Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Is New Urbanism a Post-Communist Plot?


Found an article discussing the similarities between Soviet-era/Eastern Bloc community design, communist retoric and the New Urbanists influences on late 20th Century urban and suburban redevelopment. It isn't that deep, but the photos are cool and their are some "global" similarities that have little to do with "communism" as a poltical structure and more incommon with the influence of smart design and thoughtful planning.

Vanishing Automobile update #53
Smart Growth and the Ideal City

or
http://www.ti.org/vaupdate53.html

Saturday, October 18, 2008

Seattle Moves on Neighborhood Update Plan

The City of Seattle is coming up on its 10-Year Neighborhood Plan and the University of Washington Evans School ( http://evans.washington.edu/ ) and the Urban Design & Planning Department ( http://www.caup.washington.edu/udp/ ) of the College of Architecture & Planning came together last spring (2008) to review data, conduct surveys and community meetings, and hold forums.

The city council in collaboration with the mayor's office have made their choices and moved to implement the review process. The following links give some insight into the review process and their findings: http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/pubs/cfr042208.pdf

http://www.cityofseattle.gov/council/newsdetail.asp?ID=8936

Take a look at the most recent press release:

"COUNCIL SETS IN MOTION UPDATE OF NEIGHBORHOOD PLANS
One-year assessment kicks off city-wide work while three high-priority areas jump immediately into planning

SEATTLE — City Council today authorized an update of neighborhood plans across the city. Councilmember Sally J. Clark, the chair of the Planning, Land Use and Neighborhoods Committee, said, “Ultimately, updating the neighborhood plans is an opportunity for us all to recommit to the vision of safe, affordable, sustainable neighborhoods for today and tomorrow.”

In 1999, nearly 20,000 citizens collaborated with city staff and consultants to produce 38 neighborhood plans for urban villages and urban centers in Seattle. The plans identify actions needed to ensure that each neighborhood thrives as Seattle grows over time. The original plans had 20-year horizons. The update process approved today provides the chance for a mid-life tune-up.

The process to update neighborhood plans will begin this fall in three changing neighborhoods and with a planning area status review throughout the city. City staff will work with neighborhood residents and business people to gather information to create snapshots of each neighborhood compared to 10 years ago, including demographic shifts, zoning, housing units and affordability, transportation upgrades in the past 10 years, new parks, and a neighborhood plan implementation report. The status reports will help neighborhood advocates and the city recognize gaps and inform decisions about whether or how to update particular plans. A Neighborhood Planning Advisory Committee, made of citizens appointed by the Mayor, Council and Neighborhood District Councils, will provide guidance to the updating process.

While the triage and reporting phase proceeds through 2009, light rail will start rolling through Rainier Valley and Beacon Hill to Downtown. Three neighborhoods in Southeast Seattle with light rail stations and significant multi-family and commercial area around them are about to become very popular, very fast -- Beacon Hill, McClellan and Othello. Updates of the plans for these three areas would get under way immediately.

Councilmember Clark said, “My goal is to ensure an update process that carries forward the best elements of citizen engagement and partnership from the city-wide, national model planning effort of 10 years ago while bringing new voices into the mix. This is a great opportunity for neighborhoods to look at where they are and what they want to be in the future.”

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Local Housing Advocates Secure Changes!!

Community Benefits Agreement at the Dearborn project

Sage is proud to announce the Northwest’s first Community Benefits Agreement! After almost two years of negotiations, an agreement has been struck between the Dearborn Street Coalition for Livable Neighborhoods and Dearborn Street Developers LLC on a $300-million project, slated to be built on a 10-acre site at the crossroads of Seattle’s most economic and ethnically diverse communities – including Little Saigon, the Central District, the International District and North Rainier Valley. “This project has come a long way toward ensuring that neighborhood families will benefit from the economic growth this project will bring. More workers will now earn a livable wage and live in affordable housing and the development will better meet the needs of the people who work and live here,” said David West, executive director of Puget Sound Sage. Sage was joined by neighborhood groups and Little Saigon small business leaders in negotiating key sections of the agreement.

The Dearborn coalition is comprised of business, neighborhood, labor, faith, housing, environmental, ethnic and other community organizations, all deeply concerned with how growth and change shape Seattle’s neighborhoods. “This CBA – the first in the Pacific Northwest – gives community groups like Jackson Place and others a voice in shaping their neighborhoods,” said Maura Deering, a member of the Jackson Place Community Council Board of Directors. “We are glad to have played a role in setting this type of precedent.” Another coalition member, Jermaine Smiley of Laborers Local 242 commented, “Making sure this project provided living wage jobs and benefits was a key issue for us.” “This agreement is a step in the right direction for neighborhoods such as Little Saigon where development pressure is high. The agreement helps balance development interests and neighborhood interests,” said Quang H. Nguyen, executive director of the Washington Vietnamese American Chamber of Commerce.

Community Benefits won:

The Dearborn project, with 600,000-square feet of retail and 500 units of housing, is located between South Dearborn and Weller streets at Rainier Ave. Among the items in this unprecedented agreement, Dearborn Street Developers LLC have agreed to:
Follow fair labor standards by hiring construction contractors that pay prevailing wages and provide health and retirement benefits; and by ensuring that 15% of all work hours are performed by apprentices. The contractors will also participate in minority/women-owned business programs and strive to hire local residents through pre-apprentice programs;
Ensure grocery and drug stores agree to stay neutral if employees decide to unionize. Janitors, security officers and other employees of the development will be covered by the same labor standards;

  • Build 200 units of low-income housing in the project;

  • Contribute $200,000 to mitigate traffic impacts in the Little Saigon and Jackson place neighborhoods in addition to the street improvements that the developer will pay for as traffic mitigation immediately around the project;

  • Offer below-market rents on 5,000 square feet of space in the project to community nonprofits at a cost of $1 million;

  • Contribute $200,000 for the design of a community center in Little Saigon, and $600,000 over 12 years to support the Little Saigon commercial district;

  • Use environmentally sustainable building practices.

The project, to be anchored by a Target store, still needs the approval of the Seattle City Council, which must approve a site rezone and street vacations. The developer will have to pay the city for the street vacations and the coalition and developer will ask that the city invest those funds, in neighborhoods around the project. These street vacation funds, expected to be $4-8 million, will be applied toward capitol costs of a Vietnamese community center or marketplace, traffic calming improvements, and other community development projects.

Under the agreement, 200 of the 500 units of housing in the project will be low-income units. Of these units, 120 will be affordable to families making no more than 50% of the city’s median income, which is $32,550 for a two-person household. The other 80 units will be affordable to families making no more than 80% of the median income. The Seattle Housing Authority will build the affordable units. Precedent-Setting Agreement The Dearborn CBA is a first for the Northwest region and sets precedents in many areas. The affordable housing and family housing guarantees are the largest of their kind for a commercial project on private land.

The agreement’s ban on predatory lending is unprecedented. The project’s urban location will reduce urban residents’ trips to suburban malls, and the project will feature the largest combination of green roofs and green walls in the northwest. The Vietnamese Cultural Center or Marketplace is a step toward preserving the neighborhood’s unique small business community in the midst of urban growth and rising rents.

The Dearborn Project is the first major development where local unions have joined with community groups to win common objectives, such as affordable housing for low-wage service workers. The result is a fully-enforceable agreement which benefits the community, the developer, and Goodwill Industries.