Land Awareness

Wal-Mart's Push into US Cities

2011-02-14T11:56:00.000-08:00

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12351860

"Working-class communities with high unemployment and a lot of available land are the primary targets for entry into a city. The company has argued that abandoned land can be put to productive use through the construction of a Wal-Mart site."

Still no mention of the thousands of abandoned acres that lay derelict across rural and small town America as a result of the company's wasteful development practices.

HUD says sustainability is the rule for communities seeking federal housing funds

2011-02-14T10:52:00.000-08:00

HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan has laid down a 'new rule' for communities seeing federal housing funds, including the Community Development Block Grant program:

“If you want competitive money—just as with the [administration’s] Race to the Top program in education—we’ve set sustainability as a criterion for all of our funds,” Donovan says. “And that’s really going to begin to change the game on a broad scale.”

Greenway "ACTION" Alert from Sig Hutchinson: Build the LAST LINK in the Triangle Greenway System

2011-01-17T08:49:00.000-08:00

Dear Reader:

Our friend and greenway/parks/open space advocate Sig Hutchinson has made it simple for thousands of Triangle residents to let Raleigh City Council know - complete the FINAL LINK in the City of Raleigh greenway system that will effectively make it a 100+-mile regional system of greenway trails, parks, and open spaces, connecting cities, towns, parks, schools, and neighborhoods throughout the Research Triangle region. Just follow the easy 'cut-and-paste' steps below and register your vote with Raleigh today!

And afterwards? Please forward to everyone you know who enjoys the greenways of the Triangle!

Thanks,

Don
------------------

Friends:

I need your help! Raleigh City Council needs to hear from you today

regarding the "last piece" in the Greenway System yet to be secured and the "gateway" connecting Raleigh to the rest of the region. The Crabtree CreekGreenway connecting to Umstead State Park is the final link in a hundred plus mile greenway system. We have the money from the 2006 Parks Bond and if approved by City Council, could be completed within 2 years. There is a public hearing schedule on this issue this week so City Council needs to hear from you today.

Here is what you need to do:

Send To:

charles.meeker@raleighnc.gov;
nancy.mcfarlane@raleighnc.gov;
john.odom@raleighnc.gov;
eugene.weeks@raleighnc.gov;
Thomas.crowder@raleighnc.gov;
bonner.Gaylord@raleighnc.gov;
mary-ann.Baldwin@raleighnc.gov;
russ.Stephenson@raleighnc.gov

Subject: Please Connect the Final Section of Greenway along Crabtree Creek

Mayor and City Councilors:

As a greenway supporter, I am asking you to please make the final connection along Crabtree Creek into Umstead State Park.

(Feel Free to add a personal comment about what the greenway system and specifically this connection means to you)

Thank you:

Your Name & Address

Details:

The Greenway starts at the Falls Lake Dam down the Neuse River connecting to Knightdale, Wake Forest and Clayton. It turns right at Crabtree Creek and runs all the way to Umstead State Park. (You can also take the N. Raleigh route through Shelley Lake) From Umstead State Park, the greenway travels along the Black Creek Greenway behind Lake Crabtree connecting to Bond Park in Cary and the White Oak Creek Greenway. From there, it connects to Apex, Morrisville and the American Tobacco Trail where it heads north 23 miles into Durham. The greenway will take you from Falls Lake all the way to the American Tobacco Project including connections to eight towns and cities in three counties. All of this corridor is built or will be built within the next few years EXCEPT the one section along Crabtree Creek connecting through the quarry at Duraleigh Rd. It has a complicated history with the quarry owners but based on new ownership, a new plan has taken shape. The neighbors are not happy but whether or not we get the greenway connection, the quarry operations will continue for the next thirty years like they have for the past forty. There are also other benefits such as new parking outside Umstead State Park, a new 9 acre nature park and flood control for Crabtree Creek using the quarry pit. For those interested in more of the story, here is an Op. Ed. that ran in last week's N&O. Most importantly though, City Council needs to hear from you. They need to hear what the greenway system means to you and that we need to make this final connection while we still have the chance. E-Mail them today. It won't take 3 minutes and then pass this on to other greenway supporters so we can make this essential connection that will someday soon lead to one of the most impressive greenway systems in the ENTIRE country.

Sig

http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/01/13/916838/rock-solid-connection-for-areas.html

Mayor: Charles Meeker: charles.meeker@raleighnc.gov

District A: Nancy McFarlane: nancy.mcfarlane@raleighnc.gov

District B: John Odom: john.odom@raleighnc.gov

District C: Eugene Weeks: eugene.weeks@raleighnc.gov

District D: Thomas Crowder: Thomas.crowder@raleighnc.gov

District E: Bonner Gaylord: bonner.Gaylord@raleighnc.gov

At-large: Mary-Ann Baldwin: mary-ann.Baldwin@raleighnc.gov

At-large: Russ Stephenson: russ.Stephenson@raleighnc.gov

Sig Hutchinson

Sig Hutchinson Communications, LLC

2704 Snowy Meadow Ct.

Raleigh, NC 27614

919-740-8848

www.Sig@SigHutchinson.com

e-mail: Sig@SigHutchinson.com

The 10% Solution

2010-12-26T21:35:00.000-08:00

(previously posted on February 28, 2010)

The newly-created NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council is a diverse coalition that is charged with analyzing the “potential impacts that the production of sustainable local food would have on economic development in North Carolina”. The establishment of the SLFAC stemmed from the ‘Farm to Fork’ Statewide Initiative’ spearheaded by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems in 2008. CEFS has proposed a ‘Ten Percent Campaign’ for increasing local food production. If 10% of the food purchased in the Fort Bragg region (southeastern NC) came from local sources, according to a report by the BRAC Regional Task Force, an additional $36 million each year would be retained within the region’s economy. This is a compelling benchmark, and a realistic one to achieve.

Similarly, Aaron Renn, author of the Urbanophile, presents this practicable, measurable, and replicable approach to revitalizing our cities – a ‘Ten Percent Solution to Urban Growth’. This is exactly what we need today, and a lot more of it: a socially and politically acceptable metric that can build trust, foster partnerships, and lead to innovation and investment. By achieving a few shared successes early on, progress can be demonstrated and commitment will strengthen. Our ‘tomorrow’ depends on it.

Mr. Renn gets to the heart of the problem: How do we increase densities in urban and suburban metro areas by efficiently reusing and redeveloping the millions of acres of vacant or underutilized land?

Rethinking our strategies for public infrastructure investments would be a good start. But here’s the key point, artfully understated by Renn: “Even where land is available, zoning restricts what can be built there, and increasing densities is politically difficult.” Ah, the Planners’ Conundrum! So, if the zoning process is stifling, then just what will allow innovation and good design to flourish? When does ‘density’ become politically acceptable?

When people begin to clamor for less congestion, shorter commute times, cleaner air, better food, more open space, and greater housing and transportation choices, that’s when. And each time gas prices rise, or a tainted food scare occurs, or bureaucratic ineptitude and political weakness kill smart land development, the clamor builds.

As our country recovers from the current recession, communities must reexamine their land use plans, their development codes, and their capital improvement strategies. Do they make sense? As for your tax dollars, what about public investments in infrastructure and facilities? Are they optimally sited to best serve their ‘owners’ – we, the citizenry? How do they improve the environment, the economy, the community? (And don’t forget to factor in those life-cycle costs!)

I believe we are in the midst of a major reconfiguration in the practice of land development, as local governments, planners, and the development industry itself are slowly realizing that ‘business as usual’ won’t help us reach a ‘post-petroleum’ future.

As for ‘the People’, they are already there. Ask elderly rural residents about public transportation. Or the young suburban couple struggling to get ahead while paying for that extra automobile. Or the working-class urban dwellers worried about the safety of their neighborhoods and the quality of their schools.

New approaches are needed. They will be found through entrepreneurial innovation, public-private partnerships, and citizen involvement – not governmental fiat.

Let’s start small – a ‘Ten Percent Approach’ – but start we must.

Smart Growth is a UN-led shadow movement intent on destroying the 'American Dream'... and so on

2010-12-26T15:08:00.000-08:00

Posted recently by one of my favorite bloggers from Next American City, commenting on a recent article in Mother Jones magazine. Given the tenor of the mid-term elections, the 112th Congress might not be as 'urban-minded' as planners may wish. The Livable Communities Act is stalled, and without stalwarts like Oberstar and Dodd around to champion it, the legislation's future is unclear. It is up to local, regional, and state land planners to carry the message that 'sustainable urbanism' and 'rural economic development' [the pillars of livable communities] are not partisan flags, but sound policies that can provide fiscally-prudent solutions to local problems.