Post of the Day

From Cyburbian MacheteJames:
This Monday, I'm going to be doing a 5 minute talk on planning to a group of 4th graders. I've never done anything like this, and I know that 9 year olds aren't going to care about rezonings, facade easements, or stormwater retention policies. How can I make planning sound cool to a group of kids this age? I know it won't be as simple as saying "we decide where sidewalks go and where buildings are built" because the Mayor, DPW chief, and Park & Rec director will be there and I've gotta take them into consideration. I'm pretty sure most 9 year olds wouldn't have played SimCity (although I was a dork and did play it when I was a little older than these kids). Thanks.

From Cyburbian fourthconchord: A small bedroom community of 10,000 population does not currently have a true downtown. There is no street level retail, though the town is not completely sprawled out. There is some light density as retail is about 30' off the road, houses are about 20' from the street. The city is in the process of defining a formal downtown centered around public buildings and some of the most active retail. Does anyone here know of any other towns that have done something similar? Does anyone have any experience or tips for a community trying to do this?

(Cyburbia Forums original post)

From Cyburbian Whose Yur Planner: Got this via Law of the Land Blog. Wonder if they will include any planners?

Under the leadership of Edward J. Sullivan, immediate past chair of the ABA State and Local Government Law Section, and a member of the Portland, Oregon, firm of Garvey Schubert Barer, the State and Local Government Law Section and the Administrative Law Section created a joint task force to focus on developing fair procedures for the enactment and administration of land use regulations. This multi-year effort, with input from Association members and others in the field, has resulted in a proposed model act that will be the subject of discussion in August 2008 as the matter is reviewed by the ABA House of Delegates.

From Cyburbian Maister: I watched a popular western called “3:10 at Yuma" last night. One of the special features included on the disc was a segment about some of the movie production concerns. An important element of just about any film is set design, and during an interview one of the set designers spoke about how the ‘town’ set was designed. As most of us are aware, “the West” is a body of myths and legends that have been perpetuated and built upon throughout the years via popular literature and films. It occurred to me while watching this segment that many of my (and probably many others’) conceptions about the stereotypical historic western town layout are based upon movie sets. Movie sets, however, are designed around considerations such as providing adequate camera and crew accessibility to areas or visual lanes for shot setups, which may have little bearing on the realities of how 19th century western towns were actually built.

From Cyburbian Plan-it: I have been doing research on policies and regulations to protect areas that are designated as Industrial on our Future Development Map from non-industrial (residential) incursion. This has the impact of inceasing land values due to speculation and placing future residents and future/existing businesses in a potentially adversarial relationship.

I have noticed San Francisco, Seattle, and Chicago have looked at this issue and have developed policies and programs to remediate the situation. Does anyone else done any research, policies, or programs that address this problem who would not mind sharing? Thanks!

From Cyburbian graciela: This is a bit trivial but have any of you ever reflected on the the effect that the style of on-street parking can have on the percieved quality of an urban sidewalk/streetscape? In an urban setting, my opinion has always been on-street parking=good. I never really cared if it was parallel or angled. I always let the site/context/traffic patterns, etc. dictate the form of the onstreet parking.

Is one more institutional than the other? Maybe angled is more informal? What are your thoughts?

(Cyburbia Forums original post)

From Cyburbian TexanOkie: Texas state statute mandates that all subdivisions, regardless of plat stage, be before the planning/platting commission within 30 days of it's submittal, and, if according to each city's charter the plat also needs to go before the governing body, 30 days after the planning commission decision to the City Council. This is rather fast, in my opinion, and is generally business-friendly and works with most developers and their teams on addressing issues with their plans.

However, we are looking into possibly creating an official "Expedited Review" process that would cut that time practically in half (barring any idiot proposals or lack of progress as far as addressing issues). The expedited review would be an option on each subdivision application (i.e. check boxes for either expedited or standard reviews) and would have a higher application fee due to the added stresses it places on our staff.

From Cyburbian Tom R: Did you know that a group of frogs is called an army or a colony? Me neither. Here is a link that give more names for groupings of critters than should be allowed. Anyway, what is a group of planners? An obfuscation? A stonewall? Others?

(Cyburbia Forums original post)

From Cyburbian centralpark: We are tasked with working in a rural community that has few assets, not even enough to put together an agritourism map with the area cooperative extension folk.

I need some ideas of things that people have seen elsewhere that I might suggest to citizen groups in this community as projects they would support. I'm trolling through 'best practice' sorts of websites to try and find something, anything that is a project that was successful elsewhere and might transfer here.

BTW - there is interest in hunting by the people who live there and those outside the area. I was thinking of maybe putting together an initiative to build a community-owned and operated hunting lodge. That would be seasonal, though, and it would be great to have something that is year round.

From Cyburbian jread: I'm just curious as to whether or not anyone on here is going to an Ivy League school for their planning degree. What will you do with it when you get out? I know that local government employs most planners, so I can't imagine a Harvard graduate wanting to work for the City of Bugtussle for $40k per year. It doesn't seem cost-effective.

(Cyburbia Forums original post)

From Cyburbian kanben: I'm a Master's student in Massachusetts and was just offered a summer internship with the planning department of a small town (pop ~13,000) about and hour from Boston. It seems like a good opportunity for me because it's a small department and even as a summer intern I'd have a lot of responsibility, working on issues ranging from growth management, historic preservation, affordable housing, etc.

The issue I'm struggling with, however, is that I will probably be moving to Chicago after I graduate next year. In obvious ways, Chicago is different than this small New England town. While I will certainly gain practical experience that is marketable in any city I work in, I wonder whether it would be a better idea to try for a position in a larger city. I have applied for an internship in one city that, although certainly not the size of Chicago, is bigger and more socio-economically diverse than the one I've been offered the position in.

From Cyburbian TexanOkie: The City of Austin recently updated its regulations on the placement of billboards that allows them to be placed on some roads that were once classified as "scenic" by the City that have since been built up and lost such designation. This has caused several citizens and surrounding municipalities to be up in arms and threatening boycotts of any companies that advertise on new billboards.

My question is this: What’s the big deal with billboards? So long as they’re spaced properly and maintained, they’re not really an eyesore, or at least they don't have to be. They also provide opportunities for local businesses without access or funds to TV, internet, or print advertising a way to get their name out at what is probably a more convenient time and place, anyway. Regardless, relaxed billboard regulations, which in Central Texas means allowing them at all, surely does not merit cries of the apocalypse, does it?

From Cyburbian strumpeace: Here's the situation. The state has seen fit to build a new interstate exit on the fringe of my town. We already have three interstate exits, all looking equally tacky with typical highway commercial clutter.

The new exit connects the interstate to a scenic highway with a natural ridge on one side and a valley on the other. The area is mostly rural with practically no commercial development.

The planning department envisions preserving the ridge and creating something of a recreation corridor connecting two parks that are on opposite ends of the highway with a context-sensitive (read: curvy and steep) bicycle trail.

From Cyburbian jsk1983: Marktown was (is) a planned industrial community located in the city of East Chicago, Indiana approximately 22 miles from Chicago's loop. Clayton Mark, of the Mark Manufacturing Company was a member of the Chicago Commercial Club which commissioned a study to discover why there was such a high turnover of industrial employees. What the study found was that there was a lack of quality, affordable housing for workers and their families. With this in mind Mark commissioned Howard Van Doren Shaw, a prominent Chicago architect to design a town that would meet the needs of his workers. The result was Marktown which was built in 1917.

From Cyburbian mccc28: I'm trying to decide whether going to Las Vegas for national conference would be more beneficial in my pursuit for a planning job. I finished my masters a year ago from an accredited program, but have been struggling to find a job. Living in New England, I have learned that just about every entry level position is filled by someone with much more experience, and have recently started applying nationally and internationally. I won't be able to afford flying all over for interviews, so I was wondering if going to the conference would be a good place to meet potential employers. I hope your experiences can help me decide where my money and time is best spent