Regional Principles: How are these defined in metro-Atlanta?

Whether you choose to accept it or not, Roswell is part of a much larger region.  Successful regions should focus on regional plans that put a priority on organizing the population into areas where mixed-use neighborhoods and nodes that follow the logic of a rural to urban transect (we'll discuss the transect later but if you need a primer, click here).  

As you have probably seen, there are areas within metro Atlanta that were able to implement some mixed-use projects prior to the economic fiasco.  However, we are still for the most part a drivable suburban city with small pockets of walkable urbanism.

When you take a look at the region as a whole, you find that Atlanta is fundamentally flawed when creating uniform regional principles and goals.  I believe this is due to too many competing and conflicting municipalities focusing on too many different objectives.  

We live in an amazingly expansive metro-region due to the unrelenting sprawl caused by poor planning, bad developing and a lack of geographic boundaries to keep the first two in check.  Studies suggest that for every one percent increase in population in suburbia, the land use increases by 8-10%.  This has caused Atlanta to grow like a cancer over the past 20 years.  Depending on the day of the week, the metro area is made up of anywhere from 10 - 20 counties.  I typically like to think of the region as 10 counties (10.5 if you count the North Fulton/Milton County separatist movement).

How does the region bring all of these bodies, counties and cities, together?  Over the past few decades, Atlanta's organization tool of choice has been the Atlanta Regional Commission.  All things considered, the ARC is a well intentioned and moderately successful organization.  However, we all know where we are today and it's not where we should be.  So, we have some work to do.  The mission of the ARC according to it's website is:

The Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) serves as a catalyst for regional progress by focusing leadership, attention and planning resources on key regional issues. 

This is accomplished through professional planning initiatives and the provision of objective information. In addition, it is made possible through the involvement of the community in collaborative partnerships that encourage healthy economic growth compatible with the environment, improve the region's quality of life and provide opportunities for leadership development.

So, what are the Smart Growth Manual principles that we will be looking at?  

• Inevitable Growth - Replacing No Growth with Good Growth
• A Regional Plan - Thinking Globally, Acting Locally, but Planning Regionally
• Community Involvement - Seeking Community Consensus for All Plans
• The Transect - Planning According to the Logic of a Rural-to-Urban Transect
• The Neighborhood - Planning in Increments of Complete Neighborhoods
• Growth Priorities - Directing Investment to Smart Growth Priority Areas
• Affordable Housing - Requiring Every Area to Accommodate Subsidized Dwellings
• Distribution of LULUs - Allocating Locally Undesirable Land Uses Fairly and Logically
• Food Security - Ensuring Food Supply by Retaining Farmland
• Shared Wealth - Allocating Property Tax Revenue Equitably Across the Region
• Scale of Governance - Coordinating Government and Neighborhood Structure
• Coordinating Policy - Avoiding Dumb-Growth Locations for Government Facilities
• Legalizing Smart Growth - Introducing Smart Growth as a Way of Expanding Choice
• The Limits of Water - Building Only Where Water Resources are Plentiful
• The Shrinking City - Designing the Controlled Contraction of Certain Cities                                      

We'll be examining each of the above principles in a little more depth in subsequent posts.  Some of these principles are pretty controversial and would likely be political hotcakes in our region.  I look forward to your commentary.

Image Credit: Google Maps

Watch & Learn: Buford Highway, A Case Study for Pedestrian Nightmares

The Blueprint America special report from PBS recently featured a video highlighting the issues surrounding pedestrian safety in suburbia. It makes for a very good, quick primer on what our suburban development pattern has done to pedestrian safety. An interesting and very arresting fact is that about 43,000 pedestrians have been killed by cars in the past 10 years. In the piece, they equate that to one jumbo jet airliner crashing every month for the past 10 years. Would we stand for that type of safety record? Why do we stand for this then? Well, the most likely reason is that most of the pedestrians that are killed are low income individuals who don't receive as much attention as those of a more fortunate social class. Watch and Learn...

Watch the full episode. See more Need To Know.

New Urban Roswell Review

I had a heck of a time finding anything going on here in Roswell over the past month.  It's summertime and everyone is on vacation.  Well, here goes nothing.  Another installment of the update.  bon appetit!

Roswell

Roswell Moves Heaven and Earth to get Roundabout - AJC

I think everyone got what the wanted on this one.  Now, let's get started on the Roundabout and make the streets safer for everyone.

Region

Atlanta Passenger Terminal to Seek Developer - AJC

I love the idea of putting a multi-modal passenger terminal in the Gulch location.  However, I'm skeptical that it can compete with all of the other big time projects that we see on the horizon over the coming years.  The Beltline, Fort McPherson Redevelopment, Aerotropolis, GM Doraville Plant, Georgia Dome Renovations, etc.  I'm skeptical that we'll ever see this one but let's explore the opportunity.

State Doles out Grants to Metro CIDs - Atlanta Business Chronicle

The following community improvement districts are divvying up $10M.  Buckhead CID, Town Center CID in Cobb County, Gwinnett Village CID, South Fulton CID, Downtown Atlanta Improvement District, Perimeter CID, Evermore CID and Cumberland CID.  CIDs are becoming more and more popular with area businesses as a way to organize community efforts and raise funds to make infrastructure and community improvements.

New Midtown Festival to Close Peachtree in September - Access Atlanta

This should be a fun new festival.  I'm sure it will be a huge draw for area and regional artists and vendors.  It gives us a chance to take back Peachtree if only for a weekend.

Georgia Power to Make First Foray into Solar - Atlanta Business Chronicle

They are going to nowhere near the levels that they need to or could but at least it is a step in the right direction.

Beyond

Foreclosures Point Toward Waning of the Suburban Era, Study Says

It is bad to take pleasure in other people's misfortune.  However, I do feel that moving away from the suburban building model is not only a good thing but an absolute necessity.  I wish the proof of the need could have come in a different way.  However, we Americans often need a swift kick to the head to wake ourselves up.  Here's a notable excerpt:  

How each region responds to the challenges of transit and development will vary, producing contrasting results. Greater Atlanta and greater Washington, DC, illustrate the two extremes, in Lucy’s view. “Washington, DC, and some suburban cities and counties planned for transit-oriented development, and use of transit rose to the second-highest level in the United States,” he notes. “Atlanta’s transit use lagged, which may be one reason why Atlanta has the most declining suburbs in the country.”

Birmingham Neighborhood Takes a Stand for Walkability and Wins - NRDC Switchboard

Way to go Birmingham.  We need to make more fast food joints and big box stores, for that matter, fit into the neighborhood.  The current pattern creates a building that is almost always out of pattern with anything that is present in the area.  Here's an excerpt from the story:

The design is not architecturally compatible with the neighborhood. Other, historic buildings are clearly adaptable into multiple uses, while the Chick-fil-A building is designed to be ONLY a Chick-fil-A, to look like other Chick-fil-As across the country, and to not be easily adaptable as something else.

Is the Homeownership System Broken - NPR

This article/audio clip makes a case that we overshot our capabilities of homeownership in the last decade and that we need to encourage more people to rent.  It also poses the question of whether we should do away with or reduce the mortgage interest tax credit.  I enjoyed this quote:

"Why doesn't the president of the United States ever get up and say, 'You can be a full-fledged American citizen and rent an apartment — it's OK,' " Wessel says. "That's not what presidents have traditionally said."

Divide and Conquer: Should States Impose Regions Based Taxes - The Infrastructurist

The Infrastructurist recaps a recently published article from The Economist about Georgia's recent transportation bill asking whether dividing states up into regions is a good idea in order to allow regions to tax themselves as they see fit.  

Facts & Fun

Street Fail - FailBlog

Which way do we go George?

Map Showing Where Atlantans are Moving - Forbes

I wonder who moved to Hawaii.  That must have been a nice change.

The Worst Commutes in the World - The Infrastructurist

This is one list I'm glad Atlanta isn't on.

30A+

Well, I’ve taken a pretty long vacation from posting for a couple of reasons.  Most importantly, for me, I was on vacation in Florida with the family.  Now that I’m back, I’d like to post a little recap of the New Urbanism that I was able to see in the panhandle and suggest that you go take a look for yourself sometime.  First, don’t let the reports of oil scare you.  I didn’t see one tar ball on the beach, we visited Pensacola Beach, Seaside and Deer Lake State Park.  BP has cleanup crews covering the beaches pretty well.  Second, if you are at all an enthusiast of New Urbanism and you have not ventured to the beaches of South Walton, aka 30A, aka SoWal, you must go.  There are five major developments that incorporate principles of New Urbanism along a 10 mile strip of 30A.  These are Seaside, Water Color, Rosemary Beach, Seacrest and Alys Beach.

My parents live in Gulf Breeze just between Pensacola and Pensacola Beach and while I was there, I wanted to check out Aragon Court and Downtown Pensacola.  Unfortunately, I did not take any pictures while I was driving around.  Aragon is probably Pensacola’s best attempt at developing a New Urbanist community.  It a small plot of 20 acres that is located adjacent to the historic downtown on property that was formerly a blighted housing project.  It is probably about 75% complete now and there is one small building with some retail.  It looks like the retail piece of the project has suffered tremendously due to timing.  The community connects seamlessly to the street network of the historic downtown and the development fits in beautifully.

As you drive into the historic district, you find that many of the old residences have been turned into professional businesses with a couple cafes.  There is park access and you can walk to some of the night clubs and restaurants in the historic district.  I like what they are starting to do in the downtown with the programming but there is still a very big lack of residential in the area.  At night before the nightlife takes off, you can really feel the dead zone.  It’s unfortunate too as there is ample opportunity to turn some of the space above retail and office space into condos or lofts.  I’m not sure if the market is ready for that though.  The last thing that I’d like to say about downtown Pensacola is that the proposed Maritime Park is in my opinion a huge disappointment.  They originally wanted to add residential, office, park, museum and a ballpark.  However, that has been scaled back considerably in the revisions and now does not include any residential.  I think this is a huge mistake and will continue to give the downtown area an empty/professional feeling.

Moving east down the panhandle, we drove over to Seaside.  We were fortunate enough to spend a week in a cottage there.  Seaside is known as the birthplace of New Urbanism and the 80 acre town couldn’t possibly serve as a better ambassador to the movement.  Our small rental cottage (virtually all of the homes in Seaside are cottages though not all of them are small) was a stone’s throw from the town center.

We stumbled upon a tour of Seaside put on by Mark Schnell of Seaside Walking Tours and Schnell Urban Design via the free seasonal newspaper the Seaside Times.  The tour was informative and gives a great history of Seaside and a quick primer on New Urbanism.  Bring a drink if you are going during the summer.

I have so much more to talk about from this trip but for brevity's sake, I'll just recap each town with a couple bullets and pictures starting with my favorite.

Seaside

• Fantastic Town Plan
• Great Mix of Merchants in Town Center
• Perfect Size and Amenity Mix
• Too Many Bicyclists not Paying Attention
• No Street Connections to Water Color 

Rosemary Beach

• Beautiful Architecture
• Great Layout
• Prices Must be Outrageous
• Unfortunate Gated Access to Beach from Public Square

Alys Beach

• Gorgeous Architecture
• Unbelievable Pool and Restaurant
• Probably Only Half Way Finished
• This Will be Beautiful if They Can Finish

Alys Beach Residences. You can see a lot of open space.Entrance to the Caliza Pool. This was truly an awesome place.

Water Color

• Very Comfortable Feel in the Neighborhood
• Much More Corporate Than the Others (St. Joe Co.)
• Smaller but Functional Town Center
• Strange Town Layout

Quick Shot Facing South on Water Color's Small Retail Center

Watch & Learn: The Future of the City - The Atlantic Interviews with Richard Florida

We recently got turned on to the Atlantic's special report The Future of the City. There were so many interesting articles and good comments on the articles that were featured that we can't even begin to explore them all. However, one of the really interesting pieces was an 8 part video/interview with writer and city enthusiast Richard Florida. I have embedded the eight videos below. When you have some time, check them out. There are many points made that can be applied to our city and region. Enjoy..

The Smart Growth Roswell Project - A Roswell Case Study of the Smart Growth Manual

If you have been staying abreast of my posts here at New Urban Roswell, you are aware that I think very highly of the recent book The Smart Growth Manual.  We posted an introduction to our project several months ago and we have answered a few questions that we posed in subsequent posts.  Now, it's time to dive in a little deeper and actually take the book and dissect it page by page and compare Roswell to it's recommendations.  

Over the coming months, we will dive into each of the topics covered in the Smart Growth Manual.  We are looking forward to examining Roswell's Region, Neighborhoods, Streets & Buildings and hope that you will check back regularly for updates.

New Urban Roswell Review

I think the big thing going on in Roswell this past couple of weeks was the movement forward on the Grimes Bridge/Norcross Street round about.  I am a strong proponent of the round about for several reasons not the least of which is safety.  Kudos to the city council for making the necessary concessions to the residents impacted.  Enjoy this installment of the New Urban Roswell Review!

Roswell

Roswell to Present Plans for Big Creek Bridge Project - AJC

This will be presented tomorrow night, June 29th, at the Doubletree on Holcomb Bridge.

Roswell Mayor Says He'll Veto City Budget - AJC

This quote from Mayor Jere Wood says it all:

"For the first time in memory ... the City Council has voted to spend more to run Roswell’s government than we expect to receive,"

Region

Atlanta Leaders Hope Streetcar will Win in 2nd Round of U.S. TIGER Grants - Saporta Report

I'm not so sure about the proposed route.  The former proposal was a much better proposal for actually impacting transit in the city for people that live in the city.  I feel that this proposal is reaching and grasping for anything that we can get.

Opportunity Exists to Create a Regional Transit System; New Leaders at the Helm - Saporta Report

Sounds like people in high places are actually starting to realize that a truly regional transit system is needed here in Atlanta.  Notable Excerpt:

"the real opportunity that is unfolding is that the Atlanta region is starting to think about consolidating all our disparate transit agencies into one integrated system — fulfilling the original vision of four decades ago when MARTA was supposed to be a five-county transit agency."

Developer: Work on Streets of Buckhead to Resume - AJC

Ben Carter claims to have the additional funding needed to resume and finish construction on his Streets of Buckhead development.  That hole in the ground needs to get finished otherwise it will leave a huge scar in one of the nicest spots of Atlanta's most famous streets.  He says construction will resume in July.  We'll see.

Is it Game Over for Atlanta - NewGeography.com

This article posits that Atlanta has reached maturity and it will be much harder to grow and improve for the capital of the New South. Notable Excerpt:

Though perhaps it is too early to declare “game over” for Atlanta, converging trends point to a possible plateauing of Atlanta remarkable rise, and the end of its great growth phase.

The converging trends they discuss are: Slowing Growth, Aging Infrastructure at Capacity, Other Competitive Cities in the Southeast, Being Caught in the Middle of its Sprawling Growth Phase and its Urbanization Phase at the Wrong Time and finally Atlanta Being at Maturity

Ga Tech to Study Aerotropolis Health Impacts - Atlanta Business Chronicle

$147k to determine the health impacts of building on a former industrial site right next to the Airport.  Is constant jet noise hazardous to your health?

GM Doraville Plant Plan Still in the Works - Atlanta Business Chronicle

New Broad Street of Florida is still looking to purchase and develop location of the former GM Plant.  We should know more by the end of the summer.  On the company's website they quote president David Pace as saying;

"this is the best urban infill site in the country for a large transit-oriented development."

I don't disagree.  This is also the same company that did Celebration and Baldwin Park in Orlando.  

Beyond

Why They Hate Us - A New Urbanist Dissects the Movement's Critics - Architect Magazine

This is Jeff Speck's rebuttal of an article that was moderately critical of his most recent book The Smart Growth Manual.  He does a good job dividing up the critics and addressing each group. Notable Excerpt:

How, by any possible stretch of the imagination, could it be considered efficient, healthy, or even acceptable to have spent the better part of a society’s wealth constructing a national landscape in which most citizens require a one-ton, poison-belching prosthetic device to satisfy their daily needs?

The Death and Life of Buffalo's Parks - City Parks Blog

This post makes a good quick case for smarter development.  Essentially, it states that we have invested so much in expensive infrastructure that we are not able to progressively work on schools, parks, cultural institutions and other public services.  This made me think of Mayor Wood's promise to veto the Roswell city budget due to deficit spending.    

Enraged at the Gulf Spill and the Appetite for Oil that Led to it? Stop Land Development on the Fringe - Kaid Benfield NRDC Switchboard

The first paragraph sums it up: "Enraged at the spill in the Gulf and the American appetite for oil that ultimately caused it?  Stop land development on farmland, forests and other fringe locations and direct future development to close-in opportunities.  A massive new study, years in the making, makes it crystal-clear that it can make a big difference."

Poverty Comes to the Suburbs - Governing.com

Suburbs watch out.  Christopher Leinberger calls them the next slums and this article takes a look at the reality of increasing poverty rates in a wealthy Chicago suburb.  Notable Excerpt:

Poverty is on the rise in suburban areas nationwide. Some of it is pure demographics: More people are moving to the suburbs, so more poor people live in the suburbs. But there's more to it than that. The housing crisis and recession have hit suburbs harder than other places, which means foreclosures and unemployment have an outsize impact on suburban communities. By 2008, according to the Brookings Institution, the nation's suburbs were home to the largest and fastest-growing poor population in the nation.

Facts & Fun

Painfully Hysterical Daily Show Clip on the Presidential Response to the Oil Spill

81 percent of Georgians live in the 15 metropolitan areas in the state, 84
percent of the jobs are in these metro areas, and they account for 89 percent of the GDP of the state.

Watch & Learn: Cycling in Copenhagen

Man.. This made me want to ride my bike to work or at the very least get out and ride somewhere. Too bad work is just a little out of reach. If they could somehow connect the Big Creek Greenway to the historic district, I suppose I could make the 12 mile trek to Alpharetta every once in a while.. wishful thinking.

Copenhagen - City of Cyclists from Copenhagenize on Vimeo.

Are drivers able to effectively move around town without accessing congested arterial roads?

This is more of a rhetorical question here in Roswell.  Our city is unfortunately at the convergence of multiple major state highways; 400, 9, 120 & 92.  This creates some significant transportation problems for the city.  Additionally, we are handcuffed by some unique geographic conditions that prevented a more robust road network in certain areas.  Think hwy 9 at the Chattahoochee as well as the 9/120 intersection at the square.  That being said, we still have a ton of dendritic neighborhoods that lack any type of networked connectivity.  Think about virtually any spot outside of the historic district.  Unfortunately, we didn't make a number of intelligent decisions when they could have been made that would have mitigated much of the gridlock that we experience at major intersections.  Some of the worst of these are complete disasters at rush hour such as 400 and Holcomb Bridge.  

So, what does the current traffic situation in Roswell actually look like.  First let's look at some statistics from the 2006 Transportation Master Plan:

• 7% of trips are totally within the cities boundaries
• 52% of trips start or end within the city
• 41% of trips are through the city with no start or end in Roswell
• 393 miles of public streets are in Roswell. Of these, only 165 miles, 42%, connect to more than one street to form a network
• 58% street miles are dead end or cul-de-sac streets

I continually make the argument that had the city created more of a grid type street network when the streets were laid out, some (not all) of these problems would have been mitigated.  This image from the 2006 plan illustrates how traffic collects in a typical suburban network and how it can be disbursed with a network which puts less demand on any one road and keeps the intra-city trip completely off the arterial.

Another great visual from the same report is this one which illustrates the effective street network.  That is the network of streets that people use to actually get somewhere outside of their neighborhood, i.e. work, school, shopping, out of Roswell, etc.

The report sums up the consequences of our limited network nicely and hits on many of the ideals of smart growth and new urbanism; "This low percentage of "effective network" has the effect of focusing large amounts of traffic on a limited amount of roads. This creates growing pressure on key corridors and intersections, slowly deteriorating the quality-of-life of the residents and businesses along them. As already illustrated, more network and connectivity balances and distributes traffic, providing more routing options and flexibility particularly for local trips."

To conclude, at this point in Roswell, there are very few ways to get anywhere without accessing one of the major arterials.  Without some major overhauls, that won't change.  One big project that was actually being unveiled to the public tonight is the Big Creek bridge across 400.  It will provide relief to the Holcomb Bridge/400 intersection by offering an alternative route from East Roswell to West Roswell.  The plan looks solid and hopefully the city council will give it the green light.  We certainly need progress in this area.

Image Credits: 2006 City of Roswell Transportation Master Plan

Watch & Learn: Tom Vanderbilt with StreetsBlog

This week's watch and learn is a conversation between StreetsBlog and Tom Vanderbilt, author of Traffic. This is personally, one of my favorite recent books. The interview actually cuts to the chase and hits on some of the most prescient topics that were covered in the book, driver distraction and pedestrian safety. Enjoy...