change in turn requires rethinking the patterns and routines of suburban life, which typically involves driving long distances to and from work and using one’s car for almost every errand.

Today, with the economy hurting and cities looking for firmer financial footing, city leaders see economic benefits as well as environmental pluses in changed land use patterns. City planners are realizing that they can’t afford to keep expanding their infrastructure to facilitate greenfield development. They also recognize that they can’t spend money fast enough to accommodate increasing populations to avoid more and more crippling traffic congestion.

On the revenue side, city planners realize that reducing sprawl, increasing transportation options and offering ample green spaces are ways to attract the kind of well-educated workers whom service businesses look for when deciding where to locate.

More specifically, cities are coming to believe that transit-oriented development is an economic winner and that housing close to jobs holds its value far better than quickly built tract housing in outlying areas. Even largely suburban areas, where large lots and long drives are a way of life, are finding that creating mixed-use town centers is good business.

Expansion of light rail systems and real estate development along new routes is one of the brightest spots in the American economy today. Texas is known for pick-up trucks and wide open spaces, but it has discovered public transit makes economic sense.

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considered development near existing and planned light rail stations and found that the total value of projects attributable to the presence of a DART rail station since 1999 is $4.26 billion. Increased taxable property values associated with the rail stations have the potential to generate ongoing annual tax revenues totaling $16.8 million for DART member cities and over $46 million for area school districts.

Based on a fiscal planning model, the retail component of transit-oriented development projects in the DART service area will generate over $660 million in annual taxable retail sales, boosting local municipal revenues by $6.6 million annually, the agency believes.

▲ California’s Inland Empire may be the poster child of suburban sprawl, but more communities are working to create pedestrian-friendly town centers like Victoria Gardens, a mixed-use town center in Rancho Cucamonga.

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Dallas Area Rapid Transit (DART) recently studied the fiscal impacts of transit-oriented development associated with development of the DART light rail system. The analysis

The City of Atlanta is planning to construct a new streetcar line connecting many of the most important downtown residential, cultural, educational, and historic centers. The first phase of the project will run for 2.62 miles in the heart of Atlanta’s downtown, business, tourism, and convention corridor, connecting Peachtree Street with Sweet Auburn Avenue.

“The Atlanta Streetcar project moves the City of Atlanta forward and keeps us competitive with other similar cities by improving our regional transit connectivity, boosting our billion dollar tourism industry, helping local businesses along

David Alan Harvey / Magnum Photos

1 in 8 Americans is struggling with hunger.

Including people like your office secretary on her way to work, the cashier at the grocery store, or your old friend from high school. Who’s the 1 in 8 in your life that needs help?

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Go to feedingamerica.org to see how your support can help those in need.

the Sweet Auburn Avenue corridor, and building a more sustainable future,” Mayor Kasim Reed said. “Most important of all, the Atlanta Streetcar project puts our citizens back to work soon by creating 930 jobs during the construction phase and more than 5,600 jobs over the next 20 years.”

Oklahoma City is working on an ambitious planning process to redevelop 750 acres of underutilized land between the downtown core and the shore of the Oklahoma River.

The “Core to Shore” project will build and connect a series of neighborhoods, parks, and economic opportunities that the city hopes will create to new jobs and a higher quality of life for residents. Major aspects of the Core to Shore plan include a new streetcar line, a pedestrian-friendly boulevard, a 40-acre central park and development of business, retail, and mixed-use housing along the park.

About 50 other cities are considering starting street car lines, a fact that underscores better than any other how Americans have come full circle in regard to urban planning and the private car. Most American cities had street cars in the early 1900s; the advent of freeways and the political power of the automobile industry convinced cities to give them up in the 30s and 40s.

DRAWING UP BLUEPRINTS For most of the past decade, regions across California have been envisioning more efficient ways to grow. These blueprint planning exercises illustrate the potential to save open space and farmland, reduce traffic congestion, and improve air quality. Sacramento is one region whose blueprint has also shown that growing more efficiently can save billions of taxpayer dollars on infrastructure and on individual transportation spending, according to “Windfall for All: How Connected, Convenient Neighborhoods Can Protect Our Climate and Safeguard California’s Economy,” a report by TransForm, based in Oakland, California.

As it was developing its metropolitan transportation plan for 2025, the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) projected that, despite spending an estimated $23 billion through the year 2025 for transportation projects in the six-county region, vehicular congestion throughout the metropolitan area would increase by nearly 60% and vehicle miles traveled per household would increase by 20%. In addition, based on the sprawl-like development patterns of the late 1990s, the region would urbanize 661 additional square miles by 2050 under the base case scenario.

SACOG undertook an elaborate process of consultation with the public and elected officials of its constituent jurisdictions to come up with its “Preferred Blueprint Alternative

Special Report 2005.” This comprehensive guidance on how the region should grow would result in the following savings compared to continuation of the then-current development trends: • $9.4 billion less for public infrastructure costs

(e.g. transportation, water supply, utilities); • 14% fewer carbon dioxide emissions; • $655 million less for residents’ annual fuel costs; and • $8.4 billion less for land purchases to mitigate the

environmental harm of development.

Smaller towns are investing in compact, downtown development as well. The town of Windsor in Sonoma County is already benefitting from preparing to be a walkable public transportation center, even though a newly approved light rail system won’t arrive for years. The downtown’s sales tax revenue increased tenfold over an eight-year period after the city created an accessible core of civic services, greenspace, and compact housing options for all incomes. Vacancy rates remain low in the downtown, despite the national economic downturn, according to “Windfall for All.”

RAFAEL TOWN CENTER The city of San Rafael’s Town Center is an excellent example of the kind of development cities in California are encouraging.

Completed in January 2002, the mixed-use infill development on the site of a shuttered department store has been a success for the city and the developer, Samuelson Schafer.

(The project is pictured on the cover of this issue.)

James Schafer of Samuelson Schafer says he is “very happy” with the project’s financial performance. Schafer and his partners in Los Angeles and Phoenix believe that infill development that attracts people to live in downtown areas are key to a city’s success and viability. Having people living downtown creates a built-in market that lets retail, dining and entertainment businesses compete against outlying shopping centers and malls.

Because the project is downtown and residents can walk to work, shopping or entertainment, the city agreed to a parking ratio of one space for each apartment.

The San Rafael Redevelopment Authority assembled the project site and selected Samuelson Schafer in a competitive process.

The city closed off Court Street, which borders the project on the west, to create a central gathering place called

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City Plaza. The area includes a water feature and public art.

The project fits well with the city of San Rafael’s desire to reduce dependence on private cars and to bring vitality and retail customers to the city’s center, said Bob Brown, community development director. The city uses the space for a weekly farmer’s market in the summer, special events, and civic ceremonies, making it a focal point for downtown activity.

No data on the development’s impact on sales tax revenue are available, but the Town Center draws thousands of people on a weekly basis who might otherwise not be shopping or dining there.

Rafael Town Center has 113 apartments, 95 percent of which are occupied. The apartments are at the high end of market rents, with one bedrooms renting for $1,300 to $1,600. Two-bedroom units average $1,900 and go as high as $2,350.

Thirty-eight units are set aside for people earning less than the area median income, exceeding the required set aside. In return for the extra affordable units, the project received a density bonus.

The project also boasts 40,000 square feet of office space, 24,000 square feet of retail, and two levels of parking. Office space rents average $3.30 per foot gross; offices

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are 99 percent leased. Retail space goes for an average of $2.30 per foot net. Although there are retail vacancies, that’s no different than the rest of town, or the county, for that matter.

PROPERTY VALUES It’s widely reported that the recent wave of foreclosures was far worse in outlying suburban areas that require long commutes to job centers than it was nearer to jobs. The extent to which this is true varies from city to city, but the general idea is at the forefront of federal policymaking.

One study shows that homes in more walkable neighborhoods are worth more than similar homes in less-walkable neighborhoods, pointing to a bright spot in the residential real estate market. “Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Housing Values in U.S. Cities” by Joseph Cortright, analyzed data from 94,000 real estate transactions in 15 major markets provided by ZipRealty and found that in 13 of the 15 markets, higher levels of walkability, as measured by Walk Score, were directly linked to higher home values.

“Even in a turbulent economy, we know that walkability adds value to residential property just as additional square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms and other amenities do,” said Cortright. “It’s clear that consumers assign a tangible value to the convenience factor of living in more walkable places with access to a variety of destinations.”

Crowds are attracted to the plazea at Rafael Town Center.

Walkability is defined by the Walk Score algorithm (www. walkscore.com), which works by calculating the closest amenities—restaurants, coffee shops, schools, parks, stores, libraries—to any U.S. address. The algorithm then assigns a Walk Score from 0 to 100, with 100 being the most walkable and 0 being totally car dependent. Walk Scores of 70+ indicate neighborhoods where it’s possible to get by without a car.

By the Walk Score measure, walkability is a direct function of how many destinations are located within a short distance (generally between one-quarter mile and one mile of a home). The study found that in the typical metropolitan area, a one-point increase in Walk Score was associated with an increase in value ranging from $700 to $3,000 depending on the market. The gains were larger in denser, urban areas like Chicago and San Francisco and smaller in less dense markets like Tucson and Fresno.

“These findings are significant for policy makers,” said Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities, which commissioned the research. “They tell us that if urban lead-

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ers are intentional about developing and redeveloping their cities to make them more walkable, it will not only enhance the local tax base but will also contribute to individual wealth by increasing the value of what is, for most people, their biggest asset.”

The economic benefits to be had by redirecting development from outlying areas to infill development near transit and existing housing include reductions in the costs of sprawl. In many fast-growing regions, subdivisions of low cost housing built quickly at the peak of the boom are now riddled with vacant foreclosed home and high levels of

Why cities invest in sustainable development: • Efficiently accommodate a growing population

• Attract creative, skilled workers who do not want long commutes

• Reduce spending on roads, interchanges, and

signals • Increase retail sales and sales tax revenue • Make better use of existing infrastructure • Help stabilize and increase property values

absentee ownership.

The phenomenon prompted one author to call the suburbs the new American slums. That might be overstating the case, but mayors know that outlying neighborhoods with higher foreclose rates can be a huge drain on city resources, including police services.

GREEN MAKES FINANCIAL SENSE Finally, some cities see great economic potential in the movement toward green building and alternative energy generation.

working hard to reduce the carbon emissions of their buildings. They see this as a way to attract the kind of bright young people that “new economy” jobs demand and to attract green businesses. But the proponents of “zero carbon” construction also believe that owners and maybe even tenants can increase disposable income, freeing money to go into the local economy, by reducing their energy costs or even realizing income by selling back surplus power to utility companies.

A Chinese company, BYD, is moving into the North American market with, among other things, a household electricity storage battery. The idea of storing power in the home could make it possible for households to generate solar power or buy cheap power during non-peak demand periods and then sell stored power to the local utility during the highest-rate, peak-demand periods.

In Sothern California, the Los Angeles Business Council is promoting creation of a system of electricity generation from installation of photovoltaic panels on the rooftops of multifamily and commercial buildings across the city. It says a solar “Feed-in Tariff “ program allows businesses, public and non-profit organizations, and residents to install solar panels on their roofs and parking lots and sell the power generated back to the local utility. Participants receive a payment back from the utility for each Kilowatt-hour fed back into the power grid.

LABC is modeling its proposal after a program launched in 2009 in Gainesville, Florida. The Gainesville program encourages investment in solar power generation by guaranteeing that the utility will buy all of the electricity produced by the system at a fixed rate for 20 years, according to Gainesville Regional Utilities, a multi-service utility owned by the City of Gainesville. ❧ Resources: Reconnecting America, a national nonprofit organization that is working to integrate transportation systems and the communities

The most obvious economic benefit is to create construction jobs in the retrofitting of existing buildings to be more efficient users of electricity and water. About half the states had started programs allowing cities to make loans to property owners for energy retrofits to be repaid from tax assessments, so called Property Assessed Clean Energy programs. (The programs have been slowed and in some cases halted by legal challenges from mortgage lenders but may resume.)

they serve with the goal of generating lasting public and private re-

Cities in other nations are probably ahead of American municipalities in pursuing what could be called the zerocarbon future. Cities like London and Freiburg, Germany, are

developing two modeling tools to formulate and compare scenarios

turns, improving economic and environmental efficiency, and giving consumers more housing and mobility choices. http://www.reconnectingamerica.org/public/about Sacramento Area Council of Governments “Preferred Blueprint Alternative Special Report” www.sacog.org/regrpt/pdf/2005/01.../BP_Insert_JAN_2005.pdf The Vision California project, funded by the California High Speed Rail Authority in partnership with the Strategic Growth Council, is for how California can accommodate growth. http://www.visioncalifornia.org/

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PUTTING GHG REDUCTIONS IN PERSPECTIVE:

What it really means to reduce your carbon footprint “SANDAG is currently drawing up the region’s Sustainable Communities Strategy (SCS), a comprehensive plan to guide new development and the evolution of our transportation system in ways that reduce solo driving and cut per capita emissions,” said SANDAG Executive Director Gary Gallegos.

The new targets apply to emissions from passenger cars and light trucks, with a baseline year set in 2005. In the San Diego region in that year, drivers of passenger vehicles emitted an average of 26 pounds of carbon dioxide per person each weekday. Here are some of the data points SANDAG is using to illustrate what the new goals mean to individuals: A pound of carbon dioxide has enough volume to fill two large garbage bags.

To meet the 7% reduction goal, a San Diego resident would need to cut his or her emissions by 1.8 pounds per weekday. That’s like burning 21 fewer gallons of gas a year, or planting five trees and maintaining them for 10 years.

F

ew public issues generate as much controversy as the idea of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, partly because of the abstract nature of the problem. If you are advocating for policy changes aimed at reducing emissions, try putting the issue in concrete, easily understandable terms. When you do, your audience may realize that emission reduction does not mean drastic changes in lifestyle.

The best effort we’ve seen to do that comes from the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG) [www. sandag.org], which has put California’s “mobile source” GHG reduction goals in perspective, with help from the Renewable and Appropriate Energy Laboratory Energy and Resources Group at the University of California, Berkeley, [http://rael. berkeley.edu/] and CoolCalifornia.org.

Under California’s Senate Bill 375, the San Diego region will be required to reduce GHG emissions from cars and light trucks 7% per capita by 2020 and 13% by 2035, according to targets set in September 2010 by the California Air Resources Board (CARB).

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For a 13% reduction, a San Diego resident would need to cut his or her emissions by 3.4 pounds per weekday. That’s like burning 38 fewer gallons of gas a year; planting nine trees and maintaining them for 10 years; shutting off the average home’s electricity for two weeks; or recycling 228 pounds of waste instead of sending it to the landfill. ❧

To achieve a 7% reduction, a person could: • Telecommute to work one day a month • Carpool two days a month • Bike or walk instead of driving 10 miles a week • Take the bus instead of driving 12 miles a week To achieve a 13% reduction, a person could: • Telecommute to work two days a month • Carpool to work four days a month • Bike or walk instead of driving 18 miles a week • Take a bus instead of driving 21 miles a week