neighborhood

2019 July 9

An Introduction to Form-Based Coding

Naples, Collier County, FloridaEvent Type: LectureParent Event: The Dollars and Sense of Growth Organizer: A Collier County Organized Public Event
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During an interactive presentation, Galina Tachieva highlighted the opportunities for creating better and healthier communities in Collier County using form-based planning and coding.

Collier County is a fast-growing region but the current Land Development Code is complicated and outdated. If done right, new planning strategies can be effective in creating dynamic, walkable communities. These area-specific Form Codes will benefit residents, economics and the environment. It is however important to assist developers and planners understand the importance of smart growth principles. Galina Tachieva, managing partner at DPZ CoDESIGN, and author of the Sprawl Repair Manual and the Smart Code shared her guidance and expertise on these topics.

The Dollars and Sense of Growth – A Collier County Organized Public Event

Huge public appetite for mixed-use communities

Author: Industry Insights
Outlet: ICSC
Published: April 22, 2019
Link to Article Articles 0
ICSC Report ‘Mixed-Use Properties: A Convenient Option for Shoppers’ 

The latest ICSC research in 2019 found 78% of U.S. adults would consider residing in environments that have a variety of uses in close proximity to one another. The principal reasons include convenience, an efficient use of time, and more better experience. We wonder who are the remaining 22%?

How the Green New Deal Could Retrofit Suburbs

Author: Amanda Kolson Hurley
Outlet: Citylab
Published: February 11, 2019
Link to Article Articles 0
Schools and amenities within walking distance of homes, Greenbelt, Maryland, 1942. Photo Credit: Marjory Collins/Library of Congress

Offering an alternative to wasteful suburban sprawl, the Greenbelt-Towns Program was a Government-led urban planning approach that began in the late 30’s. Although short-lived, lessons can be drawn from the goals, scope and reaction to the suburban demonstration towns that embodied a mix of housing, walkability, and a traditional downtown.

Why walkable cities are good for the economy

Author: Aditi Shrikant
Outlet: VOX
Published: November 28, 2018
Link to Article Articles 0
Legacy’s vibrant Main Street offers residents and employees a multitude of day to night destinations and traditional urban features such as treelined sidewalks and outdoor cafes.

Much of suburban sprawl is vehicle-oriented, served by inadequate sidewalks, and inaccessible without a car. Highlighting Jeff Speck’s new book, Walkability City Rules: 101 Steps to Making Better Place, the article discusses how investing in walkability can enhance the appeal of places to a range of ages, increase home values and jobs numbers, and promote local expenditure on goods and services. 

A Hub for New Local Businesses and New Places to Live

Author: Metropolitan Area Planning Council
Outlet: CNU | Build a Better Burb
Published: October 26, 2018
Link to Article Articles 0

Alongside unsustainable sprawl, unsightly strip malls are too often a feature of our suburban landscape. This article draws ideas from DeSoto Marketplace in DeSoto, Texas. The approach here was incremental and adaptive, introducing small cost-effective changes that, over time, transformed the underutilized shopping center into a pocket of walkability and a vibrant local business.

Further case studies can be found in a paper prepared by the Metropolitan Area Planning Council and the Congress for the New Urbanism, Reclaiming the Strip Mall: A Common Suburban Form, Transformed, by Christopher Kuschel. 

DeSoto Market in DeSoto, Texas – an incubator space for authentic local retail. (Photo Credit: Andy Jacobsohn/The Dallas Morning News)

2018 October 9

Repair and Prepare Our Suburbs for the 21st Century

Charlotte, North CarolinaEvent Type: Conference, LectureParent Event: Retrofit Conference 2018Organizer: Retrofit MagazineEvent Website
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Galina’s opening keynote presentation positioned Sprawl Repair as a comprehensive and practical method to transform auto-dependent, single-use places into more complete, economically viable communities. It demonstrated how design, regulatory and implementation techniques derived from the “trenches” at all development scales: regional, community, block, building.

Strategies were identified to create economic and social value out of stranded real-estate assets as the demise of the industry that produced sprawl continues:  Malls and office parks are dying; golf courses are closing; McMansions are losing their appeal to Millennials. The presentation not only highlighted why we should retrofit sprawl, but also showed a practical How, Who and When step-by-step path of action forward to a better burb.

Download Galina’s Presentation

Editors Notes: Retrofit Magazine held its second-annual one-day conference in October 2018 in Charlotte north Carolina. The conference brought together focused on retrofitting commercial, industrial and institutional buildings.

Mixed-use neighborhood reshapes suburban landscape

Author: Rob Steuteville
Outlet: CNU Public Square
Published: October 9, 2018
Link to Article Articles 0
Taking advantage of unexpected demand, the mixed-use Village Center is defined by three-to-five-story buildings and recalls the character of Huntsville’s historic town center.

“Providence, which won a 2018 CNU Charter Award, is an example of how traditional neighborhood development can add to quality of life in a car-oriented suburban landscape.” explains Rob Steuteville, Public Square. The 305 acre Village of Providence intentionally rebalances the previously fragmented, single-use sprawl at the northwest city limits of Huntsville with infill, housing diversity, shared amenities, and useful commercial. By providing the region’s missing ingredients in a walkable environment, it has become a preferred place to live and a popular evening hang-out.

Link to 2018 CNU Charter Awards announcement:

The Bipartisan Cry of ‘Not in My Backyard’

Author: Emily Badger
Outlet: New York Times
Published: August 21, 2018
Link to Article Articles 0
A view of suburban Houston. Credit: Josh Haner/The New York Times

The Department of Housing and Urban Development, wants to spur construction of mixed-income, multifamily housing. With more built, the Department believes that housing will become affordable, and there would be more options of where to live. The approach is not without its challenges. The kind of housing described is often impractical, doesn’t accord with regulations, or simply too costly to build in suburbs and big cities alike. While many see rolling back regulations as a way to open up opportunities, nimbyism continues to provide reason for tightly regulated development. Further, its homeowners of both political parties that support restricting development around them and they do so often in spite of their own ideologies. The fear that such development threatens property values motivates homeowners as voters to protect them. The instinct may simply be too deeply ingrained and politically sensitive in America to change.

Millenial Sprawl – Realtors Wooing the Generation

Author: Chris Wille, Real Estate Editor
Outlet: Herald Tribune
Published: August 15, 2018
Link to Article Articles 0
Main events in Lakewood Ranch, FL.

Millennials seek the live-work-play lifestyle, but evidence suggests they are no longer solely focused on compact, diverse urban centers. In an attempt to attract this valuable demographic “suburban villages” are being created in larger developments. Lakewood Ranch is sighted as an example, with its Main Street cluster of condos, shops, restaurants, theaters and employers nearby. The investment appears to be working as millennials are buying homes in large numbers, and their preference shifting towards mature and emerging suburbs.

Can Australia avoid the death of local malls?

Author: Jason Murphy
Outlet: News.com.au
Published: June 11, 2017
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Abandoned Malls by Seph Lawless-Source-Supplied

As Amazon nears offering service to Australia, Economist Jason Murphy hopes Australian malls can avoid the current American syndrome of dying malls. He offers the following suggestions that can also offer hope for our American malls through Sprawl Repair and Retrofit:

“Number one is probably to reduce their reliance on risky “anchor tenants”. Coles, Woolies, Target and Big W are shopping centre stalwarts, but none of them is certain to still be succeeding in a decade’s time. One or all of them could find the going a lot tougher in a world where Amazon is trying to win over our wallets.

The next big idea for shopping centres is to offer experiences not just goods. Amazon sells stuff you can get delivered to your door. But experiences — haircuts, manicures and massages; meals, coffees and movies — are still things people want to meet in person for.”

By increasing density and diversifying uses, dying malls can become innovative employment and social hubs that enrich the surrounding neighborhoods.

Urbanism Summit Miami 2017

Event Type: City Building, Co-working, Discussion, New Urbanism, Panel, Place MakingEvent Website
Articles, Events 0

On February 21, 2017, a diverse collection of change-makers, influencers and forward thinkers gathered to discuss the future of cities, their makers and dwellers.  The purpose was to share actionable ideas across disciplines in new urbanism and place making, and spark a movement of collaboration among new urbanism practitioners, investors, startups, policy makers and community.

Tachieva of DPZ, Cooper Copetas, architectural designer and George Cuevas, founder of CollabMiami, teamed up for a panel discussion on how to create co-working space in the context of suburbia that can support small and independent businesses.

Learn more here:

http://urbanismsummit.com/

https://www.facebook.com/events/542068492657980/

Suburbs increasingly view their auto-centric sprawl as a health hazard

Author: Katherine Shaver
Outlet: Washington Post
Published: January 2, 2017
Link to Article Articles 0

The connection between the type of places we live in and our well-being should be obvious, but until recently there has been little hard data showing sprawl’s negative impacts on our health – both physical and mental. This is changing and not only health practitioners but also public officials and residents have started to acknowledge the importance of walkable, mixed-use environments.

Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World

Author: Ross Chapin
Publisher: Taunton Press
Published: March 29, 2011
Link to Article Books 0

Pocket Neighborhoods: Creating Small Scale Community in a Large Scale World introduces an antidote to faceless, placeless sprawl — real neighborhoods of a scale and design where people can easily know one another; where empty nesters and single householders with far-flung families can find friendship or a helping hand nearby; and where children can have shirt-tail aunties and uncles just beyond their front gate.