Planning Rosemary and the Three Big Questions

Once again, hope for the Rosemary District (a small, funky downtown Sarasota district in need of love) rises.  Monitoring Facebook and local conversations, there is at once hope, and a loathing fear of the same action-free blah (density), blah (walkability), blah (affordable space for artists).

On December 10, Sarasota held an hour-long neighborhood meeting (covered in the Sarasota Patch here and video-recorded by the city here).  Questions from the audience were thoughtful and varied, but focused on height/density, potential uses, and what can only be described as a yearning to figure out a vision for the neighborhood.  So how would Rosemary get to a vision?

Vision-led planning tends to boil down to three basic questions:

• What do we have?
• What do we want?
• How do we get there?

Of course there are supporting questions along the way.  Communities review strengths and weaknesses as well as threats and opportunities.   A bevy of studies on carrying capacity and economics are needed to give a reality check to the wonderful, wild ideas that surface during the process.   But the focus is on the three questions:

What do we have? – While often overlooked, this step inventories existing assets, plans, investments and maps.  Asset-based community development is a growing field, in large part as a response to the drudgery of conventional, “put out fires” planning.  Assets can be people (often assembled though a stakeholder mapping exercise), buildings, events, and even those things often regarded as “problems.”  One of the values of asset mapping is that you often have “What do you want” right under your nose. This process also starts off on a position of strength.

What do we want? – This is the visioning part of planning.  The key attribute here is the word “we.”  Older models of problem solving called on technical experts to analyze problems and prescribe solutions.  While still needed, the role of technicians is forward looking.  Done well, visioning sets a vision statement (which can be more than one sentence, but not much more) that is the discussion anchor.

How do we get there?- This is the strategic planning for all manner of activities that make a community hum.  The mandated comprehensive plan has traditionally been the convening document, but there are a lot of other steps that can happen to “get there.”

The "Asset Map" for the Bellingham Arts District

While there are plenty of communities who have rallied around an arts district, Bellingham Washington’s Art District seems to be a great model.  We don’t have to follow their script to a tee, but it seems like their approach would be similar.  Their Arts District is part of a larger downtown plan   

• The conceptual plan was developed in conjunction with the Project for Public Spaces.  This document lays out the what do we have/want/how to get there path.  The placemaking map looks at the strong points, the concept design looks at investments and the implementation section lays out steps.  The main focus is public investment in streetscapes and how to handle surface parking lots.
• Instead of jumping straight to density, the starting point is making a really great place.  Sarasota always jumps straight to density, which should get figured out towards the end of the planning process, not the beginning.  Density is not a vision, but a tool. For example, in the asset mapping phase, the community will likely identify a couple of landmark buildings that are 5 stories tall.   If the community wants space for artists as part of the vision, then affordability is essential.  The planning phase will determine the economic imperatives, the location, mix, and numbers of units. See, we just talked vision, character and implicitly - density.  But density didn't lead - the vision did.
• One of the more interesting spaces in the Arts District is Make.Shift.  Check it out.

If I were sticking around, I would do everything in my power to get the Project for Public Spaces here.  Sarasota has played host to some of the most famous consultants and land use experts in the world.  But PPS would focus on the streetscape, parks and public spaces. While at it, invite Jeff Speck who just wrote Walkable City.   Tie in the North Trail and - BAM!

Managed Retreat and Economic Development… at the same time

There’s plenty of talk about the need to retreat from the shoreline –Hurricane Sandy made this clear.  In fact, Sarasota is already dealing with the “repair versus retreat” question on Siesta Key with Beach Road.  Most literature on retreat focuses on structures located on shorelines, and frames the entire conversation around doomed property.  But planning for climate change is not a lot-by-lot exercise, nor one to be viewed as all negative.  For coastal towns like Sarasota, hope comes in the form of couple of questions:

• How can we maintain access as long as possible?
• How do we deal with the certainty of damaging storms, but uncertainty of timing?
• Can we actually prepare for climate change and boost economic activity at the same time?

For Sarasota, one of the best ways to maintain the economic activity at the beach while limiting exposure is to create “jumping off points” to provide access to the beaches on higher ground.  These areas are close to the beach, but on terra that’s a bit more firma.

The photos above shows one of Sarasota’s greatest climate adaptation assets, located on the mainland at the foot of the north bridge to Siesta Key.  The main feature is Southgate Mall.  While not dead, it is losing its premier anchor next year (Saks) and is losing hope for an Apple store.  The area is already mixed-use; rich in roadways, but not connections.  It would be easy to classify this as a mall retrofit, but it is not: it’s an area retrofit given the numerous strip centers that radiate along the arterials.  Even if there were no such thing as climate change, this would be a smart place to undertake world class redevelopment.   

But climate change, sea level rise and storm surge are factors.  While a typical mall retrofit might look at housing, retail, and transportation, retaining the economic vitality of the keys requires additional thoughts on how to also add the beach experience to the use mix. The image above illustrates a potential strawman for a jumping off point plan.  The primary planning area geared to redevelopment is in red, with a second tier next to neighborhoods.  This yellow area would not see new zoning, but instead would get special attention in the planning process to ensure livability. The green shaded areas are most vulnerable to surge and need their own round of retrofits.

This type of planning – servicing the beach away from the beach – will require some thinking on the nature of lodging and access.

• What kind of housing and hotel product? – Sarasota already represents about the widest gamut of lodging and housing imaginable:  permanent, seasonal (snowbirds), sporadic (snowflakes) and tourist.  Housing usually includes single family, townhouse, condo, apartment, assisted living, time shares, trailer parks, and hotels.  But old definitions are changing.  Sites like airbnb and Homeaway are blurring lines between ownership and hotel.  Time shares are actually a key climate change real estate product, because owners still have other property even if storms wipe out buildings.  For managed retreat, we need to rethink products in order to meet the three questions asked above. What would the real estate products and mix need to be?  What needs to drive design and operations?

• Transportation – For managed retreat, transportation is as important as use mix and in fact the development needs to be planned around the transit and transportation system.  In fact, we likely need new transportation “products” and mix.  First, the circulatory system to the beaches forms a core.  As long as we are planning transit to the beach, we may as well link it to downtown.  We should also form a better hub for the local bus system (Southgate now qualifies as one of the suckiest transfer hubs in the transit kingdom).  Walking will need to link the core to the immediate area, so sidewalks, shortcuts and crossings need special attention before buildings are planned.   Finally, car hire completes the picture with traditional rentals, but also car shares like car2go and Zipcar.  Tourists could still rent minivans and whatnot, but imagine the vacation savings if you can rent a car on the spot only as long as you need it. Young renters would not need to fork out cash for cars. Snowbirds could leave the car up north.  This idea would help limit congestion for cities that need to manage current demand while looking ahead.
• New Zoning - I would invent new zoning: R-H-Tr: Residential-Hotel- Transportation.  Just as developers need to install stormwater and HVAC, car share would be part of a building’s utilities (one they can share with other buildings in an area plan).

Note: Sarasota is developing a Post-Disaster Redevelopment Plan(or PDRP).  Get used to this lingo.

Redevelop or Retreat? Sarasota’s Climate Conundrum

Sarasota (City and County) has long advanced a redevelopment priority, at least in theory.  In Hurricane Sandy’s aftermath, it’s worth noting Sarasota also has a more recent history of warnings about development on the coast.  Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota County and Shafer Consulting have all produced top notch information and graphics on what happens with sea level rise and storm surge.  Climate change presents a smart growth conundrum: what happens when the best redevelopment areas are most susceptible to the impacts of climate change?

Sarasota County is preparing  a post-disaster redevelopment plan.  Of course this planning will be controversial, but whether the outcome is helpful or mush depends on the sober commitment of each and every Sarasotan at the table.  That commitment needs to include sensitivity towards those with assets in the way, tax and ratepayers, and responders who face different levels of harm depending on what/who is on the coast when storms strike. 

Before we get to the redevelop versus retreat question, it helps to look at several terms.

Resilience – refers to maintaining integrity of systems, even when subject to disturbance.  While it implies a level of “bouncing back” after an event, the real value is in preparation and designing for a variety of events ahead of time.  

Mitigation –refers to steps taken to lower the risk.  In climate science, this entails reducing greenhouse gases at the source, and efforts to sequester carbon. Local mitigation can include canopy and energy efficiency.

Accommodation – refers to making use of the land, but not attempting to prevent inundation and flooding.

Adaptation – refers to adapting to the changes underway, which can include prospective changes and codes to facilitate adaptation.  

Managed Retreat – refers to moving investment away from the most vulnerable areas.

Witch’s Brew – OK – this my term, but refers to a collection of other conspiring issues – legal, regulatory financial and insurance.  The 2012 Florida APA conference featured a presentation of recent Court cases.  Over time, a stack of opinions have formed obligations on maintaining access to beach properties.  A massive insurance pull-out and inability to handle sewerage might subtract plots along the beach anyway, but the legal fight to watch might be the first case involving limited budgets and a public safety breaking point.  Imagine inland residents sick and dying from contaminated water versus 50 ocean front property owners insisting a submerged road be rebuilt.

What to Do?

Clear and early information – This interactive map from the Sarasota Herald Tribune provides a snapshot of the most vulnerable areas. Texas Sea Grant developed the CHARM model, which uses interactive map layers.  Using a vertical Wii gaming device, users can tap multiple layers of information related to risk, inundation, and costs on the fly.  The County should consider bringing Dr. John Jacob here to demonstrate the technology (He is a colleague of mine and is quite CHARMing). 

Inundation Zones - For the barrier islands and near shore landscapes, Michael Volk’s presentation is the best I have seen: “An Analysis of Strategies for Adaptation to Sea Level Rise”.   He breaks it down to Managed Retreat, Accommodation and Protection, though does not mince words on the importance of ultimate retreat.  The presentation also lists design guidelines for development and vegetation in these zones. 

Where should we Redevelop? – Redevelopment becomes an exercise in map layers.  Several years ago, the County developed a “Multiple Projects” map to begin locating priority redevelopment areas.   This effort was abandoned, in part because the county never explained the attributes of planning areas with the best potential. The map shows most of the locations, which are approximate.

• First – explain what the attributes of prime redevelopment areas are.  In general, the more urbanized areas with good infrastructure, transit and street networks (existing or potential) will be prime candidates.  These areas need to include a wider planning area as well as buffers, design guidelines and connections for surrounding neighborhoods.  Of course, elevation above sea level and inundation are leading attributes as well.
• Second - The most interesting aspect of planning will be a new category of “jumping off” areas to provide access to recreation and economic development along the beaches.  These jumping off areas are on the mainland along US 41 at the bridges.  They are still in slosh zones, but provide retreat while still offering (and perhaps even enhancing) beach access.  
• Third – Develop special policies for the highest ground outside the Urban Service Boundary.  One of the conclusions of post-disaster workshops has been to relax the USB, but this should not be done in a Wild West kind of way.  Covering spongy open space with a schmear of development will only make coastal flooding worse.

Next post – “jumping off” area plans.

New Publication on Density and Neighborhoods

Example of stepdown heights between taller buildings and SFH in Arlington VA

Hi All - I am the author of the latest Zoning Practice, a publication of the American Planning Association.  The August 2012 edition is called "Density and the Planning Edge."

I've long been frustrated with planning at this edge (having started my planning career in Arlington as an activist living on this edge but supportive of Metro-oriented density).  My main complaints are:

• There are legitimate concerns on livability that can be better addressed if included at the front end of the planning process: noise, circulation, design, restaurant smells, parks, drainage, parking, garbage pickup, traffic, loading and deliveries, crosswalks
• There are also long term impacts that can be better managed when maintenance and management are front-end topics. 
• There is no organized, central repository where local decision makers, developers and homeowners can go to see policies, stipulations, maintenance agreements, photos, plans and graphics that have worked (or fell short) in other places.
• If this is a top reason why good redevelopment and density do not take place, why are we not addressing as a planning imperative? 

I will be blogging on some really great case studies I found, but will also be on the stump to create a bigger, more helpful project.  Let me know if you are interested, or send changemakers my way (lisa[at]nisenson.net].  Any ideas of who to approach as partners or funders also welcome.

You can see the official blurb at  http://www.planning.org/zoningpractice/

To order a copy, mail a $10 check to

Zoning Practice Back Issues
American Planning Association
205 N Michigan Ave
Suite 1200
Chicago, IL 60601

Walkable Urbanism Tour of Sarasota

Last week, the Florida Chapter of APA, the Myakka Branch of the Florida Green Building Council and the Florida House (I am a Board member of the latter two organizations) sponsored a walk tour of two local projects, Citrus Square and Janie’s Garden.   Both have won awards for design and are wonderful examples of architecturally excellent, mixed use projects.

First, here is a digital booklet of the trip.  The tour provided the 30 participants a chance to critique the project designs for aspects of walkable tourism.  We used several checklists, including LEED for Neighborhood Design, to look at the various aspects of site design and location.

Citrus Square

I’ve written about Citrus Square before (see here).  It is a privately financed project with 20 residential units above first floor retail.  The details on the tour that garnered the most attention were:

• Financing – HUD, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have caps on gross square feet of commercial space allowed in a mixed use project (from 15-25%).  The taller the building, the less the effect.  However, with two and three story buildings like Citrus Square, these caps make first floor retail in vertically mixed-use project difficult if not impossible.  The Congress for the New Urbanism has a task force called Live/Work/Walk to address this barrier to better redevelopment. 
• Parking – Parking is distributed throughout the site, both on-street and on-site. 
• Unit size – the size of the units are small, with the smallest units (550 ft2) among the most popular.
• Cost – the cost of the highly detailed molding added about 10% to the project costs, lower than typically assumed.

Janie’s Garden

First, we were joined by Vice Mayor Willie Shaw, who happened to be biking by (at the top of every walk tour leader’s wish list when showing off walkable, bikable communities) Janie’s Garden is a multi-phase, Hope VI mixed use project.  Bill Russell, head of the Sarasota Housing Authority led the tour, and the following points were highlights

• Financing – the financing was different from Citrus Square, instead using tax credits, which are a common mechanism for financing affordable housing.   The developer and manager of Janie’s Garden is the Michael’s Company, a national leader in affordable housing development. 
• Use mix – The first business, is now open in The Market Place in Phase 2 of Janie’s Garden along Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. 
• Transportation – The route for Sarasota’s bus rapid transit project is currently planned to serve this area, with a stop at Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and Lemon Street.  There is some discussion on moving the route three blocks west to US 41, given the existing business and infrastructure there and new rules from the Federal Transit Administration that now favor economic development over speed.   No matter where the route eventually runs, Janie’s gardens would benefit from better links to US 41 via infrastructure, commercial activity and interaction with institutions along US 41.  For example, the retail and housing at Janie’s Garden could help support artists in the area.

Two conversations emerged that will be further explored in any future tour:

• Building Articulation – This may seem like an oddball term to non-architects.  The best way to think about articulation is the opposite: continuity.  Next time you are at a big box store, the flat walls flush doorways and lack of ornamentation are continuous design which gives the impression of large blank walls and canyons.  Walkable urbanism thrives on the opposite, where molding, windows, doors awnings and the like break up the buildings visually while still maintaining a sense of a coherent built environment. 
• The Underside of Balconies - One of the unexpected focal points from both tours was the attention to the undersides of balconies. Pedestrians are always looking around, including up.  The undersides of balconies are just one more opportunity to make the walk that much more interesting.

This was not so much new attention to balconies, but rather an important lesson in designing for slower speeds.  At 50 or 60 miles an hour, there is little need for detail.  However those who are walking and driving slowly will need to be engaged, even delighted, with what they encounter.  Quality materials, quality and interesting detail are critical not just the grist of design manuals, but your transporation and economic plans as well.