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Free Resources | Land Use | Articles |
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The Ahwahnee Principles: Toward More Livable Communities Cont… In Sacramento, Walnut Creek, Santa Barbara and San Diego, city officials have broken new ground by siting new shopping malls downtown, near transit, rather than off a freeway. The benefits include both a new surge of economic activity for downtown businesses and a reduction in auto use and the associated negative air quality impacts. The California Air Resources Board has noted that over 60% of the people arriving at San Diego's downtown mall, Horton Plaza, arrive via transit or walking.
With the assistance of urban designer Michael Freedman, the City of Cathedral City is no longer focusing solely on density and the control of uses as a means of guiding their future growth. At a joint meeting of the city council, planning commission, and architectural review committee, Freedman presented the Ahwahnee Principles and the key role of local government in future planning and general plan development. Cathedral City adopted the Ahwahnee Principles by resolution and has started to incorporate them into their general plan. With only 50% of the city built out and development plans on the table, the city council acknowledged the importance of having planning guidelines. An innovative city in the desert region, Cathedral City understands that the best way to deliver good planning principles is to work both with the community and the building industry to develop a comprehensive strategy of planning more livable neighborhoods Even the US government has embraced the Ahwahnee Principles. Architect Peter Calthorpe reports that the planning concepts outlined by the Ahwahnee Principles have been written into a guidance document recently published the federal government. Calthorpe was a coauthor of the document, Vision/Reality produced by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development for local government officials interested in applying for Community Development Block Grant program and other funds. A number of city planners believe that if they can just solve the problem of traffic, they can solve the major problems of their cities. Yet the simple needs of the automobile are far more easily understood and accommodated that the complex needs of people. The Ahwahnee Principles outline a set of ideas for planning more livable communities built for people, not just cars, and provide a vision for an alternative to urban sprawl. This new vision will lead to neighborhoods where people no longer live in a house with an isolated rear yard. They will live in a home with a comfortable relationship to the street which is part of a neighborhood. Tree-lined sidewalks with narrow streets will induce cars to drive more slowly. Children will be more safe when they play in the neighborhood and the sense of community will add a feeling of security. When they need to go to school, to the store, or to baseball practice, children will be able to walk or ride a bike rather than being dependent on someone driving them there. The top down, traditional planning of yesterday is no longer an acceptable means of making cities. The people served must be involved. When people come together and openly discuss their visions for the future, a sense of community will result. Bringing citizens into the process of developing and revising the general plan will also result in new development which both serves the needs of the community and is used and respected by the residents it serves. To make better, more livable cities, local governments must take charge of the process of planning while involving and utilizing its bet asset, the people who work, live and play in our communities.
Authors/Editors: Peter Calthorpe, Peter Katz, Michael Corbett, Judy Corbett, Andres Duany, Steve Weissman, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Stefanos Polyzoides.
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Developer-proposed, large-scale, new development is also reflecting
the influence of the Ahwahnee Principles. The one-thousand acre,
Playa Vista infill project in Los Angeles will include the preservation
of 300 acres of wetlands. As it is designed now, the development
will feature moderately-dense housing built small neighborhood
parks. Large offices, small retail stores, restaurants, grocery
stores and small telecommuting offices will be integrated, allowing
residents to walk when they go to work, shop, or go out to dinner.
A bicycle and pedestrian esplanade will link the town with the
beach. Rialto's Mayor John Longville is working with the developer
of a 3,000 acre development near the Ontario airport to incorporate
the concepts of the Ahwahnee Principles in that project.
The
architects who gathered in 1991 to develop the Ahwahnee Principles
are all internationally known for their inspirational work and
innovative ideas. Peter Calthorpe, is one of the leaders of the "New
Urbanism" movement and was cited by Newsweek Magazine as "one
of 25 innovators on the cutting edge." Michael Corbett, a former
Mayor of the City of Davis, has received international recognition
for his design of the resource-efficient Village Homes development
in Davis, a project often cited as the best existing example
of sustainable development in the world. The husband-wife team
of Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, made headlines with
their wildly successful Seaside development in Florida and have
become highly acclaimed architects and planners of neotraditional
communities. Stefanos Polyzoides is an associate professor of
architecture at the University of Southern California. He and
his partner, Elizabeth Moule, are the architects of Playa Vista
in Los Angeles, a model application of the Ahwahnee Principles.