Planning terminology that YOU coined

[Dan]

Mechanical commercial: Commercial uses that normally have an industrial character, yet cannot be classified as traditional industrial uses (manufacturing, assembly, shipping, processing, refining, and so on). Mechanical commercial uses generally revolve around devices powered by the internal combustion engine (vehicle repair, small engine repair, used vehicle sales, collision shops, vehicle parts sales, machine shops, landscaping equipment sales, etc), goods and services related to the trades and construction industry (plumbing and electrical supply stores, HVAC contractors, heavy equipment rental, shed and pole barn dealers, and so on.), and often unsightly passive uses such as mini-storage and material yards.

I coined the term in 2001 to politely describe the agglomeration of land uses along West Colonial Drive/SR-50 in Winter Garden, Florida, in the context of their possible encroachment into the municipality where I worked.


Rugged retail: Subset of retail uses in the mechanical commercial category: used car dealers, mobile home dealers, landscape mulch dealers, welding supply stores, auction houses, and so on. May also include "manly" retail uses: truck stops, pawn shops, gun stores, Harbor Freight Tools, workwear stores, and so on.


Feelgood planning: Projects with poor cost-benefit ratios that are destined to fail or at least underwhelm, but which are promoted and implemented because they bring a feeling of hope to the surrounding community, and possibly because their proponents are in denial about the inevitable outcome. "At least they're doing something." Such projects include new subsidized infill housing in blighted urban prairie areas, pocket parks in rough neighborhoods, and seasonal banners.

[mgk920]

I haven't seen it used anywhere else except in a term paper that I recall writing when I was at UWZero™, so I'll add country-living ring. It is that area, usually about 5-20 km outside of the normal urbanized part of a city/metro area, where all of the big-lot sprawlly unsewered 'country-living' houses and subdivisions are. They are marketed to city slickers whom want their dream houses 'in the country' but still want to commute to their jobs in that city.

Mike

[NHPlanner]

From my thesis:

"ASS" - Antenna Support Structure (as it pertains to wireless communication facilities).

[mendelman]

From my thesis:

"ASS" - Antenna Support Structure (as it pertains to wireless communication facilities).

Or the alternative (and equally giggle inducing) - Monopole.

Dan, could you also lay claim to inventing the term/name Cyburbia?

[Maister]

This is terrible - I don't think I've ever coined any planning-related terminology or phrase. Not that I can recall. Guess I'm not very imaginative.

[Flying Monkeys]

The 'Flying Monkey Alternative' - Used to describe only alternative available when all sane alternatives have been explored, yet you are asked to 'think outside the box' and go back to the 'drawing board' by people in positions of power who are not educated in things like design, and physical science or math.

Used in a sentence; "After all other alternative were rejected, in a fit of late night drinking, it came to him, the flying monkeys alternative... the ultimate transportation solution....genetically engineer flying monkeys and train them to fly each of us where we want to go. It would save gas and gainfully employ underemployed monkeys...brilliant."

[NHPlanner]

Nope. I registered cyburbia.org after seeing the word in a Wired magazine article, used as a generic noun that seemed to be a hip alternative to "cyberspace". I thought the combination of "cyber" and "burb" made a good word to describe an urban planning site. I only regret not registering cyburbia.com - it was available at the time.

Looks like Dan hit the "edit" button instead of the "reply with quote" button.

Fixed the mistake. mendelman

[Maister]

Looks like Dan hit the "edit" button instead of the "reply with quote" button.

Nope, I'm convinced that was just mendelman putting on airs. After all, he started up Cyburbia shortly after Al Gore invented teh internets

[Flying Monkeys]

(I had another one)

Retrofitits - The act of applying the same solution to all occurrences of a perceived problem...as in 'If it works downtown, it will work in the suburbs'

[Dan]

I haven't seen it used anywhere else except in a term paper that I recall writing when I was at UWZero™, so I'll add country-living ring.

Great one! Along similar lines, I've used urbburb a few times to describe a suburban city or town that has the feeling of a very dense pre-WWII urban neighborhood. Examples of urbburbs include:

Lakewood, Ohio (Cleveland)
University City, Missouri (St. Louis)
Cleveland Heights, Ohio (Cleveland)
Oak Park, Illinois (Chcago)

The term excludes industrial satellite communities; Niagara Falls, New York; Newark, New Jersey, Gary, Indiana and the like.


I've also used power suburb and alpha suburb to describe an affluent, economically dominant suburb of a larger metropolitan area. It's the suburban address that will be most likely encountered for a corporation or prestigious professional firm located outside of a downtown in a region. Power suburbs may be, but aren't necessarily boomburbs or edge cities. A city might not have a dominant power suburb, but if it has one, it's only one; a city can't have two power suburbs. It'll also be among most frequently disparaged suburb in blogs and message board posts by local armchair planners and urbanists, because of its affluence, "sterility", presence of soccer moms, and so on.

Some examples of power suburbs:

Amherst, New York (Buffalo)
Dublin, Ohio (Columbus)
Carmel, Indiana (Indianapolis)
West Des Moines, Iowa (Des Moines)
Mishawaka, Indiana (South Bend)
Greenwood Village, Colorado (Denver)
Schaumburg, Illinois (Chicago)


On a lighter note, there's The Chosen Suburb: the one suburban community where many Jews in a region aspire to live. It's usually an affluent community that is also home to many of the Jewish institutions in the metropolitan area. Some Chosen Suburbs:

Williamsville, New York (Buffalo)
Beachwood, Ohio (Cleveland)
West Bloomfield, Michigan (Detroit) (took the title from Southfield)

Dan, could you also lay claim to inventing the term/name Cyburbia?

Nope. I registered cyburbia.org after seeing the word in a Wired magazine article, used as a generic noun that seemed to be a hip alternative to "cyberspace". I thought the combination of "cyber" and "burb" made a good word to describe an urban planning site. I only regret not registering cyburbia.com - it was available at the time.

[ruralplanner]

I can’t lay claim to this one nor do I know the spelling but phonetically the word is Planner-Esk. As in, “The concept to include tables as social gathering areas in a downtown environment is very Planner-Esk.”

One of mine—rarely used, is Modern Rustic which describes the modern architecture style with rustic features such as cedar siding.

[dandy_warhol]

I can’t lay claim to this one nor do I know the spelling but phonetically the word is Planner-Esk. As in, “The concept to include tables as social gathering areas in a downtown environment is very Planner-Esk.”

One of mine—rarely used, is Modern Rustic which describes the modern architecture style with rustic features such as cedar siding.

I believe it would be Planner-esque.

-esque
an adjective suffix indicating style, manner, resemblance, or distinctive character: arabesque; Romanesque; picturesque

from: dictionary.com

[giff57]

I wrote an outdoor storage ordinance that became the "hillbilly rule".

[zman]

Other than the word Zoning and Site Plan I have not been very active in this regard....


narf

[Tom R]

My favorite one that a friend of mine coined is "Clusterfobia: the irrational fear of small lots."

[tsc]

Attainable Housing....it never is affordable.

[Cardinal]

In place of church, temple, synagogue, mosque, etc., I coined the generic term Godatorium. This is particularly fitting for the megachurches.

[DecaturHawk]

Institutional Creep: the inexorable expansion of medical centers, urban colleges/universities, government complexes, etc. into established neighborhoods.

I used this to describe something I wanted from PAS, and the PAS guy said "good one, never heard that before, very descriptive." So, that's why I lay claim to having invented the term. So there.

[Gedunker]

God's Warehouses: High density, typically high rise, dwellings for the low-income elderly. Commonly built, owned, and operated by a unit of local government through assistance from the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development. Uniformly placed without pedestrian access to any goods or services required by low-income elderly residents. Sucks the life out of rights-of-way when placed in a CBD. "Stockholm" style of architecture predominates.

[Bubba]

Godatorium

Nice - I'm stealing this one.

[Dan]

I haven't seen it used anywhere else except in a term paper that I recall writing when I was at UWZero™, so I'll add country-living ring.

After taking a field trip to the country-living ring yesterday, I'm going to coin another term: kountry kommercial. It's the commercial mix often found along arterial roads in the country-living ring: mechanical commercial uses (as described earlier), and "kountry kitschy" retail uses such as collectible shops, small antique stores, Amish furniture outlets, lawn ornament stores, and the like. It's the kind of place that might appeal to the likes of Jean Teasdale and her hubby Rick.

[Richmond Jake]

Godatorium

Here's a big one under construction on the Florida panhandle. It's an addition to an already enormous Badtist church complex with their own 3-story parking structure in downtown Panama City.

[JusticeZero]

Ninjas: Pedestrians, wearing non-reflective, often black, clothing, who are insufficiently visible in a non-pedestrian facility (Roadway shoulder, etc), creating a safety hazard.
In my town, there is a section of road which does not have a sidewalk, is unlit, and faces a retaining wall; on several occasions while bicycle commuting in this area, I have encountered pedestrians wearing non-reflective black clothing walking along the shoulder of the road there, and reported that that section of road needed lighting, sidewalks, or something of the sort. When asked why, I comment that there are, due to the absence of lights and sidewalks, too many ninjas in the roadway.

[el Guapo]

Ring of Debris or Ring Around Uranus

This is the thin ring of business, car dealers, trailer parks and other non-desirable land uses that spring up right beyond the 3 mile municipal extraterritorial area of zoning control exerted by some municipalities into the rural area of Kansas counties which have not adopted zoning regulations. It often includes those things denied permits within the city and the land right at the 3 mile limit on a paved road is often suprisingly costly. Many Sheriff's reports are filed with ring addresses.

"Ring around Uranus" only applies to one particular ring of debris around one particular city in Kansas. They know who they are.


Click Here to See the Big Blue Ring Around Uranus

[Dan]

Summertime Strip

In many larger metropolitan area, there's a suburban strip that is closely identified with summertime in the collective mindset of area residents. Compared to suburban strips in the area, a summertime strip will have more than its share of hot dog and custard stands, nurseries and garden centers, miniature golf courses, diners popular among the classic car crowd, and seasonal businesses that close their doors between September and May.

In the Buffalo area, Sheridan Drive in the Town of Tonawanda used to be the preeminent summertime strip. Sheridan Drive was constructed in the mid-1920s, and intended to be a grand residential boulevard. Development stalled in the Depression, and after World War II the street quickly filled in with two-story apartment buildings, strip plazas, medical offices, and a large collection of seasonal businesses. Sheridan Drive even have a drive-in. Some iconic summertime destinations remain on Sheridan Drive; Louie's Hot Dogs, Anderson's Custard, Ted's Hot Dogs, and Putt-Putt, the last three within walking distance of each other. Anderson's and Ted's have grown into local chains, but the Sheridan Drive locations are still considered the most "authentic" and pilgrimage-worthy.