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Free Resources | Land Use | Articles |
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Development and Public Health: Could our development patterns be affecting our personal health? Cont…
But land use and transportation planners, for example, historically have not been close collaborators, says Reid Ewing, research director for the Surface Transportation Policy Project. They are housed in different agencies at different levels of government, use different planning methods, and have different planning horizons. So it is no wonder that coordinated efforts to create healthier cities and more walk-able neighborhoods are infrequent.
The CDC, the Surface Transportation Policy Project, and Rutgers University have em-barked on a study to explore the links between urban sprawl and morbidity issues such as obesity, Ewing says. Such research may bring a call for human impact statements–similar to environmental impact statements for land use– that identify the consequences of community design and transportation choices for residents. Many communities are taking steps to expand traveler choices, comments Michael Replogle, transportation director of Environ-mental Defense, by combining new technologies with incentives and accountability standards. In Atlanta, residents face mounting traffic, congestion, air pollution, energy consumption, and other sprawl-induced problems. After failing to agree on transportation plans consistent with state mandates for air pollution control, the Clean Air Act helped Georgia officials redirect hundreds of millions of dollars from sprawl-inducing roads to transit, sidewalks, bike paths, traffic signals, and safety projects. Georgia Governor Roy Barnes subsequently established the Georgia Regional Transportation Authority to guide regional transit and encourage more responsible local land use decisions. Recent changes in the federal tax code make it attractive for employers to offer "pay-me-not- to-drive" incentives, such as nontaxable transit and vanpool benefits, and cash in lieu of a parking space. In southern California and Minnesota, where employers are offering a $2 to $3 a day cash incentive for employees to give up their parking space at work, one of eight employees who used to drive is finding another way to get to work, Replogle says. Several states have incentives to reinforce this, such as Maryland, where since the beginning of this year, employers get a 50 percent tax credit for transit, vanpool, or cash-in-lieu-of-parking commuter incentives. In San Diego, the fees paid by solo drivers for access to high-occupancy vehicle lanes sup-port new express bus service, with bike racks provided on buses. In metropolitan New York, tolls from bridges and tunnels are higher during rush hours and lower off-peak, and help fund improved transit service. And new bicycle service centers are being set up at transit stops in California, Colorado, and elsewhere to make it easier to link bicycles with public transportation to reach more destinations. With abundant bike lanes and paths in Davis, California, bicycle trips now account for more than a quarter of all trips, according to Replogle. In Annapolis, Maryland, the Smart Bikes program makes bicycles available to people with a credit card to enhance mobility in districts where parking is limited. These examples provide evidence that a number of places are seeking solutions that support development where one can walk, bike, or use transit. "We have found that walkable, mixed-use, mixed-income communities designed to have a sense of place are not only healthier for their residents, but they are also healthier for the developer because they appeal to multiple markets and mitigate development risk," says Jonathan Rose, president of Affordable Housing Development Corporation, based in Katonah, New York. The Highlands’ Garden Village project in Denver, for example, places single-family homes, townhomes, cohousing, affordable and market-rate senior and multifamily rental housing, live/work studios, retail facilities, and offices around a series of linked open spaces. The project is an easy bus ride to downtown Denver, is internally walkable, and is near local main streets and a typical supermarket-anchored shopping center. A primary school sits adjacent to one of the parks so that students can walk to school and play outdoors. Residents who do not want the economic burden of car ownership can use one of the electric vehicles in the neighborhood car-share program fleet, an amenity provided by the developer as a neighborhood benefit. In 1904, planner and architect Alfred Clas designed promenades to downtown Milwaukee’s river. Like his plan for Chicago’s Wacker Drive, the Milwaukee plan was grand in scope. But unlike Chicago’s project, it was never built–that is, until nearly a century later. In 1993, Milwaukee hired San Francisco landscape architect Ken Kay, who, inspired by Clas, developed a design connecting downtown Milwaukee to its river. It cost the city $9.5 million but spawned 15 times that in private investment, says Mayor John Norquist. |
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ACEs
solve problems faced by a variety of disciplines and provide benefits
in a number of areas. The relationship between ACEs and the vibrancy
of retail districts, for example, can be seen in countless projects–from
Boca Raton’s redeveloped downtown center Mizner Park, to San
Diego’s Gaslamp District, to Santa Monica’s Third Street
Promenade. ACEs also appeal to market demand. A 1999 ULI study suggested
that homebuyers were willing to pay a $20,000 premium for homes
in compact, walkable new urbanist—style neighborhoods, as compared
with similar houses in more conventional developments nearby. New
economy economic development experts in recent years have begun
emphasizing the need for integrated, walkable city centers that
promote interaction and networking. And law enforcement, architects,
and planners also have begun to look at how design of neighborhoods
and housing developments can reduce crime by building a sense of
shared ownership and community interaction. The savings on medical
costs alone achieved from less auto-dependent and more activity-oriented
people could reach into the billions of dollars annually. Moving
toward more ACE-oriented development, however, requires changing
public policy through close collaboration among a variety of disciplines,
plus strategic planning, marketing, education, advocacy, and research.
However,
a conceptual breakthrough did occur in the 1990s when land use and
transportation planners in Portland, Oregon, collaborated on a vision
of coordinated light rail and transit-oriented development on the
city’s west side, points out Ewing. The project, called Land
Use, Transportation, and Air Quality (LUTRAQ), replaced plans for
unchecked urban sprawl and the Western Bypass, yielding a projected
reduction in vehicle trips and miles traveled. Metropolitan air
quality improved through decreased vehicle emissions. However, as
many critics have noted, the traffic-related benefits of this and
successive regional planning initiatives in regions like Charlotte,
North Carolina, and Salt Lake City are limited.
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