PM Magazine, December 2019

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N 0 19 IVE 0 th 19 RS -20 A 19 RY AN

Brownfields, +

What Developers Really Want 12

Economic Development and Sustainability

Developing Brownfields into Affordable Housing 22 Techno-Centric Smart City Development 30

DECEMBER 2019 ICMA.ORG/PM

DECEMBER 2019 VOL. 101 NO. 11

F E AT U R E S

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CONTENTS

16

Crisis Intervention

First Suburb City Managers Are Our First Responders in a Declining Growth Environment Tom Carroll, Silverton, Ohio; and Dr. Brandi Blessett, University of Cincinnati

12 What Developers Really Want: An App Like Tinder for Brownfields Directness and Simplicity in Redevelopment Todd S. Davis, Esq., Hemisphere Brownfield Group

16 The Music City Miracle

Growth and Redevelopment of Nashville, Tennessee Paula Middlebrooks, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation

22 Cleaning Up House

Developing Brownfields into Affordable Housing Marcus Humberg, Washington State Department of Ecology; Martha Faust, Ramsey County, Minnesota; Cheryl Ann Bishop, Washington State Department of Ecology; Lyn Hikida, BRIDGE Housing

30 Under the Hood

A Look at Techno-Centric Smart City Development Kevin C. Desouza and Michael Hunter

36 Societal Disruptions are Opportunities for Economic Development

Are You Ready for the Next Phase of Growth?

Kim Briesemeister, Redevelopment Management Associates

42 The Importance of the Arts

D E PA RT M E N T S 2 Ethics Matter!

22

Don’t Let Your Goals Get in the Way of Your Ethics

4 Letter from the Guest Editor 48 Insights

Why is Cognitive Diversity Important for Your Local Government?

50 ICMA Award Spotlight

Wooster, Ohio: A Leading-Edge, Energy-Efficient Water Resource Recovery and Bioenergy Facility Ceder Hill, Texas: Small Changes, Big Impact: The Cedar Hill Growing Green Program

54 Celebrating 100 Years 55 Professional Services Directory

Using Cultural Assets for Neighborhood Revitalization and Increased Economic Sustainability Jay H. Dick

International City/County Management Association

42 DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 1

ETHICS MATTER!

Don’t Let Your Goals Get in the Way of Your Ethics

BY KEVIN DUGGAN, ICMA-CM

Successful leaders are achievement focused. They set goals and measure progress. While

KEVIN DUGGAN, ICMA-CM, is a senior advisor for ICMA; former director, ICMA West Coast Region; and former manager of Mountain View, California (kcduggan@ katesbridge.com).

not the only characteristics of successful leadership, goal setting and performance measurement are among the most important. What ethical price are managers willing to pay, however, in order to accomplish their own and their organizations goals? Are you being thoughtful in regard to knowing the limits you are willing to go for both personal and organizational “success?”

I think it is safe to say that we and our colleagues want to both be able to achieve goals and be ethical. In fact, being ethical should be an overriding goal. But how much introspection do we give to the potential of our intent to be ethical conflicting with our other personal and organizational goals? Is it possible for an intense focus on performance and achievement to get in the way of ethical conduct? Unfortunately, there are many examples of that being the case.

One of the most notorious recent examples is the case of Wells Fargo Bank. In 2016, more than 5,000 Wells Fargo employees were fired for setting up more than two million accounts in clients’ names without their permission, often transferring their funds from other accounts. Much of this was occurring while

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Wells Fargo was ramping up ethics training. While employees were instructed not to open up unauthorized accounts, the company’s performance expectations drove thousands of their staff to do so for increased income and out of fear of losing their jobs. The end result for Wells Fargo was a significant loss of reputation and millions of dollars in fines.

Volkswagen has prided itself on quality manufactured, high performing automobiles across several brands. As is well known, VW experienced a significant self-inflicted wound by installing software in some of their models to cheat emission control tests. The desire was to avoid a loss of driving performance in order to meet emission requirements. The goal of their vehicles having optimum driving characteristics overwhelmed the company’s obligation to meet mandatory government regulations to preserve air quality. Like Wells Fargo, the reputational and financial consequences were very damaging.

And there is the far too often willingness for college coaches and athletic directors to bend the rules or violate reasonable standards in regard to player eligibility and welfare to achieve on the field or court success. As in the other cases, the eventual consequences are often just the opposite of what they had intended.

Public Management (PM) icma.org/pm ICMA 777 North Capitol Street, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002-4201 EDITORIAL OFFICE: pm@icma.org ADVERTISING SALES: 202-367-2497 Tilman Gerald The Townsend Group, Inc. tgerald@townsend-group.com ICMA MEMBER SERVICES: 800.745.8780 | 202.962.3680 membership@icma.org

ICMA Creating and Supporting Thriving Communities ICMA’s vision is to be the leading association of local government professionals dedicated to creating and supporting thriving communities throughout the world. It does this by working with its more than 12,000 members to identify and speed the adoption of leading local government practices and improve the lives of residents. ICMA offers membership, professional development programs, research, publications, data and information, technical assistance, and training to thousands of city, town, and county chief administrative officers, their staffs, and other organizations throughout the world.

Public Management (PM) aims to inspire innovation, inform decision making, connect leading-edge thinking to everyday challenges, and serve ICMA members and local governments in creating and sustaining thriving communities throughout the world.

Pitfalls to Avoid

Are managers equally at risk of failing our ethical test as we strive to achieve? These are a few potential examples of being at risk of “trying too hard” to achieve otherwise admirable goals: • Going too far in a quest to present a balanced budget to our governing board by being overly optimistic regarding revenues and expenditures.

• Demanding unrealistic statistical performance from departments resulting in unintended pressure to distort performance statistics to meet required goals.

• Adjusting how a police department categorizes criminal activity in order to give the impression that the crime rate is better than is actually the case. And when do reasonable expectations for self-initiated traffic enforcement spiral into a “quota system?”

• The strong belief that a major new facility (e.g., convention center, sports venue, theater) will be a major community asset allowing administrators to inflate the upside financial potential while understating or not fully disclosing all the potential downside risks.

• In striving for the goal of labor peace, understating the short - and long-term impact of a proposed salary increase or new benefit.

• Creating an environment where corners are cut on inspections (e.g. fire, building or code enforcement) so that the numerical goals are achieved while the quality of the inspections deteriorates.

All this takes place in an environment where the leaders of public organizations are constantly confronting the challenge of fairly presenting a complete list of pros and cons regarding the recommendations we make to our governing boards. It can be very tempting to emphasize the positive aspects of our recommendations while being less diligent when providing a complete review of potential downsides. So what to do about this?

2019–2020 ICMA Executive Board PRESIDENT

Jane Brautigam* City Manager, Boulder, Colorado PRESIDENT-ELECT

James Malloy* Town Manager, Lexington, Massachusetts PAST PRESIDENT

Karen Pinkos* City Manager, El Cerrito, California VICE PRESIDENTS

International Region

Tim Anderson Chief Administrative Officer, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada Sue Bidrose Chief Executive Officer, Dunedin City Council, New Zealand Robert Kristof City Manager, Timisoara, Romania

A Critical Balance

It is critical that leaders personally stay focused on the potential of going too far to achieve a desired outcome. We need to remember that while “achieving” is very important, how we achieve our goals is no less important. Do we take the time to reflect on how far is too far to accomplish a desired goal? Do we fully assess the potential impacts to our reputations and our organization’s reputation of being overly aggressive to reach a desired outcome?

Are we willing to accept that it is simply part of our business that desired outcomes (goals achieved, levels of performance, and so on) will not always be ideal? Even if you understand the critical balance between achieving goals and maintaining a high ethical standard, could you be inadvertently communicating the opposite to your staff? Do you have performance measurement or incentive structures that can push employees to stretch ethical boundaries?

Could you be preaching ethical conduct while creating pressures for the members of the organization to do otherwise? The leaders of many private and public organizations, including the examples noted above, have unfortunately done so.

Do you know how to keep goal achievement in alignment with good ethical values? Does your organization?

Midwest Region

Southeast Region

Wally Bobkiewicz* City Administrator, Issaquah, Washington**

W. Lane Bailey* City Manager, Salisbury, North Carolina

Clint Gridley* City Administrator, Woodbury, Minnesota Molly Mehner* Deputy City Manager, Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Laura Fitzpatrick* Deputy City Manager, Chesapeake, Virginia Michael Kaigler* Assistant County Manager, Chatham County, Georgia

ICMA Executive Director Marc Ott Director, Member Publications

Lynne Scott lscott@icma.org

Managing Editor

Kerry Hansen khansen@icma.org

West Coast Region

Newsletter Editor

Kathleen Karas kkaras@icma.org

Michael Land* City Manager, Coppell, Texas

Maria Hurtado* Assistant City Manager, Hayward, California

Art Director

Erika White ewhite@icma.org

Design & Production

picantecreative.com

Raymond Gonzales County Manager, Adams County, Colorado

Edward Shikada* City Manager, Palo Alto, California

Northeast Region

Peter Troedsson* City Manager, Albany, Oregon

Mountain Plains Region

Heather Geyer* City Manager, Northglenn, Colorado

Matthew Hart* Town Manager, West Hartford, Connecticut Christopher Coleman* Town Manager, Westwood, Massachusetts Teresa Tieman* Town Manager, Fenwick Island, Delaware

* ICMA Credentialed Manager (ICMA-CM) ** Serving the region from a different location as is permissible in the ICMA Constitution.

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 3

LETTER FROM THE GUEST EDITOR

A Special Issue of PM for Brownfields 2019

BY TAD MCGALLIARD

Since 2003, ICMA has partnered with

TAD MCGALLIARD is director, research and technical assistance, ICMA, Washington, D.C. (tmcgalliard@icma.org).

the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to organize the National Brownfields Conference.

Johnny Cash was “everywhere . . . crossed the deserts bare . . . (and) breathed the mountain air,” during his long career as a country musician. While we haven’t been everywhere (man), over the last 16 years, the National Brownfields Conference has traveled from Portland (2003) to Boston (2006), Detroit (2008) to New Orleans (2009), and a bunch of other places in between.

We have crisscrossed the United States to showcase the revitalization potential of cleaning up and redeveloping formerly used commercial and industrial brownfield sites. Along the way, thousands of people and places have benefitted

from the technical assistance, training, and peer-to-peer networking that the National Brownfields Conference provides.

For Brownfields 2019, we are in the City of Angels, Los Angeles, California (www. brownfields2019). This special edition of PM magazine has been produced to showcase some leading ideas about community betterment through economic redevelopment approaches and strategies. Hopefully we’ll see many of you in LA!

Meet Your

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Learn more and post your job at icma.org/jobs.

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CRISIS INTERVE The American middle class has been shrinking for over a generation, and as it shrinks, so too does the number of middle-class American communities. These formerly middle-class communities are becoming poorer overall and are disproportionately first suburbs.1 Most first suburbs—communities intentionally incorporated to be set apart from the major city— boomed during the 15 years after World War II. In recent decades, scholars have been warning that many of these inner-ring suburbs are manifesting signs of central city decline, such as disinvestment, depopulation, and rising poverty.

6 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

NTION

BY TOM CARROLL AND DR. BRANDI BLESSETT

T

he pattern of decline is familiar.

Millions of Americans living in first suburbs used to work factory assembly lines and shop floors.

But as manufacturing employment has shrunk, residents within America’s first suburbs face wage stagnation. In turn, they are forced to invest less in their homes, which increasingly show signs of age. As decline manifests, homeowners with wherewithal often leave. This sets in motion a downward economic cycle, which collectively make the first suburb poorer year over year. The gradualness of the decline often makes it very difficult for those living amidst it to perceive it.

Despite a rich academic literature focusing on first suburban decline, scholars have offered few actionable policy solutions.2 Most articulated policy options place the responsibility for fixing this problem at the state and federal levels, where little action has occurred. The reality is state

Photos by Tom Kinsel

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 7

A mixed-use, New Urbanist development replaced the 1950’s era single family homes in Silverton. Thought leaders like Ellen Dunham-Jones and Richard Florida point to the need for densification, mixed land uses, and increased urbanism to remedy the decline of formerly blue-collar first suburbs.

governments have been cutting local aid for the last decade,3 and the federal government is mired in worse political gridlock than normal.

As a result of shrinking state budgets and federal government gridlock, first suburban leaders have been left to contend with decline on their own. An example of the state

of the decline in first suburbs can be seen near the city of Cincinnati, in which city leaders in modest first suburbs must act with urgency. Furthermore, first suburban decline has accelerated in the decade after the 2008 recession.

The city of Cincinnati (296,943) is the central city in Hamilton County (802,374).

8 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

Hamilton County currently has a total of 49 separate units of local governments, including Cincinnati. In 2018-2019, ICMA funded a research fellowship that, among other things, analyzed the state of first suburbs in Hamilton County.

The results are not encouraging. Of the 33 first suburbs in the study, only eight have a total tax base that has equaled or exceeded the pre-2008 recession values in nominal dollars. When adjusted for inflation, only two Hamilton County first suburbs have exceeded their 2008 tax bases.

Eight of the 33 communities have experienced double digit increases in the rates of poverty since 1999. Six first suburbs have poverty in excess of 20 percent, which is considered to be a tipping point.4 Nineteen of the 33 first suburbs have had a loss in population since 1990. Hamilton County is thus like so many other parts of the Midwest, as some

affluent first suburbs are stable, but too many others are in various states of decline. The suburbanization of poverty is clear and present in Hamilton County, and a financial recovery from the Great Recession has not occurred evenly.

What Can Be Done?

If state and federal help is not forthcoming and the warning lights are flashing for middle class first suburbs, what can city managers do to reverse decline, or at least manage it?

Unfortunately, there is no silver bullet. We offer four strategies: (1) governance; (2) more than mere economic development; (3) housing; and (4) leadership, inclusion, and equity.

1. Governance

A local government’s tax base ultimately reflects the economic resources of the community itself. As first suburbs decline, local governments are themselves unable to keep up.

Community

2016 Income Tax Per Capita (2010 Census)

Combined Per Capita Police, Fire, and EMS Expenditure

Ratio of Public Safety Expenditure to Income Tax Per Capita

Blue Ash

$2,961

$974

32.90%

Springdale

$1,264

$808

63.94%

Silverton

$384

$358

93.18%

Forest Park

$535

$519

97.00%

Norwood

$853

$962

112.75%

Lockland

$635

$728

114.60%

Norwood is a Cincinnati first suburb once-home to a General Motors plant that closed in 1987. Norwood spent $962 per capita on their police and fire departments in 2016.

Nine miles away is Blue Ash, Ohio, a nearby first suburb with substantial income tax from employment centers. Blue Ash spent $974 per person on their police and fire departments in 2016, virtually identical to Norwood. Yet Blue Ash’s public safety spending is a mere 31 percent of its income tax

collections, whereas Norwood’s $962 is 112 percent of its income tax collections.5 As a result, Norwood is in fiscal emergency. Nearby, Springdale spends $808 per person per year, and Forest Park spends $519; both communities have much in common with Norwood.

The above comparison of public safety spending is simple, yet insightful. The research on first suburbs in Hamilton County shows that communities, even in the

same urban county, spend widely differing amounts of money on public services.

Norwood has had substantial revitalization and private investments over the last 10 to 15 years, but is an example of a first suburb that is facing a fiscal emergency because it has not benchmarked against nearby peers to find less expensive service models. Benchmarking against peers is the key to helping communities like Norwood adapt.

Photo by Tom Kinsel.

2. More than Mere Economic Development

Many ICMA members have expertise in economic development, brownfields remediation, zoning, and public finance. These same skills are the essential ingredients needed to help first suburbs. Traditionally, local government economic development reacts to the marketplace and closes project funding gaps.

What is different about economic development in declining first suburbs is that the

A winter sunset in Silverton, Ohio.

Like so many first suburbs across the country, Silverton is working to reverse decades of population loss, disinvestment, and tax base erosion.

Photo by Tom Kinsel.

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 9

free market is experiencing a market failure and the role of economic development is to correct it. This requires an interventionist government role beyond conventional economic development. Rather than simply closing funding gaps, local leaders must find a way to alter the market—assume risk and intervene in the real estate market—in a way that the private sector will not do.

One such example of market intervention is the City of

operating and capital budgets: “revitalization.” Kettering has the budget discipline to do this; whereas first suburbs like Norwood spend too much on funding operations, thus shorting reinvestment.

First suburbs need to treat revitalization as the third leg of the budget stool, along with capital and operations.

The case of Lockland, Ohio, is additionally illustrative.

Lockland has owned a formerly polluted former mattress

today and controls the eventual outcome of this site’s redevelopment.

Similarly, the former city manager of Silverton, Ohio, negotiated a cashless land swap that gave an underutilized portion of a park to the local school system for a new school site. This resulted in Silverton receiving the 5.8-acre former school site, once the new school was built. It took five years for the new school to be opened, and in that time,

AGING HOUSING IS THE MOST IMPORTANT DRIVER OF MODEST FIRST SUBURBAN DECLINE. AS NEW HOMES ARE CONSTRUCTED, HIGHER-INCOME FAMILIES BUY THEM AND LEAVE BEHIND AGING HOUSES FOR FAMILIES WITH LOWER INCOMES. Kettering, Ohio, which borders the city of Dayton. Kettering budgets $500,000 annually for revitalization. If unspent, the balance accumulates and Kettering uses the money to acquire strategic property and undertake catalytic redevelopment projects. This is in line with a 2002 Brookings Institution recommendation that first suburbs create a third budget priority, in addition to

factory site of about nine acres along I-75 for many years. Had it been privately owned, the property would be developed today as a warehouse. But Lockland recognized that this site is the community’s one chance to get advanced manufacturing to add jobs and income taxes. By controlling the land, Lockland defends itself from a lesser land use the free market would generate

Silverton assembled adjacent properties into a ten-acre site.

Private developers would likely not have undertaken this assemblage. By amassing 10 acres—zoned and shovelready—Silverton attracted private partners who are now building a mixed-use New Urbanist redevelopment. The project will grow Silverton’s tax base 15–18 percent on a mere two percent of its land area.

The examples of several Southwest Ohio communities—Kettering, Lockland, and Silverton— show that first suburbs can intervene in and alter the real estate market. Assembling and controlling catalytic sites is the best way to correct the market failures that are occurring.

3. Housing

This picture shows the sole surviving single family home before its eventual demolition. The demolition of 12 single family and one small five unit apartment building made way for 34 high end condos in a New Urbanist, mixed-use development. Photo by Tom Kinsel.

10 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

Aging housing is the most important driver of modest first suburban decline.6 As new homes are constructed, higher-income families buy them and leave behind aging houses for families with lower

incomes. This is known as “filtering”.7 Mass-produced homes built right after World War II, lacking architectural diversity, are particularly prone to filtering. Over time, a once middle-class community becomes relatively poorer, and the homes sell or are rented to people with increasingly modest backgrounds. Since the Great Recession, real estate investment trusts have been finding ways to corporatize being slumlords, buying large quantities of modest singlefamily homes in targeted first suburbs to achieve efficiencies with property management.8 City managers in first suburbs must recognize that their existing housing stock is not going to improve with age. The first line of defense is property maintenance. The city of Cleveland Heights has one of the most progressive property management teams in Ohio consisting of rental registration, rental inspections, point of sale inspections, and foreclosure prevention programs.

Cleveland Heights stays on top of its housing because it has seen what has happened in other nearby communities.

Beyond the traditional housing program, first suburban managers need to create new and different housing options in the community.9 And the opportunity here is to rebuild first suburban homes with greater density, greater environmental sustainability, resilience against severe weather, accessibility, and affordability. At the same time local governments must embrace teardowns, increase density, foster mixed-use redevelopments, and champion affordable housing while also bringing in more market rate housing options.

have been engaging with the local community for decades, welcoming diverse new residents. As leaders, we must create forums to foster greater dialogue, engagement, connections, and friendships across socioeconomic backgrounds.

Your community’s future may well depend on it. White flight is still very much a reality and is the fastest accelerator of first suburban decline.

Photo by Tom Kinsel.

4. Leadership, Inclusion, and Equity

Most first suburbs are facing growing levels of poverty, and many new residents are either people of color or immigrants. Suburbanized poverty creates a geographic service gap between suburban poor residents and the social and charitable organizations that tend to be located in the central city. As a result, poor suburban residents struggle to access the support they need. The City of Springdale is working to connect their expanding low-income areas to downtown Cincinnati through better bus services.10 The City of Kettering has a senior services coordinator whose

job is to connect seniors to service providers in the Dayton area, so seniors can remain in their homes. While most first suburbs are not geared to provide social services, the suburbanization of poverty means local government professionals need to improve our capacity to connect our residents to those who can help.

Of perhaps greatest importance is the need for city managers in first suburbs to spearhead community engagement to bring together increasingly diverse residents and forge community ties, especially in the midst of community decline. Cleveland first suburbs Shaker Heights and Cleveland Heights

Conclusion

The decline of first suburbs has been a gradually building crisis, and a decade after the Great Recession many first suburbs are far from recovered.

Reversing decline, or at the very least achieving a new level of stability, will take decades.

But year after year, we can start to achieve the desired stability needed to help lift these communities.

Most city managers have the foundational tools and training to address the challenges of today’s first suburbs. What is needed is a new sense of urgency, good government guided by benchmarking, a focus on interventionist actions to correct market failures, a vision and plan to rebuild aging housing, and a commitment to inclusion. These are formidable tasks, yet we have no choice but to try to reverse this trend.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

Hanlon, Bernadette. 2009. Once the American Dream: Inner-Ring Suburbs in the Metropolitan United States. Florida, Richard. 2017. The New Urban Crisis: How Our Cities are Increasing Inequality, Deepening Segregation, and Failing the Middle Class—and What We Can Do About It. 2 Hexter, Kathryn W., Edward W. Hill, Benjamin Y. Clark, Brian A. Mikelbank, and Charles Post. 2015. “Revitalizing Distressed Older Suburbs: Case Studies in Alabama, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.” The New American Suburb: Poverty, Race and Economic Crisis.

1

A young girl at a community event sees her face painting for the first time.

Maciag, Mike, and JB Wogan. 2017.

“With Less State Aid, Localities Look for Ways to Cope” Governing, February.

4 Kneebone and Berube, 2013. Confronting Suburban Poverty in America. The Brookings Institution.

5 In Ohio, most cities rely predominately on a local income tax. Cities are able to levy property taxes and other fees, but in most cases, a municipality’s primary source of revenue is the local income tax collections. Income tax collections are thus a key performance indicator for Ohio municipalities.

6 Bier, Thomas. 2017. Housing Dynamics in Northeast Ohio: Setting the Stage for Resurgence. https://engagedscholarship. csuohio.edu/msl_ae_ebooks/4/.

7 Hanlon, Bernadette. 2009. “A typology of Inner-Ring Suburbs: Class, Race, and Ethnicity in the U.S. Suburbia. City and Community. 8: 3.

8 REITs are Real Estate Investment Trusts.

Wall Street Journal, January 4, 2018.

9 Cleveland State professor emeritus Tom Bier believes that huge quantities of first suburban homes are going to have to be torn down and rebuilt in the next fifty years. The authors certainly hope he is not correct in terms of scope.

10 Swartsell, Nick. 2018. “As Some Suburban Hamilton County Enclaves Get Poorer, More Rely on Limited Transit Options.” City Beat.

3

TOM CARROLL is village manager, Silverton, Ohio (t.carroll@silvertonohio. us). He has spent the last year as an ICMA research fellow, examining ways first suburbs can revitalize. A past president of the Ohio City/County Management Association, he is working to develop a first suburbs revitalization user’s manual with ICMA. BRANDI BLESSETT, Ph.D., is an associate professor and director of the Masters of Public Administration program, University of Cincinnati (blessebi@ucmail.uc.edu).

Dr. Blessett’s research focuses on administrative responsibility, disenfranchisement, and social equity. Her research interests offer insight regarding the effects of institutional injustice and their implications for underrepresented communities.

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 11

DEVELOPER

GOVERNMENT

What Developers Really Want:

An App Like Tinder for Brownfields

Directness and Simplicity in Redevelopment

BY TODD S. DAVIS, ESQ.

12 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

Having gone to college in the early 1980s, I clearly missed a number of amazing inventions that many current university attendees couldn’t have imagined living without— no smart phones, no laptops, no apps. In fact, I have been told someone invented an extraordinarily popular app called Tinder.

Apparently, it works something like this: each party clicks on a profile, and if both parties like what they see, they begin to communicate and a deal is quickly consummated. (From

what I understand, the deal can involve some pretty “interesting” situations.) I am not saying I approve, yet moral issues aside, you have to appreciate both the directness and simplicity of the business model!

Both parties know exactly why they are there and exactly what they want from the situation. Wouldn’t it be amazing for both real estate developers and communities if brownfield redevelopment projects were that straightforward?

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 13

Insight into Developers’ True Desires

To approach the simplicity of the “Tinder for brownfields” business model, local government managers need to understand a brownfield developer’s base needs.

These are the top three requisites that developers look for when deciding to apply for a brownfield redevelopment project.

1

Return on Investment (ROI)

ROI is the libido, the lifeblood, the driving force behind all “for-profit” developers’ natural instincts. Simply stated, every investor and lender will evaluate and balance the perceived risk and return in a redevelopment project to determine whether to pursue a transaction. Due to the increased costs—and often significantly expanded timeframe and complexity— of addressing environmental issues, regulatory uncertainty, legal issues, demolition, off-site groundwater concerns, and the like, brownfield deals are among the highest-risk real estate investments.

Consequently, to attract risk-adjusted investment capital, assuming typical “greenfield” investment returns demand a 12 to 18 percent ROI, brownfield deals must deliver a significantly higher ROI (and equity multiple) to attract investment capital and to be economically feasible.

!

2

Risk Reduction

3

Timing

To contend with the increased risk inherent in brownfield deals, any mechanism which can be employed to decrease a developer’s perceived risk will help “consummate” a transaction.

Again, by definition, complex brownfield transactions often require expanded timeframes to successfully execute. Increasing timeframes will inevitably increase risk, while decreasing return, due to the time value of money. Therefore, anything developers can do to keep a

14 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

project on time, not to mention on budget, materially impacts a developer’s potential returns and deal underwriting.

What Can Local Governments Do to “Satisfy” a Developer’s Base Needs?

Now that you clearly understand the developer’s most primal desires, what can every community do to satisfy those desires and maximize the chance for a successful outcome? Surprisingly, several of the most important actions won’t cost anything! All local governments, no matter what size or availability of resources, can take the following simple actions to maximize brownfield redevelopment success: Engaged Leadership. The most successful brownfield redevelopment projects always have municipal champions.

Engaging local government leaders at every level, to actively contribute to and promote a project important to the

community, is a fundamental key to mitigating risk. Ask any successful developer whether they’re more willing to take on the risk of an important project if the developer is confident that local government managers will actively spearhead the project, side-by-side with the developer and the answer will be a resounding “yes!”

Quick Decisions. As previously described, longer timeframes associated with brownfield projects increase risk and decrease return for all parties involved. Therefore, articulating to the developer the local government’s willingness to make quick, yet pragmatic project decisions reduces project risk and potentially enhances return.

Developers understand they must go through an appropriate bureaucratic process.

However, knowing they have a partner willing to help, by making ethical and compliant decisions quickly throughout

the development cycle, will maximize your community’s opportunity for executing successful projects. `Enhanced Entitlements.

Consider providing enhanced entitlements for brownfield projects. Increasing density, providing zoning waivers, variances, or added flexibility will give developers better odds of hitting their ROI goals, with little cost to the communities plagued by brownfield issues. Again, these projects truly are riskier and more costly for developers.

Further, brownfield sites often pose health and development risks to communities. Arguably, these redevelopments deserve, at a minimum, increased local government assistance and accommodations.

OK, Not All the Best Things Are Free!

The foregoing discussion demonstrates that by adopting several approaches,

brownfield developers will be substantially more likely to tackle a complex deal in their local community. That being said, the ability of local governments to provide or coordinate meaningful financial incentives, to offset the true increased costs and risks associated with complex brownfield deals, often tips the scales during the underwriting process. If your local government doesn’t have its own incentives, offer to help pursue other available regional, state, or federal enhancements. Remember, brownfield projects are by definition at the high end of the real estate risk and return

spectrum. To address all developers’ base need for riskadjusted returns, and simply to attract investment capital, they must make a business case to debt and equity providers.

Consequently, if you want developers and their capital providers to tackle a complex redevelopment project, the ability to provide meaningful financial incentives obviously goes a long way toward success.

no surprise that the search for ROI is fundamental to all development projects— particularly brownfield redevelopments. Adopting the right attitude to facilitate these higher-risk infill projects does not necessarily need to cost enormous sums of capital.

Local governments must simply decide to spend both the effort and energy to make deals happen.

A New Era of Candor

TODD S. DAVIS, ESQ., is the CEO of Hemisphere Brownfield Group, a national brownfield redeveloper based in Cleveland, Ohio (tdavis@ hemispheredev.com).

Like it or not, we are all living in a new era, driven not only by technology, but also by the desire for more transparency.

In that vein, it likely comes as

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 15

The

Music City

MIRACLE GROWTH AND REDEVELOPMENT OF NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE

16 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

Nashville has been known as Music City and the Country Music Capital of the World for decades. A more recent designation has Nashville ranked among the top 25 most populous cities in the USA, with a population increase of more than 10 percent since 2010.1 With rapid growth, infill is occurring at a swift pace, and infill happens on brownfields.

BY PAU L A M I D D L E B RO O K S

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 17

Increasingly, brownfields redevelopment has become an important part of economic development and community revitalization strategies across the country. Brownfields are properties which may contain real or perceived environmental contamination that hinder their redevelopment or re-use. Many brownfields are under-utilized or abandoned facilities with a history of manufacturing. Other common types of brownfields include old mills and factories, junkyards, former dry cleaners, railyards, mine-scarred lands, and abandoned gas stations.

Brownfields exist in towns of all sizes. While not all municipalities and rural areas have experienced the growth that Nashville has, the potential for brownfields redevelopment is nonetheless abundant everywhere. These idle properties can be a burden on neighbors and threaten

A 2012 photo of the grand opening of the Cumberland Play Park in downtown Nashville on the former site of the Nashville Bridge Company. Photo courtesy of Andy Shivas.

public health, local economies, and communities. The cleanup and re-use of these properties can have significant social and community benefits, in addition to economic and environmental benefits, as illustrated by the following case studies.

Case Study: From Bridges to Climbing Walls

Located along the east bank of the Cumberland River, adjacent to downtown Nashville, the Nashville Bridge Company was originally founded as a bridge builder in the 1890s. In 1915, the company converted

to shipbuilding, and by the 1960s, it was said to be the world’s largest builder of inland barges. The facility closed in 1996, when it was decided a new stadium for the Tennessee Titans would be built on a portion of the property. However, the closure left the riverfront portion of the property sitting vacant.

Under the New Riverfront Park Plan, it was determined that new public parks, open space, and recreational amenities would be added along the downtown riverfront.2 In 2008, due to the historical uses of the property, environmental site assessments were conducted utilizing Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4 Targeted Brownfields Assessment assistance.

Additional assessment and technical oversight by the

A 1947 aerial view of the Nashville Bridge Company, where barges were built and launched into the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville.

Photo courtesy of the Tennessee State Library and Archives, Collection RG-82.

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Lost Hurricane Mills Bridge Builders Plaque Bridge Builder’s Plaque for the lost Hurricane Mills Bridge over Hurricane Creek in Humphreys County, Tennessee. Built in 1911 by the Nashville Bridge Company.

Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, Division of Remediation (TDEC-DoR) were completed using EPA 128(a) brownfields funds. The assessments identified several areas impacted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), lead, and arsenic that required cleanup. The TDEC-DoR and the Metro Parks and Recreation Department worked cooperatively to develop and implement plans that incorporated a combination of soil removals, engineered caps, and institutional controls to address environmental concerns and provide for safe reuse of the property.

Today, the Cumberland Play Park is an innovative play space for children and families located on the east bank of the Cumberland River in downtown Nashville. It is a portion of an overall revitalization project on approximately three miles of land on both the east and west bank of the river. The park includes a local stone climbing wall, sand play areas, garden mazes, outdoor seating, meandering paths, and other interactive play areas.

Adaptive reuse, water harvesting for irrigation, and improved biodiversity were also included in this brownfield redevelopment project. Each year, one million gallons of stormwater are captured and reused for irrigation. Over 1.6 acres of meadow and riparian grasses were restored. There is also an outdoor amphitheater that can accommodate 1,200 people. The historic Bridge Building, originally built in 1908 for the Nashville Bridge Company, has been restored and is now home to a MetroParks office and event space, and has earned the highest rating for sustainable buildings (LEED-Platinum) by the U.S. Green Building Council.

Case Study: From Landfill to Solar Power

A 37-acre tract of land, located approximately seven miles northeast of downtown Nashville, was formerly known as the Due West Landfill. After serving as a municipal landfill from approximately 1958 to 1973, and covered with rock excavated from the construction of Interstate 65, the land sat vacant. In 1997, a portion of the property entered into TDEC’s Voluntary Cleanup, Oversight, and Assistance Program (VOAP). The state approved closure of the site with an engineered cover on the landfill in 2002. The property was subsequently monitored for the release of methane, iron, and manganese. Land use restrictions were also placed on PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 19

the property to limit its use at the time.

But in 2016, the city of Nashville showed interest in transforming the vacant land, adjacent to a major medical center, into a property designed to showcase its environmental and community benefits. The TDEC-DoR issued a “no further action” letter for the site to address soil gas and leachate. In the spring of 2018, the Nashville Electric Service (NES) broke ground for the Music City Solar Array (MCSA), located on a portion of the former landfill, transforming 25 acres of the site into Nashville’s first community solar park. In August 2018, MCSA began operating, producing renewable energy back to the power grid. The solar park gives NES customers access to sustainable, maintenance-free solar energy.

The two-megawatt facility uses over 17,000 solar panels, with each panel generating an estimated 14 kilowatt hours

per month of green energy for Nashville’s electric grid.

Case Study: From Clay Targets to Mixed Use

A 38-acre property composed of several parcels, adjacent to downtown Nashville and Interstate 65/Interstate 40, is currently being transformed in phases into a large mixed-use development. Historical use of the property was residential in the 1800s, and gradually became commercial during the 1900s. The property was used for a variety of commercial and industrial purposes, including a car dealership with a bakery, railroad exchange yard, cold storage, bookstore, beer distributor, aluminum can collection center, restaurant, woodworking shop, clay target launcher manufacturer, coal storage, and an auto body shop, among other uses. This property is situated between an active rail line and the two interstates along Dr. Martin

Luther King Blvd., adjacent to the Gulch neighborhood.

Between 2005 and 2012, environmental site assessments were conducted at the property, and environmental issues were identified. Contamination was primarily confined to the soils and consisted mainly of petroleum and automotiverelated products and wastes, as well as PAHs. Some of the contaminants identified were the result of buried coal and coal wastes related to the original railroad and industrial activities in the vicinity of the site used as backfill when parcel grades were raised during the burial of the local sewers dating back to the mid-1800s. To address these issues, the property was entered into the VOAP in phases, starting in 2013.

Subsequent remedial activities at the site included the removal and proper disposal of 369 tons of contaminated soils, 20 in-ground hydraulic lifts, and one 560-gallon underground storage tank from just one of

This vacant 38-acre area adjacent to downtown Nashville was home to an auto body shop, a beer distributor, railroad exchange yard amongst many prior other uses. Photo courtesy of Paula Middlebrooks.

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the parcels on this large site.

Groundwater sampling was also done prior to construction on the property, and an oil/ water separator was removed and confirmatory sampling completed to confirm a clean closure.

A multi-disciplinary team including developers, engineers, environmental professionals, and the TDECDoR worked together to make this cleanup and redevelopment a success through the VOAP. Numerous brownfields voluntary agreements, land use restrictions, and soil management plans were put in place to ensure safe use of the property.

The mixed-use finished project, called Capitol View, will span 38 acres and include buildings with a collective 1.1 million square feet of Class A office space, 130,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space, a 169-room hotel, grocery store, urgent-care clinic, a high-end apartment building, and a 2.5-acre park complete with free parking.

The Urban Activity Park will include a dog park, playground, yoga lawn, and sand volleyball

The Capitol View project is now home to office and restaurant space, apartments, a park, and a trailhead, amongst other uses. Photo courtesy of Paula Middlebrooks.

The Due West landfill prior to it being transformed into the Music City Solar Array. Photo courtesy of Paula Middlebrooks.

courts. The park is also a trail head for the Nashville Greenway, connecting to 190 miles of trails through Davidson County, and will be donated to Metro Nashville Government upon completion.

Addressing Brownfields

Timing is often a critical component to brownfields redevelopment.

Contamination, or potential contamination, is typically identified during pretransaction environmental due diligence screening or “all appropriate inquires.” This is accomplished by performing a Phase I Environmental Site Assessment (ESA). A Phase I ESA is completed to research the current and historical uses of a property. If the findings of the Phase I ESA show additional studies are needed, a Phase II ESA may be needed to collect samples for laboratory analysis. Typically, a Phase II ESA involves sampling of groundwater, surface water, soil, and/or soil gas. Understanding the scope of environmental impacts of a property, prior to a property transaction and development of site plans,

Small section of solar panels on the former Due West Landfill in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo courtesy of Paula Middlebrooks.

can save money and time in the property transaction and development of the site.

The TDEC works with a variety of sectors on brownfields redevelopments, including municipalities, land owners, redevelopment agencies, consulting firms, attorneys, nonprofits, and other entities. State involvement early on in brownfields projects is key. The VOAP provides liability protection to purchasers of property who address environmental impacts.

The VOAP has had over 500 properties enter the program across Tennessee since its inception in 2001. The state also works with EPA 104(k) brownfields grant applicants

to provide support during the application process and to provide technical oversight on active grants. There has been over $5 million awarded to Tennessee recipients since 2010 for the assessment and cleanup of brownfields, and the state has overseen the technical components at no cost to the communities. Both of these programs serve the entire state, beyond Nashville.

Recently, Tennessee passed a state law expanding tax incentives for counties in Tennessee.3 The 2019 law amended a previous law to expand benefits to small and mid-sized counties with greater flexibility for the size of brownfields being redeveloped.

The law also expands redevelopment zones to include qualified Opportunity Zones and expands qualified costs to include investigation, remediation, or mitigation of a brownfield project.

When entities work toward the shared goal of safe reuse of environmentally impacted properties, brownfields redevelopment can flourish.

Proactively identifying these properties—and seeing them as an asset and part of a community’s history instead of simply eyesores—is critical to growth at any pace.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

https://www.tennessean.com/story/ news/2019/05/24/nashville-populationgrowth-percent-us-census-2018-top-25rank/1214610001/ 2 https://www.civicdesigncenter.org/ pdfs/NashvilleRiverfrontReport.pdf 3 http://wapp.capitol.tn.gov/ apps/BillInfo/default. aspx?BillNumber=SB0355&GA=111 1

PAULA MIDDLEBROOKS is the Brownfields Community Engagement and Grants Program Manager, Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (paula. middlebrooks@tn.gov).

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 21

Cleaning 22 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

Up

HOUSE Developing Brownfields into Affordable Housing

In

the early 1940s, a small dry-cleaning business, Mt. Baker Cleaners, opened in South Seattle.

Several years later, a run-of-the-mill corner gas station set up shop across the street. For decades, it was business as usual. But as the years wore on, these small businesses were slowly creating a big environmental problem. Dry cleaning chemicals, solvents, and petroleum found their way into the soil, slowly and silently leaching down to the groundwater. By the mid-2010s, the dry cleaner had moved to a new location and the gas station closed after

BY MARCUS HUMBERG, changing hands many times. Both lie vacant MARTHA FAUST, CHERYL ANN since, leaving an array of environmental BISHOP, AND LYN HIKIDA problems yet to be discovered.

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 23

Photo attribution: Map data: Google, 2019.

This is a typical story of a brownfield. While the name itself inspires images of fenced off, unused grassy acres, brownfields are often just rundown, abandoned businesses or dusty gravel lots with crumbling buildings. Brownfields can seem like a Pandora’s box, just waiting to unleash their toxic— and potentially costly—secrets to the unsuspecting property buyer. Or they could be nothing more than an unused property with little to no environmental contamination on the surface,

but with no one willing to pay to find out.

While there is no one definition that can describe a “typical” brownfield, the problems faced are the same: How can you clean it? How can you redevelop it? And who’s going to pay for it? The next question, of course, is what do brownfield cleanups have to do with affordable housing? What sane planner or project manager would want to combine the complexity of both of these issues? After

Photo courtesy of Washington State Department of Ecology, taken by Marcus Humberg.

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all, how do you redevelop a brownfield property with unknown costs and uncertainty when you’re already trying to navigate limited housing budgets, grant requirements, and strict timelines?

The current need for affordable housing for lowand middle-income families has reached crisis levels in many areas. Cities struggle with finding available land, while costs continue to rise.

It’s easy to see where housing demand has outstripped supply. And it’s happening in urban, suburban, and even rural markets, driving up home prices and rents faster than incomes are rising. Formerly affordable neighborhoods are gentrifying, displacing lower income families, leaving them nowhere to go.

Here lies the conundrum— brownfields are developable land in potentia, but can take a lot of time, money, and work to be economically viable again.

Affordable housing is greatly needed, but it’s becoming more

difficult to build economically and administratively – especially in the current real estate markets many areas across the country are experiencing.

So, how can local governments leverage the opportunities brownfields offer while minimizing their drawbacks in order to build affordable housing—all without busting budgets or timelines?

When faced with public policy challenges of this magnitude, it takes a lot of dedication and determination to blaze a trail through the twin minefields of brownfields and affordable housing. But success can be found where others are unwilling to venture. Enter the innovators.

Schmidt Artist Lofts in Saint Paul, Minnesota

In the eastern half of the Twin Cities of Minneapolis-Saint Paul, lies Ramsey County. It includes the bustling capital city of Saint Paul and is the only county in Minnesota that has been fully built out.

Even before the recent shift in market preferences toward infill development, county planners realized that redevelopment of existing properties was the only path to create new housing, jobs, and even green space.

And this redevelopment, by definition, required tackling costly environmental legacy issues head on.

In 1997, Ramsey County, along with neighboring Hennepin County—home of the other twin city of Minneapolis—approached the State Legislature to help them establish a special fund. The goal of this fund was to offset the costs of environmental and brownfield remediation and enable urban land recycling for a range of new uses, including affordable housing.

By 2004, Ramsey County launched their new

Environmental Response Fund, funded by a mortgage registry and deed tax. This tax collects one dollar for every $10,000 in value for every property transaction in the county—around $25 for the average $250,000 home. Funding is split equally between the city of Saint

Paul and its surrounding suburbs, providing a critical tool in reviving the urban and suburban core of the Twin Cities Metropolitan Area.

The philosophy of the Environmental Response Fund is to be the last public money into a project, helping leverage private investment

into brownfield properties, and increasing the county’s tax base.

Many of these brownfields are located next to existing infrastructure, transit networks, and other services, making them especially desirable for redevelopment. Since its inception, the fund has helped remediate 330 acres of land,

Schmidt Brewery circa 1905. Courtesy of Minnesota Historical Society.

Schmidt Artist Lofts - After. Courtesy of Dominium.

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 25

assisted the development of over 600 affordable housing units and 775 market-rate housing units, creating over 4,370 jobs.

Patching an Urban Tapestry

In the heart of the workingclass West Seventh neighborhood, just southwest of downtown Saint Paul, stands the towering, castle-

environmental conditions, including soil contaminated with poly aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), lead, and arsenic. Removal of underground storage tanks, significant asbestos and lead-based paint abatement, as well as installation of subslab vapor systems, would be required for all of the new residential uses. The total remediation costs ran upwards

Paul. The development was fully leased before opening in 2014, and remains 100 percent leased today.

Perhaps just as important as the successful adaptive reuse of the Schmidt Brewery complex is the catalytic effect the project has produced.

Overnight, the restoration of the property injected new energy and historic pride into the neighborhood. In 2018,

still white-hot. Though prices are cooling, the median home value in King County has risen from $350,000 in 2011 to $625,000 in 2019.2 Residents are being priced out of the market by a flood of high-paid tech workers moving to the area. This influx has pushed Seattle’s lower-paid workers, who often rent their homes, to the brink—or worse, onto the streets.

In the realms of environmental justice, cleaning up properties like Mt. Baker Cleaners in lower-income neighborhoods is a step toward a more equitable and sustainable future. like Bottling House and Brew House. This former Schmidt Brewery complex has been given a new life as affordable live-work units for area artists.

For over 100 years, the 18-acre site was home to a series of breweries and at one time was the largest brewery in Minnesota. Shortly after Prohibition, it was serving thirsty Minnesotans as the nation’s seventh-largest brewery. But in the face of increasing competition, the facility shuttered in 2002.

Following a short run as an ethanol production facility, the property was slated to be razed to make room for a Walmart, but ultimately sat vacant for over a decade.

The contamination from a century of industrial use stymied any potential development. Enter local affordable housing developer, Dominium, who envisioned a new transit-oriented use for the property, drawing on its historic character and iconic architecture.

The first step in redevelopment required remediation of a myriad of

of $3.5 million. Ramsey County contributed $300,000 in Environmental Response Funds, other remediation grants had to be acquired, and the developer covered the remaining balance.

One of the unique steps in this project also included the historical designation of the site. Once recognized as one of “Minnesota’s 10 most endangered historic places,” the former brewery is now part of a new historic district listed on the National Register for Historic Places.

As an adaptive reuse, the $130 million project created 247 individually unique one, two, and three-bedroom rental lofts and flats, and 13 three-bedroom townhomes on a property adjacent to the bottling house. These units are not only affordable, but attractive to artists with a $42,000 maximum income restriction for a single-person household. Onsite amenities include paint, clay, sound, and dance studios; a performance space; and a rooftop deck with views of the Mississippi River and downtown Saint

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a 33,000 square-foot Keg & Case food hall opened in a former storage building in the new historic district, filled with local restauranteurs, vendors, and fittingly, a craft brewery. Keg & Case hosts a weekly neighborhood farmers market and was recently named the best new food hall in America by USA Today.1 The Schmidt Brewery redevelopment illustrates the opportunities that brownfield sites hold for potential reuse for affordable housing. Success in this case required creative vision, persistence, and public-private partnerships to overcome the significant cost challenges. Projects such as the Schmidt Artist Lofts not only provide critically needed, transit-accessible affordable housing, but also fill holes in the urban fabric, and can even spur an economic revolution through strategic redevelopment.

The Maddux in Seattle, Washington

When it comes to overheated real estate markets, Seattle and surrounding King County is

One could think it odd then that only a few miles from downtown there are boardedup businesses and vacant properties. Surely these lots would be quickly swallowed up and developed in such an insatiable, high-priced, highdemand market. But even white-hot real estate prices can’t overcome that which lies beneath.

Creating Successful Partnerships

In 1988, Washington’s citizens passed Initiative 97 establishing a statewide environmental cleanup law, the Model Toxics Control Act (MTCA).3 This act installed a tax on petroleum products, certain chemicals, and pesticides to fund cleanups across the state and prescribes the required cleanup process.

The Washington State Department of Ecology (Ecology) manages the majority of MTCA funding, and regulates the cleanup process for public and private properties across the state.

Until recently, MTCA cleanup funds could not be

granted to private parties; they were instead routed only through local governments.

When Ecology recently became involved with affordable housing-related cleanup, this limitation inspired two new variants of its main grants—Integrated Planning Grants (IPGs) and Remedial Action Grants (RAGs). These new grants support housing

and community planning and cleanup activities for brownfield sites that deliver affordable housing as an end use. They can be used by local governments and tribes, as well as nonprofit and private entities.

IPGs provide $200,000– $300,000 to support planning, investigation, and public involvement related to a potential cleanup. This

early funding can produce a much bigger return on investment later in the project.

Whether that planning is for site assessment, or other innovative uses that benefit the public, the key is setting the stage early, which gives projects a strong foundation for later success. Affordable housing-related RAGs have no award limits and help investigation and cleanup of brownfield sites.

Inspiring Innovation in Affordable Housing4

The Maddux in Seattle - Before.

Courtesy of the Washington State Department of Ecology.

In 2013, MTCA was modified to allow local governments new ways to use cleanup funds, including the creation of a Redevelopment Opportunity Zone (ROZ).5 Within a ROZ, the local government can create a brownfields renewal authority, a municipal authority that has broad powers to help manage and fund the cleanup and redevelopment of brownfields.

The ROZ also allows Ecology to connect prospective purchasers and developers with owners of brownfield properties and provide funding for parts of the project that are not directly involved with cleanup.

The city of Seattle voted in 2017 to create a ROZ encompassing two major cleanup sites—the abandoned Mt. Baker Cleaners and a run-down, former gas station and auto repair shop owned

by Phillips 66. These derelict properties occupy an otherwise desirable location—a prominent corner, in real estate parlance—within walking distance of light rail, a bus station, and green space, mere minutes from downtown. It’s almost everything you could want for affordable housing except, of course, for the cleanup price tag.

To kick-start the project, in 2017 Ecology offered $400,000 to help

The Maddux in Seattle - After.

Courtesy of Mt. Baker Housing Authority.

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 27

assess the contamination on the site and connect the property owner to a nonprofit developer, Mt. Baker Housing. This early funding spurred the project forward, and ultimately inspired future innovation.

The environmental assessment showed the extent of the property’s toxic unknowns—dry-cleaning solvents (percholorethene and trichloroethene) and petroleum contaminants (gasoline, diesel, benzene, and heavy oil) in the soil and groundwater at levels below what had been anticipated, bringing the cleanup cost estimate from as high as $31 million to around $7 million.

Using this new information, the Mt. Baker housing authority went to work, securing $56 million in private, state, and federal funding. With all the details in place, the state legislature approved

property values and affect residents’ social and physical wellbeing. However, brownfield properties often attract projects that can easily price out the people who stand to benefit the most—the residents who

Housing Remediation Program, a pilot project exploring direct funding options for private, tribal, and non-profit agencies that connect the cleanup of contaminated sites to redevelopment as affordable

The success that early assessment and planning had on the Maddux eventually inspired Ecology to establish the Healthy Housing Remediation Program. $6.2 million to fund the site cleanup. In 2019, Mt. Baker Housing finalized the purchase agreements and will begin construction of the mixeduse project, including 144 affordable housing units and ground-level commercial spaces, which is essential in an area with limited retail services.

In the realms of environmental justice, cleaning up properties like Mt. Baker Cleaners in lowerincome neighborhoods is a step toward a more equitable and sustainable future.

Contamination and longabandoned buildings depress

lived with the contamination and lower property values for so many years. Part of the success of the Maddux hinged on placing restrictive affordable housing covenants on the land, protecting the neighborhood from the pressures of marketrate development and gentrification.

Though providing funding through a ROZ worked for the Maddux, it was an inefficient way of providing direct funding to non-government entities.

Given the success that early assessment and planning had on the Maddux, Ecology established the Healthy

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housing.6 This program has already produced proposals for 110-units of affordable housing in Kennewick, Washington; and a mixed-use, seven-story waterfront development in Bellingham, Washington, that includes affordable apartments and a campus with a professional communal kitchen and food truck court.

Jordan Downs in Los Angeles, California

During the height of World War II, the city of Los Angeles was going full steam for America’s war effort. At the same time, it was experiencing

a housing crisis due to the influx of workers recruited by the defense industry. In the Watts neighborhood of South Los Angeles, the city contracted to build Jordan Downs, a 34-acre temporary housing development with hundreds of low-rise, barracksstyle buildings, next door to a steel mill built to support the war. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jordan Downs was dedicated in 1944 for the city’s war workers including members of minority racial groups that have faced a critical housing problem.7 In 1955, this cinder block “temporary housing” was converted into 700 units of low-income public housing. Over the decades, economic depression, racial conflicts, and disinvestment in the community contributed to its physical and social decline.

Bifurcating the Jordan Downs neighborhood today is a 21-acre industrial property that once housed the steel mill. Over time, the site was repurposed from steel manufacturing and truck repair

Jordan Downs Phase 1.

Photo by SVA Architects, courtesy of BRIDGE Housing.

to waste handling and storage.

In 1996, environmental studies were conducted that identified significant contamination.

Recognizing an opportunity to eliminate this dysfunctional property so close to their public housing, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA) acquired the site in 2008 with the intent to remediate it for future use.8 The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) also gained oversight to ensure proper cleanup and abatement of the property.

Delivering Environmental Justice

In 2012, the nonprofit BRIDGE Housing, along with The Michaels Organization, was selected by HACLA to develop and lead the revitalization of Jordan Downs.9 Ultimately, this ongoing comprehensive, long-term effort will rebuild all 700 units of distressed public housing and create an additional 650 new homes

with a range of affordability, along with new roads and infrastructure, community facilities, retail, parks, and open space. While significant remediation was required, putting the old steel mill site into service as part of the Jordan Downs master redevelopment would achieve several important goals: • Reknit the physical community, as the vacant parcel splitting Jordan Downs created turf wars and divisions between residents of the north and south sides.

• Allow the construction of the first 250 apartments and create replacement public housing units mitigating displacement of current residents.

• Enable the extension of Century Boulevard, a major thoroughfare, to reconnect Jordan Downs with the surrounding neighborhood.

• Provide land for 115,000 square feet of retail and commercial space, which is vital in a neighborhood that has had a dearth of retail services and jobs.

• Eliminate severe blight of the industrial parcel.

• Eliminate toxins immediately adjacent to Jordan High School, the public housing complex, and the community’s recreation center.

The DTSC approved a remedial action plan for the former steel mill site in 2014, and remediation work began in April 2015. Based on earlier environmental studies, the conclusion was reached that only certain areas of the site had contamination requiring remediation, anticipating that the cleanup would take only

six months. However, it soon became evident that heavy metals and toxic contamination were spread across the entire site. Engine oil, diesel and gasoline, paint thinners, trichloroethylene (an industrial solvent), and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) had leached into the soil and groundwater.

Contamination in some areas extended to a depth of over 20 feet, requiring the removal of more than 220,000 tons of impacted soil. Backfilling the space with clean soil has ensured safe occupancy for future uses. Due to the expanded scope of cleanup, the remediation costs rose to $31 million, a significant investment in a community that had been neglected for decades.

In 2016, the remediation was completed and DTSC issued a “no further action” letter for the residential parcels, allowing construction of the first residential phases, the Century Boulevard extension, and retail spaces.

As of fall 2019, BRIDGE’s 115-unit Cedar Grove at Jordan Downs is now leasing. Designed to a LEED Silver certification level, the new apartments will serve existing public housing residents and other low-income families. Retail establishments are nearing completion, and the new Century Boulevard extension connects the community to the services and amenities of greater Los Angeles.

The remediation and reuse of the 21-acre brownfield parcel was the critical first step in a multiphase process that is transforming Jordan Downs into a vibrant—and healthier— mixed-use community where thousands of residents will be able to thrive.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

St. Paul’s Keg and Case named Best New Food Hall, USA Today, January 18, 2019, Accessed at https://www.10best.com/ awards/travel/best-new-food-hall/.

2 Northwest Multiple Listing Service Data, 2011–2019.

3 https://ecology.wa.gov/Spills-Cleanup/ Contamination-cleanup/Rules-directingour-cleanup-work/Model-ToxicsControl-Act 4 This section adapted in part from an article published in the Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce. Article is attributed to Bob Warren, but was ghostwritten by Cheryl Ann Bishop. “State helps turn brownfields into affordable housing,” Daily Journal of Commerce, September 27, 2018, https://www.djc.com/news/ en/12114941.html.

5 https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/ publications/SummaryPages/ 1809048.html 6 https://fortress.wa.gov/ecy/ publications/SummaryPages/1809051. html 7 Dedication of Housing Today (1944, May 28), Los Angeles Times, retrieved from http://newspapers.com.

8 http://uli.org/wp-content/uploads/ ULI-Documents/2009JordanDownsLA Report.pdf 9 https://bridgehousing.com/ press_releases/los-angeles-celebratesgroundbreaking-of-first-residential-phaseof-jordan-downs-revitalization/ 1

MARTHA FAUST is the redevelopment manager, Ramsey County, Minnesota (martha. faust@co.ramsey.mn.us).

MARCUS HUMBERG is the communications specialist, Washington State Department of Ecology, Toxics Cleanup Program, Olympia, Washington (marcus.humberg@ecy.wa.gov).

CHERYL ANN BISHOP is the communications manager, Washington State Department of Ecology, Toxics Cleanup Program, Olympia, Washington (cherylann.bishop@ecy.wa.gov).

LYN HIKIDA is vice president of communications, BRIDGE Housing, (lhikida@ bridgehousing.com).

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 29

Under the

HOOD A LOOK AT TECHNO-CENTRIC SMART CITY DEVELOPMENT

30 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

Technocentric smart and

intelligent city initiatives continue to garner our attention and resources, as transforming urban areas into prosperous, livable, and sustainable

BY KEVIN C. DESOUZA, settlements is a long-standing goal for MICHAEL HUNTER, AND local governments. Today, countless urban TAN YIGITCANLAR settlements across the globe have jumped onto the so-called “smart city bandwagon” to achieve this goal. Most smart city projects are either focused on transformation of the existing technical and physical infrastructures of a city— brownfield developments, or greenfield urban projects.1 Local governments around the globe are investing in partnerships with technology companies to help shape the future of cities.

Companies such as Google and Microsoft have begun to show interest in the movement with the development of Toronto’s Sidewalks Lab2 and Arizona’s desert city.3 However, more commonly governments are investing in network infrastructure partnerships4 with companies such as CISCO to develop complex networks, sensors, and data processes. For the last several months, we have been studying the range of technocentric smart city partnerships to uncover what works and what should local governments watch out for. Here are some of the cases we have looked at.

Songdo, South Korea

Envisioned as early as 2001, Songdo5 was born out of a political drive6 for lowcarbon sustainable growth and a push for trade-based economic growth. South Korea’s economic development over the previous half century has been largely driven by manufacturing and export as the country has few natural resources. As a result, South Korea imports almost the entirety of their fuel supply to maintain their manufacturing economy.

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Songdo looks to lower the economic costs of importing fuel whilst simultaneously improving the trade network of South Korea by developing a city strategically located for trade, powered by renewable energy technology. Built entirely on reclaimed land from the Yellow Sea, Songdo is situated on the tip of the Incheon Free Economic Zone.7 However, Songdo’s two-hour commute from Seoul, the nation’s capital, has received criticism from the public, who believes the distance is too far for a daily commute, but not far enough to recognise Songdo as its own viable economic center.

This is reflected by Songdo’s 60 percent unoccupancy rate and 70,000 daily commuters.

While this number of daily commuters alone might seem impressive, it pales in comparison to Seoul’s population of 9 million and struggles to ease the bustle of the capital—as was originally advertised. Songdo’s current population sits at 100,000, which while impressive for a city built from scratch, is still short of its 300,000-resident goal and for those who do live there, Songdo is considered a ghost town.8

Hudson Yards, New York, United States

Like Songdo, the Hudson Yards development9 in New York City was conceptualized as early as 2001. It was originally born out of the desire to host the 2012 Olympic Games and a need for further urban space within Manhattan. In order to create this urban space, the Hudson Yards project looked at developing an entire district on top of a major rail center and transport hub. This extremely ambitious project has been

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considered the most expensive private development10 in United States history, budgeted at roughly $25 billion USD. The development was first advertised as New York’s smartest new neighbourhood, with sensor technology delivering data-driven updates, allowing the developers to repeatedly improve quality of life. In a bid to become America’s first “quantified community,” Hudson Yards advertised sensors that would monitor air quality, noise levels,

temperature, and pedestrian traffic, alongside technology typical of the smart city movement. Pneumatic waste disposal chutes would automate waste collection, micro-grid and gas fired turbines would reduce greenhouse gases, and even more sensors would monitor resource efficiency and reduce downtime.

Its highly sought-after location garnered interest from numerous multi-nationals, with investment from HSBC, Bank of China and

Deutsche Bank; and current commercial renting from SAP, BCG, Warner Media, and L’Oreal. Similar to Songdo, this development’s top-down approach promised technology as a means to improve quality of life within Manhattan, but has been met with its own set of criticism.11 Hudson Yards is currently perceived as a space only available to those who can afford it, filled with up-market commercial and entertainment businesses and little public space.

As such, it’s argued that the original benefits this development would have for the city are yet to be met.

Hudson Yards is yet to deliver on its original purpose with data-driven analytics being pushed to the last of the head property developers focus. Main property developer “Related” initially advertised Hudson Yards as a technologically improved urban area due to its use of data analytics to improve resource efficiency. Related has since noted12 that from the initial planning of the city, data technology has changed rapidly, and as such, increased complications regarding privacy and analytics have surfaced. Physical construction of Hudson Yards has taken a priority in its development as it provides a more tangible economic return.

Masdar City, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Masdar City began as an incredibly ambitious project hoping to be the world’s first zero-carbon city.13 First established in 2006, Abu Dhabi looked towards developing an economic, social, and environmental sustainability blueprint of a city14 that would

help the nation’s economy diversify away from its traditionally nonrenewable assets (fossil fuel and oil). Its aim was to develop large-scale renewable energy projects, become a clean-tech hub, provide homes for 50,000 people and facilities for 1,500 businesses, and develop a new institute of science and technology (MIST).

Still in development, Masdar City has faced numerous challenges due to its location and its initial sustainability projections. This project has been considered extremely ambitious due to the severe desert weather conditions; the aims for complete sustainability; the research, development, and implementation of renewable technology; and its overall greenfield nature. This project is located 17km south east of Abu Dhabi City and is strategically placed alongside Abu Dhabi International Airport. The desert conditions noticeably affected the construction of the city, with shifting sands adding difficulty to the initial foundations and extreme temperatures affecting workers. This directly affected the budget, which in turn had a negative impact on Masdar City as an economically sustainable project. As a result, its initial “carbon free” scheme has changed to “carbon neutral,” and only two of its 1,500 planned transport stations are currently active. Similar to Songdo, its “built from scratch, top-down approach” has struggled to garner interest from UAE citizens with its current population sitting close to just 3,000 people, most of which are students.

However, Masdar City has

recently begun to establish numerous global partnerships and multi-national clean tech projects.15 Thirteen years after its initial conceptualization, the research and development of renewable energy technology has become a commodity that Masdar City can now profit from. The UAE’s initial economic drive to diversify assets is now realised through the hundreds of clean energy projects Masdar City technology is involved in globally.

Gujarat, India

Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT)16 has been conceptualized amongst India’s 100 Smart City Program17 to help adapt to community and economic needs in India’s future. With 70 percent of Indians living in cities by 2050 and roughly 500 million moving to urban areas, GIFT looks to develop an economic hub within the Indian Economic Zone,18 capable of housing large amounts of multi-national companies and scaling into a business capital of the world. GIFT is also utilizing smart city technologies— such as automated waste disposal, renewable energy infrastructure, and real-time monitoring of city life—to aid in the national development of sustainability and environmental norms against the growing population crisis.

In order to do this, GIFT aims to move most of its infrastructure underground, with power, water, waste, and fire hydrant services built into wet or dry sections of a utility tunnel plan. These large service trenches aim to provide the council with access to all-important city

infrastructure without a need for digging or resurfacing, allowing for a well-designed and uninterrupted urban transport plan on the surface.

Its current power system demonstrates 99.9 percent reliability with roughly 5.3 minutes of outage per annum, and the efficiency of its waste disposal system is four times the national standard.

GIFT’s early stages of development have been marked as its most difficult with the city struggling to garner investment or interest nationally or globally.19 Initially, it was expected to construct over 100 skyscrapers capable of supporting one million jobs within its first decade, although it wasn’t until 2014 that Prime Minister Modi introduced clear regulatory framework regarding the city’s overarching goals.

Furthermore, it wasn’t until 2016 that the Modi government set up favorable tax motives for finance and technology firms looking to invest in GIFT and it is even argued today that foreign business is more likely to operate out of Mumbai due to its preexisting talent pool. Similar to the other greenfield projects in this list, GIFT required a large amount of upfront investment to begin construction, as well as a more heavily weighted topdown approach to implement the necessary infrastructure of the city. Operating as a 50/50 joint venture between state government (GUDC) and private enterprise (IFSC), GIFT’s construction was initially slow with only six commercial towers currently developed.

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Over the past two years, GIFT has begun to demonstrate extremely high value. GIFT was recently named in the top three emerging business hubs20 in the world (GFCI) and late last year the city announced a collaboration with Bloomberg21 aimed at incentivizing foreign interest through best practice, transparent frameworks, and secure data/technology infrastructure. Currently, over 200 companies are operational in GIFT, including Oracle, State Bank of India, and the Indian International Exchange.

Key Learnings

Other cases we studied include Amsterdam Smart City Initiative,22 City Verve in Manchester City,23 Smart City 3.0 Barcelona,24 Singapore’s Juron Lake District25 and, Startup Smart City – Tel Aviv,26 among others. In examining these cases, we have arrived at some key learnings.

1. Techno-centric smart city developments seldom work. The projects are run

over budget, they underdeliver, and they never get completed on schedule. The initiatives that have struggled all share commonalities in their greenfield top-down approach to development.

Masdar City and Songdo have both implemented some incredibly impressive technology, but they struggle to maintain a population capable of utilising it. Put differently, if you build it, they are not guaranteed to come.

To be successful, technologycentric development must be complemented with associated investments in social, economic, and responsible innovation policies that can result in the development of a liveable and just city.

2. Local governments must adopt the role of facilitator within the initiative. As seen in

these initiatives, the complex nature of urban transformation will incorporate numerous partners, new technologies, and environmental change for citizens; therefore, it is crucial that government provides a solid foundation to take

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advantage of this complexity.

Complexity is not something to be shunned—local governments must embrace it and be prepared to thrive on it as emergent opportunities develop. Furthermore, we need to equip our cities with highly dynamic mechanisms to better plan their growth and manage their day-to-day operational challenges. Investing in smart governance could pay off in this regard.

3. Ensure risks are properly shared with the private sector. Too often, we see smart

city developments where local governments own a large share of the risk, while the private sector has its commitments and risks shielded. The most expensive initiatives on this list have included massive infrastructure upgrades which have required public/private partnerships and investment.

In the extreme cases such as Hudson Yards, private ownership has deterred the initial public benefit of the project. Local governments need to get smarter when it comes to managing complex

public/private partnerships and managing public finance agreements.

4. Be open to new innovations and think about how to gain from setbacks.

Seldom do these projects work out as planned. As such, it is important to incorporate flexibility in how one thinks about resources and being open to re-orienting focus as conditions change. Masdar City has already capitalised on the research of its wind and solar technologies through numerous global partnerships implementing the lessons learned during the construction the city. What began as a by-product of the city’s development, now offers a viable stream of revenue for continued city progress. We suggest the expansion of this idea toward the digital sphere.

As renewable technologies were initially the focus of smart city developments, we can now note successful smart city initiatives largely focus on the importance of data.

5. Smart cities should be for all citizens. The current

smart city practices, excluding the Indian cases, are at large elitist approaches to create high-quality lifestyle havens exclusive for the privileged citizens. For instance, despite the urban plan of the Masdar city dictating that 20 percent of the accommodation areas are to be assigned to lowincome groups, the city is almost exclusively occupied by affluent populations.

The blue-collar workers of Masdar commute long distances by private motor vehicles, contradicting one of the design principles of the city “being a car-free development.”

6. Smart cities must consider consumption of resources. While a massive

consumption society is an integral contributor of the environmental problems we experience, the existing smart city agenda has a negligible focus on the consumption behavior change. The reason for this is that technology is seen as a lucrative commodity— constantly producing new versions and making earlier ones redundant—and its materialism is highly profitable for the technology companies that drive the corporate smart city agenda. We underline the importance of longevity of the smart city technological infrastructure—not needing constant updates and upgrades.

7. Renewable energy sources are imperative to long-term sustainability.

Unsustainable practice is a clear roadblock in a city’s journey to become smarter. Even though some smart cities such as Amsterdam and San Francisco are widely recognized as global leaders in smart solutions for sustainable urban outcomes, emissions generated from

these cities continue to rise.

Naturally smart cities are energy-hungry urban localities; hence, they must switch to renewable energy sources to not further contribute to the global climate crisis.

8. Smart cities are only as smart as their residents.

There is clear interest from city administrations to employ state-of-the-art digital data and technology to create efficiencies for boosting economic development, enhancing quality of life, or improving sustainability of the city. Nonetheless, what is needed is not only to make city systems smart, but to also make the city itself smart—that includes its residents. After all, it takes a smart community (a knowledgeable, conscious, forward-thinking, engaged, united, and active community) to raise a smart city.

In closing, we looked at techno-centric smart city development efforts and found no clear evidence that in its infancy the current smart city practice actually has the capacity to generate genuine and long-term solutions. We are at the beginning of a new era where technology and cities are converging. The knowledge on smart cities is limited, and our expectations from them are unrealistic and full of speculations. Technology is being seen by many as the silver bullet. While critical, technology alone cannot create smart cities. It takes more than just the state-of-the-art solutions to transform cities into truly smart and sustainable ones. Thus, we have to ensure that the social, economic, environmental, and policy realms are accounted for with the same level of care and vigor that we pay to technology.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

https://www.businessfirstmagazine. com.au/building-greenfield-city-centresmart-way/25079/ 2 https://sidewalktoronto.ca/ 3 https://www.cnet.com/news/bill-gatesplans-to-build-a-smart-city-in-arizonadesert/ 4 https://www.cisco.com/c/en_au/ solutions/industries/smart-connectedcommunities.html#~stickynav=2 5 https://smartcityhub.com/urbanplanning-and-building/songdo-modelof-the-smart-and-sustainable-city-of-thefuture/ 6 https://www.theguardian.com/ sustainable-business/south-korea-smartgrid-low-carbon 7 http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/ tech/2018/12/693_259369.html 8 https://www.citylab.com/ life/2018/06/sleepy-in-songdo-koreassmartest-city/561374/ 9 https://www.hudsonyardsnewyork. com/ 10 https://www.businessinsider.com.au/ hudson-yards-tour-of-most-expensivedevelopment-in-us-history-20189?r=US&IR=T 11 https://www.theguardian.com/ commentisfree/2019/mar/13/new-yorkhudson-yards-ultra-capitalist 12 https://www.metropolismag.com/ cities/hudson-yards-technologyurbanism/ 13 https://www.energydigital.com/ sustainability/masdar-greenest-city-world 14 https://masdar.ae/en/masdar-city/thecity/sustainability 15 https://masdar.ae/en/masdar-cleanenergy/projects 16 https://economictimes.indiatimes. com/markets/stocks/news/giftinternational-financial-services-centre/ articleshow/69642735.cms?from=mdr 17 http://smartcities.gov.in/content/ 18 http://www.giftgujarat.in/gift-sez 19 https://www.business-standard.com/ article/economy-policy/india-s-jobsdeficit-gift-city-in-gujarat-struggling-tocreate-employment-119052400221_1. html 20 https://www.news18.com/news/ business/gujarats-gift-city-named-amongtop-three-emerging-business-hubs-inworld-1876885.html 21 https://www.bloomberg.com/ company/announcements/ gujarat-international-finance-teccity-gift-city-bloomberg-collaborateadvance-indias-international-financialservices-centre-ifsc-global-investors/ 22 https://smartcityhub.com/governanceeconomy/amsterdam-better-than-smart/ 23 https://cityverve.org.uk/ 24 http://www.urban-hub.com/cities/ smart-city-3-0-ask-barcelona-about-thenext-generation-of-smart-cities/ 25 https://www.jld.sg/ 26 https://www.tel-aviv.gov.il/en/ abouttheCity/Pages/SmartStartup.aspx 1

KEVIN C. DESOUZA is a professor of business, technology and strategy in the School of Management at the Queensland University of Technology Business School, Australia. He is a nonresident senior fellow in the Governance Studies Program at the Brookings Institution and a distinguished research fellow at the China Institute for Urban Governance at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. He is also a 2018–2019 ICMA Local Government Research Fellow. (kevin.c.desouza@gmail.com) MICHAEL HUNTER is an enterprise software consultant at TechnologyOne; user-experience designer; and researcher, Science and Engineering faculty, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. He has a master’s degree in information technology and conducts research on the intersection of technology, governance, and society. (michaelhunter.19101992@ gmail.com) TAN YIGITCANLAR is an associate professor, urban studies and planning, School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment, Queensland University of Technology, Australia. His research interests include smart technologies, communities, cities, and urbanism; knowledge-based development of cities and innovation districts; and sustainable and resilient cities, communities, and urban ecosystems. (tan.yigitcanlar@ qut.edu.au)

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SOCIETAL DISRUPTIONS ARE OPPORTUNITIES FOR

Economic Development ARE YOU READY FOR THE NEXT PHASE OF GROWTH?

BY KIM BRIESEMEISTER

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Cities that want to be in an optimal position for economic growth should focus on three key areas: • Rezoning to attract new development opportunities, • Strengthening city/county and/or regulatory relationships, and • Marketing opportunity zones or targeted redevelopment sites.

Evaluating your city’s status in these categories is essential so that once the analysis is complete, the planning phase can commence. I have always been a strong proponent of creating a step-by-step plan to tackle city issues, then working the plan aggressively.

The Retail Apocalypse?

While the term “retail apocalypse” is commonly cited, I don’t believe the news is all bad for retail stores. Yes, there are issues, but there are opportunities as well, and cities who proactively update zoning codes to stay ahead of the changing retail trends will fare better than those who are complacent.

First, let’s address what we are facing. According to data from Green Street Advisors, roughly a third of shopping malls are at risk of dying off as they exist today. When a mall loses a major anchor store, the chance of the mall’s survival is drastically reduced.

Other problem retailers can be found along major U.S. corridors as mom and pop shops and big box electronic/home stores close and remain vacant, leaving struggling strip centers and blighted empty buildings.

Societal disruptions have always created tremendous opportunities for economic development, but what sets today’s disruption apart is the accelerated pace at which change is occurring. In order to remain competitive, city leaders must rewrite their economic development plans to account for the disruption, and perhaps even more importantly, implement those plans expeditiously.

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However, new concepts are beginning to emerge that are changing the way people shop. These innovations may reveal the next generation of how shopping will transform underutilized retail centers.

One concept to explore is called Neighborhood Goods, a new type of department store with retail “pop-up” areas where multiple vendors can rent space on a shortterm basis to introduce or test merchandise.1 Their first location, a 14,000 square foot space, opened in November 2018, in Plano, Texas.

Cameras are omnipresent, recording consumer shopping habits, and since most people assume they are being watched everywhere anyway, they are not bothered. This invaluable market research of monitoring how people buy things,

combined with in-person interaction, is creating a new form of retail strategy.

While online shopping has radically altered our relationship with retail, it’s also providing innovative options for the next phase of growth through the reinvention and re-use of existing space.

The Mall Reimagined

If your city has a dying mall, this real estate asset offers one of the largest potential prospects for new uses on the site. Although malls are privately owned, cities with aggressive economic development teams can proactively work with the owners on a revised plan for the real estate.

Begin by assessing what your community really wants and needs to grow economically—

Funky Buddha Brewery was able to open on a main street after zoning was changed from retail to industrial to accommodate the use, spurring the redevelopment of the entire downtown area.

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not just now, but also 20 years from now. Then ensure there is an authentic connection to the overall brand of your city. Consider cities such as Charleston, South Carolina; Austin, Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Boca Raton, Florida. Whether or not you like their brand is irrelevant, it’s that they have one and have built upon it to their advantage.

Austin, for example, is building a brand around the music industry, so if they have failing real estate assets, they could target musical uses, such as a school or even a performance venue, to the vacant or underutilized parcel.

For cities with a strong tourism industry, hotels or visitor attractions could be zoned into large sites encouraging and expanding the tourist brand. Another

city could create codes that encourage a medical office expansion if the site is near a hospital, thus growing a medical brand for the city.

It helps tremendously if a city already has a brand to build upon when attracting new businesses or is considering how to repurpose a dying mall. If your city doesn’t have a brand, begin to create one.

Back to retail and malls.

I believe the innate desire for human interaction will continue to drive people to places where they can shop in a physical location and interact with other people.

In addition to the human connection, most Baby Boomers still like to touch stuff before they buy it. Even as online purchases increase, certain goods and services may transition more slowly

Existing City of Sunrise Existing: Existing right-of-way conditions Vision: Form-based code amendments would allow for better retail and commercial development supported by complete street concepts to achieve an overall vision.

and continue to be sold in traditional retail physical environments. Generation Z also likes to shop, but they want unique handmade items, preferring experiences over materialism. This is leading developers to devise entertainment, dining, and shopping centers that have a pop-up and personalized feel.

Finally, the aging population is also a key factor in new development as some malls are looking to transition into micro-housing units that are directly connected to medical and dental facilities along with restaurants, entertainment, and specialty grocers.

Cities that consider the changing retail environment and nuances of human interaction can create an economic strategy that proactively repurposes the reuse of malls and other large real estate, becoming a magnet for good economic growth.

Change Your Zoning Laws

One of the most powerful tools a city has is its ability to control, manage, and manipulate growth through its zoning laws. Bad zoning codes can stunt a city’s growth faster than a poor crime rating, and good zoning codes can change the face of a city in a very short time. Cities that say they have strong economic development goals are only as strong as their zoning code, so begin by reviewing your

Vision

zoning laws for obstacles and opportunities.

Six Fundamental Zoning Areas to Explore:

1. Conduct an analysis of underutilized surface parking areas or garages in your city, including mall parking lots, old big box centers, city owned parking, etc. Look for both

public- and private-owned parcels. The loss of retailers has led to many empty or underutilized parking areas leaving tremendous

opportunities for new growth.

Using the options previously discussed, plan for new uses, or a complete redevelopment of these sites, including new residential development inside the mall footprint, new public gathering spots, green spaces, and pedestrian connections.

Consider changing access roads and create walkable connections to the surrounding neighborhoods.

frontage, cities should check if parking requirements, or some other regulatory requirement, are limiting new businesses from filling those vacant spaces. If you can find out why

2. For major high traffic corridors with strip center

The tremendous growth of online orders is pushing

the retailers won’t rent space, you’re halfway there.

3. Change zoning in the middle of a city center on key sites, or on perimeter parcels near town, to allow small-scale distribution centers in commercial areas.

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Amazon, grocery chains, and other big retailers to find new distribution centers inside traditional neighborhoods or city centers.

Economic growth will occur in your city when these retailers can create a distribution system near their client base making their delivery system more efficient. The assumption may be that this use is not compatible or will increase

traffic; however, if zoned correctly, these buildings will likely create less traffic than retail or commercial use.

4. Review strip center zoning to determine if it can be changed from consumer-oriented retail uses to a new flex category, thus modifying the parking requirements, as well as the

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ingress/egress of the site.

By altering the traffic and parking flow, there may opportunities for new green space or plazas for gathering.

5. Conduct a feasibility analysis to determine if shallow retail strip centers abutting

A rendering of an Opportunity Zone in Pompano Beach, Florida and the award-winning marketing collateral designed to attract investors.

residential neighborhoods can be rezoned for live/ work, creating a transition.

Taking a live/work zoning category a block deeper into a single-family neighborhood may not be popular or appropriate in a strong and healthy singlefamily neighborhood, so a thorough examination of the surrounding area will be critical.

6. Consider a form-based code. Very few cities have

embraced the concept of a form-based code, which provides development guidelines but also flexibility within the building footprint, which is enticing to developers.

Zoning Case Study

One city wanted to revitalize their downtown, but they were struggling to define their brand. They didn’t have any obvious assets to build upon, such as a beach or mountains, medical centers, educational uses, or courthouses. My company suggested a “culinary district” brand for them because they did have strong catering businesses, kitchen designers, specialty food stores, and culinary retail shops. Uniquely, they had a huge 180,000 square foot industrial building that used to be a Sears distribution center right on main street, but it was zoned retail. We suggested they rezone it industrial to accommodate a brewery, and within one month they landed Funky Buddha Brewery, which set the stage for a complete revitalization of their downtown.

What city leaders need to concern themselves with is how to they make their city stand out to attract some of that investment!

The City-County Connection

There are often disconnects between the cities and counties, but for this new phase of growth to be successful, those gaps should be tightened, and a uniform vision realized. The county must be as progressive as its most progressive city for overall economic development to be successful.

Investors and developers analyze locations and a burdensome governmental process can be enough to send a potential investor to the next county where easier permitting and a business-friendly environment await.

Some of the biggest stumbling blocks that must be addressed immediately include: • Outdated systems, • Declining and failing infrastructure, • Bureaucracy, and • Lack of long-term progressive goals for moving people or goods around.

City leaders can help move this relationship into a better place by focusing on three key areas: • Defining an overall strategy for how the city wants to grow,

• Forming public/private relationships to attract good growth, and • Creating a shared vision for growth that removes development obstacles at all governmental levels.

Opportunity Zones and Targeted Redevelopment Sites

Last, but not least on our checklist, we visit a “good” disruption created by the IRS. Opportunity zones were added to the tax code by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act in 2017, with the first set of opportunity zones being announced on April 9, 2018. As defined by the IRS, an opportunity zone is “an economically distressed community where new investments, under certain conditions, may be eligible for preferential tax treatment.”2 Cities who obtained this status are now determining the best ways to fulfill the promised potential. Other cities, without these zones, who are looking to emulate elements of the model, can create their own targeted redevelopment sites including a thoughtful set of incentives to attract private investment.

The IRS code has reams of details about Opportunity Zones, but essentially, it’s a substantial tax break on capital gains that’s re-invested in disadvantaged communities.

The federal government’s goal is purportedly to attract much needed funding in areas that are struggling economically. What city leaders need to concern themselves with is how to they make their city stand out to attract some of that investment!

Leaders must ensure that their city is ready to do business

whether they have an official opportunity zone or not. These are the best steps: • Begin with a thorough analysis of zoning laws, land-use, utilities, infrastructure, roads, and right of ways.

• Create your vision and position your Opportunity Zone or redevelopment site as a place to do business.

• Develop marketing concepts and creative pieces that will attract investors utilizing the city brand.

• Establish a dedicated department and point person in the city. Ensure there’s a real estate expert in house who can promote the advantages of investing in the city.

In conclusion, disruption creates opportunities.

Embrace that concept. Great leaders view periods of rapid change as an exciting time leading to new innovations.

As you move forward to create a successful city, be confident in your plan and work those steps!

ENDNOTES AND REFERENCES

https://neighborhoodgoods.com/ about 2 https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/ opportunity-zones-frequently-askedquestions 1

KIM BRIESEMEISTER is co-founder of Redevelopment Management Associates and has won numerous awards for her management of some of the largest, most complex CRA districts and redevelopment projects in the state of Florida.

She co-authored the book, Reinventing Your City: Eight Steps to Turn Your City Around.

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The Importance of the

ARTS Using Cultural Assets for Neighborhood Revitalization and Increased Economic Sustainability

BY JAY H. DICK

hat keeps you up at night with regard to your city or county?

Crime? Opioid addiction? City livability? Economic issues?

I would think that every city/ county manager would include at least one thing from this list.

This is the life city/county officials lead: identifying and responding to the needs of your community—hopefully proactively and not reactively. As the topics are complex and nuanced all at the same time, this article offers an additional path to help you improve your residents’ lives.

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Do you use the arts and culture to help solve the issues list running through your head in the wee hours of the morning? Probably not, but that is starting to change as leaders are understanding the value that the arts and culture bring to the community.

When talking about the arts, what comes to mind? I would hazard to say that you are thinking about live theater, fine art galleries, the ballet, or opera.

In other words, “high arts,” perhaps art for the elite, city/ urban-centric arts, etc. But the arts are so much more than this, and they are actively working each day in your community, improving the livability and economy of your area.

Let’s Dispel Some Myths Myth: The arts are a tiny part of the economy.

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), in 2016, arts and culture

contributed $804 billion to the economy, or 4.3 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP).

For comparison to other industries, construction was $745.5 billion, transportation was $577.5 billion, and agriculture was $164 billion.

In other words, the arts are larger than some of the largest industry sectors in America!1

1 return on investment. Thus, the healthier and more vibrant a locality’s nonprofit arts sector, the more the locality will collect in tax revenue (times five!).

Myth: The arts and culture sector is insular and doesn’t affect other city/ county issues/areas. There

are at least 26 different topics that the arts authentically affect. These range from the obvious—arts in education— to the not so obvious, such as arts in healthcare to aid military veterans with their post-traumatic stress disorder treatment or to prevent suicide. The arts and culture

Myth: The arts are a big, black hole with no economic return on investment. As you can

probably guess from the first myth, the arts positively impact local government budgets.

According to Americans for the Arts’ Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 study, in those regions that were studied, without using multipliers, the nonprofit arts contributed $27.5 billion to state and local government coffers. Given that nationally, all levels of government collectively invest around $5 billion in the nonprofit arts, this ends up being more than a 5-toAmericans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America.

With offices in Washington, D.C., and New York City, it has a record of more than 55 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. We at Americans for the Arts stand ready to assist you as you use the arts and culture to make your own community a better place where people live, work, and play. Learn more at www.

AmericansForTheArts.org.

44 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

also work to positively affect housing issues, community development, and city/county planning, to name a few.2 Arts and Culture in City/ County Planning

Community planning is more than likely a substantial part of your job. Did you know that the arts can provide creative tools to help planning and urban design professionals engage with communities affected by their projects? Using storytelling, visual arts, and technology such as social media and digital billboards, community members can play a significant role in designing safe, beautiful, and useful spaces that reflect community needs and desires.

Collaborative planning toward a common goal helps communities develop a sense of social cohesion. Design processes that engage the community can foster a sense of ownership among residents.

There is a significant correlation between the attachment people feel to the place in which they live and GDP growth. And arts districts help retain vernacular culture, helping to arrest the homogenization that makes cities less livable.

All in all, integrating the arts into the planning of our spaces and places can make them more human, more accessible,

and more innovative over time. Further, I’m sure most everyone has sat in a public meeting with irate community members upset about what a certain project might do to their community. No matter what type of project it may be—transportation, housing, or commercial—allowing the arts and culture to play a role in the process often eases opposition as the community feels more included and heard.

For example, one research study reported that 20 percent of people who engaged in an arts-based community design process felt more ownership over the project and thus became supporters.3 When people have a sense of ownership of the places they frequent, their communities become better places to live, work, and visit.

Boston, Massachusetts:

The Department of Play is a nonprofit organization that creates temporary play zones in public spaces around Boston. Participants envision alternative futures, share experiences, and collaboratively create artifacts.

It seeks to frame the city as a malleable, ongoing construction that any resident can experiment with and impact. The Department of Play states:

“Our temporary play zones (TPZs) bring people together to imagine and create collectively. TPZs invite passersby to engage in a creative mission in an unexpected public place located in what we term border zones—those invisible frontiers that affect residents’ movement. In play, people explore their visions of the future and of other plausible worlds, while the border zones become momentarily shared places.”4 Fergus Falls, Minnesota:

These types of programs are not limited to large cities. In Fergus Falls, (population: 13,783), the local economic improvement commission, working with local arts and cultural organizations,

artistic activities in general can play a valuable role in the development and long-term health and sustainability of our communities. Research shows that communities with a vibrant cultural scene are more desirable to live in, have greater economic stability, and attract a more diverse and educated workforce.

Often when a community struggles with a social concern, arts projects can foster cooperative dialogue and bring about solutions and change.

The arts drive an increased tax base, stronger social networks and community cohesion, reduced health risks, higher empathy, and more community pride. These things together make it possible

HAVING A CULTURAL ORGANIZATION IN A COMMUNITY HAS BEEN SHOWN TO INCREASE THE NEARBY RESIDENTIAL PROPERTY VALUES BY UP TO 20 PERCENT. created an original site-specific theater production on the grounds of the former Fergus Falls State Hospital based on interviews and story swaps with local residents about their connection to the building.5 Community Development

Arts-based community development (sometimes called creative placemaking)— and the deep integration of arts and culture into communities’ pursuits of healthier, more vibrant, more equitable places—has a long history in the United States that stretches back thousands of years to the first Native American tribes and laces through postcolonization history as well.

Artists, arts organizations, and

for communities to progress toward their goals. As a result of using the arts for community development, communities often see an increase in tax revenue.

Phoenix, Arizona: The downtown Phoenix creativity hub yielded a 105-percent increase in tax receipts, compared to a city-wide decline of 1.04 percent.6 Art and community development also strengthen social networks.

Residents living on a block where community-based art projects took place were 1.6 times more likely to report that they felt more connected to the neighbors.

Saint Paul, Minnesota:

The Irrigate Initiative was created by Springboard for

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 45

the Arts along with the City of Saint Paul and Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support Corporation in response to disruptive construction of a light rail line through the urban core. Irrigate is an artist-led, creative placemaking initiative that mobilizes the skills and creativity of local artists to create innovative, meaningful, and authentic solutions to local challenges through collaborative projects. As Springboard for the Arts states: “The goal of artist projects that come from Irrigate is that by creating multiple small moments of surprise and joy and relationships, we can signal to neighborhoods that change is possible, that the people who live there can engage in and direct this change, and that their place is valuable and worth tending.�7 Economic Development

Having a cultural organization in a community has been shown to increase the nearby 46 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

THE ARTS DRIVE AN INCREASED TAX BASE, STRONGER SOCIAL NETWORKS AND COMMUNITY COHESION, REDUCED HEALTH RISKS, HIGHER EMPATHY, AND MORE COMMUNITY PRIDE.

residential property values by up to 20 percent.8 Higher property values equal higher revenues as most localities’ budgets are heavily based upon property taxes. Research into the role of the arts in economic development highlights five ways the arts work: 1. They create a fast-growing, dynamic business sector, 2. They help mature industries become more competitive, 3. They provide critical ingredients for innovative places, 4. They catalyze community revitalization, and 5. They deliver a better prepared workforce.9 Greensboro, North Carolina: Upon refurbishment

of the Triad Stage, a downtown theater, nearby restaurants saw increased patronage of 20-30 percent on show nights. Its work earned it an Emerging Theater Award from the American Theater Wing, with acknowledgement of its serving as a catalyst to downtown revitalization.10 Phoenix, Arizona: The city’s Cultural Connections program used public art to help revitalize Roosevelt Row during the 2008 financial crisis.

The project titled “Ground Cover” involved an array of 300 blankets assembled on an empty lot into a floral mosaic.11 The vast mosaic of blankets was displayed for a day, then disassembled and redistributed to the homeless.

The project also resulted in increased pedestrian traffic and partnerships between city organizations and businesses.12 Site Remediation and Transformation Chattanooga, Tennessee:

The Main Terrain Art Park serves as an example of using the arts and culture to accomplish multiple goals, including city livability, improving the health of residents, and stormwater runoff management. Indeed, the park does each of these seamlessly. The Main Terrain Art Park was a vacant 1.72acre parcel of land just at the end of Main Street squeezed between two privately owned commercial lots. The parcel itself was narrow and long, thus, not conducive to any buildings or structures.

City planners, along with local artists and arts groups, devised a plan to fully use this space and transform it into a

vibrant area. Now, the site has multiple, interactive pieces of public art that encourage residents to turn wheels, do pull-ups, walk/jog and other physical exercises. The site was also designed to help mitigate storm water issues by using the landscape to absorb and retain water run-off. The end result is a vibrant space that has attracted new residential development and is now seen as an asset to the community.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has offered you another view of the arts and culture as transformational to communities—something to be valued, supported, and encouraged. The arts are essential to the human experience beyond any economic value, and local government leaders should truly embrace the arts and culture given the immense opportunities they provide a community.

Benchmark Survey. “https://www. americansforthearts.org/sites/default/ files/socialimpact/files/3%20AFTA%20 fact_Arts%2BCivic%20Dialogue_v2.pdf 4 http://www.deptofplay.com 5 https://blogs.mprnews.org/state-of-thearts/2014/09/theater-brings-fergus-fallshospital-back-to-life/ 6 See Downtown Phoenix Partnership, “Annual Report 2012,” (2013), http:// www.downtownphoenix.com/ downloads/17/annual-report-2012. pdf. Also, see Don Brandt and David Roderique, “It’s Important to Keep Downtown Phoenix Alive,” The Arizona Republic, November 27, 2010, http:// www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/ viewpoints/articles/2010/11/27/20101 127downtown-phoenix-vision.html.

7 https://springboardforthearts.org/ programs/irrigate/ 8 Markusen, A. and A. Gadwa. “Arts and Culture in Urban or Regional Planning: A Review and Research Agenda.” (2010).

Journal of Planning Education and Research 29(3) 379–391.

9 Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, https://www.frbsf.org/communitydevelopment/files/five-roles-forarts-culture-and-design-in-economicdevelopment.pdf 10 “Art + Social Impact Explorer Fact Sheet,” Americans for the Arts, https:// artsandmuseums.utah.gov/wp-content/ uploads/2019/10/19-AFTA-fact_ ArtsEconomic-Dev_v2.pdf.

11 http://groundcoveraz.com/ 12 “Art + Social Impact Explorer Fact Sheet,” Americans for the Arts, https://artsandmuseums.utah.gov/ wp-content/uploads/2019/10/19AFTA-fact_ArtsEconomic-Dev_v2.pdf. uploads/2019/10/19-AFTA-fact_ ArtsEconomic-Dev_v2.pdf.

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

https://www.bea.gov/news/blog/201903-19/arts-and-culture-economy-grows29-percent-2016 2 To learn more, go to www.

AmericansForTheArts.org/SocialImpact.

3 Community Foundation Silicon Valley.

(2001). “The Social Capital Community 1

JAY H. DICK is senior director of state and local government affairs at Americans for the Arts (jay@artsusa.org).

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 47

INSIGHTS

Why is Cognitive Diversity Important for Your Local Government?

BY DARRIN TANGEMAN

Workforce diversity has become an

DARRIN TANGEMAN is city

increasingly important recruitment and hiring factor for local governments and there are many good reasons for this to be a growing organizational priority. Unfortunately, many hiring authorities and leaders have become hyperfocused on improving only demographic diversity rather than understanding the underlying benefits of a more balanced approach to improving both demographic and cognitive diversity. Additionally, hiring authorities often incorrectly conflate the benefits of cognitive diversity with demographic diversity when research indicates they are only moderately correlated.1 Ultimately, cognitive diversity has the greatest positive impact on organizational performance and innovation.2

manager of Woodland Park, Colorado (dtangeman@citywoodlandpark.org).

48 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

What is the difference between cognitive and demographic diversity? Cognitive diversity is the inclusion of employees who have different experiences and approaches to problem-solving, think differently, and offer unique perspectives to unique and everyday challenges facing local governments. Demographic diversity refers to the degree of inclusion of employees within an organization that are heterogeneous with respect to demographic attributes such as age, gender, and ethnicity.

So, why are demographic and cognitive diversity important to your local government? • A demographically diverse organization better reflects your community and the customers you serve, making it easier for your staff to understand their needs.

• A demographically diverse workforce improves your organization’s ability to recruit and retain talent when diversity and inclusion (D&I) information is available to the public during the hiring process.

• A cognitively diverse workforce solves problems faster and is strongly correlated with higher performance.

• A cognitively diverse workforce is significantly more innovative and creative.

Intuitively, one would think the more diverse your organization is in terms of age, ethnicity, and gender, the more creative and productive it will likely be. But more than 100 research exercises over 12 years found only a small to moderate correlation between demographic diversity and performance.3 Alternatively, cognitive diversity has been demonstrated as a critical factor for generating creativity and innovation in the workplace. This is because employees who bring different perspectives often see threats and opportunities that others miss. How the employees interact and challenge the status quo is also seen as a critical component of innovation.4 Some employees prefer to apply historical information to solve problems, while others look to generate new knowledge.

Employees also have different tendencies in applying their own expertise versus seeking feedback from others. Consequently, organizations with more diverse approaches to problem-

solving and greater cognitive diversity have been shown to be more creative and innovative.

Does demographic diversity improve cognitive diversity? Not necessarily. Research demonstrates that improving demographic diversity is only moderately likely to improve cognitive diversity and should not be the sole strategy for improving cognitive diversity.5 As a result, these parallel recruiting efforts should use different methodologies, but should be coordinated for the benefit of the entire organization.

One of the most important lessons to learn from this analysis is that many local government workplaces that are demographically diverse can become cognitively uniform overtime. In local government and other industries, some managers and leadership prefer candidates who have graduated from a particular school or training environment. In other circumstances, mid-level managers think it’s necessary to fill an open position with someone who has the same experience as the employee who left. The tendency for managers and leadership to look for someone who conforms with their existing beliefs is called confirmation bias and often prevents an organization from becoming cognitively diverse. This is especially true in local government where the parochial approach to recruitment of local government professionals can undermine the cognitive diversity of our organizations.

Additionally, cognitive diversity can be observed all around us, but because our human tendency is to fit in, employees are often cautious about providing alternate approaches and ideas to every day issues. When your organization has a homogenous culture, it can naturally stifle cognitive diversity. The result is that your organization will become cognitively uniform over time despite your best efforts to improve demographic diversity. If this phenomenon sounds familiar, it’s because many of us are academically conditioned to avoid the similar phenomenon of groupthink—making poor decisions as a group so as not to disagree with the consensus—in order to avoid irrational or sub-optimal decision-making in our organizations.6 Groupthink is a symptom of an organization that lacks cognitive diversity.

So, the next time you think about hiring a chief innovation officer that has spent their entire career in local government, maybe you should consider hiring a candidate from a private sector consulting firm. Or maybe the next time you think about hiring a public works director you should look at civil engineering candidates from the U.S. military. If you do, it’s very likely that your organization will become more innovative and higher performing than if you stuck to the status quo. Remember, great minds think differently!

ENDNOTES AND RESOURCES

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0149206310365001 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/you-according-them/201706/ cognitive-diversity 3 https://hbr.org/2017/03/teams-solve-problems-faster-when-theyre-morecognitively-diverse 4 https://www.ccl.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/InnovationLeadership.pdf 5 https://diversity.defense.gov/Portals/51/Documents/Resources/Commission/docs/ Issue%20Papers/Paper%2004%20-%20Relationship%20Between%20Demographic%20 Diversity%20and%20Cognitive%20Diversity.pdf 6 https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/groupthink 1 2

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 49

ICMA AWARD SPOTLIGHT

A Leading-Edge, Energy-Efficient

Water Resource Recovery and Bioenergy Facility Wooster, Oak Ridge,Ohio—2019 Tennessee — Recipient, 2019 Recipient, ProgramProgram Excellence Excellence Award,Award, Community Partnership Sustainability (10,000 (10,000 to to 49,999 49,999 Population) Population) When the original sewage treatment plant in Wooster, Ohio, began operation in 1938, it

consisted of primary settling tanks, an anaerobic digester, and sludge drying beds. Over the years, the facility has been upgraded several times, but failed to meet performance standards for digestion and solids handling. Something had to be done.

The city evaluated several proposals and formed a partnership with a private company. The company provided some capital investment, engineering, construction, and expertise, while the city delivered manpower and infrastructure and paid a monthly management services fee.

The city council approved the funds to begin the project and offered support. Managers in the city and utility worked closely with the private company during construction, startup, and early operations.

The three existing digesters in the Wooster facility were enlarged, and new mixing, cover membranes, and heat exchangers were all added along with a gravity belt thickener (for city biosolids), a solids receiving vault, a liquids receiving pit, and a feedstock holding tank. A larger combined heat and power unit was installed to heat the new organic biosolids receiving building and all the tankage in the anaerobic digestion system. In order to produce enough methane to utilize the larger heat and power unit and supplement the city’s biosolids, the facility accepted organic third-party waste streams. Tipping fees were collected by the private partner, and the city offered discounted fees to benefit local businesses or as an economic development tool to attract new business to the area.

The city’s Water Pollution Control Plant became known as the Water Resource Recovery and Bioenergy Facility. Within 12 months of startup, the power generation was exceeding the facility’s daily demand. To optimize the anaerobic digestion system, the city installed an electric transmission line to the nearby water treatment plant and eliminated the electric meter at that location. At times, both facilities are “off

50 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

the grid” to become what may be the first electrically selfsufficient water/wastewater utility.

The facility upgrade provides a means to harness waste streams into renewable energy. Rate payers benefit from reduced energy costs. The city benefits from additional revenue. The facility is operating with a focus on environmental stewardship and reducing operating costs.

In 2018, the facility produced 3.9 megawatts of power for the operation of the treatment facilities, which resulted in nearly $250,000 in energy savings. The ability to accept feed stock, septage, and food waste solids to create the methane provided nearly $900,000 in additional revenue. Ultimately, this provides self-reliant power sources, but also a nutrientrich soil product that saves farmers money and eliminates commercial fertilizer runoff from agricultural areas.

The Water Resource Recovery Facility is leading edge. No other facilities in Ohio produce the power from an anaerobic digestion process to power both water and wastewater facilities. The facility innovation was confirmed with a 2018 Utility of the Future Award from the Water Environment Federation.

ICMA Members: Vote to Support Inclusion!

Vote YES!

on these ballot measures January 10 – February 10, 2020 VOTING RIGHTS EXECUTIVE BOARD DIVERSITY REGIONAL NOMINATING COMMITTEES

Make Your Voice Heard!

F O R IN C L U S I O N

Learn more: icma.org/inclusion-amendments

#InclusionMatters

ICMA AWARD SPOTLIGHT

Small Changes, Big Impact:

The Cedar Hill Growing Green Program Cedar Oak Ridge, Hill, Texas—2018 Tennessee — Recipient, 2019 Recipient, Program Program Excellence Excellence Award, Award, Community Partnership Sustainability (10,000 (10,000 to to 49,999 49,999 Population) Population) Cedar Hill, Texas, is a thriving suburb

located in the heart of the Dallas/Fort Worth Metroplex in an area known as Hill Country. The city is an up-and-coming ecotourism destination thanks to its lush, tree-lined rolling hills and wide-open green space. As the Metroplex grows, so does Cedar Hill, experiencing a 64-percent increase in its population since 2000. To protect its natural beauty, unique ecosystem, and open spaces for generations to come, Cedar Hill leaders created the Growing Green program.

52 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | DECEMBER 2019

The program has three goals: to build in-house expertise in sustainability, to optimize government’s energy use and reduce emissions, and to plan for the long term. It has guided elected and appointed city leaders in incorporating environmentally conscious practices into their strategic planning and operations.

In 2003, Cedar Hill’s leaders established a public-private partnership that preserved the Blackland Prairie ecosystem, home to more than 14 endangered species of birds.

STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, AND CIRCULATION (PS FORM 3526) In 2011, adding to a growing list of accomplishments, the city council adopted its first five-year sustainability action plan to promote renewable energy, public transportation, open space, water conservation, and solid waste and recycling services. That same year, the city used $1 million in funding from the Department of Energy and Oncor to install a solar photovoltaic system on the roof of its government center. The system generates 210,030 kilowatt hours of electricity annually, for savings of more than $21,000. Later that year, the city used a $50,000 State Energy Conservation Office grant to add wind power, with the installation of a turbine.

In 2012, the city and its partner Waste Management replaced every singlefamily home’s 19-gallon recycling bin with a 96-gallon cart and reduced trash collection to weekly. Recycling increased by 258 percent the first quarter; since the program’s inception, nearly 20,000 tons of residential recycling materials have been diverted from landfill.

Also, in 2012, the city council adopted a master plan to preserve 20 percent of the city’s landmass as open space, more than double the national average for the most populous cities.

Most recently, Cedar Hill used a $300,000 grant from the Bureau of Reclamation to replace all water meters with automatic readers, eliminating meter-reading routes.

Staff have learned three lessons from the Growing Green Program: 1. The big vision must guide planning and implementation.

2. Achieving public buy-in for environmental sustainability must be a priority.

3. Publicize successes and show residents how small changes can have a big impact.

We’ll be spotlighting an ICMA award recipient every month in this new department. Learn more about the ICMA Awards Program at icma.org/icma-awards.

1. Publication title: Public Management (PM).

2. USPS number: 449-300.

3. Filing date: September 30, 2019.

4. Issue frequency: Monthly.

5. Number of issues published annually: 12.

6. Annual subscription price: $50 (Domestic); $155 (Other countries).

7. Complete mailing address of known office of publication (not printer): 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4201.

8. Complete mailing address of headquarters or general business office of publisher (not printer): 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4201.

9. Full names and complete mailing addresses of publisher, editor, and managing editor.

Publisher: International City/County Management Association (ICMA), 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4201. Editor: Kerry Hansen, ICMA, 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4201.

10. Owner: International City/County Management Association (ICMA), 777 North Capitol Street, N.E., Suite 500, Washington, D.C. 20002-4290.

11. Known bondholders, mortgagees, and other security holders owning or holding 1 percent or more of total amount of bonds, mortgages, or other securities: None.

12. Tax status: The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income-tax purposes have not changed during the preceding 12 months.

13. Publication title: Public Management (PM).

14. Issue date for circulation data below: September 2019.

15. Extent and Nature of Publication. Average no. of copies each issue during preceding 12 months: A. Total no. copies (net press run): 9,852. B. Paid circulation (by mail and outside the mail): (1) Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 9,590; (2) Mailed in-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 0; (3) Paid distribution outside the mails including sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid distribution outside USPS®: 0; (4) Paid distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: 0. C. Total paid distribution: 9,590. D. Free or nominal rate distribution (by mail and outside the mail): (1) Free or nominal rate outside-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0; (2) Free or nominal rate in-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0; (3) Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other classes through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail): 150. (4) Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail (carriers or other means): 0. E. Total free or nominal rate distribution: 150. F. Total distribution: 9,740. G. Copies not distributed: 112. I. Total: 9,852. Percent paid: 98.46.

16. No. copies of single issue published nearest to filing date: A. Total no. copies (net press run): 9,821. B. Paid circulation (by mail and outside the mail): (1) Mailed outsidecounty paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 9,596; (2) Mailed in-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541: 0; (3) Paid distribution outside the mails including sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors, counter sales, and other paid distribution outside USPS: 0; (4) Paid distribution by other classes of mail through the USPS: 0. C. Total paid circulation: 9,596. D. Free or nominal rate distribution by mail and outside the mail): (1) Free or nominal rate outside-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0; (2) Free or nominal rate in-county copies included on PS Form 3541: 0; (3) Free or nominal rate copies mailed at other classes through the USPS (e.g., First-Class Mail): 150. (4) Free or nominal rate distribution outside the mail (carriers or other means): 0.

E. Total free or nominal rate distribution: 150. F. Total distribution: 9,746. G. Copies not distributed: 75. H. Total: 9,300. I. Percent paid: 98.46. Not claiming electronic copies.

17. This statement of ownership will be printed in the December 2019 issue of this publication.

Signed: Kerry Hansen, Managing Editor

DECEMBER 2019 | PUBLIC MANAGEMENT | 53

1

00 N I 19 VE th 1 9 RS -20 A 1 9 RY AN

PM

1919 – 2019 PM in October 2009

It’s so interesting to look back at PM magazine issues from the 2000s because a lot of the topics written about are still relevant today! For example, social media. Let’s take a look at how social media was discussed in the October 2009 issue of PM:

✶ Do Local Governments Tweet?

Craig Chavez wrote about how local governments were beginning to use the social media platform called Twitter. It’s interesting to read about how this time is described since Twitter has been around for a long time now and back then it was just starting to take off. Chavez writes, “That’s right, local governments have taken to tweeting. Residents can visit Twitter.com, create an account, sign up to their communities Twitter page and receive messages—140 characters—called ‘tweets’ from their local government.”

✶ Social Media—What Does it Mean for Public Managers?

Rick Cole discussed what social media means for public managers and what potential use they could have for the new, emerging world of social media. Cole writes, “Web 2.0 has given us blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook, changing how we communicate and reshaping our social and personal lives.

For local government managers, these social media offer new tools for one of democracy’s oldest challenges: promoting the common good.”

100 years

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MARKETPLACE | professional services

Roger L. Kemp MPA, MBA, PhD ~ National Speaker ~

Citizen-focused permitting OpenCounter builds modern software to help applicants understand the costs and requirements of their permitting projects.

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Land use search Zoning clearance map Permit & license requirements Detailed fee calculations

This cuts down on trips to City Hall, and saves staff time on pre-application meetings.

OpenCounter is live in over 50 cities.

Learn more at www.opencounter.com