Industry Jargon

[Chet]

Okay, planner-types have created alot of new English in recent decades, most notealy 'Brownfiled' and 'Greyfield'. I suggest we put the collective Throbbing Brain of Cyburbia to the test to develop more jargon - it will make us look SO much more technically proficient (almost civil engineer-like) in the eyes of outsiders!

I'll go first:

OUTFILL: Development pattern characterized by location at the fringe of a community, generally being geographically concentric from the urban core and not having the abiguous characterisitics of 'sprawl'.

 

[el Guapo]

Son of a *&^% - Someone entering the planning office and wanting something.

 

[Jeff]

PLRP - Kinda like a nap. Planner Rest Period.

 

[NHPlanner]

Something our consulting engineer and I came up with as an acronym while marking up plans...

DAT - Dumb Ass Thing

In a meeting once, I had to catch myself from bursting out in laughter. We were meeting with an applicant's engineer, and our consultant, looking at an outlet structure detail that was, frankly, bizaare, said something like,

My consultant: "Come on now Tom, what the hell is that?"
Tom: "What?"
Consultant: (pointing to the detail) "DAT!"

He smirked, looked at me, as I turned away from the table choking away my laughter.

 

[Cardinal]

Our public works guys have a couple:

TWiLTLe - two way left turn lane
Schweebee - a pronounced jog in a road

I have also mentioned before a term used by another planner some time ago:

SOREASS - "Save Our Rural Estates and Stop Subdividing," just one type of NIMBY.

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Applican't: His zoning request is so stupid you feel completely comfortable saying "When pigs fly"

Beigebelt: The outermost ring of suburbia required by all Florida towns and cities and limiting floor plan choices to no more than three and exterior colors to no more than four shades of beige

 

[Cardinal]

Beigebelt: The outermost ring of suburbia required by all Florida towns and cities and limiting floor plan choices to no more than three and exterior colors to no more than four shades of beige

Good one. We had another thread on this topic some time ago. Some of the ones I have used are Taupe Town and Vinyl Village.

 

[Chet]

Good one. We had another thread on this topic some time ago.

G*d I must be getting old - memory is failing and I'm too lazy to revive dead threads anyway.

 

[Habanero]

We always refer to the bad projects as "cheerios" because we're going to end up peeng in their bowl of 'em-

 

[Dan]

Another quick post before I go back to work.

Mechanical commercial - commercial areas dominated by auto dealers, truck dealers, vehicle repair businesses, auto body shops, mobile home dealers, welders, gas stations, camper shell dealers, machine shops, tire stores, heavy equipment rental businesses, lunch-only diners, propane distributors, and other establishments related to motor vehicles and mechanical trades, the majority in prefabricated metal structures. Can also be called rugged retail, or redneck row, considering their abundance in areas of a Confederate cultural orientation.

Frequently heard - "Whatdya' mean I can't put signs and park cars for sale on the shoulder? I know it's right-of-way, but I pay my taxes!"

I won't take the credit for good 'ol boy as a verb, which means to process a land use request on a "very very very fast track" for a prominent citizen, almost always at the request of a superior. Unfortunately, good 'ol boy-ing an application puts a crunch on your schedule, and can create a chain reaction resulting delays and/or missed deadlines for other projects and essential work functions.

Frequently heard - "I know it's only a few days before the Board of Adjustment hearing, the agendas and staff reports already went out to the board members, and we don't have the time to do proper public notice, but I doubt anyone will sue."

Hand-holding - the act of handling a land use request for an applicant that either 1) doesn't know English; 2) can't afford consulting services, or 3) otherwise can't follow the guide on how to complete an applicaition for a lot split, site plan amendment, variance, special exception, or other simple application, thus putting you in a role where you act as both the applicant's consultant (performing their grunt work) and staff planner.

Frequently heard - "What's a setback? Where's my property line? You mean I gotta' show where the addition is going to go? Do you have a survey for my lot in your files? Can I just take a picture of something that looks like what I'm going to do?"

 

[Dan]

Beigebelt: The outermost ring of suburbia required by all Florida towns and cities and limiting floor plan choices to no more than three and exterior colors to no more than four shades of beige

You mean like this?

 

[Zoning Goddess]

Yep. I just don't understand why anyone would live like that.