Planning Connecticut: Smart Growth and Technology

5/3/10

Smart Growth and Technology

by Pete Burke

Smart Growth is the use of urban policy and design in cities, towns, subdivisions and existing suburbs to promote more sustainable communities. There is no consensus on an exact definition for smart growth, rather most organizations measure smart growth through principles. One of the leading websites on smart growth, which receives funding from organizations like the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is Smartgrowth.org. The ten principles of smart growth, as designated by www.smartgrowth.org are:

• Create Range of Housing Opportunities and Choices
• Create Walkable Neighborhoods
• Encourage Community and Stakeholder Collaboration
• Foster Distinctive, Attractive Communities with a Strong Sense of Place
• Make Development Decisions Predictable, Fair and Cost Effective
• Mix Land Uses
• Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas
• Provide a Variety of Transportation Choices
• Strengthen and Direct Development Towards Existing Communities
• Take Advantage of Compact Building Design

Technology for a Sustainable Future

While the concept of smart growth has been around since the 1990's, new technology in the 21st Century will be vital to the development of the field. Some of these technologies are the different types of spatial software now available. Two of these softwares being developed are Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and 3-D rendering.

The first of these, the GIS software, is mainly made by ESRI. ESRI's software, like ARCMap, are seen as "planning support systems" and can be used to present alternative build-out scenarios. An example of this is presented on ESRI's website about Bowen Island in British Columbia. The planners in this small rural community used an extension for ARCMap called CommunityViz, which can create multiple scenarios using different zoning parameters. For example, in Bowen Island they created layers representing the current zoning pattern and all environmental constraints on development like wetlands, slopes over 25 degrees, farming soil and forested lands. When the current zoning pattern is activated, viewers can see how much land is devoted to conservation, housing, commercial and industrial. Next, the constraint layers can be activated and automatically the number of housing units and land available for commercial or conservation adjusts. So if all layers of constraints are turned on, obviously there will be more conserved land and less for development. But an added advantage of extensions like CommunityViz on software like ARCMap is the amount of detail a GIS analyst can put into the map. A specific type of animal species can be tied to certain parcels of land, so if a town or city wants to preserve a particular type of species they select that species and the parcels of land that need to be preserved in order to save the species will be highlighted in CommunityViz. Another type of example for CommunityViz can be seen in this video.

The second type of software defining the future capability of smart growth is 3-D rendering software. 3-D software will help planners visually see how smart growth codes impact the built and natural environment. This software is the same software being used in many new video games, and also search engines like Google's SketchUp. 3-D software helps a viewer better understand visually how a new development will look, while GIS software is more technical and is usually just used by the planning staff internally. While 3-D software does not have the technical aspects of how the redevelopment will be in terms of exact size of buildings, or even the exact look of the buildings it does do a good job of helping the viewer understand what the architects and planners are visualizing. A video example is available here, which shows the 3-D rendering of a harbor by the Urban Redevelopment Authority of Singapore.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Glossary

Concurrency Management
This is a growth management policy with a goal of requiring adequate infrastructure such as roads, water and sewer lines, to currently exist or to be planned for an area to be developed. Concurrency management keeps the capacities of local services from being strained and promotes more compact growth of the town closer to the urban core.

Conservation
Conservation is the preservation, restoration, management, protection and ongoing care of a particular resource. For example, the state of Connecticut requires each town to have a Plan of Conservation and Development; the conservation part of the plan protects and manages the town's resources.

Corridor
A corridor is the land connecting two towns or cities. For example, think about driving along rt. 175 from Newington to New Britain. What is the first thing you see when crossing over the New Britain town line? This is one of New Britain's corridors.
A corridor can also refer to a heavily populated area along a well traveled route used by railroads or airlines.

Euclidean Zoning
The most pervasive zoning technique in the United States, Euclidean Zoning divides a town into uniform land use districts--usually based on residential, commercial, and industrial uses. Many American communities are thus divided into spaces that are solely residential or commercial or industrial. Euclidean Zoning is named for the town of Euclid, Ohio, which became the focus of a 1926 Supreme Court decision supporting the right of a town to enforce such zones .

Growth management
This refers to specific regulatory policies aimed at influencing how growth occurs, mainly within a locality. These affect density, availability of land, mixtures of uses, and timing of development. Growth management seeks to accommodate growth rationally, not to prevent or limit it. That is growth control. (definition from Brookings Institution)

Infrastructure refers to the fundamental facilities and systems serving a country, city, or area, such as; transportation systems, power plants, schools, sewers, power lines, highways, etc.
Source: www.dictionary.com
www.answers.com

Overlay Zone
Overlay zoning creates a special zoning district which overlaps an existing zone or zones. For example an overlay zone will alert the developer, property owner, and public officials to the presence of critical habitat and migration patterns of animals regardless of an underlying character district.

Perceived Open Space
A category of land use. Land that has nothing built on it and appears to be open space yet is not designated as such and can be developed. Community members can overestimate how much open space they actually have available due to this misperception. For example, there is privately owned land on Cedar Mountain that is not developed, which can add to the perception that more of the land is designated as open space than is actually the case.

Personal property, roughly speaking, is private property that is moveable, as opposed to real property or real estate.

Real property and personal property are the main classifications of property in the common law. Real property refers to land and the improvements made by human efforts—buildings, machinery, the acquisition of various property rights, and the like. Real property is also termed realty, real estate, and immovable property.

Smart growth refers to an overall set of broad goals designed to counteract sprawl. These usually include (1) limiting outward expansion, (2) encouraging higher density development, (3) encouraging mixed-use zoning, (4) reducing travel by private vehicles, (5) revitalizing older areas, and (6) preserving open space. Promoting more affordable housing can be a goal, but usually is not (definition from Brookings Institution).

The Grand List is a listing of all real estate parcels and business personal property within a particular municipality—or, as defined by the Connecticut Office of Policy and Management, “The aggregate valuation of taxable property within a given town.”

Watershed
A watershed is an area of land where all the water on it or below it drains by gravity into the same place; like a large river. Watersheds come in all shapes and sizes and can cross town or state boundries. For example, in Connecticut the Mattabesset River watershed encompases nine towns and empties into the Connecticut River.

Zoning
Zoning is the process of making a set of laws that control the land use within a certain land area. Some examples of zoning can be; residential, commercial, industrial, and farming. Each of these areas would then have their own set of rules to following when developing or preserving land.

Planning Connecticut

5/3/10

Smart Growth and Technology

No comments:

Post a Comment

Posts

Plans of Conservation and Development (POCD)

Glossary