Planning: general Planning terminology that YOU coined

[estromberg]

When I worked in my County zoning department, we had the RA district. It stood for Rural Agricultural. It was a residential district of at least 2.5ac that allowed horses. I liked to call it Horsey Residential.

 

[Maister]

Forensic planning. When one uses clues and guesswork identifying elements in the built environment to determine how something likely developed.

 

[Lowland]

Forensic planning. When one uses clues and guesswork identifying elements in the built environment to determine how something likely developed.

I feel like this is an under-appreciated part of the job in many communities. I find myself doing a lot of research/deep file delving to determine what administrative decisions or old zoning ordinances were used to allow some of the wilder nonconforming uses to happen. I like this terminology.

 

[Faust_Motel]

I feel like this is an under-appreciated part of the job in many communities. I find myself doing a lot of research/deep file delving to determine what administrative decisions or old zoning ordinances were used to allow some of the wilder nonconforming uses to happen. I like this terminology.

It's especially critical when you work in a community that has some local planning lore about why certain things are the way they are, or even more likely, some misconceptions about what was promised at the charette back in 1990 and why the building proposed today doesn't meet that promise.

 

[Dan]

Forensic planning. When one uses clues and guesswork identifying elements in the built environment to determine how something likely developed.

I like it!

My term for an otherwise nameless kind of architectural style that's very popular locally among the crunchy crowd -- Appalachian Rustic Revival. There's several "artisanal" bearded builder types that specialize in the style here. If I was going to describe it, the style looks something more like what you might see in a West Virginia holler than an upstate New York subdivision, yet that's where you'll find some of them. The cladding is usually unstained wood, which seems to be treated in a way to look like it's had decades of hard weathering a few years after construction. Roofs are usually metal. Landscaping is naturalistic, or just nonexistent -- just a house plopped down among the scrub. Driveways are gravel or dirt.

Here's an example I pulled from a real estate Web site. This house was built in 2012. I'm not kidding.



These units were built in 2006.



This one got its CO a few months ago. It's is a definitely-out-of-place new build in the subdivision where I live. If it weren't for the woods and wetlands in the "open space" behind my house, this would be in my backyard. It's across the street from a 4,000 square foot Georgian/Colonial revival house. I'm a lone voice in the wilderness in thinking this ... uhh, left a lot to be desired. Everybody else defends this as being "sustainable".



Here's another new build Appalachian Rustic Revival house., with a Cape Cod form, and no metal roof. It will look a lot different in a year or two, after the weathering kicks in.



A Craftsman bungalow variant.

 

[Maister]

I like it!

My term for an otherwise nameless kind of architectural style that's very popular locally among the crunchy crowd -- Appalachian Rustic Revival. There's several "artisanal" bearded builder types that specialize in the style here. If I was going to describe it, the style looks something more like what you might see in a West Virginia holler than an upstate New York subdivision, yet that's where you'll find some of them. The cladding is usually unstained wood, which seems to be treated in a way to look like it's had decades of hard weathering a few years after construction. Roofs are usually metal. Landscaping is naturalistic, or just nonexistent -- just a house plopped down among the scrub. Driveways are gravel or dirt.

Here's an example I pulled from a real estate Web site. This house was built in 2012. I'm not kidding.

View attachment 48889

Nonsense. It's got a new metal roof, but clearly that poorly maintained dwelling was constructed circa 1918.

 

[Dan]

Social distancing sidewalk: a roadway (or part of one) temporarily closed off to vehicle traffic, to allow more distance between pedestrians, and/or larger outdoor dining areas at restaurants.

Ronawalk could also work.

 

[Faust_Motel]

Social distancing sidewalk: a roadway (or part of one) temporarily closed off to vehicle traffic, to allow more distance between pedestrians, and/or larger outdoor dining areas at restaurants.

Ronawalk could also work.

View attachment 49090

Stupid Hyannis and their stupid two-lanes-one-way Main Street.

 

[Faust_Motel]

Stupid Hyannis and their stupid two-lanes-one-way Main Street.

I used to live off two-lanes-one-way South Street that runs parallel. So the system ruins Main Steer for pedestrians while also making a whole other street a big pain to navigate at the same time. They used to close main Street off entirely to cars on Thursday nights in the summer, but people got all "bbbbut the cars and /parking/" and then that went away. Too bad. Maybe 'rona will bring it back.

 

[Dan]

Stupid Hyannis and their stupid two-lanes-one-way Main Street.

Same thing in Ithaca. So many streets were made one-way in the 1950s and 1960s with the intent of reliving traffic congestion. The result: some streets are speedways, and there's far fewer options to get from Point A to Point B on the city's grid. In many cases, a destination one block away can be a 10 minute drive, thanks to the maze of one-ways.

 

[Gedunker]

This is the two way restoration we did in my city: LEO - New Albany. It has been very well received, except by the few outsiders that rarely come into the city anyway. And, they, really, were the folks we were actually targeting - the folks who just wanted to drive through as fast as they possibly could on their way somewhere else.