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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1992-02-25 - AGENDA REPORTS - CITY LIMITS ARTICLE (2)0 • AGENDA REPORT City Manager Approva4..1 Item to be presented`: George Caravalho February 25, 1992 "City Limits" Article Community Development At the Council meeting of February 11, 1992, Councilmember Heidt passed out an article entitled "City Limits". The article addresses the benefits and desirability -of compact development from the standpoint of transportation, air pollution, open space, greenbelts, mixed uses, energy conservation, regionalism and other factors. Since the article is timely to issues in Santa- Clarita, as well as thought provoking, this item was placed on -the agenda for general discussion purposes. RECOMMENDATION I Discuss attachment: "City Limits' CLT:jcg:539 Continued To: 2 Agenda Item: aiq • NEG BUSINESS DATE: SUBJECT:' DEPARTMENT: BACKGROUND 0 • AGENDA REPORT City Manager Approva4..1 Item to be presented`: George Caravalho February 25, 1992 "City Limits" Article Community Development At the Council meeting of February 11, 1992, Councilmember Heidt passed out an article entitled "City Limits". The article addresses the benefits and desirability -of compact development from the standpoint of transportation, air pollution, open space, greenbelts, mixed uses, energy conservation, regionalism and other factors. Since the article is timely to issues in Santa- Clarita, as well as thought provoking, this item was placed on -the agenda for general discussion purposes. RECOMMENDATION I Discuss attachment: "City Limits' CLT:jcg:539 Continued To: 2 Agenda Item: aiq 0 �J Cis L.mTs From Cairo to Chicago, relief from swelling populations and destructive sprawl lies.in controlling the pattern, not the pace, of development. This "compact development" can make cities more livable — and environmentally sound. -- BY MARCIA D. LOWE wo volatile phrases, "pro -growth" and "no -growth," arc rocking sub- urbs and cities throughout the United States. "Pro -growth" sends shivers down the spines of open space enthu- siasts andthosewho wish to preserve their neighborhoods. "No -growth" frustrates de- velopers and others concerned about main- taining their communities' economic health. These words have come to represent highly distorted ideas about urbanization and the use of land. By trying to force nouns _ e�much more imiprtant issue of eta in which growth occurs. Urban growth battles tend to obscure the full consequences of development controls, and they pivot on the illusory belief that growth can be stopped entirely. By all accounts, urban growth is an unde- niable fact of the future. Only 1 in 10 people lived in cities when this century began; nearly half will by the century's end. Most urban- ization is occurring in the developing world, where population growth is explosive. While the global population is projected to double in 40 years and the urban population in 22, Third World cities arc expected to double in just 15 years. Urban migration accounts for a large share of this rapid growth. Up to 60 JANUARY • FEBRUARY 1992 percent of the people in many cities in devel- oping countries live in burgeoning, impov- erished squatter settlements. Industrial countries have demonstrated; though, that urban growth also can spiral out of control where the local population is increasing only slowly or even declining. Nowhere is this more evident than in the United States, where urban growth spills out into sprawled suburbs. The New York met- ropolitan region, whose population has in- creased only 5 percent in the past 25 years, has expanded its developed area by 61 per- cent ---consuming nearly one-quarter of the region's open space and farmland. Allowing urban development to spread out upon undisturbed land exacerbates auto- mobile dependence and destroys the natural environment. Yet it is impossible to truly halt development; prohibiting growth in one ju- risdiction merely shifts it to neighboring ar- eas. The key to a livable and viable future for the world's urban areas is neither to encour- age sprawled growth nor to try to stifle growth altogether—but rather, to encourage compact growth. Earward-looking-lttlucipalities from Toronto to Sydney taS1dtiba, Brazil,.have discovered that compact development can accommodate ex ang populations with- outdespoilin_gesurroundingenvironment. These cities are actually using urban growth 0 to their advantage: for example, compact de- velopment, by making public transit, cycling, and walking more practical, reduces reliance on cars so that less energy is used and less pollution gcncrated. Filling in their under- used space has allowed these cities to become more pleasant and convenient places to live. With less space paved over for parking lots and urban high- ways, more room is available for homes, workplaces, and green space. In the long run, population stabiliza- tion—via more effec- tive family planning and elimination of poverty—is essential to the future of the world's cities. But it will take decades to stabilize population growth. In the mean. time it is essential for urban areas to begin redesigning them. selves. With compact development, urban areas can meet people's expanding needs by making the most of existing space. ernment buildings, tax -foreclosed land, and other public holdings often stay idle while growth mushrooms at the city;'s edge. In the developing world, great potential for Somewhere to Grow Many cities have so much underused space ihat th elo for decades t'o come without bulldozin another sguareyar o undisturbed lanct. For example, the amount o vacant and underused land in Portland, Oregon, was estimated in 1989 at nine times the space needed to accommodate the city's projected growth for the next 20 years. Only about half of Bogota's land is actually devel- oped, suggesting that it could be used much more effectively for homes, commercial devel- opments, and parks. Although much underuse of property results from individuals and companies holding it for speculation, local govern- ments themselves frequently hold large amounts of vacant real estate. Surplus gov- ILLMILATIONS RY UURER "UND 19 filling in underuscd space ties in redistrib- uting urban landownership; which—par- ticularly in Latin America and Asia—often is extremely -skewed. Land reform, granted, is among the most difficult political moves a government can undertake. Yet the need for such an effort is difficult to deny; in Greater Bombay, for example, nearly 5,000 acres of vacant land now owned by a single family could house most of the city's squat- ters, slum residents, and sidewalk dwellers. Cities have tremendous scope for making urban growth more compact by establishing urban growth boundaries outside of which further development is prohibited. Green- belts surrounding cities perform this func- tion in much of Asia. Many of England's cit- ies, still fulfilling a farsighted decree by Quecn.Elizabeth I in 1580, are ringed by greenbelts intended to protect farmland and prevent sprawl: Critics of strict land -use planning charge WORLD • WATCH 9 r� I 1 that urban growth boundaries and other bold measures encroach on individual freedoms. Yet guiding development more rationally can in fact do more to protect people's rights, while keeping cities livable. Jessica Mathews, a vice president of the Washington, D.C.- based World Resources Institute, recalls anti - planning opinions expressed decades ago warning that intrusive planners one day would tell people where to site their backvara barbe- cues. That day has actually arrived in South- ern California, but not for the presumed rea- sons. Unplanned, auto -dependent sprawl has wrought such health -threatening smog that drastic remedial measures are now in effect— including outright bans on some types of backyard grills. "It has come not because of land use planning," concludes Mathews, "but because of its absence." Urban Density: The Rral Story Many cities and suburbs, particularly in North America and Australia, have enforced low-density zoning in an effort tot to cum% to large tot, nave rorcea aeye 9p_ment to con- sume even greater tracts of open space. And= to accommo3ate new ouLl _ g communi- aes, roaM-Sa—ve-Feen extended - war , attracting evenmoresprawle Often, people move out to the suburbs seeking open space and bonds with nature that come only in a rural setting. Yet most of these residents continue to maintain an ur- ban lifestyle—commuting to jobs in the city and demanding an assortment of urban amenities found in suburban shopping malls. The result is neither urban nor rural living, but a destructive compromise that the envi- ronment cannot sustain. The low-density suburban modcl.not only has come at a high ecological price, but it also has failed to deliver on many ofits prom- ises. Seeking freedom, mobility, fresh air, and access to open space, many suburbanites in- stead encounter long commutes and traffic jams caused by the dispersed communities' nearly exclusive reliance on private automo- biles. Suburban life promises escape from r crime in the city, only to trade that danger JANUARY -FEBRUARY 1992 20 for the far greater chance of being injured or killed in a car accident. And a new form of social inequity has emerged, stranding any- one m-one who cannot drive or afford a car. De- cades after the sterile, dispersed terrain of Oakland, California, prompted writer The amount of vacant and underused Land in Portland, Oregon, was estimated in 1989 at nine times the space needed to accommodate the city's projected growth for the next 20 years. Gertrude Stein's remark that "there is no there," monotonous sprawl continues. Although denser land use could help solve the environmental, social, and aesthetic problems of sprawl, widespread misconcep- tions about increased density—even moder- ate density—often prevent communities from adopting compact land use strategies. Contrary to popular belief, augmenting the density of development does not create a harsh physical environment. For example,, Copenhagen and Vienria—two cities widely associated with urban charm and livability— are of moderate density (measured by the number of residents and jobs in the city, in- cluding its central business district and outer areas), with 19 people per acre and 29 people per acre, respectively. By contrast, low-den- siry cities such as Phoenix (5 people per acre) often are dominated by unwelcoming, car - oriented commercial strips and vast expanses of concrete and asphalt. People often assume that low density ensures more green space and easier living—yet with appropriate plan - 0 ning and design, dense urban areas can lend themselves to greater viralin•, more inviting spaces, and even higher use of trees and other plants. Planners and citizens, particularly in North America, often assume that moderate and high-density land use are synonymous with crime, poverty, and squalor. Yet there is no scientific evidence to support a direct link between these social problems and density. Data in a recent report on the world's 100 largest cities by the Washington, D.C.-based Population Crisis Committee indicate that Hong Kong—the most densely populated city at 163 people per acre—has fewer mur- ders per capita than all burI l other cities. Its infant mortality rate, seven deaths per 1,000 live births, is lower than that of all but five other cities. These figures, together with sev- eral low-density cities' poor scores on crime and public health, suggest that where high density coincides with these conditions, other, more powerfiil forces are at work. Transport's Missing Link One of the most destructive byproducts of low-density sprawl is an automobile -depen- dent transport system. The pattern of urban development dictates whether people can walk or cycle to work or whether they need to travel dozens of miles; it also determines whether a new bus or rail line can attract enough riders. Despite this obvious link, city layouts often are too dispersed to foster effi- cient transportation. Many of the world's cit- ies have failed to implement compact land use as a transport strategy; few foresaw that an automobile orientation would later plague them with traffic jams, deadly acci- dents, harmful noise, and smog, while mar- ginalizing people who do not own cars. Several strategies for compact land use address these problems. Antiquated zoning laws, in particular, need updating. In most western industrial countries, planners have ! continued to segregate homes from jobs, shops, and other centers of activity long af- ter the end of the heavy industrial period, when this was done to protect public health I by excluding slaughterhouses and smoke- ` stacks from residential areas. Even though most of today's commercial and industrial sites no longer pose health threats, zoning in 21 much of the industrial world still draws a sharp line between home life and public lite. Unfortunately, most developing countries have imported the industrial world's com- partmentalized zoning laws. Although poorly regulated and heavily polluting indus- tries still predominate in the Third World— making it necessary to separate factories from housing—zoning codes also often segregate homes from jobs, shops, and services. Many Asian cities were more dynamic and had greater variety before they adopted Western- style zoning. Throughout Asia, Latin Amer- ica, and Africa, zoning that isolates activities unduly burdens public transport by creating distances too great for a walk or bicycle ride. As a result, many vital services are well out of reach for the vast majority. A more rational approach to zoning in both developing and industrial world cities would be to integrate homes not only with workplaces but with commercial, recre-. ational, and other land uses so they are eas- ilv accessible without cars. Such reforms ide- ally would not hamper developers or impose uniformity, but instead would lift restrictions that create unnaturally one-dimensional dis- tricts. Zoning laws do need to be strict and carefully conceived, though, because left to their own, real estate markets can fail to cre- ate sufficient mixing of land uses. The key to making integrated zoning work well as a transport strategy is to encour- age urban development that is dense enough to promote alternatives to cars. For example, transport planners estimate that a U.S. city typically requires at least seven dwellings per acre in a given area to support reasonably fie- qucnt local bus service, nine dwellings for light rail, and 15 dwellings for an express bus. These moderate densities can be reached by mingling clusters of single-fam- ily homes with garden apartments and two - to -six -story apartment buildings. Many large cities are finding that the most transport -efficient land use pattern combines a compact, well -mixed downtown with sev- cral outlying, high-density areas—all linked by an extensive public transport system. This way, people can walls, cycle, and take short public transport trips within a given area and reach otherrareas via express bus or rapid light. rail. In a strategy to ease dependence on WORLD • WATCH 11 0 Curitiba, Brazil: Effects of Transport and Land Use Measures Shire the 1960s Measures Public transport: Main corridors have an express bus lane; major bus routes have a station every 400 yards; system is faster and cheaper than those of other Brazilian cities. Provisions for pedestrians and cyclists: City has an extensive bike path network; pedestrians have priority in the downtown; Public squares have been improved. Traffic calming: Some streets are closed to autos; in others, speed limits and trees slow car traffic. Land use policies: New development is concentrated in existing urban space instead of sprawling outward; emphasis is on making the best use of developed area. Careful integration of transport and land U" policies: Planners encourage higher densities around major transport corridors and try to ensure that each area includes a mix of homes, jobs, and services. Effects Curitiba's bus system now serves more than 1.3 million passengers daily, 50 times as many as 20 years ago. Once -declining shopping districts are now robust and lively; the city has more meeting spots in which people can gather. Curitiba's rate of accidents per vehicle is now the lowest in Brazil. A former warehouse was turned into a theatre; an old glue factory is now a community center; green area per inhabitant has expanded from 0.6 square yards to 6o today. Gasoline use per vehicle in Curitiba is 30 percent less than in other Brazilian cities its size; people in Curitiba spend about 10 percent of their income on transport, one of the lowest rates in Brazil. SwmrJaime LarMr, ria CurBiN Mail imsnSystemlWistnnplM. O.G_llrtknitimil Instaute lar Emrpy Cmielraapt SeDMnBN 19891: MiGuel PNrras. Energy Conservaaan Acp iaunfJmleMnrm�aMate CanbaMnIWaenm9tm. D.C.: ImemanpylImalunfor EMWConwr .June19901:ChanesLWrpla.'a Caancteriiaca McM4aNao-Maion>DE innspor6'l/nmmrtyolMiMpan rnnspagaan RessarA (ns Eaq[RunrN,Rmew. MUW N199Q Mons lama. Sam Cay n Valqusra d fi9m a9e�ns1 Pdlutlaq'rswKsa(nmat AUDuel30,1991. the automobile, planners in Toronto, Van- couver, and other Canadian cities have achieved such a many -centered layout. Fortunately for the world's polluted, traf- fic -clogged cities, there are shining examples of land use adopted as a transport strategy with outstanding results. Curitiba, Brazil, a city of about 1.5 million people and the capi- tal of the southeastern state of Parana, is one. By the end of the 1960s, Curitiba was going the way of other automobile.dominated cit- ies. Traffic congestion, sprawl, and an inad- equate bus system tied the city's road net- work in knots and dragged down economic development as workers, shoppers, and goods were kept from their destinations. Then, in the 1970s, Mayor Jaime Lerner, former head of the municipal planning com. mission, initiated a series of measures to en- courage higher densities around major pub- lic transport links and to make the city friendlier to pedestrians and cyclists [see table above]. JANUARY • FEBRUARY 1992 22 Curitiba's transport system is based on express bus lines that.run in reserved lanes, lines that connect the express routes, and frequent feeder routes linking neighbor- hoods to the main system. As an integrated public transport network, this system has received worldwide praise for its'efficiencv. By closely coordinating land use with the bus system, Curitiba has established strong transport corridors that can be upgraded to fight rail or even high-capacity rapid rail to handle future growth. One out of five people in Curitiba owns a car—for Brazil, an ownership rate second only to Brasilia's—yet gasoline use per ve- hicle is 30 percent lower than the average for eight comparable Brazilian cities. The trans- port system provides easy access to various points throughout the city for the many people who cannot drive or afford a car. Al- though cities in the poorest developing ,countries may not be able to afford Curi- tiba's high-quality public transport system, 0 0 the same guiding concepts provide a sound basis for future growth. Worldwide, cities at all levels of economic development could draw heavily from Curitiba's success in coor- dinating transport investments with carefully guided land use. -Room Enough for All Attempts to slow or stop growth shut out many groups of people—and by restricting the supply of housing, tend to inflate home prices. Compact growth, by contrast, can help create diverse communities and pro- mote smaller, more affordable housing. Cities in developing as well as industrial countries can combine compact growth with strategies to increase the supply of land avail- able for low- and moderate -income homes. They can release undeveloped and under. used public land for this purpose or create land banks of tax -delinquent land. Typically, local governments foreclose on derelict property and sell it—often to speculators who let the land.become tax -delinquent again. In land banking, the city can hold properties and resell them only for socially productive uses, such as affordable housing. Land banking has been applied successfully in several North American cities, including St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States and Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and Edmonton, Alberta, in Canada. In each case it increased the supply of affordable residential land and sparked redevelopment ofvacant property in declining inner-city neighborhoods. Sweden, the Netherlands, Taiwan, and Singapore also have made use of measures to prevent speculation, a process whereby land- owners in nearly all free-market societies hold land as an investment for future wind. fall gains, rather than putting it to current use. Speculation puts upward pressure on real estate prices and idles great amounts of urban land. By taxing vacant land according to its true worth in the market, cities can make these parcels less attractive as an investment ve- hicle. Local governments typically assess such properties at far less than their market value, effectively rewarding property owners for keeping their land idle. More accurate property assessment encourages redevelop- ment. Cities can go a step further to tax va- cant land more heavily than developed par. cels. To avoid spurts of sprawled growth, however, it is critically important to combine these tax strategies with clearly. defined growth frontiers—such as greenbelts and urban growth boundaries—that contain de- velopment within the existing urban area. With appropriate planning and design, dense urban areas can lend themselves to greater vitality, more inviting spaces, and even higher use of trees and other plants than Iowerdensity areas. Cities can further spur the regeneration of their blighted land through a differential property tax, levying a higher charge on land than on buildings. This dual approach is now in effect in 15 U.S. cities—mostly in Penn- sylvania, which, unlike most other states, has specific "enabling" legislation that allows lo- calities to make such a change. When Pitts- burgh introduced a sharply graded dual tax system in 1978, the number of vacant lot sales, new building permits, and new dwell- ings quickly increased. At the same time, demolitions declined. Cities in Denmark also take this approach. In Australia, most local governments exclude buildings from prop- erty tax. These property taxation strategies would be particularly valuable in East Euro- pean cities to ensure that future private de- velopment is compact. Muni4palities can enhance the supply of affordable housing by replacing zoning codes that require each house to occupy its own spacious lot with controls that promote a variety of housing types, including smaller and multi-familyrhomes. The Portland met. ropolitan region has used this strategy suc- 23 WORM- WATCH 9 0 cessfully. Because of changes in local zoning plans, 54 percent of all recent residential development in the region consists of apart- ments, duplexes, and other affordable hous- ing, compared with the 30 percent max. imum allowed by previous zoning. This policy has been a leading factor in keeping the city's housing prices affordable. In relation to household income, housing in Portland is two to three times as affordable as in Seattle, San Jose, San Francis- co, and other West Coast cities. A more immediate remedy to the housing crunch felt in manycit- ies, particularly in the United States, where homes tend to be large, is to allow single-family homeowners to rent out small apartments within their homes. The size of the average household in industrial countries is shrinking steadily as couples have fewer children and more people choose living arrangements other than the nuclear family. As a result, many homes built for larger households can create an extra unit in a converted basement, garage, attic, or even an added story According to a 1985 estimate by the New Brunswick, New Jersey -based Center for Urban Polity. Research, 12 to 18 million homes in the United States have surplus space suitable for accessory apartments. Lo- cal governments in Canada and Europe en- courage this as a way to provide needed housing and make better use of space. Most U.S. communities, however, prohibit apart- ments in houses in single-family zones. In recent years, however, housing -short com- munities in California, New Jersey, and Masi sachusetts have changed their regulations to promote them. especially lacking in the developing world. Municipal governments in Asia, Africa, and Latin America often have neither the author- ity to guide land use nor the funds to pro%idc basic services. With few exceptions, urban planning is a relatively recent phenomenon in developing countries, even in capital cir- Laying the Groundwork Creating compact cities requires a commit- ment by planning authorities and govern- ments at the local, regional, and national lev. els. Adequate local planning institutions are JANUARY • FEBRUARY 1992 24 ies. In India, urban planning reportedly be- gan with the city of Delhi's Master Plan in 1962. In Nigeria, the first systematic effort to plan cities did not begin until 1971. Nigeria's capital city,.Lagos, still has. no des. ignated metropolitan government and no formally defined urban area. Often, city governments in developing countries lack clear records concerning who owns what. Many cities' land registering sys- tems are so inadequate that when the gov- ernment itself wants to buy a parcel, it may take several years to find out who owns it. Such information gaps decrease the effi- ciency of real estate markets and inhibit the full use of available land. Compact growth of cities also hinges on regional cooperation, an important tool for handling conflicts between the interests of individual localities and those of the broader region. For instance, manv munici- palities compete for high tax -yielding de- velopment and misuse their zoning powers to shut out land uses that yield little tax revenue or require public spending for so- cial services..Such "fiscal" zoning leads communities to exclude low-income hous- ing, which leaves neighboring jurisdictions 0 with the burden of providing affordable homes. Fiscal zoning also can accelerate the economic drain from central cities, as suburbs seek to replenish public coffers by establishing massive commercial zones to attract taxpaving businesses. . Cooperation among competing localities is 0 0 difficult to achieve without specific laws at the state or provincial level. In the United States, such legislation has successfully foiled fiscal zoning in the state of Minnesota since 1971. All of the localities in the Minneapolis -St. Paul region are required to pool a portion of their commercial and industrial tax base—thus re- ducing the competition between them for commercial and industrial development. In- creases in business tax proceeds are distributed throughout the metropolitan region accord- ing to each community's population and over- all tax base. This tax -base sharing system also has spread the revenue benefits of develop- ment more equitably; the gap between the per -capita tax -base of the richest and poorest communities has narrowed from a .ratio of roughly 13:1 to 4:1. Provincial or state laws, ideally, can re- quire each town's land use to be compatible with specified regional interests—but leave the actual planning process up to the local community. In the United States, such leg- islation has given new force to urban plan- ning in eight states: Florida, Georgia, Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont All cities and counties in these states are required to plan their own 25 development according to stipulated goals, such as energy conservation, protection of open space, and provision of affordable . housing. Thesestatewideplanning require- ments not only enhance regional coopera- tion, but they also give cities the backing they need to apply a comprehensive, long- term vision to their land use planning. Finally, the effectiveness of urban plan. ning can be fully achieved only if govern- ments remove the conflicting incentives posed by other national policies. Among the greatest barriers to compact urban develop- ment are artificially low gasoline prices, which encourage dependence on cars. Rais- ing national gasoline.tazes to a level that more accurately reflects the true costs of driving—from the health costs of air pollu- tion to the military costs of policing the Per- sian Gulf—would give an enormous boost to more efficient urban land use and raise revenue for investment in a broader range of transport options. If the barriers to efficient land use were removed, what would a compact city look like? Much of the vast space normally de- voted to automobile parking in a sprawled, car -dependent city would be planted in trees and flowers, or used for building homes. Old properties would be revived for new uses; a 19th -century warehouse into apartments, a vacant lot into a public park, for instance. The downtown area would be lived in day and night, with apartments and offices occupying the floors above ground -level shops. Each district would be home to a variety of jobs; shops, and day care centers, all within an easy walk or bicycle ride. People could travel quickly to other parts of the city and outlying areas via rapid rail and express bus lines. On a rapidly urbanizing planet, societies can take greater.command of their fate by more consciously determining the use of ur- ban land. Whether surrounded by affluent suburbs or makeshift shantytowns, the world's cities can protect the environment and better address the needs of current and future gen- erations by planning for compact growth. • Marcia D. Lowe, a senior researcher at the Worldwatch Inslitute, analyzes transportation and land use issues. WORLD - WATCH