urban planning and economic development january 2012

URBAN PLANNING ANDECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

NEWS MAGAZINE

A Global Publication

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A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right?

Bad Planning Vs Urban Economic Development

Alternative Energy for Economic Development

Tourism Planning Tools for Sustainable Economic Development

Our Vision is to share a full range of interdisciplinary professional knowledge with community leaders, professional planners, businesses and interested citizens having a commitment to operational excellence in the public and private sectors. Contributions from our constituency will assist in facilitating sound decisions in community and economic development to promote continued commitments in creating quality places to live, work and play. Our goal is to provide educational information and services in urban planning and environmental conservation to an interconnected global community that will both enable in-dividuals and communities to adapt to new holistic techniques and solutions to resolve existing and future urban and environmental issues and foster economic and sustainable development.

General Manager/PublisherPamela Shinn, B.S. URP

Editor in ChiefDavid Weinstock, Ph.D

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Design Consultant Chantel Martin

© January 2012

Cover Photo, “Morning Sunrise at North Hoyle”; North Hoyle offshore wind farm, Liverpool Bay, Irish Sea Courtsey of Arron Crowe, Denbighshire, UK. For more information about Arron Crowe and his work you can contact him at: acrowephotography@gmail.

A Global Publication

In Association withUrban Planning and Economic Development Associates

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“Partnering for a Brighter Tomorrow”

FEATURE ARTICLES:Alternative Energy Solutions A Solar Panel is a Solar Panel, Right? A closer look at solar power options for your home, business or public facility. By Clayton T Grow, PE, LEED AP 4Alternative Energy for Economic DevelopmentImplementation of Biomass, Hydro and Solar PowerBy Alison Bates 39

TransportationBad Planning Vs Urban Economic Development Why did Cicloparqueaderos bike storage feature not alleviate urban exclusión in Bogota?By Solenne Cucchi 8

EconomyTourism Planning Tools for Sustainable Economic Development By Tracy Mullins, MS, AICP 15

LawRedevelopment and Blight in Flux San Diego Superior Court Affirms High Legal Threshold for Municipalities to Declare an Area “Blighted” for Purposes of RedevelopmentBy Anthony Nash 23

Urban ScapeIs the International Architectual Style Sapping Urban Soul? By Annette Fehr-Stomp 20

AgricultureUrban AgricultureA growing trendBy Beth Hagenbuch, ALSA 26

RedevelopmentBrownfield Redevelopment in MichiganThe forgotten element of community planningBy Flo McCormack 32

Restorative Development RegulationsBy Kaizer Rangwala, AICP, CEcD, CNU-A 36

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A closer look at solar power options for your home, business or public facility.By Clayton T Grow, PE, LEED AP

Growing Sustainably: Your guide to green

building This column, written by an engineer with experi-ence designing sustainable building practices in new construction and renovation projects, will keep you up-to-date on useful strategies to help your building or construction project use energy more efficiently, generate less waste, and reduce its impact on the environment. Urban planners, municipality officials, building owners and oper-ators, engineers, and architects will benefit from the sage advice and easily understood explana-tions of the often confusing, but essential, world of sustainable construction products and prac-tices.

A Common Misconception

A design team looking to use green building practices in new or renovated buildings will, at some point, consider using solar panels. The idea of solar panels that many people have is one of billboard-like assem-blies with sturdy vertical supports that require a sig-nificant amount of rooftop or open area to convert the sun’s rays to electricity.

The truth is, there are several different types of solar panels, and one of the most popular types does not convert sunlight to electricity at all. This article will explain the differences, advantages, disadvantages, typical applications, and supplemental information sources of three main categories of solar panels: stand-ard photovoltaic (PV); thin-film PV; and solar ther-mal collectors.

Three Categories of PanelsStandard PV panels are the prototypical solar pan-el that most people have in mind when they envision solar panels. These panels are often mounted on roof-tops or in open areas, where they convert energy from the sun to DC electricity (#1). This DC current flows to the inverter (#2), where it is inverted to AC elec-tricity, to be used on-site (#3), with the excess getting sent and sold back to the grid (#4).

Thin-film PV panels are considered the “second generation” of solar panel design. The general princi-pal of converting the sun’s rays to DC electricity and then inverting it to AC is the same as standard PV panels, but the materials used to make the panels are drastically different. Manufacturers of thin-film PV’s use nanotechnology to reduce material costs, fabri-cating these futuristic panels from non-silicon mate-rials, including copper, indium, gallium, and seleni-um. The flexibility of the film used to make these innovative panels allows them to be configured in al-most any size or shape to best meet the needs of a project.

Thin-film PV panels on a residential roof in New South Wales, Australia. Image via SolarShop on Flickr.

Image via SunVest Solar Inc.

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Solar thermal collectors may look similar to stand-ard PV panels, but are quite different. The most com-mon form of solar thermal collectors are flat plate col-lectors, which are panels that consist of a transparent cover, a dark-colored flat solar energy absorber, and heat-transport tubing. Instead of converting the sun’s light directly to electricity, these devices are config-ured with a series of fluid-filled pipes inside the panel. A pumping system circulates this fluid - water or a wa-ter/anti-freeze mix - that is circulated from inside the building, through the panel tubing out in, where the fluid then transfers the heat it absorbed from the sun to a hot water storage tank. The tubing in the solar collectors is very well insulated on the non-sunlight side in order to minimize heat dissipation to the out-door environment.

Less common variations of solar thermal collectors include: evacuated tube collectors, parabolic troughs and dishes, and solar power towers. These are more complex and experimental technologies and are not commonly implemented, except by large utilities or research organizations.

Standard PV Panel Examples

Standard PV panels are ideal for installation on pro-jects that have plenty of would-be wasted space. Buildings with extensive roof areas and projects with large open areas are a good fit for a standard PV solar array. While warehouses, factories, and campuses with large open fields can best benefit from a PV ar-ray by generating large percentages of their electricity use, smaller commercial and residential applications can also achieve significant electricity savings when properly configured.

Thin-film PV Examples

Many properties do not have sufficient area in which to install large supports for a standard PV array, so thin-film PV may be more appropriate. Recent in-creases in efficiency and cost reduction are making thin-film technology viable for more applications. The advantage of installing a thin-film array is that they can be installed with a very low profile, some-times even using a peel-and-stick application. If building owners are concerned with maintaining a sleek aesthetic for their building or if large support structures are infeasible, a thin-film PV system may be most appropriate.

Solar Thermal Collector Examples

Because solar thermal collectors and PV panels serve very different functions, a building owner could conceivably install both types to help de-fray the costs of both electricity and heating. So-lar thermal panels are most cost-effective when used for buildings that have a high hot water de-mand, such as restaurants, hotels, laundromats, car washes, or buildings with hydronic heating systems. While they can be used for essentially any building that uses hot water, the payback pe-riod is shorter for buildings with high hot water demand.

Schematic of solar themal collector and storage tank configuration. Image via Inkwibbna on Wikimedia Commons.



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If you’re considering LEED® (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, solar PV panels and solar thermal panels can help achieve the following credits in the United States Green Building Council’s (USGBC®) LEED Green Building Rating System, version 2009 for New Construction and Ma-jor Renovations (NC+MR):

1. Sustainable Sites Credit 7.1: Heat Island Effect – Nonroof (1 point)

2. Energy and Atmosphere (EA) Prerequisite 2: Minimum Energy Performance (required)

3. EA Credit 1: Optimize Energy Performance (1-19 points)

4. EA Credit 2: On-site Renewable Energy (1-7 points)

5. EA Credit 6: Green Power (2 points)

6. Innovation in Design Credit 1: Innovation in Design (1-5 points)

7. Regional Priority Credit 1: Regional Priority (1-4 points)

Solar LEED Credits

Energy Savings

The amount of energy you will save each year with a solar power system depends on the size of your building, the size of the system, the climate, the price of electricity, and a slew of other fac-tors. For an appropriately sized system, if a building owner receives all of the federal, state, and local tax credits and rebates available to de-fray a portion of the system installation costs, a home or small business PV system can have a payback period as short as 4-5 years. This figure also factors in the increase in property value that benefits a building owner that installs a solar PV system. Source: PV FAQs, U.S. Dept. of Energy, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, http://www.nrel.gov/docs/fy04osti/35489.pdf

Solar thermal collector systems installed for buildings with a high demand for hot water – restaurants, car washes, et al. – can often pay for themselves in less than a year, taking into account the tax rebates and incentives available for these systems in most states. Another factor to consider when determining the payback period is the price fluctuation of the tradi-tional method of water heating in your area, which is natural gas in most areas of the country. Residential installations can also see a reasonable payback period, especially if a solar thermal system can be incorpo-rated into a hydronic heating system.

More information about energy savings and payback periods for solar thermal systems is available at the US Department of Energy site below: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/water_heating/index.cfm/mytopic=12910

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Factors to consider when deciding if a solar PV or thermal system is right for your residence or com-mercial building include:

1. Your monthly electricity bill

2. Your monthly natural gas bill (if used for water heating)

3. Your hot-water demand

4. The space available for a solar system (roof, parking lot, yard, etc.)

5. Average days of direct sunlight in your region

6. The local or state solar energy incentives available in your area (Database of State Incentives for Renewables & Efficiency:http://www.dsireusa.org/incentives/index. cfm?state=us )

Many organizations can help guide you through the process of selecting, sizing, and financing a solar energy system. A few reputable resources – both government and private-sector organizations – are listed below.

1. United States Department of Energy (US DOE) - http://energy.gov/science-innovation/energy-sources/renewable-energy/solar - a division of the federal government dedicated to informing the public about energy.

2. National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL)- http://www.nrel.gov/solar/ - a division of the US DOE dedicated to renewable energy re-search.

3. SunVest Solar - http://www.sunvest.com/ - a private, full-service solar electric installation com-pany.

4. Solar Rating & Certification Corporation (SRCC) - http://www.solar-rating.org/ - a non-profit organization that provides ratings, certifications, and standards for solar thermal products.

5. American Solar Energy Society (ASES) – www.ases.org – a non-profit association of solar professionals and advocates whose goal is to speed the transition to a sustainable energy economy.

Clayton T. Grow, a licensed professional engineer and sustainability advocate, is an idependent writer for the engineering and construction industries. More info at www.TheWritingEngineer.com.

Resources

The Right System for Your Building

About the Writer

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Why did Cicloparqueaderos bike storage feature not alleviate urban exclusión in Bogota? By Solenne Cucchi

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This article aims to bring to attention how a lack of consistent urban planning can ruin the potential con-tribution of transportation to urban economic devel-opment. It takes the example of Bogotá, Colombia, and the battle against urban exclusion. The concept of urban exclusion, ‘urban’ meaning both the physical entity of the city, its population and its complex or-ganization, is introduced as the combination of spatial segregation and a lack of access to social services, po-litical participation, economic opportunities and cul-tural recognition. Poor transport service constitutes a major barrier to accessing job opportunities, reduc-ing the size of effective labour market, which has been presented as a key element for urban economic devel-opment by many eminent economists such as Remy Prud’Homme. Intermodality, understood as an inte-grative space where users can easily switch from one means of transport to another, can partially bring a so-lution to public transportation failure if well designed. It can allow more people to reach the main activity centers by combining the means of transport that are more appropriate for them. In Bogotá, this intermo-dality could be found in the combination between bi-cycle and Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system. However, the lack of social planning added to socio-economic and political limits actually failed to integrate the excluded citizen to main job centers and to extend the effective labour market size for the companies.Bogota is well-known in the planning field for the physical transformation implemented under the gov-ernment of Enrique Peñalosa, articulated around a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system called TransMilenio

and driven by his broader vision for a more egalitarian city. This system has some connecting points with the city’s cycle path or CicloRuta through free and secure bike storage called cicloparqueaderos. It is my understanding that bicycle and public transport do not compete with each other but are comple-mentary (see Fig. 1), despites that initially, both networks have been implemented as two parallel transport systems presenting integrative features and impacts.

TransMilenio provides social advantages in the single fare applied regardless of the travelled distance and the free feeder-buses distributed mostly in poor areas. These favour income redistribution from the main corridors of the system, used by richer people who contribute to pay for feeder-bus services without us-ing them, to the periphery where those are running. On the other hand, with a length of 344 km, Bogota´s CicloRuta is the longest bike path network in Latin America, mainly distributed through the periph-eral and poorest neighbourhoods. By connecting all parts of the city, the CicloRuta constitutes a key el-ement of economic and spatial integration and con-stitutes a major (and often only) recreational space for the poorest residents. It also recognizes bicycles as major mobility assets for them with a number of daily commutes by bicycle up to 4.5%, and more than 80% of cyclists living in poor neighborhoods.See figure 1.

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TransMilenio network

Terminals

CicloRuta network

TransMilenio terminals with cicloparqueaderos

LEGEND

Figure 1 Coverage of CicloRuta network and TransMilenio system in Bogota (Source: ITDP Colombia)

TransMilenio networkTerminalsCicloRuta networkTransMilenio terminals with cicloparqueaderosTransMilenio stations with cicloparqueaderos

A brief discussion of Bogota’s socio-economic struc-ture helps understanding the importance of down-town access for the residents’ economic interests. Bogota is usually described as a polarized city along a north-south axis. However, using the DANE socio-economic stratification model, which determines the price of urban services in each area, as an indicator for the price of rent, Bogota’s urban structure appears to roughly follow the monocentric Alonso-Mills-Muth model. With the exception of wealthier pockets, and taking into account the Andean topography limiting urban expansion, its price gradient declines from the city centre or CBD, where most of the activities, espe-cially economic ones, are located (Fig. 2).

As one can see, the poorest neighborhoods, which also suffer from capability constraints in terms of transport due to longer commute and poor public transport service, are the farthest from the formal job centres. The creation of cicloparqueaderos within TransMilenio stations has therefore an interesting po-tential for urban inclusion and for economic develop-ment bringing more workers in the CBD by becoming an alternative feeder for TransMilenio for low-income residents in areas outside its coverage area. It pro-vides a space for intermodality between two very efficient transportation networks that should allevi-ate mobility-related exclusion in Bogota by reduc-ing mobility barriers, providing a cheaper and more flexible mode of transport, a safe environment to store bicycle and access to a fast mass-transit system.

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However, it actually is a failure in terms of full soci-etal integration and social objectives. My analysis of the case conducted to identify several barriers to the urban inclusiveness that the cicloparqueaderos can provide.

The scarce number of cicloparqueaderos in Bogo-tá, 1,640 in total distributed among 6 out of the 114 TransMilenio stations, is the first observation that one can make when studying this street fixture. Consider-ing that more than 250,000 citizens commute daily on

the CicloRuta, and that Trans-Milenio moves on above 198,000 passengers during peak hours, the service offered is negligi-ble as it provides protected free bike storage to less than 1% of both networks’ users. This lack of infrastructure and availability of cicloparqueaderos resources renders its social impact mini-mal. Additionaly, two major political barriers emerge when this low number is questioned. Firstly, political tension between the two left-wing last municipal governments with the image of bicycles and TransMilenio strongly associated with Peña-losa (Independent) is a main obstacle to the implementation of more cycling facilities in Bo-gota. The last mayors did not want to invest in infrastructure that could make publicity for their opponent. The public in-vestment in CicloRuta network development illustrates this lack of political will towards the pro-motion of bicycle usage. While the Peñalosa and Mockus ad-ministrations built 330 km of cycling facilities from 1998 to 2003, construction fell to 15 km under the next administration and to 4 km since 2008, with a poor maintenance of the exist-

ing infrastructure. This abandonment of cycling con-cerns is also reflected in a declining amount of insti-tutional resources dedicated to cycling policy. As an example, the bikeway management division of the Urban Development Institute (IDU), which employed 8 people in 1998, has closed, and even the 3 people in charge of cycling in the public space division have been removed. With the CicloRuta, it is the theme of public space policy the political effort has turned its back on.

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1: Downtown, mainly strata 6

and 5

2: Mainly strata 4 and 3

3: Mainly strata 4 and 3, with a richness pocket in the north.

4: Mainly strata 2 and 1

5: Informal settlements

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Figure 1 Price gradient of Bogota based on socio economic structure Figure 2 Price gradient of Bogota based on the District Planning Secretary 2009 socio-economic stratification.

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Secondly, the weak cycling lobby in Bogota, which impedes the formulation of a sustainable cycling policy, as well as institutional stubbornness with re-spect to the bureaus in charge of cycling is apparent as another explanation for the weak political commit-ment regarding cycling and intermodal integration. Indeed, it has not been defined by any clear institu-tional scheme to manage the bicycle theme in an in-tegral way. There are different divisions in charge, in different public entities, but in a disarticulated way and without a visible responsible person for the com-munity. The responsibility for the cicloparqueaderos features is currently left to TransMilenio S.A. by the public administration. However, this small company does not have the capacity to fully develop the in-frastructure for the needed full-integration between BRT and cycling, and a self-sustaining cycling policy.

At this point I think it is important to look at two main aspects of the case: the motivation behind the implementation of cicloparqueaderos, in order to de-fine whether social concerns were initially part of the plan, and their users’ profile.

Curiously, despite the fact that some cycle paths have been clearly designed to feed the TransMilenio sys-tem, the attempt of integration between the two net-works only appeared in the second phase of Trans-Milenio construction. According to one of Peñalosa’s assessors, the absence of cicloparqueaderos in the first phase can be understood in terms of social and eco-nomic policy. By not providing public bike parking, the local government aimed at fostering a ‘quasi-in-formal economic opportunity’ for the residents living around TransMilenio stations to provide private bike storage. However this economic development never took place, hence the creation of formal cicloparquea-deros in the next phase.

But this implementation was not exactly driven by social concerns. The first general manager of Trans-Milenio S.A explained during an interview I conduct-ed, that economic concerns were the primary motiva-tion for the company to furnish this infrastructure. Indeed, one of the main goals for the sustainability of the network is the maintenance of a low-cost and con-sistent fare system. The unique tariff of TransMilenio, privately operated, is built to cover two main opera-tional costs. First, the articulated-bus service running

on main-trunks, which operators’ revenue depends on the number of kilometres covered. Second, the feeder buses service, which operators’ income de-pends on the number of passengers transported.

Imbalance emerges with an economics’ classic: the free-rider issue. Indeed feeder-buses, to which access is free, are not exclusively used by TransMilenio users, but allow local people to move within the neighbour-hoods where the service is provided. Those free rid-ers, not taken into account in the fare’s construction, generate a negative financial balance for the company.

Bicycles have therefore been viewed as a solution to alleviate the feeder-buses burden, and the operational costs of TransMilenio. The very first objective in build-ing cicloparqueaderos was to foster a switch in modal access to the system, from feeder-buses to bicycles, by providing users a safe place to store their bike. This objective is clear when considering the location of all but the last Cicloparqueadero implemented in 2010 in the Ricaurte station: all were built in stations provid-ing feeder buses services, making bicycles an alterna-tive ‘feeder’ for public transportation, and in stations where there was space, and not where the major de-mand was. This is clear with the Ricaurte station’s cicloparqueaderos, located under a highway bridge in a low accessible place. It appears, indeed, that the distribution of demand is very unequal among the cicloparqueaderos, and their parking-capacity is not necessarily reflective of the users’ needs (see Table 3). While some bike storage stations are under-utilized, with occupation rate as low as 23% in February 2010, the cicloparqueadero in Terminal Sur registers an av-erage demand of 162%.

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Table 1 Capacity, demand and occupation rate of cicloparqueaderos within the TransMilenio system (source: TransMilenio S.A., personal communication) LOCATION CAPACITY DEMAND (USERS/DAY ) OCCUPATION

RATETerminal AMERICAS 785 194 25%Terminal SUR 220 356 162%Terminal SUBA 324 74 23%Station BANDERAS 101 N/A N/AStation GENERAL SANTADER 48 N/A N/AStation RICAURTE 162 N/A N/A

This utilitarian vision enters in conflict with the Chamber of Commerce (CCB, 2009) considera-tion of bicycle and public transport as complemen-tary and not competing with each other. Surely, the economic motivation explains the maintenance of cicloparqueaderos within TransMilenio despite their under-utilisation. However, this particular type of in-centive seems to be misguided because it aims only to keep the same overall number of users while al-leviating the feeder-bus charge. It does not take ad-vantage of those features to attract new users, who would bring economic benefit to the system by con-tributing to the payment of feeder-buses without us-ing them. This highlights the existing tension between the demarginalisation of excluded areas and econom-ic pressures on TransMilenio S.A. The lack of social interest in the company’s decision to implement free bike-storage is therefore consistent with the aver-age cicloparqueadero user’s profile found by Ciudad Humana in 2006. Overall, the residents living in ar-eas excluded from public transport service are very marginally represented among their users and sav-ings is not a primary motivation to use the features.

There are many reasons for the scarcity of lowest-in-come representation among cicloparqueaderos users. Financial concerns are the main obstacle to the ur-ban integration of those currently excluded from the system. The relatively high ridership fare (US $0.80) is probably the main issue for the poor residents’ lack of access to the TransMilenio system. This bar-rier is also pointed out by Alirio, a 48-years-old-Bo-gotano living in stratum 2 area, who daily commutes

cycling 40 km, equivalent to about 160 minutes ofcycling. The main justification he gives for his choice of transportation is speed and health, but he also expresses that he does not like TransMilenio system, for it is too expensive. The 160% rise in the TransMilenio fare observed since 2001 might ham-per the mobility options for the poorest in Bogota, which was limited to begin with, considering that despite a low trip rate – less than 1.5 trips per day in the lowest segment of the population - transpor-tation cost exceeds 20% of the total income of the poorest households (see Bocarejo & Oviedo, 2010).

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The purpose of this paper was to bring to attention how a lack of consistent urban planning can ruin the potential contribution of transport planning to so-cial policy, to the battle against urban exclusion, and, through those, to the city’s economic development. As shown, poor transport service actually constitutes a major barrier to accessing job opportunities. The in-vestigation on the specific inclusiveness provided by the installation of free and secure bike storage within the TransMilenio system has produced seemingly contradictory results. Indeed, although the ciclopar-queaderos have the potential to better connect the ex-cluded residents to Bogota’s city centre, where most of the economic activities are located, the analysis of their current provision and utilisation tends to di-minish these hopes. The lack of social planning on the part of the company TransMilenio S.A., which focuses solely on the economic benefits of the ciclo-parqueaderos, causes the company to overlook the possibilities for the network in a broader scheme of urban development. TransMilenio is instead regard-ed as an end per se while I believe it should be viewed as a means to increase people’s access to better eco-nomic opportunities. Secondly, the lack of political will towards alternative transport policy from part of the present local administration has been noted as a major problem for the implementation of sustainable transport policy involving bicycle and TransMilenio. It is urgent to disconnect Peñalosa’s image with those means of transport in order for political rivalries not to remain a barrier to citizens’ well-being and to Bo-gota’s economic development. In that sense, the pro-gressive appropriation of the cycling theme by the green movement might bring some hope for a more organized and engaged cycling policy in Bogota. One suggestion provided as a result of this work is whether a differentiated fare system could be applied for further improvement in intermodality. Keeping in mind that one of the limits to cicloparqueaderos’ inclusiveness is the prohibitively high price of Trans-Milenio for the poorest. As the users do not use feed-er-buses, they could be charged a few less than regu-lar TransMilenio users, which would compensate for their physical effort to arrive at the station. This would indeed be an efficient incentive to achieve the objectives TransMilenio S.A. had when it provided cicloparqueaderos facilities in the first place: reducing feeder-bus usage and therefore some overhead costs.

References:

Bocarejo, JP & Oviedo, D 2010, ‘Transport Accessibility and Social Exclusion: a Better Way to Evaluate Public Transport Investment?’, proceedings of the 12th World Conference on Transport Research, Lisbon, Portugal, 11-15 July. Retrieved 3 August from JP Bocarejo [personal communication].Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá (CCB) 2009, Movilidad en Bicicleta en Bogotá, Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Bogota.Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá (CCB) & Universidad de los Andes (UA) 2009, Observatorio de Movilidad, issue 3, Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá, Bogota.Ciudad Humana Foundation (CHF) 2006, Campaña por el Fo-mento de la Integración Modal en TransMilenio: Propuesta de Gestión Social Integral para la Optimización de los Cicloesta-cionamientos de Estación Banderas y Portal Américas. Prim-era Fase: Diagnóstico y Análisis. Fundación Ciudad Humana, Bogota, March. Gilbert, A 2008, ‘Bus Rapid Transit: Is TransMilenio a Miracle Cure?’, Transport Review, Vol.28, issue 4, pp. 439-67.Pardo, CF & Sagaris, L 2009, ‘Building a Multimodal Transport System: Integrating Cycling and Public Transport’, in T. Go-defrooij, CF Pardo & L Sagaris (eds.), Cycling Inclusive Policy development Handbook, GTZ, Utrecht. UN-HABITAT, ROLAC 2010b, Estado de las Ciudades de América Latina y el Caribe, United Nations Human Settlements Programme, Oficina Regional para América Latina y el Caribe (ROLAC), Rio de Janeiro. VideosBogota: Building a Sustainable City 2007, documentary e2 design, PBS series, season 2, episode 3 (26’46’’).

Solenne Cucchi works as a mobility and environment project coordinator. Solenne Cucchi’s professonal educational background includes Msc Regional and Urban Planning - LSE as well as Master Stratégie Ter-ritoriale et Urbaine - Sciences Po Paris.

You can contact Ms. Cucchi at http://co.linkedin.com/in/solennecucchi or Follow her on Twitter: SolenneCucchi

About the Writer

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Tourism Planning Tools for Sustainable Economic Development By Tracy Mullins, MS, AICP

Tourism Planning Tools for Sustainable Economic

DevelopmentTourism is one of the largest industries in the world. While it is partially addressed in regional land use plans, transportation plans, comprehensive plans, recreation plans, and economic development plans, comprehensive tourism planning is rarely found at the local level. Sustainable economic development for tourism requires the utilization of mechanisms to en-vision and plan for the future across economic, envi-ronmental, social, and political dimensions.

Tourism is dependent upon a sense of place, either natural or created. Without a sense of place, the at-traction, tourists and tourism dollars will not be sus-tainable. In his book The Geography of Nowhere, James Howard Kunstler explains that people will not be attracted to a location if “there is no there, there.” Additionally, attractions that merely capture pass-through traffic will not generate consistent revenue for all community stakeholders. An example of this is the highway strip mall. Franchised operations in ho-mogeneous strip malls rarely create a sense of place; rather, they simply provide opportunities for retail sales and marketing that are the hallmark of strip mall developments.

Sustainable tourism requires establishing a critical mass of tourism attractions, goods and services that create a sense of place - a destination. One must plan for a quadruple bottom-line (economic, environmen-tal, social, and political) that meets the needs of both the visitor and the local community. This requires co-ordinating a diverse group of stakeholders to address disparate issues such as multimodal transportation infrastructure, preservation of ecological diversity, designing energy efficient buildings, and controlling waste streams. Sustainable tourism development must meet the need of today’s tourists and host re-gions while protecting and enhancing opportunities for the future. Successful tourism plans reflect the val-ues and interests of the local community, frame an ac-tion strategy, and result in activities that are actually implemented.

Sustainable tourism planning is not an end in itself, but an ongoing practice that requires an iterative monitoring and improvement process. One of many methodologies for framing the process of sustainable tourism development is the OODA Loop. A quick search of the Internet using ‘OODA loop’ as a key-word will yield hundreds of articles on the subject. A full explanation of the OODA loop can be found in Robert Coram’s book, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War. Coram’s book is the biogra-phy of John Boyd, creator of the OODA loop.

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THE OODA LOOPThere are four steps in the OODA loop: Observation, Orientation, Decision and Action. OODA requires that you plan through a number of iterative planning cycles, not just one linear pass.

The first step of the OODA loop, observation, involves observing and inventorying tourism assets, collecting data, and analyzing the data. The tourism environ-ment (economic, environmental, social and political) is described in maps, spreadsheets and reports.

The second step, orientation, is where the information created from data is presented to stakeholders,

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first as educational material and then as the subject of analysis and discussion. Program and policy develop-ment may require a long negotiation process, but this provides the basis for creating strong, binding agree-ments on agreed-upon goals and actions.

The third step, decision, codifies the knowledge from negotiations and agreements into policy, regulations and implementable business plans. Planning efforts address both big scale spatial planning and small scale place-making.

In the final step, action, plans are implemented and the results are monitored for change. The wisdom gained from this monitoring are fed back into the ob-servation stage to iterate the OODA loop, resulting in continual improvement and effectively eliminates the inertia that kills many planning efforts.

At any point in the looping process, you may decide to drop back to an earlier step and begin that step again. Fluidity, agility and speed are key factors in this plan-ning methodology. The planning and looping never end, but they provide opportunity for responding to market events as they unfold. Your plans should be a living document, with revisions based on continuous monitoring and looping so they never gather dust on a shelf.

Let’s take a closer look at each step in the OODA Loop and tools that can maximize the effectiveness of sus-tainable tourism-based economic development plan-ning.

OBSERVATIONObservation requires assembling a tourism re-source inventory. This should include existing tourism resource assets (activities, facilities and services), po-tential tourism resource assets, and the infrastructure required to sustainably support tourism use within a defined geographic area. This inventory can be kept as digital files and maps with easy Internet access for stakeholders. Start with an inventory of infrastructure and public services essential to tourism found in your county and municipal comprehensive plans.

A vast number of physical inventories and data-rich documents are available on the Internet, such as State Comprehensive Outdoor Recreation Plans, regional transportation plans, and special district plans (e.g. soil, water, economic). Also look for other data sourc-es such as regulatory compliance reports and studies, permitting records (e.g. wetland, endangered species), and Memoranda of Understanding. Don’t forget non-profit data sources, such as conservation easement da-tabases and native plant societies.

Also required during observation is an inventory of the natural, cultural, historic and heritage attractions and recreational activities in the study area and adja-cent region. Inventory and evaluation sheets can be found on the Internet or in publications like Linking Communities, Tourism & Conservation by Conserva-tion International.

It bears mentioning that localism should be avoided during the observation phase. The Internet offers re-sources and information from all over the world; con-sidering this information will give you a competitive edge over other project groups that have limited their observations to local, regional or state data.

Another essential piece of observation is the Tourism Market Demand Analysis. This is a situational analysis which describes the tourist, the competition and each competitor’s advantage. Historic marketing data can be obtained through Chambers of Commerce, Visi-tor and Convention Bureaus, Economic Development Agencies and local businesses. Market segmentation software such as ESRI’s Tapestry or Claritas’ Prism can focus your search further, as can government tour-ism agencies and trade associations. Compiling data on the competition may require on-site investigation to survey your competitors’ properties. Compare and contrast local labor and training needs with services offered by the competition, which will help direct de-velopment of a local capacity building plan to create a superior service offering.

Maps are indispensable for tourism planning, as they are an effective way to inventory information. Computerized mapping known as Geographic In-formation Systems (GIS) allows you to capture, man-age, analyze and display all forms of geographically


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referenced information as files and data layers. GIS helps you view, understand, question, interpret and visualize data to reveal relationships, patterns and trends, and then express this information as maps, re-ports and charts that are quickly understood and eas-ily shared.

You can also use GIS to determine location and con-dition of tourism assets, track tourism trends, and measure tourism impacts and changes. GIS analyti-cal tools used in the observation phase allow you to follow the flows and impacts of tourist activities and resource usage so you can model what if scenarios for decision support. GIS mapping layers should include topographic information, land use and land cover, water resources, traffic and transportation, tourism infrastructure, and administration and statistical data. Most of this data are available for free over the Inter-net through organizations like the Geo Community (www.geocomm.com), or you can ask a professional geographer or certified GIS professional to work with you as a means of saving time, money and effort. Your project will also require a database of tourism stakeholders, tourism operators, and their products. This can be recorded in electronic spreadsheets or in customer relationship management (CRM) software. A Public Involvement Program (PIP) is essential to identify stakeholders, build community vision and encourage the buy-in necessary to implement plan-ning. Work sessions, focus groups and public presen-tations can be used to gather information, educate the stakeholder and build coalitions. These “communities of purpose” can build local capacity for tourism.

The results of observation should include a user-friendly database, map series and public involvement effort. Together these can create a common operating picture of the tourism environment for stakehold-ers to understand and discuss during the orientation phase.

ORIENTATIONThe sustainable tourism destination needs a critical mass of engaged stakeholders. Stakeholders identified in the PIP should be invited to join planning com-mittees. Engage the full diversity of the community’s residents, businesses, and other legitimate interests in Community Advisory Committees (CAC), but recog-nize that not everyone has sufficient background to make expert decisions.

To avoid alienating professionals, experts and lo-cal government officials, create a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) whose activities will parallel but not duplicate those of the CACs. Bring the commit-tees together early and often. All committees should address policy coordination, setting and maintaining performance standards, promoting equitable sharing of tourism benefits, and generating economic sup-port for conservation of natural areas. Paper-based maps can be used to record committee recommenda-tions such as setting buffers around special areas (e.g. residential areas or environmentally sensitive areas), identifying buildable land, and determining the best place for infrastructure improvement and tourism zoning. This information is then recorded in your GIS software.

The Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) pro-vides a mechanism for screening tourism planning ef-forts for potentially negative impacts. Environmental impacts often address use/overuse of land and eco-logical resources, waste management issues and the physical impacts of travel. The World Bank and other large funding agencies have guidelines on how to un-dergo EIA; these guidelines can be used directly or adapted to fit your needs. Measurable socio-cultural impacts include the influx of tourists and their impact on the local communities and their cultural values.

G I S


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Carrying Capacity describes the maximum number of people that might visit a destination simultaneously. Carrying capacity tools describe current and project-ed impacts by the number of visitors a site can hold, the point at which environmental degradation is irre-versible, the point which tourists feel an unacceptable decrease in the quality of experience, and the level at which local inhabitants feel their life is disrupted by tourism. Although carrying capacity is a tool under development, several planning frameworks have been established and tested in a variety of situations. These include Limits of Acceptable Change, Visitor Impact Management, Visitor Experience and Resource Pro-tection, Visitor Activity Management Planning, and Tourism Optimization Management Model. These all have their strengths and weaknesses; more informa-tion on each can be found online.

After reaching consensus on Carrying Capacity limi-tations, a sustainable product offering can be devel-oped. One helpful tool is the Recreation Opportunity Spectrum (ROS), a U.S. Bureau of Land Management framework to inventory, plan and manage recrea-tion opportunities. This tool divides land use into six classes ranging from natural, low use areas to highly developed, intensively used areas and identi-fies appropriate programming and development for each of the six classes. When using ROS with plan-ning committees, it is important they understand that facilities will differ based on the recreation/tourism experience and equipment. One-size-fits-all design solutions typically fail because they don’t take local variables into account.

Tourism Zoning codifies decisions to regulate activi-ties and identify where those activities are permitted. Other management tools include use limitations, user fees, design standards and guidelines, certification programs and regulation. Tourism regulation can be delivered through standards, licensing and inspection of facilities and activities.

After determining what can be done and how, one must determine if it is financially sustainable. Fi-nancial tools such as a Cost-Benefit Analysis should be used to examine the qualitative and quantitative benefits and costs of the project. Additional financial planning can include tax incentives, airport departure

taxes, bed taxes, and micro-lending programs. A final piece of the orientation phase is educat-ing the community about the activities of the TAC/CAC groups. This can be achieved through educa-tion, interpretation and training programs that build the community’s capacity for implementing tourism plans.

At the end of the orientation step you have created a database of documents, maps, analyses, and scenarios that have been thoroughly discussed and vetted by the public involvement process. These materials support the decision phase of the OODA loop.

DECISION

Although decision-making requires that the observa-tion and orientation work is as complete as possible, holding back on making decisions until all possible data is collected can kill an otherwise well-planned project. Your TAC/CAC groups must be willing to move forward once they have sufficient data to do so. Committees need to seek convergence on agreed in-tentions, document them and build from there; it is important to keep the decision phase focused so com-mittees don’t keep revisiting issues that have already been addressed.

Decisions made during this phase might include pol-icy coordination, setting performance standards, pro-moting equitable sharing of benefits/profits, generat-ing economic support for the conservation of natural areas, and fostering the socioeconomic advancement of local communities. TAC/CAC groups will need to write business plans, master plans, marketing plans, and implementation plans based on their agreed-upon policy documents and codification. The master plan might include multimodal transportation corri-dors, linkage of parks and open spaces, and grey field redevelopment. Experts in the TAC group might even create defensible/sustainable business plans, user pay strategies, investment strategies, or other decision-based strategies that help to complete the picture.

The results of the decision phase must be based on solid data and analysis, not the gut feelings of a few


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decision-makers. Tourism planning that is centered on creating a sense of place may help reconcile topics such as housing, jobs, infrastructure, and open space. Your plans need to have both political legitimacy and technical capacity in economic development, trans-portation, and land use. Your results can manifest as business plans, sustainable tourism master plans, land use change, zoning ordinances, overlay districts, etc. At the conclusion of the decision stage, you should have solution differentiation and risk resolution that is based in community consensus and ready for ac-tion.

ACTION

Action and implementation require sufficient invest-ment capital to make the project happen, political re-sources (both top down and bottom up) to maintain community involvement and support, elements of design and nature to create a sense of place, focused marketing campaigns to attract and retain tourists, and careful maintenance that sustains and renews the attraction itself. It is not uncommon for a tourism project to fail after initial interest wanes or short-term expectations are unmet. Planning through several OODA loops allows the process itself to evolve, keeps stakeholders engaged, and builds on lessons learned along the way. Experience can shape how scarce re-sources are allocated in the future, what kind of infor-mation is really needed, how communication should be designed, and which stakeholders need to be added to the process.

At the end of the day, the real product of the planning process is the development of agreed intentions which will be carried out – not a report that gathers dust on a shelf. The OODA methodology can assist urban plan-ners and economic development professionals to bet-ter integrate their activities with those of the tourism sector. Sustainable tourism development is dependent upon the creation of a sense of place using cross dis-ciplinary tools and technology to envision and plan for the future across economic, environmental, social, and political dimensions.

About the Writer

Tracy Mullins, MS, AICP attended Lakehead Uni-versity where he completed simultaneous degrees in Outdoor Recreation, Geography and Tourism Man-agement. After a short time with the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Mullins started his career in consulting. Working from Ontario, he provided economic devel-opment capacity building services to entrepreneurs and nonprofit organizations in both Canada and the United States. Notable projects included the fields of tourism, recreation, telecommunications, historic preservation and small business start-up.

After being awarded a full scholarship from Eastern Michigan University, Tracy graduated with a Master of Science in Geography, major in Urban Planning. While writing his Master’s thesis, he was retained as a Professor of Geography at the University of Michi-gan. Mullins subsequently received professional cer-tification from the American Institute of Certified Planners and moved to Florida where he consults in Urban Planning/Design and Sustainable Economic Development. Expertise includes community rede-velopment, urban design, tribal planning, tourism development, and professional services business planning.

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Once upon a time not very long ago, in a fairy land filled with fairy castles and picturesque tree-lined lanes, a Great Contest was held to design the future of the Great Capital City. Invitations were sent out to the most famous architects all over the world to submit their most creative and innovative ideas for the future of the Great City. Time went by, and the plans, draw-ings and ideas for the Great Contest were collected to-gether from a great variety of famous architects. Who would have the most creative idea? Who would win the Contest?

As the Scientific Committee examined the many, many applications, filled with very many beautiful

pictures, drawings and maps, they were amazed to discover that all of the applications looked alike! In fact, the applications were mostly filled with pictures which were so very similar, it was hard to tell apart one application apart from the other. Had there been a mistake? Had an evil (and uninventive) wizard sto-len the plans and submitted his own in their place?

This anecdote, although highly romanticized, is in fact a true version of what occurred in the architectural

Is the International Architectural Style

Sapping Urban Soul?

Is the International Architectural Style Sapping Urban Soul? By Annette Fehr-Stomp

As Modernism and the International Style of Ar-chitecture along with it became popular around the world as expressions of Western-style development, progress and especially riches, its megalithic if faceless buildings started replacing those typical architectural expressions of culture and history which so clearly identify one city from another. This year's plan for Abu Dhabi's Main Street transformation, for example, could just as easily be Miami, Monaco or Singapore.

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and urban planning contest for Paris, called Grand Paris and meant to create ‘’a new global plan for the Paris metropolitan region,’’ according to French Presi-dent Sarkozy. The anecdote was related at a confer-ence held recently in Switzerland by one of the two co-presidents of the scientific committee, who wasstunned to say the least, by the contrast between the overwhelming number of images presented and their incredible lack of variety.

These images were representative of a style of archi-tecture now very much in vogue around the world called ‘’The International Style’’, presented in a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1997. Based on the Modernism of the 1920s and 1930s, the International Style was supposed to express scientific development and progress which would erase tradi-tionalistic superfluous ornament as well as links to

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The architectural popularization of the International Style could be a result of globalization, Modernism, or some form of Western imperialism or a diffusion of Western tastes and consumerism. On the other hand, it might be the result of a replication of nearly identical aesthetic ideals and ideologies in the most prominent architectural schools, which are also more represented in the West than in the Rest. Whatever may be at the root of it, the International Style's result is clear: culturally unique buildings and landscapes, which best distinguish cities, and also embody impor-tant memories and identities for the local population, are forever lost in exchange for an aesthetically bland style which in looking high-tech is momentarily styl-ish.

Yet, the need to belong, the need to identify to a par-ticular group and to have a particular and unique identity, both as individuals and as communities, ap-parently runs deep in the human psyche.

Architecturally, this manifests itself in the unique par-ticularities of vernacular architecture, which can vary geographically even within 100 km, and far from be-ing backwards technologically, are much often more eco-friendly than Modernist buildings.

Vernacular buildings, rather than being designed in far away places by foreigners who never set foot in the land they are designing for, grew up over long periods intimately tied to the history, the people and the land. In this way, many local, 'traditional' buildings, which developed before the industrial era are as if custom-made for local climates while using local materials and clearly being non carbon-intensive.

This brings up the point that 'green' building mustn't only be considered one building at a time, but must also include sustainable development patterns on a metro scale. In addition, climate-friendly measures also need to consider transportation networks, as more carbon is emitted by vehicles. Having one land-mark highly-rated green building located in an isolat-ed place, where everyone must drive to reach it is false advertising. However, retrofitting traditional houses to make them habitable and high-quality living en-vironments, able to compete aesthetically and ener-getically with new suburban housing, can discourage urban sprawl by providing real alternatives to the suburbs. Retrofits can also help retain an inner-city's residents, and thus prevent demolitions which lead to a 'perforated' urban fabric, further lowering the qual-ity of inner-city neighborhoods.

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One example of an area rich in vernacular architecture is the wonderful pisé, or beaten-earth construction common throughout the Beaujolais area in France. The thick walls of tightly packed dirt from local sites effectively shut out cold and humidity in the winter, and the scorching heat of southern France in the sum-mer, while lasting for centuries if regularly plastered. Sadly, these historic structures, many of which date back hundreds of years, are regularly torn down to be replaced by rows upon rows of bland, faceless, soul-less, sprawling single-family homes which as well as erasing a place's architectural memory, lead to more carbon-intensive uses and lifestyles. Ironically, real-estate companies advertise the construction of new of houses by describing then as designed ''in the own-er's image'', while in fact they are more in the image of Southern California, while the truly French pisé buildings and even castles are being torn down to make way.

While this is only one example, there must be thou-sands of others for the thousands of places where vernacular architecture exists, including Western na-tions. Often these older structures are torn down with the excuse that it would be more expensive to repair them than to tear them down and start anew. How-ever, the construction and mortgaging of new houses is government-subsidized to such a degree that it was one of the major factors pushing the economy to a cri-sis-point in the 2008 Recession, and may do so again.

At the same time, urban planners have been trying to enliven downtowns and other ares of the city, search-ing to create or reinvent 'urban soul'. This elusive sense of place is as much felt as seen, and is made up of a mix of density, diversity, accessible and human-sized walkscapes, as well as lively public spaces and commercial streetscapes. It also reaches into the memory and identity of a city, for it evokes historical moments which help to shape a place's collective and unique identity. In contradiction to this, the Interna-tional Style of architecture erases history and memo-ry, in-line with Modernism's sense of 'progress', and denies identity, while making a true sense of urban soul unauthentic, by making all places look alike.


The traditional, 'old-fashioned' buildings, full of elab-orate decoration, and historical and cultural elements represent a great resource for cities looking to increase residential and commercial spaces and preserve their memory, identity and 'urban soul'. Doesn't ''reuse, reduce, recycle'' apply to real estate as well? Since when was, ''tear it down and bring in foreign ideas and materials'' a good idea for social, economic or en-vironmental sustainability? It's time to look around at the architectural wealth around us in the form of irreplaceably old, traditional, and cultural buildings and think about how retrofitting them might be an environmentally friendly alternative to urban sprawl. Preferring fixing up, that is retrofitting, the old, to building brand-new houses may even prove cheaper if the subsidies were removed from new real estate con-struction and mortgaging. Giving value to a place's architectural past could also go far in preserving that place's memory and even in creating that elusive ur-ban sense of place called urban soul.

About the WriterAnnette Stomp has a B.A. in anthropology and ur-ban geography and a Master of Urban Planning, both from McGill University in Canada. She is presently doing doctoral research at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology at Lausanne (EPFL) on questions re-lated to urban sprawl, especially in its comparative dimensions across cities, countries, and cultures. While touching upon institutions, individuals, envi-ronments, and transportation, her work is as focused upon the spatial variations of peripheral urban spac-es as it is upon the underlying social, political, and economic issues.

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Redevelopment and Blight in Flux: San Diego Superior Court By Anthony Nash

In 2005, the United States Supreme Court decided Kelo v. City of New London (2005) 545 U.S 469. In Kelo, the Supreme Court interpreted the Takings Clause of the Fifth Amendment to allow the power of eminent domain as justification to transfer land from one private owner to another for the broad pur-pose of economic development. Essentially, Kelo opened the door for redevelopment of blighted prop-erties through eminent domain proceedings. The aftermath of the Kelo decision is still playing out all over the country as numerous condemning agencies use “blight” as the basis for condemnation of private property. This process is controversial because blight contains elements of subjectivity which forces juris-dictions to define what must be established in order for condemning entities to exercise the power of emi-nent domain.

An interesting example of a condemning entity seek-ing to use blight as part of its redevelopment occurred recently in National City, California. National City sought to amend its redevelopment plan to extend its right to use the power of eminent domain to con-demn real property that contained the Community Youth Athletic Center (“Youth Center”). The Youth Center contains a boxing program that focuses on keeping local at-risk youth engaged and off the streets. The Youth Center challenged National City’s amend-ment to its redevelopment plan in the courts. Now, after four-years of fighting, the Youth Center garnered a critical victory which highlights some of the ongo-ing issues related to blight playing a role in the imple-mentation of redevelopment plans and acquisitions of property via eminent domain.

On April 20, 2011, San Diego Superior Court Judge Steven R. Denton delivered a significant ruling for California property rights cases. The Court ruled in the case of Community Youth Athletic Center v. City of National City, San Diego Superior Court Case No. 37-2007-00076404, that the City lacked the legal ba-sis, due to lack of substantial and tangible evidence, to declare specific properties “blighted” to allow amend-ment of its redevelopment plan. The Youth Center decision also contained findings about National City’s ability to protect information it provided to consult-ants during the attempted amendment of its redevel-opment ordinance. These topics will be addressed in turn below.

National City’s Redevelopment Ordinance Number 2007-2295 is Found to be Invalid and UnenforceableIn February 2007, National City began the process of amending its 1995 Redevelopment plan to reau-thorize the eminent domain power over a 692 acre area including the Youth Center. To accomplish this amendment, National City had to comply with the Community Redevelopment Law encapsulated in California Health and Safety code section 33300 et seq. Compliance requires finding that significant blight remains within the project area and that the blight cannot be eliminated without the use of emi-nent domain. (California Health and Safety Code section 33333.2(a)(4).) Blight is a legal question of whether a structure substantially impairs the growth of the community, hinders housing accommodations, constitutes economic or social liability, or is counter to the good public health, safety, morals or welfare of the community.

The Youth Center case found that determination of blight must be both observable and verifiable. Thus, National City did not have the authority to assert that an area was “blighted” and thus subject to redevelop

Redevelopment and Blight in Flux:

San Diego Superior Court Affirms High Legal Threshold for Munici-palities to Declare an area “Blight-ed” for Purposes of Redevelopment

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ment or eminent domain without a clear definition of what constitutes blight along with tangible and substantial proof of a how a specific property may be considered blighted. The Court found that National City failed to articulate any clear definition of blight. Further, National City was unable to show any tan-gible proof that the Youth Center property met this nonexistent criterion. A key example of National City’s inadequate showing was its failure to introduce any maps showing the location of the alleged blighted conditions and therefore, by deduction, which par-ticular pieces of property were purportedly blighted within the 692 acre development area.

The Court also found that the limited and delayed evidence introduced by the City to establish blight did not show substantial or serious current or future blight issues. Finally, the Court found that National City did not meet the “nexus” requirement in assert-ing that the Youth Center was blighted. The “nexus” rule requires evidence that the facts regarding blight are reasonably connected to their conclusions (in this case that 692 acres need to be reserved for potential taking pursuant to eminent domain.) The Court noted “the purpose of the nexus requirement in Cali-fornia Health and Safety code section 33031(a)(2) is to prevent the use of redevelopment powers in areas that are functioning, but that a city simply wishes were more modernized.” (See Court’s April 20, 2011 Statement of Decision, pg. 22:18-20.)

The Court’s denial of National City’s request to amend its redevelopment plan affirms the importance of substantial and quantifiable evidence of blight as a prerequisite to redevelopment acquisitions. Califor-nia Health and Safety Code Section 33333.2 requires “substantial evidence” to show “significant blight.” Further, Section 33352 (b) requires “ponderable le-gal significance” and tangible quantifiable evidence in determining a property to be blighted. The Youth Center decision is instructive in California because it restrains the expanded eminent domain authority of the government contemplated by the Kelo decision, and upholds a high threshold for municipalities to clear before establishing that a property is blighted for redevelopment or eminent domain purposes.

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The Youth Center Court clarified the Public Records Act by holding that when the government retains a private consultant to perform government functions, the documents produced by the firm remain public record and are subject to disclosure under the Act. The Court confirmed a previous ruling that “[a] pub-lic entity cannot categorically shield any and all docu-ments from the light of public disclosure by contract-ing out services to private entities.” National City’s contract with a private consulting firm gave the City full ownership over all documents. The documents were public record. The Youth Center reasonably re-quested all data used by the City and the private con-sulting firm in reaching the conclusion of substantial blight. The Youth Center Court found that these re-quests were legitimate, timely, and clear enough where the City had no excuse to refrain from disseminating the information. Importantly, the Court noted that the requirement of clarity in document requests must be tempered with the realities of record requests. A requester likely does not know precisely the identity of documents sought because they have not seen the documents. Therefore, requests may be broadly de-scribed by general content.

Instructively, the Youth Center Court did not find persuasive the argument that the records were in the possession of the private consultant rather than the City. The items remained Public Record and the City had a duty to undertake a reasonable search and ef


Under Cal. Const. Art. 1, Section 3 (b) (1) and Gov-ernment Code Section 6250: access to public records are a fundamental Constitutional and statutory right All Governmental documents are presumed open to the public. The Government has the burden of establishing whether an enumerated exception ap-plies. Generally, on a case by case basis, if a contract between a municipality and a private entity gives the municipality ownership over the documents, and the data within those documents meets the definition of public records, the items are presumed to be subject to disclosure.

National City’s Consultant Documentation Regarding

Blight Was Not be Protected

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and potential taking of private property. Condemn-ing entities must be aware that detailed evidence and findings of blight are required along with a strong connection to any particular property that might be singled out for redevelopment. Condemning entities must also be aware that private consultants retained to analyze and document the existence of blight could be subject to full disclosure under the Public Records Act. This could change the nature of interactions and assignments provided to consultants related to rede-velopment areas. On the other hand, property owners faced with emi-nent domain proceedings related to blight should en-sure that all components of the process are open and timely. Property owners should follow the example of the Youth Center and participate vocally and ex-tensively in public hearings regarding redevelopment and exercise of eminent domain powers related to blight. Property owners should also be aware that the public is allowed access to all public documents re-lated to the redevelopment or taking of land including graphs, maps, contact information, and environmen-tal impact reports. These types of information can all be obtained via due diligence, research and persis-tence. Parties must become knowledgeable about all facts and arguments relating to all areas and aspects of a redevelopment area or specific project.

Lessons from the Youth Center


It must be noted that the Youth Center case is a lim-ited decision. The Court did not rule on whether con-demnation of the Youth Center would be acceptable under these conditions because National City had yet to file a condemnation action. Moreover, the Youth Center decision came from the Superior Court and is not reported appellate authority in California. The prevailing United States Supreme Court case, Kelo, remains the highest authority regarding Eminent Do-main and the government retains broad authority to take private property for public use. Regardless, the youth center controversy and decision represents an instructive example of how the lines between rede-velopment, blight and eminent domain are being ad-dressed in the wake of the Kelo decision. In sum, the decision indicates that courts will be willing to extend protections in favor of private property owners in re-lation to redevelopment and eminent domain cases connected to blight.

About the Writer

The Youth Center ruling is an important one for both condemning entities and business owners. The over-riding lesson is that blight is not a simple path to re-development of troubled urban areas. Rather, despite Kelo, condemning agencies and government redevel-opment efforts must meet a high burden in enacting reasonable regulations related to the redevelopment

Relevance of Youth Center for Urban Development and

Planning

fort in disclosing the items. Thus, the Court granted the Youth Center’s request for declaratory relief and found that the City violated the Public Records Act through its failure to provide documents from its pri-vate consultant in response to the Youth Center’s re-quests.

Antony Nash is a partner in the law firm of Luce, For-ward, Hamilton & Scripps. Mr. Nash's practice in-volves all aspects of complex business and real estate litigation, including representing trustees and benefi-ciaries in both judicial and non-judicial foreclosure proceedings, representing parties in complex com-mercial disputes, representing both public agencies and private citizens throughout all phases of eminent domain proceedings, and representing landlords and tenants in unlawful detainer and lease disputes. Mr. Nash also represents real estate developers in all forms of litigation ranging from subcontractor disputes to development approvals. He has extensive trial experi-ence in the above issues. Mr. Nash also has expertise in easement disputes, breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty and other tort actions.

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Urban Agriculture: A Growing TrendBy Beth Hagenbuch, ALSA

Community gardening has been called many things in recent history such as relief gardens, Liberty gar-dens and Victory gardens, to name a few. In the Unit-ed States, community gardens can be traced back to the 1800’s, where potato-patch gardens were located within city-owned plots of land offered to the unem-ployed poor so they could grow their own food. War-time gardens such as Liberty and Victory gardens were government-promoted plots aimed at relieving food shortages due to the war. Relief gardens during the Great Depression were used to not only heighten morale, but provide fresh food to a nation of unem-ployed. Although the purpose of the gardens may have changed over the years, these gardens all pro-vided the same results: producing locally grown fresh food as a result of a community-driven endeavor.

Recently, the community garden trend has become more popular due to several factors. One issue is the lack of access to fresh food in urban communities, es-pecially inner-city communities where food options, much less fresh food options, are limited. Addition-ally, an increased awareness of knowing where food is coming from and the time and cost associated with getting it from field to table are also drivers in com-munity-produced food efforts.

“Community gardens can bring a neighborhood to-gether and make an inactive space into a social hub; it’s really quite remarkable,” said Jessie McHugh, a landscape architect at JJR of Madison, Wisc.

Community gardening efforts are on the rise in south-eastern Michigan, and increasing in popularity in Detroit. Due to efforts by organizations such as The Greening of Detroit, the University Cultural Center Association (UCCA), and GrowTown, communities are coming together in droves to participate.Mid-Town Detroit.

Starting in late 2008, the UCCA worked with Detroit to establish a community garden within three par-cels—two of its own and the other by the city, located at the corner of Willis and 2nd Streets in Mid-Town. The corner was blighted; a dumping ground for gar-bage and a center of illegal activities. Some vacant housing surrounded its boundaries. A potential prime development area owing to recent improvements to the area prior the economic downturn, UCCA want-ed to find a community use.

UCCA staff surveyed current users of the property and determined if the parcel became a park, unfa-vorable activity would continue. Thus, a community garden was born.

Sue Mosey, UCCA president, coordinated efforts with the community and the city to move the project for-ward. The timetable was tight with the goal to have the garden built and planted by the 2009 Memorial Day weekend.

Mosley enlisted the assistance of JJR’s Ann Arbor of-fice, to guide the site planning, design and installation of the space. Brian Charlton, a JJR landscape archi-tect—and McHugh—led the planning and implemen-tation efforts for the project.

As part of the JJR Employee Volunteer Program, staff sacrificed their lunch hours to design ideas for the space. Designers presented their ideas to residents and UCCA for input. Barthel Contracting, a Detroit-area general contractor, got the site plans within just a few weeks.

Countless community members, along with JJR’s vol-unteer participants, spent four weekends cleaning up and preparing the site for planting. An environmen-tal assessment was completed after the removal of re-fuse and debris.

Urban AgricutureA Growing Trend

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The property was located on a former gas station site; soil samples revealed arsenic and lead. Even though levels were low enough not to cause human harm, to further ensure the user safety and meet state envi-ronmental contact requirements, 100 cubic yards of topsoil was removed, a layer of geo-textile fabric was placed and 12” of new topsoil capped the site.

Upon researching the growth potential of vegeta-ble roots, the design team required that the planting beds needed to be at least 12” to 18” deep. This would keep the roots from penetrating the soil beneath the capped system.

Community sign-onThe community embraced the idea from the begin-ning. Some neighbors who had been living in the area met for the first time during these volunteer days. Weeks before the garden was to open, even before it was built, 91 garden plots, located within the 0.37 acres, sold out in one week’s time.

Volunteers contributed time in their own unique ways. A local artist used salvaged play equipment from a neighboring vacant site and created a planter sculpture for the entrance to the garden. A retired auto engineer made detailed “Ikea-type” instructions for volunteer laborers on how to construct and assem-ble the raised garden bed structures.

“Going through this process and observing the en-gagement of the community volunteer dedication, and the follow-through of the project to completion, was inspiring both personally and professionally,” said Charlton. “When a particular need arose, someone was there to help out.”

Enclosed with a short fence and gate, not tall enough to keep anyone out, the garden is operated on a trust system. The last gardener to leave for the night locks the combination on the gate.

In its second season, there is a waiting list to join. Sev-eral local restaurants use the garden as a supply for recipes. Some of the gardeners donate the harvest to food pantries. Other organizations use plots to teach community children about food sources. The result-ing effort has been successful in cleaning up the site, making it an active space, engaging the community and, of course, providing fresh food.

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Urban AgricutureAnother kind of community garden has taken root. Lafayette Greens is an organic vegetable and fruit gar-den right in the heart of downtown Detroit. It is an example of a cooperative effort between private and public sectors, resulting in a productive use of a va-cant parcel of city land.

An urban garden sponsored by Compuware Corpo-ration, Lafayette Greens fulfills its role as a commu-nity garden and an attractive urban green space. Lafayette Greens

Compuware GenesisThe idea to create an urban garden originated with Peter Karmanos Jr., founder of Detroit-based soft-ware and consulting giant, Compuware. At the grand opening of the garden in August, he spoke of how the garden brings together two of his great passions: gar-dening—he’s a master gardener himself—and the city of Detroit.

It was conceived as a place where Compuware em-ployees, many of whom live in the suburbs, could be active and invested participants in downtown Detroit and continue the Compuware culture of giving back to the community. The fresh, organically grown pro-duce is grown and harvested by volunteers at Lafay-ette Greens.

"Currently, Gleaners Community Food Bank is the main beneficiary," said Megan Heeres of Compuware, "and we have extended that to include other organiza-tions like the Central Methodist Church and Alterna-tives for Girls and other local community food banks and soup kitchens for next season's harvest."

Heeres, art curator and community art and garden program manager at the company, looked at several sites in the downtown area to build a garden. A loca-tion near Compuware's headquarters, so that employ-ees could easily take part in the garden, was a priority.

The vacant lot at West Lafayette Boulevard and Shel-by Street, site of the recently demolished Lafayette Building and only a short walk from Compuware headquarters was chosen. Heeres worked closely with Detroit city officials to secure a lease for the property. The agreement brings a green space to what had been an urban blight site, while allowing for future devel-opment of the property.

Flowers and herbs at Lafayette Greens

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Design PhaseKenneth Weikal and Beth Hagenbuch of Kenneth Weikal Landscape Architecture (KWLA) began work-ing with Heeres in fall 2010 to design the garden on the Lafayette site. Preliminary discussions centered on an edible-garden concept, based on community and volunteer involvement.

This included conventional community garden ele-ments of raised beds, pathways and fencing. Heeres was also interested in providing opportunities for community art in the space.

Many children of Compuware employees attend the daycare program at the headquarters and would be visiting the garden with teachers and parents. A spe-cial place for children was an important part of the program.

When KWLA designers began looking at the oddly shaped, nearly ½-acre site, surrounded on three sides by busy urban streets and tall buildings, they realized the lot had the potential to be much more than simply a community garden.

“It’s a highly visible location” said Weikal, “and that puts it in a position to serve as focal point and edu-cational space, one that can expand the conversation about the urban food movement and its place in the city landscape.”

It’s a community garden that adds pleasure and out-door activity to the urban experience, said Weikal. “I think that productive gardens in highly public places have a great potential to bring together green space, public space, public health, community engagement and sustainability in a very powerful way.”

As design development progressed the program for Lafayette Greens evolved. The conversation grew to include the use of sustainable practices, relationships between the garden and its surrounding urban con-text, defining spaces for public use and enjoyment, and creating a rich educational and experiential chil-dren’s garden.


"The overall design of the garden was shaped by care-ful site analysis," said Weikal, "Our design team did seasonal sun-angle studies to make sure the raised vegetable beds are oriented for optimal sun exposure. In a city environment, shade can be a challenge when growing vegetables.”

It required both a fence for security and a welcome atmosphere of inclusion. The garden is bordered by streets and pedestrian traffic, so the fencing chosen for the project was strong, but nearly transparent to “invite” pedestrians into the space when walking by on the sidewalk.

Multi-use,Bio-sensitive site

“Situated adjacent to the recently restored Westin Book Cadillac Hotel, the Detroit Federal Building and the famous American and Lafayette Coney Island restaurants, there was activity and traffic in the area, but no outdoor place to sit, enjoy lunch in the sun, or pause to do a little people watching,” he said. Due to its unusual shape, the vacant Lafayette site re-quired pedestrians to go out of their way when pass-ing through the area. Consequently, people were cut-ting across the dirt-covered site. The promenade through the garden now carries peo-ple along this desired route, offering choices to

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move through quickly, linger on a bench, or enter and explore the garden. To encourage public use of the space, seating is provided throughout the site. Visibility of the garden from the surrounding build-ings and parking garages also led to consideration of the visual impact from above.

KWLA designers integrated sustainable practices and materials into the overall design. Impervious surfaces were kept to a minimum.

Drought-tolerant grass, gravel paths, the orchard, meadow and vegetable beds cover most of the site. Vegetable production takes place in bio-intensive raised beds with drip irrigation.

Stormwater is collected and slowed in the Dogwood bioswale along Michigan Avenue. A gabion curb filled with re-used broken concrete outlines the entire gar-den and is also used to construct the bioswale. Broken pieces of concrete sidewalk from the con-struction entrance are re-used as paving on site. The garden sheds are clad with recycled pallet wood, and planters in the children's garden are re-purposed 5- gallon juice barrels.

Vegetative RichnessThe layout of Lafayette Greens is a strong geometric statement clearly visible from above. The final design concept selected for the garden was titled ‘Urban Ge-ometry’, described as “a play on formal landscape de-sign and the rows of crops in Michigan’s rich agricul-tural heritage.


It brings a sense of ordered simplic-ity to a busy urban space through lines, circles and squares. Sym-metry and long linear raised-beds provide a structure of elegance and order to this urban garden.

The wide Promenade lined with lavender beds and benches, defines public space and passage through the garden, serving a functional re-lationship between the garden and

its urban location. Garden elements include an heir-loom apple orchard with a short orchard meadow below, a bioswale, the Lavender Promenade, a hardy kiwi trellis for shade, the Children's Garden, a terrace with umbrella tables and 2,000 square feet of raised vegetable beds.

Three whimsical garden sheds designed by KWLA serve as garden follies, as well as storing tools and sup-plies for the gardeners.

Interactive GardenThe most important aspect of the garden is its par-ticipatory nature. Overseen by Compuware Garden Manager Gwen Meyer, the garden is tended by Com-puware employees and volunteers from the entire community. Programmed by Heeres and Meyer, La-fayette Greens hosts seasonal events, art installations and offers a steady stream of ways to get involved with planting, harvesting, clean-up and cooking activities.

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Local master gardeners designed and cared for a sec-tion of the planting beds. The Children's Garden is an-other area where horticulture-inclined volunteers can express themselves.

Community involvement through artwork is an ongo-ing process at Lafayette Greens. "We're looking at it as a way to showcase more than just one or two artists," says Heeres.

The first project involves the window openings on the historic brick wall facing the garden. Colorful panels painted by the Detroit Mural Factory create the ap-pearance of a giant flower growing up through the building. Additional works of art will be added over time.

Last July, while the garden was still under construc-tion, kindergartners from the Compuware daycare walked to the garden and planted dozens of sunflow-ers. Just a few weeks later, they were able to visit the garden and see all the sunflowers in bloom and buzz-ing with bees.

Maintained and man-aged by its corporate sponsor, Lafayette Greens is a commu-nity garden in the way it provides an avenue of engagement for its own corporate com-munity, as well as in-viting in the public to observe, enjoy, learn and even get their hands in the soil.

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BROWNFIELD REDEVELOPMENT IN MICHIGANThe Forgotten Element of Community Planning

By Flo McCormack, Director of Special Projects, Michigan Association of Counties

The Forgotten Element of Community Planning

Communities could do a better job of revitalizing if they included brownfield redevelopment in their planning efforts. Master plans are not the only place brownfield redevelopment can appear. It can appear in any plan the community puts together. Commu-nities need to incorporate brownfield redevelopment elements into their various planning activities in a meaningful way to help ensure the plans are realistic.

Planners and analysts spend a great deal of time and resources on developing a wide range of plans to help shape the characteristics of the areas they cover. The negative legacies left behind from historic uses of properties are powerful influences that also shape how and where development occurs.

Brownfields Efforts to return underutilized or abandoned build-ings and property to productive use is a challenge for any community. These properties are the result of economic, regulatory and environmental issues that changed the way businesses operated. More and more properties sit idle or are abandoned because it wasn’t easy to change how we operated or to address the leg-

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The hardest hit areas in the United States resulting from these changes were clustered in the Midwest and the Northeast. These areas were the heart of the manufacturing industry from the late 1900s through the mid 20th century. Ultimately, these areas became known as the “rust belt” areas of the country.

They also became the “hole in the donut” as devel-opment moved further and further into the suburbs, rural communities and farmlands. Infrastructure de-mands increased and community services were taxed to the limit to accommodate this migration of busi-nesses and residents from the urban areas.

Regulatory Barriers

Existing regulations were a significant deterrent to re-development and did a lot to promote expansion into rural areas. Business owners who knew or suspected their properties were contaminated were an earlier version of “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

This approach often meant owners maintained the properties under their control, but left them to dete-riorate year after year and to become a blight on the community. Because of “joint and severable liability,” where past and present property owners were consid-ered liable and the nightmarish specter of the federal “Superfund” program descending on a business own-er for environmental damages that occurred before environmental regulations were created, it was far easier to locate or relocate businesses to what became known as a “greenfield.” A greenfield site is generally thought of as an area of agricultural or forest land, or some other undeveloped site that is earmarked for de-velopment – either residential, commercial or for in-dustrial projects. However, because of herbicides and pesticides that might be used in agricultural or com-mercial forestry, one cannot automatically assume that no contamination exists on the property. Agricultural and forest lands could already be “brownfield” sites due to residues left by application of chemicals com-monly used in these types of operations.

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Changing the Regulatory RegimeRecognizing the urgency of turning this tide of aban-donment, the U.S. Conference of Mayors worked with Congress and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to craft legislation that would help to revitalize many communities, create jobs, increase tax revenue and improve the environment. On January 11, 2002, President George W. Bush signed into law the Small Business Liability Relief and Brownfields Revitaliza-tion Act and the nation’s brownfield redevelopment program was born.

The law defined brownfields as “real property, the ex-pansion, redevelopment, or reuse of which may be complicated by the presence or potential presence of a hazardous substance, pollutant, or contaminant.”i The mere possibility that a property might be contaminat-ed was sufficient to often prevent its reuse.

While the definition of a brownfield site is pretty clear, most people often assume, incorrectly, that if a prop-erty is designated a brownfield site then it must be contaminated. While the perception that a property might be contaminated was often a sufficient barrier to redevelopment, it wasn’t until the new laws were promulgated that the tools became available to deter-mine if the perception was justified. Using the envi-ronmental assessment procedures recognized under state and federal regulations, landowners can prove a property is “clean” with no pollutants or contaminants that pose environmental or health risks.

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“We don’t have any brownfield sites”

While the brownfield program has now been around for quite some time, some communities still aren’t sure whether they have properties qualifying as brownfield sites. The initial focus of brownfield rede-velopment programs centered in the Michigan urban areas in Michigan but it quickly became apparent that every community in the state is likely to have a site that would qualify.

Just a few years ago, I visited a county to promote brownfield redevelopment efforts and, because they were a very rural county with lots of forestlands, they believed they didn’t have any brownfield sites. At that point in the conversation, I invited them to walk over to the windows in the room where we were meeting so that I could point out several brownfield sites visible from where we were standing.

Brownfield sites come in all sizes and shapes, from the corner dry cleaner or gas station to large manufactur-ing facilities. They even include properties that have been used for the illegal manufacture of drugs (e.g., meth labs) and mine scarred lands. Sometimes it is easy to recognize a property qualify-ing as a brownfield site, while at other times it’s much more difficult. But in either case, communities must do all they can to identify their brownfield properties and treat them as such in the planning process if they want to facilitate the development and preservation goals of the community.

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Michigan’s Brownfield Redevelopment Program

According to the Michigan Department of Environ-mental Quality, “Michigan brownfields are consid-ered properties that are contaminated, blighted or functionally obsolete. Brownfield sites can be found in cities with long histories of heavy industry and large-scale manufacturing activity and also in small towns and rural areas in Michigan.”ii

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In keeping with the efforts at the federal level to ad-dress barriers related to redevelopment of brownfield sites, the Michigan Legislature passed the Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act in September 1996. This statue authorized the creation of local brownfield redevelopment authorities and provided a number of financial incentives in an effort to level the field be-tween a brownfield site and a greenfield site.

The Legislature also changed Michigan law to protect new property owners from contamination they did not cause. To qualify for this protection, the new own-er or operator of a contaminated site must complete a Baseline Environmental Assessment using the federal standards for “All Appropriate Inquiry”iii within the timeframe allowed under the law.

Meeting the standards for “All Appropriate Inquiry” is pretty straightforward, easily completed by compe-tent environmental consultants. Often, they consist of the minimum investigation required by lending insti-tutions in the loan approval process

Michigan’s Brownfield Redevelopment Authorities The purpose of a local brownfield redevelopment au-thority is to review brownfield plans and redevelop-ment proposals and to help determine what financial incentives are available to assist the redevelopment. Brownfield redevelopment authorities can provide ac-cess to financial incentives from multiple taxing juris-dictions that help the community focus development in support of local master and other relevant plans.

Smaller communities that do not have the resources or expertise to establish their own brownfield au-thority can be included under a county or township brownfield authority. They can also join with other ju-risdictions to form a brownfield authority that covers several local units of government.

Redevelopment authorities can approve a brownfield plan for the purpose of brownfield tax increment fi-nancing on an eligible property. An eligible property is defined as a property that was or is used for com-mercial, industrial, public, or residential purposes. The property is eligible if it is: a “facility” (contami-nated site) as defined under Michigan’s law and was or is used for commercial, industrial or residential purposes. If the property is in a Qualified Local Gov-ernmental Unit or owned by a land bank authority, an eligible property can also be one that is functionally obsolete, or blighted.iv

If a county or multi-jurisdictional brownfield author-ity is considering approval of a brownfield plan that includes tax capture, the local unit of government im-pacted by the tax capture must also approve the plan.

All incremental property taxes that come from the in-creased value of an eligible property, including taxes levied for school operating purposes can be captured. The schools must be notified, but are held harmless through the state education fund.

Captured taxes can be used to pay for activities re-lated to assessing and mitigating contamination on a property, reasonable costs of environmental insur-ance and for the costs associated with development of the brownfield and cleanup plans.

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Communities that want to use brownfield tax incre-ment financing should consider whether they want to collect all eligible taxes, or limit tax collection to only local taxes. They should also consider what ac-tivities will be reimbursed under the brownfield plan through brownfield tax increment financing.

The decision is an important one because it will deter-mine the number of approvals needed. For example, the Michigan Department of Environmental Qual-ity (MDEQ) must approve plans that include lead or asbestos abatement as part of a necessary response activity. The Michigan Economic Growth Authority must approve the plan if the property is contaminat-ed, blighted or functionally obsolete and demolition is proposed but not necessary for cleanup of contami-nation.

An authority proposing to approve a brownfield plan and use school taxes to pay for cleanup activities will also require MDEQ approval for tax capture. Careful consideration of eligible activities, tax capture and ap-provals needed should begin as early as possible in the planning process to guide redevelopment. Properties owned by a land bank authority in Michi-gan are also eligible for all of the incentives for rede-velopment of a brownfield site. Michigan counties and the city of Detroit are authorized to transfer tax reverted properties to their established land bank au-thority.

This authority has greater latitude in property dispo-sition and can work closely with a local brownfield redevelopment authority to maximize incentives for redevelopment. The land bank authority, through an approved brownfield redevelopment plan, can also apply brownfield tax increment financing to infra-structure improvements (e.g., sidewalks, streets and roads, parking facilities, bridges, sewers and treat-ment plants, utilities, demolition, site preparation, and more.)

Comprehensive Community Planning

Communities must include hindsight and foresight in planning efforts. Knowing how a property has been used in the past and how that use might affect its reuse is essential to successful redevelopment.

Addressing brownfield issues that seem to be in con-flict with community plans will enable a community to identify and establish strategies that resolve the conflicts. Brownfield sites, whether they are contami-nated or not, can be considered for all of the uses typi-cally covered by the community planning process.

iPublic Law 107-118 (H.R. 2869) - "Small Business Liability Re-lief and Brownfields Revitalization Act" signed into law January 11, 2002. http://epa.gov/brownfields/overview/glossary.htm

iiMichigan Department of Environmental Quality, Land Re-development, http://www.michigan.gov/deq/0,1607,7-135-3311_4110---,00.html

iiiMichigan Department of Environmental Quality, Part 201 Cit-izen’s Guide, Baseline Environmental Assessments, also 40 CRF 312, or the American society for Testing Methods (ASTM) Phase I Environmental Assessment process [1527-05].

iv“Qualified local governmental unit” means either a county or a city, village, or township that contains an eligible distressed areas as defined under the state housing development authority act of 1966, 1966 PA 346, MCL 125.1411.

Flo has been with the Michigan Association of Coun-ties (MAC) since 2005. Prior to that time she was in the private sector as an environmental consultant and MAC was one of her clients. The association asked her to help identify ways in which the association could bring more value to its members. After designing a Grant Services Program, she was asked to join MAC as the program director. Before that, she worked in the public sector as the Environmental Administra-tor for Wayne County managing several grant and permitting programs. She also worked for the State of Michigan in the Departments of Commerce, Natural Resources, Environmental Quality and as central staff to the Michigan Legislature. She has Bachelor and Masters Degrees from the University of Michigan.

About the Writer

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Restorative Development RegulationsBy Kaizer Rangwala, AICP, CEcD, CNU-A

Sustainability is a low standard. Storm Cunningham in his book ReWealth says we should restore. He ex-plains this with an example: if you ask someone about their marriage and they tell you it is “sustainable” -- you are likely to feel sorry for the person. Instead, if the answer were the marriage is restoring and revital-izing daily -- that is a step in the right direction.i

Sustainability is a start, but we have a long way ahead if we are going the restore the human habitat. The good news is that restoring places will create meaningful jobs, revenues for public sector, healthy economy and sense of civilized purpose. Conscientious corpora-tions and government at all levels are interested in incorporating the latest green and sustainable inno-vation. Cities and counties are looking to incorporate sustainability features in their development are lean-ing on technological innovation. Steve Mouzon calls this “gizmo green” which is an attempt to green at the edges where they are most visible, without making adjustments to the core structural inefficiencies.ii

The focus of this article is to discuss the seldom talked about but inherent restorative and conserva-tion benefits of contextual urbanism and the regula-tory framework needed to deliver urbanism.

Linear vs Looped

The Industrial revolution was a major turning point in our connection with nature. The efficient assem-bly line system flowed energy and resources through the urban system with less regard for their origin and even lesser regard for the destination of the wastes. Fossils and raw materials are extracted, processed into consumer products and the wastes and gases are discharged into landfill and the atmosphere, where it can no longer be reused. This linear system consumes more resources and produces waste and pollution at much higher rates. The linear machine aesthetic has also affected our buildings and cities.

We have overbuilt and strip mined the arable land with sprawling subdivisions, office parks, commercial strips, and shopping malls. In the wake of fiscal, cli-mate, and energy crises, none of these development patterns are doing well. Much of what we have built cannot be sustained or recycled -- their future at best is suspect. The current development pattern is not vi-able because it has created misallocation of resources, inequities, and an uncaring populace that is destroy-ing the very nature that makes our existence possible. The sprawling single use subdivisions, zoning separa-tion, and professional specializations have fragment-ed the complex interrelated aspects of urbanism. The different parts of urbanism that worked together in harmony, when separated have begun to fail in disso-nance. The Modernists stripped architectural details that were intended to provide human interest and scale to our buildings. The International Style freed the buildings from local design and building tradi-tions. Our inability to design neighborhoods and buildings that can relate with humans and nature has resulted in a public mistrust towards any growth.

Nature operates in a circular closed-looped metabo-lism, where there is no waste. Every output is also an input which replenishes the whole system. The circu-lar metabolism reduces consumption and pollution encourages recycling and maximizes renewables. To meet the growing needs of an increasingly urban and developed world, we will need to study the ecology of natural systems and evolve from the linear to a cir-cular metabolic system in our planning, coding, and building efforts. Our economy, cities, and buildings will need to shift from consumption to conservation where we make fewer resources last longer.

Urbanism

At 49%, buildings consume a large percentage of en-ergy and are responsible for 47% of carbon emissions. The transportation sector consumes 28% of energy and emits 33% of carbon emissions.iii Efficient build-ings within compact, diverse, and connected commu-nities encourage walking, biking and transit use, re-ducing energy consumption, trips and air pollution.

Restorative Development Regulations

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People who live in walkable communities are more physically active and healthy. They live in smaller spaces because the outdoor public realm is rich. They also consume less and produce less trash. Urbanism creates identity and preserves natural resources.

A UC Berkeley report by Joanna Malaczynski con-cludes that urbanism in Central Hercules over the next 30 year period will reduce daily VMT by 25 miles saving consumers nearly half a billion dollars in gaso-line.iv Peter Calthorpe in his book Urbanism and Cli-mate Change compares a 30% energy savings from a green home in sprawl to a townhome in a village that will conserve 58% less energy and a condo in the city will save 73% energy savings. “Traditional urbanism, even without green technology, is better than green sprawl,” says Calthorpe.v

Development regulations need to be reexamined for their contributions to VMT and greenhouse gases. Particularly, the old zoning and subdivision tools created in response to a linear, consumption driven industrialized society will need to be replaced with a comprehensive framework that will balance the time-tested principles of urbanism with the conservation technological innovations. Simply tagging on high performance buildings and infrastructure standards to a conventional zoning and subdivision platform misses out on the larger benefits of having a diverse population engaged in diverse activities within a walk-able and human scaled public environment shaped by buildings, streets and open spaces.

Why Form-Based Codes (FBCs)?FBCs offer a comprehensive and integrated frame-work that combines the individual elements of urban-ism — the buildings, streets, and open space — into a cohesive and memorable place. The full spectrum of land-use standards such as planning, zoning, sub-division, public works, and safety standards operate in unison, rather than allowing these systems to clash with one another. FBCs operate at different locations, scales and intensities of urbanism, allowing a seam-less framework to integrate transportation choices that will reduce trips and preserve the region’s envi-ronment.

The conventional zoning codes proscribe develop-ment standards. There is no lack of effort in calling out all the things that the codes should not allow. What conventional zoning codes fail to do is to pre-scribe what should be allowed. Because the standards are abstract and vague they fail to conceptualize and inspire the sum of individual projects to add up to a desirable place.

On the other hand, sustainability like form-based codes is based on a specific vision of the local place. FBCs begin by obsessively observing the place: what works and what feels right for the climate zone, re-gionally available materials, construction techniques, local culture, and traditions. Traditional building de-signs are durable and they age well -- usually conserve energy because they show respect to sun, wind, and local climate. Simple traditional building design fea-tures such as party wall separation, well-positioned and operable windows and high ceilings offer better solar, lighting and ventilation than solar cells, ener-gyefficient bulbs or air conditioning devices. The time tested preferences of traditional architecture com-bined with urbanism increase our chances of conserv-ing energy, materials, and money and consistently delivers what Mouzon calls “lovable places.”

Restore with Nature If a marriage is not sustainable, divorce is an option. Our fate cannot be separated from this planet. We have to make the difficult choices and repair our bond with nature. Our affair with the resource and pollu-tion heavy linear based society must end. As stewards of the built and natural environments, planners must be the first to require resources to operate within a closed loop system.

Given good information and a choice, most commu-nities embrace urbanism which is inherently sustain-able. And such design will decrease VMT and CO2 emissions and increase individual physical activity and health. FBCs regulate high quality walkable ur-banism but are also an inherently effective way to in-tegrate sustainability features based on type and char-acter of the community. Form-Based Codes (FBCs)

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iiMouzon Stephen, The Original Green, UNlocking the Mystery of True Sustainability, The Guild Foun-dation Press, Miami, 2010. iiiArchitecture 2030, www.architecture2030.org. ivParolek Dan, et al, FBCI Webinar on Integrating More Sustainable Design Into Fom-Based Codes. vCalthorpe Peter, Urbanism in the Age of Climate, Island Press, 2010.

produce high quality compact, mixed-use, and walk-able urbanism that use less resources and generates fewer VMT and greenhouse gases.

iCunningham Storm, ReWealth: Stake Your Claim in the $2 Trillion Development Trend That’s Renewing the World, McGraw-Hill, 2008.

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In Flagstaff, AZ, the rural to urban transect provides a regional framework to contextually incorporate high pre-formance building and infrastructure solutions within a range of settlement types. The solar acces overlay on the regulating plan examines and adopts a palate of appropriate approaches to harness solar energy. Hydrology is calibrated to the differnt areas of transect: surface infiltration with vegetative swales in T1-T3 and subsurface urban channels in T4-T6. Rainwater harvesting and wastewater is collected in rain barels in T2-T3 and cisterns in T3-T4.

Alternative Energy for Economic Development

IntroductionPlaces both urban and rural are working to imple-ment green energy technologies to stimulate eco-nomic development. The construction of alternative energy facilities are on the rise, and as more of these green power generators are built and operated, plan-ners and economic development professionals have the opportunity to learn from those existing facilities. This paper will investigate six case studies wherein green energy facilities have stimulated local and re-gional economic growth. Here we will investigate spe-cific cases where communities have invested in bio-mass, hydroelectric, and solar inputs to lower energy costs and provide residents with renewable energy, and where businesses have converted to alternative energies to lower production costs and lower market clearing price. The focus of this paper will be to glean best practices from successful cases so that communi-ties across the nation can gain a deeper understand-ing of the key considerations and steps necessary in selecting the appropriate green energy facilities. This paper will look to these case studies to investigate how communities can capitalize on locational advantages and specific strategies to foster economic develop-ment through the use of green energy.

Economic developers can use these case studies to understand the level of public and private coopera-tion that is possible to address alternative energy con-cerns. Of course, unless the economic development community can put environmental goals into eco-nomic terms that can be monetized and analyzed in cost savings for companies and communities, many environmental sustainability projects will not be car-ried to fruition. It is the responsibility of economic developers to be able to communicate to public and private sector clients how undertaking specific alter-native energy initiatives will result in tangible and long term economic benefits. The case studies includ-ed here are intended to illustrate how economic de-velopers can assess and communicate the cost savings and economic benefits to businesses seeking to

increase their profit margins, and places interested in utilizing their locational assets, marketing their place as amiable to alternative energy, and attract firms.

This paper has been authored by Alison Bates of Camoin Associates and Advanced Energy Economics. For an electronic copy of this and other white papers from Camoin Associates and Advanced Energy Eco-nomics go to www.camoinassociates.com and www.advancedenergyeconomics.com

Biomass FacilitiesBiomass facilities use “materials--such as wood, lawn and garden clippings, agricultural waste, leaves, tree pruning as well as non-recyclable paper--to produce heat or electricity”i . The raw organic materials that are the inputs for biomass typically come from the waste of other processes such as the output from wood and lumber processing, or from naturally overabundant materials such as leaves and corn stalks. “Biomass is currently the largest domestic source of renewable en-ergy providing 2.8% of total U.S. energy consumption. Wood is the largest feedstock accounting for 70% of U.S. biomass consumption for energy”ii . This percent-age of U.S energy share is projected to grow, and the U.S Energy Information Administration estimates that biomass will comprise 54% of all renewable en-ergy usage by 2030iii . The opportunities for commu-nities to use biomass energy are high, provided those communities are within close proximity to dense or-ganic inputs with the capacity to diversify their inputs, have access to transportation networks to bring the requisite tonnage daily, have sufficient storage capac-ity, and benefit from supporting policies such as pro-ducer credits and receptive host communities.

Middlebury College – VermontIn 2009, the private institution of Middlebury College in Vermont installed a biomass gasification facility on campus iv. The $12 million dollar biomass plant is a signature part of the college’s commitment to becom-ing carbon neutral by 2016. “As of December, 2009, the plant has successfully and reliably provided the College with heat from woodchips through a broker,

Alternative Energy for Economic DevelopmentImplementation of Biomass, Hydro and Solar Power

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Cousineau Forest Products”v. The College’s inten-tion is for the plant is to become the primary heating and cooling source. The plant runs on wood pellets that are harvested within 75 miles of the college. The addition of the biomass plant is expected to cut the school’s carbon dioxide emissions by 40% (12,500 metric tons). In order to achieve this reduction, the plant requires 20-35 tons of wood chips to be shipped into campus each day. The existing contract with Cousineau Forest Products specifies that the campus will be supplied with 20,000 tons of wood inputs per year. As of now however, there are no procurement standards outlined in this agreement, and the school is working to devise standards that are socially, en-vironmentally and economically sustainable. The in-clusion of such procurement standards will likely in-crease the cost of inputs, however this increase will be however, this increase will be mitigated by the cost savings from reduced oil consumptionvi. The majority of these wood chips are waste produced as a byprod-uct of nearby logging and milling operations.

The facility is the largest investment to date made by the university to reduce emissions. The concept was supported by an independent feasibility study which showed the long term savings that would be generated by the plant. “At $1.50 a gallon for #6 oil and $37/ton for woodchips the internal rate of return is 8.75% and the payback period is approximately 12 years”vii. As the price of oil increases, the cost savings of biomass increases. Switching to biomass from oil is expected to save the College approximately $840,000 each year in heating and cooling costs. Each year, this savings figure is projected to increase by 3%. Addi-tional regional economic benefits include the infu-sion of capital into the local economy through the purchase of waste wood chips, and the job creation associated with collecting, processing, and transport-ing those chips to the campus. The effects together are expected to inject $800,000 into the local economy each year viii.

Middlebury is able to undertake such a project with the support of private university funds and because of the school’s proximity to lumber and wood processing facilities. Indeed The locational assets of dense forests are central to the success of the biomass facility ix.

While this example is of a college that took the initia-tive to build such a facility, municipalities and corpo-rate entities can also utilize waste from nearby wood processing operations to create and sustain biomass facilities. These facilities are well suited for areas such as the northeast, the Midwest, and the Pacific North-west. The Middlebury project helped pave the way for other projects. Colby College in Waterville Maine is currently in the construction phase of a similar bio-mass facilityx. The creation of energy from biomass is a ‘weight-losing’ process; where the cost of transport-ing the raw materials to process into energy is greater than the cost of distributing the final product. Moving tons of wood and wood products to become energy necessitates a close, dense supply of organic materials. Transporting raw materials from far outside an area will decrease the potential to reach market clearing price, and so this energy source is best suited to loca-tions that can capitalize on either naturally occurring raw materials, or a consistent output of organic waste materials.

Sierra Pacific Industries - Washington

Biomass facilities are also a useful tool for local manu-facturers to cooperate with other area businesses and local energy authorities to share and recycle waste for fuel. This symbiosis decreases energy costs for manu-facturers, provides sustainable energy to local resi-dents, creates eco-industrial linkages, while also re-ducing land fill waste. One such example is the Sierra Pacific Industries facility in Aberdeen, Washington. Sierra Pacific is a functioning sawmill that now has an 18-megawatt power plant on site and transmission lines that pump energy to local consumers through the use of wood byproducts. The mill has been op-erational since 2003 and is now one of the primary suppliers to the Grays Harbor Utility District. The plant has long been using sawdust and left over wood to power its own operations, but now the plant has enough of this energy to sell back to the regional pow-er authority.


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The current agreement with the Grays Harbor Public Utility District (PUD) mandates that the mill supply the area with a minimum of 5 MWh of power each year for the next 12 yearsxi. This steady supply of al-ternative energy allows the PUD to fulfill its state legislative requirement of procuring a percentage of renewable energy each year. “While the deal calls for 5 megawatts initially, at a cost of $56.33 a mega-watt, the PUD eventually plans to purchase up to 15 megawatts of generating capacity in the future, or enough power to supply more than 15,000 homes”xii. The plant consumes roughly 80,000 pounds of waste wood remnants each hour. All of this electricity is be-ing produced from materials that previously were col-lected and sent to landfills. The recycling of this waste into energy also satisfies local green energy procure-ment standards which mandate that a percentage of energy be provided by alternative sources. Using such a local source reduces the PUD’s cost of acquiring al-ternative energy from farther away locations, which would increase transport and transmission costs and thereby reduce market clearing price. The partnership between Sierra Pacific and the Grays Harbor PUDS “cuts the PUD's capital costs to acquire green power elsewhere, such as what Lovely said is the estimated $77 million it ultimately would have cost the dis-trict for the proposed Radar Ridge wind energy pro-ject currently under environmental review in Pacific County”xiii.

Sierra Pacific Industries is an example of a function-ing eco-industrial facility that utilizes green energy practices within their day to day operations, and also engages in practices that provide renewable energy to the local population. The amount of savings depends upon the energy that can be generated on site and sold to the surrounding area, as well as depends upon global oil prices. This symbiosis decreases energy costs for manufacturers, provides sustainable energy to local residents and creates eco-industrial linkages.

Hydropower Facilities

Hydropower facilities are a sustainable and cost effec-tive way to provide electric power to local popula

tions. Capturing energy from falling water produces-virtually no carbon emissionsxiv. No solid waste is generated, and there is no risk of toxic spillage or con-tamination. The cost of maintaining these facilities is generally low after the initial cost of construction and, as the following examples will show, there is a great opportunity to convert the nation’s 80,000 existing dams into hydroelectric generation sites. The estab-lishment or conversion of a hydroelectric dam is in itself an economic development investment because “hydropower is one of the least expensive sources of electricity and areas with good sources of hydro-power tend to attract industries with large needs for electricity”xv. The spin-off effects of establishing hydroelectric facilities suggest that this alternative energy source has the capacity to attract large scale manufacturing establishments into close proximity of the facility and has the potential for substantial job creation at hydroelectric generator sites.

Ohio River - Ohio, Kentucky, Michigan, Virginia, West Virginia

American Municipal Powerxvi (AMP) is constructing one of the nation’s largest hydropower generating fa-cilities with five stations along the Ohio River. These sites will convert existing dams into alternative en-ergy facilities that will provide the local region with an abundant supply of affordable energy. The facilities are slated to go online in 2013 and will cost a total of $416 million dollarsxvii. The benefits of the hydro dams will be far reaching and power from “the [project] will eventually be sold to municipal electric systems in 79 communities in Kentucky, Ohio, Michigan, Virginia and West Virginia”xviii. When all five dams along the Ohio have been converted to functioning hydroelec-tric generators, the facilities will reduce carbon emis-sions by 2 million metric tons and “will supply more than 350-megawatts of renewable energy into the region”xix each year.

Job creation resulting from this large scale project will occur in three areas; 1) temporary construction jobs, 2) permanent facility operating jobs, and 3) regional


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regional manufacturing jobs. Each of the project sites will create between 200 and 400 temporary construc-tion jobs and there will be approximately 10-12 per-manent employees operating each of the plantsxx. Voith Siemens Hydro is now under contract with AMP to manufacture turbine components locally in York, Pennsylvania and is exploring the feasibility of opening additional manufacturing operations in Ohio. The order intake for Voith Siemens Hydro re-sulting from this project is expected to be $300 mil-lion dollars , and is expected to have additional in-direct job creation impacts on the regional economy by creating new demand for suppliers and tertiary industries.

The AMP dams are an example of a large scale hydro project that is possible due to cooperation between federal, state, and municipal entities, and due to the abundance of water and the ability to capitalize on an existing lock system. Capturing energy from wa-ter that is already falling at height differentials along the Ohio River significantly lowers the upfront costs and makes hydropower economically feasible. The potential for other communities to similarly tap into existing dams, whether they are on large rivers or on small tributaries, is substantial. Currently, “just 3 per-cent of the nation’s more than 82,000 dams generate electricity”xxii. One barrier to implementing hydro power from existing dams is the cost of conversion. Secured Clean Renewable Energy Bonds (CREBs) are one way to reduce the upfront costs of implementa-tion. The Ohio River project has received a total of $22.6 million in CREBs to datexxiii. Federal, state, and municipal cooperation is imperative in the estab-lishment of large scale hydroelectric facilities because these projects often directly impact many states simul-taneously. As is the case with the Ohio River, the river itself is the border between the five states benefitting from the generated power. Cooperative policies and inter-governmental support to revitalize these exist-ing dams is central to the success of such a large scale alternative energy project.

Boulder Micro-Hydro Colorado

Creating large dams can negatively affect the local ecosystem and thus oftentimes big dams are met with significant public opposition. However, hydropower generation does not need to exist solely on the scale of the Ohio River project. ‘Micro-hydro’ facilities can be important to smaller rural communities and can be used to promote economic development. Beginning in 1985, Boulder Colorado installed eight hydroelec-tric generators in the city’s municipal water system. The power capacity of all eight generators combined is roughly 20.1 MWhxxiv, enough to power 7,500 home-sxxv or roughly 11 percent of the electricity needed by the city’s 96,000 residents”xxvi. The installation and up-front investment costs totaled approximately $12 million and, as of 2009, the City is deriving revenue of $20.2 million dollarsxxvii from the generators. Once generated, the hydropower is sold to the private Xcel Company. The City is benefiting from this alternative energy investment both financially and environmen-tally. “Boulder’s hydropower project is estimated to have displaced the need to burn 170,000 tons of coal since the first generator went online”xxviii.

Recently the City of Boulder received $1.18 million dollars in Federal Recovery and Reinvestment Funds. These funds were added to $4 million of the City’s money to renovate one of the generators; an invest-ment anticipated to generate $8 million dollars of electricity over its lifespanxxix. In addition to the prof-its derived from electricity generation, the Boulder fa-cilities also create project development, deployment, operations and maintenance jobs.

The Boulder micro-hydro case study highlights two issues facing all communities that utilize alternative energy through cooperation with private companies to deliver the generated electricity. Firstly, the issue of who should receive the Renewable Energy Credits from the federal government must be mutually agreed upon. In this instance, the City of Boulder received 50% of the credits, and the Xcel Company receives 50%. This arrangement was agreed upon after a


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a lengthy debate and costly litigation and negotiations are underway for a new contract between the City and Xcel. “Xcel has indicated they are unwilling to con-tinue the current contract status of 50% city/ 50% Xcel ownership of the RECs”xxx. Secondly, the project was not successful at creating local manufacturing jobs. Currently, most of the infrastructure comes from China, Spain and England, and while Boulder sought to purchase domestic equipment, the supply of such was insufficient. Without capitalizing on the manu-facturing job potential, these facilities are not creating as many permanent jobs as they could. This current reality must be included in a community’s decision to either build or renovate small scale hydro facilities.

Solar Power FacilitiesHarnessing energy from sunlight comes in two main forms: direct and indirect. Direct solar energy con-version uses panels, or PhotoVoltaic Arrays (PV’s), which are then mounted on the ground, or to building based supports. Indirect solar energy conversion uses Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) lenses or mirrors to track the sun’s energy and to concentrate rays into a high intensity beam. CSP functions in a way similar to using a magnifying glass to concentrate solar en-ergy. The concentrated energy is then used as a heat source in a conventional power facility. CSP must cap-ture large quantities of the suns energy, and are thus limited to warmer climates such as the southwestern U.S. Primary barriers to solar energy implementation are generation and transmission costs, and innate re-gional differences that preclude solar from being a viable option in areas of the country. Solar power, in theory, has the capacity to provide a significant share of the U.S energy demand. “Although solar intensity varies across the nation, the land-based solar resource provides a yearly average of more than 5 × 1022 J (13.9 million TWh) and thus exceeds, by several thousand-fold, present annual U.S. electrical energy demand, which totals 1.4 × 1019 J (~4,000 TWh). Hence, at even modest conversion efficiency, solar energy is ca-pable, in principle, of providing enormous amounts of electricity without stress to the resource base”xxxi. There is great potential to attach PV panels directly

to residential and commercial rooftops to generate energy. “Estimates of the rooftop area suitable for in-stallation of PV systems have been performed state-by-state forthe whole United States”xxxii. The results show that 22% of all residential rooftops, and 65% of all commercial rooftops could support PV panelsxxxiii.

Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System

California Plans are underway between Brightsource Energy Inc, a California based solar thermal power plant develop-er, and the California Energy Commission to site the world’s largest CSP facility in the Mojave Desert. The Ivanpah Solar Energy Generating System (ISEGS) will consist of three separate plants generating a combined 392 MW of electricity. The U.S Department of Energy has conditionally committed $1.37 billion to the pro-ject in the form of a conditional loan. The existence of ISEGS alone will double the solar electricity output of the United Statesxxxiv.

This large scale project will have profound economic development impacts upon the local area. Short-term construction labor jobs are estimated to surpass 1,000 workers. In the long-term, employment at the mas-sive plant will generate over $650 million dollars in earnings over the next thirty years of operationxxxv, and the project is estimated to generate $8.2 million dollars in tax revenue for the County each yearxxxvi. In an effort to reduce land consumption, ISEGS will use a unique design wherein solar panels are mounted to poles that extend vertically rather than rest the pan-els horizontally on concrete slabs on the ground. The completed project will cover approximately 5.3 miles of desert landxxxvii. Using desert land is economically advantageous in the sense that opportunity costs for these areas are generally low. Additionally, solar facili-ties typically require less land to generate electricity than do hydroelectric facilities or coal plants. Lower land use conflicts adds to the viability of solar energy as an economic alternative. However, it is important to note that dessert lands are often times protected


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from development, as is much of the eastern Mojave, and so conservation policy conflicts may arise in the siting of CSP stationsxxxviii. Additionally, transmission stations must be sited to distribute the captured en-ergy effectively.

Once captured, the energy would be converted into electricity that would be transmitted through the Southern California Grid through a series of grid up-grades. The electricity would then be sold to area resi-dents through both Pacific Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. Current estimates ap-proximate that the generated electricity would power 140,000 area homesxxxix. Another interesting feature of ISEGS is that the plant will operate a closed loop water recycling system to reduce water consumption by 95% that of other solar thermal facilities . This tech-nology is incredibly important to the viability of CSP solar facilities as places with high concentrations of solar energy area likely to be those without access to high quantities of water. Recycling water throughout the operations of the plant will greatly reduce input costs and reduce the market clearing price.

ISEGS is possible primarily due to the area’s natural assets of direct sunlight, ample space, and also due to substantial federal support. Without the $1.37 bil-lion dollars from the U.S Department of Energy, this project would not likely be seen through to fruition. As mentioned above, the areas of the country that are suited for CSP solar energy are limited. To implement this technology, an area must have abundant direct sunlight in an area large enough to place large panels. If this is a remote area, transmission infrastructure is necessary, and upgrades to the existing power grid would be mandated to process the new energy input. Not every place in the country interested in CSP needs to create a structure on the scale of Ivanpah, how-ever, there are lessons that areas need to glean from the practices of this facility. Access to potable water is important, but Ivanpah shows there are technologies available to reduce water consumption, which has the long term economic benefit of lowering input costs. For the areas of the country for which this is a good fit, CSP can provide substantial economic benefits in terms of lower energy costs, tax revenue, and job crea-tion to the community receiving the generated energy.

Tori Richard – HawaiiClothing manufacturer Tori Richard is the first do-mestic manufacturing facility to use solar PV panels to generate nearly all of its electricity. The Honolulu-based clothing manufacturer installed 676 PV panels onto its roof in 2008xli. The upfront investment for the installation was $1.1 million dollars, and the panels now provide the facility with 94% of its requisite elec-tricityxlii. The solar panels combined have a capacity of 154 kWh. When compared with the company’s electricity needs, generating energy from solar panels will reduce overhead costs by $84,000 per yearxliii. The monthly electric bill now goes mostly to Hawaiian Electric Co. who runs the PV driven generation. The company candidly shares that their motivation for seeking alternative energy was economically driven, and that the conversion process was meticulously de-signed to have a marked return on investment. “Each phase of the project had at least a three-year ROI”xliv.

Tori Richard was able to make this conversion due to heavy state and federal tax incentives for solar instal-lation. These subsidies allowed the company to un-dertake a three phased system of energy upgrades, the final stage being the installation of the solar pan-els. Before adding the panels, the company replaced all lighting, and did everything they could to reduce their overall electricity usage. This electricity reduc-tion would allow solar to provide a larger share of the company’s total usage. “PV should always be the last phase, because you want to minimize the size of the PV system and you do that by lowering your usage”xlv. Additionally, the company was able to finance the project by leasing the system from the Bank of Ha-waii, where the green energy incentive credits were included in the capitalized lease costxlvi. This strategy allowed the company to avoid the up-front financial burden.

This conversion to solar energy created both tem-porary installation jobs and the opportunity for the company to create permanent jobs by utilizing capital formerly spent on energy. When commercial entities decrease their input costs, they free up dollars that can be used to hire new workers, and of course these new employees create lasting economic benefits to the


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area economy. Also, from a municipal, regional, or even state perspective, assisting a company in such a large scale upgrade that provides notable cost sav-ings further ‘roots’ that company in the area, helping ensure that the company does not leave in search of cheaper land or alluring tax incentives. Since many companies are ‘foot-loose,’ that is, can viably exist al-most anywhere, practices that make it more attractive to remain in place, and that promote business reten-tion and expansion are vital to local economies. The upfront costs of providing solar installation incentives have a long term public financial benefit of incentiviz-ing manufacturing facilities to remain in the building outfitted with solar panels. In the event that the com-pany does relocate, filling the now vacant building will be easier due to the built in lower energy costs.

All of the aforementioned case studies are intended to help professionals understand the potential for using alternative energies as a driver of economic develop-ment. If paired with the right geographical location, and by bringing the proper public and private institu-tions on board, alternative energy usage in the U.S. can be viewed not only as an environmentally sound technology, but as a financially advantageous devel-opment. For alternative energies, place matters in a very substantive way, and so the assets and opportuni-ties for each location must be measured alongside the proper alternative energy. The greatest return on in-vestment will come when placed-based solutions that involve businesses, local colleges and universities, and government interact with one another to bring sus-tainable innovation to communities through the use of alternative energies.

___________________ i Cal Recycle. Biomass Diversion Credit. http://www.calrecycle.ca.gov/lgcentral/basics/Biomass.htm. Last accessed 10/25/2010. iiGovernment Economic Development Initiatives for BioMass Power Projects. 2007 Fredrikson and Byron, P.A. http://www.fredlaw.com/bios/attorneys/taylortodd/BioMass.pdf. Last ac-cessed 10/26/2010. iiiIbid.

iv “Biomass gasification is the process by which low-value bio-material, such as corn stalks or cotton gin trash, is partially com-busted in the absence of air to produce carbon monoxide (CO) and hydrogen (H). The gases extracted from the biomaterial are often called producer gas, low BTU gas, or synfuel. This gas can, in turn, be fed into a gas turbine to produce electricity” Utiliz-ing Agricultural BioMass in Energy: Production and Economic Development. Clifford, Fedle B.; Hanson, Jeffrey L.; Bervides, Mario; Simonton, James; Lyford, Conrad. Texas Tech University. December 2008. P. 29. vBiomass Procurement at Middlebury College: Assessments and Recommendations. Environmental Studies Senior Seminar. Fall 2009. P. 1. viA report by the college’s environmental science department states that since “the switch from oil to biomass has generated significant savings for the College, we propose that the College could afford a more expensive, but more sustainable biomass chip.” Biomass Procurement at Middlebury College: Assess-ments and Recommendations. Environmental Studies Senior Seminar. Fall 2009. P. 2. viiMiddlebury.com Sustainability. http://www.middlebury.edu/sustainability/energy-climate/biomass/faq. Last accessed 10/26/2010. viii Ibid. ixMore than 78% of Vermont is forested. Biomass Procurement at Middlebury College: Assessments and Recommendations. Environmental Studies Senior Seminar. Fall 2009. P. 5. xhttp://www.colby.edu/news_events/press_release/biomasscon-struct.cfm xiAberdeen Lumber Mill Supplies Biomass Electricity: From a Distance, the Sierra Pacific Industries Sawmill Looks Like Any Other Large Forest Manufacturing Operation. Bruscas, Angelo. August 4, 2010. The Seattle Times. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012530987_apwabiomasslumbermill-1stldwritethru.html. Last accessed 10/25/2010. xiiIbid. xiiiIbid. xivWater Energy FAQ. LennTech: Water Treatment Solutions. http://lenntech.com/water-energy-FAQ.html. Last accessed No-vember 4, 2010. xvRenewable Energy Sources in the United States. NationalAt-las.gov. http://www.nationalatlas.gov/articles/people/a_energy.html#one. Last accessed November 4, 2010. xvi“AMP is the nonprofit wholesale power supplier and services provider to 129 member municipal electric systems in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and West Virginia”. Project Development: From Concept to Construction: Steps to Developing a Hydro Project. Meier, Phil; Blaszczyk, Paul; Har-ris, Craig; and Gilbert, Kirby. Hydroworld.com. http://www.hydroworld.com/index/display/article-display/1449359119/arti-cles/hydro-review/volume-29/issue-3/articles/project-develop-ment.html. Last accessed November 3, 2010. xviiCannelton Locks and Dam: Power of Ohio River to be har-nessed to create green energy. Newton, Katie. U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers: Louisville District. http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/


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By Alison Bates

xviiiPowerhouse Construction to Begin on Hydroelectric Plant. IstockAnalyst. August 29, 2010. http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4449437. Last accessed 11/1/2010. xixCannelton Locks and Dam: Power of Ohio River to be har-nessed to create green energy. Newton, Katie. U.S. Army Corp. of Engineers: Louisville District. http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/diwms/news.asp?id=127. Last accessed November 3, 2010. xxPowerhouse Construction to Begin on Hydroelectric Plant. IstockAnalyst. August 29, 2010. http://www.istockanalyst.com/article/viewiStockNews/articleid/4449437. Last accessed 11/1/2010. xxiVoith Siemens Hydro Receives $300M Order for Ohio River Projects. June 24, 2010. SustainableBusiness.com. http://www.sustainablebusiness.com/index.cfm/go/news.display/id/16264. Last accessed November 3, 2010. xxiiAMP breaks ground on Ohio River hydro plant. August 7, 2010. Hydroworld.com. http://www.hydroworld.com/index/display/article-display/6453074438/articles/hrhrw/hydroindus-trynews/newdevelopment/amp-breaks_ground.html. Last ac-cessed November 3, 2010. xxiiiProject Development: Hydro Development: A New Day. Hy-droworld.com. http://www.hydroworld.com/index/display/arti-cle-display/361642/articles/hydro-review/volume-27/issue-2/feature-articles/project-development-hydro-development-a-new-day.html. Last accessed November 3, 2010. xxivHydroelectricity. City of Boulder Colorado. http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4994&Itemid=1189. Last accessed November 2, 2010. xxvIbid. xxviCase Study: The Benefits of Small Hydro in Boulder, Colo-rado. April 12th, 2009. ChelseGreen: The Politics and Practice of Sustainable Living. http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/case-study-the-benefits-of-small-hydro-in-boulder-colorado/. Last accessed November 2, 2010. xxviiHydroelectricity. City of Boulder Colorado. http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4994&Itemid=1189. Last accessed November 2, 2010. xxviiiCase Study: The Benefits of Small Hydro in Boulder, Colo-rado. April 12th, 2009. ChelseGreen: The Politics and Practice of Sustainable Living. http://www.chelseagreen.com/content/case-study-the-benefits-of-small-hydro-in-boulder-colorado/. Last accessed November 2, 2010. xxixHydroelectricity. City of Boulder Colorado. http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4994&Itemid=1189. Last accessed November 2, 2010. xxxBoulder’s Long-Term Energy Strategy, Renewable Energy Credits and the Xcel Franchise. Boulder City Council Study Session. April 13, 2010. http://www.bouldercolorado.gov/files/City%20Manager/other_cm-cc_communications/Energy_Fu-ture/Renewable_Energy_Credits.pdf. P.34. Last accessed No-vember 9, 2010.

xxxiElectricity from Renewable Sources: Status, Prospects, and Impediments. National Academy of Sciences, National Acad-emy of Engineering, National Research Council. National Acad-emies Press, Washington D.C. P. 4 xxxiiIbid. P. 49 xxxiiiIbid. xxxivClimate Progress. Brightsource To Build Largest Concen-trating Solar Power Plant. August 8, 2010. http://climatepro-gress.org/2010/08/08/brightsource-to-build-largest-concentrat-ing-solar-power-plant/. Last accessed December 12, 2010. xxxvIbid. xxxviBrightSource Energy Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Bureau of Land Management. http://www.blm.gov/pg-data/etc/medialib/blm/wo/MINERALS__REALTY__AND_RE-SOURCE_PROTECTION_/energy/solar_and_wind.Par.78074.File.dat/factIvanpahSEGS.pdf. Last accessed 12/10/10 xxxviiIvanpah Solar Electric Generating System. The California Energy Commission. http://www.energy.ca.gov/sitingcases/ivanpah/index.html. Last accessed 12/09/10. xxxviiiThe Ivanpah Solar Facility is sited in the Western Mojave. xxxixClimate Progress. Brightsource To Build Largest Concen-trating Solar Power Plant. August 8, 2010. http://climatepro-gress.org/2010/08/08/brightsource-to-build-largest-concentrat-ing-solar-power-plant/. Last accessed December 12, 2010. xlIvanpah Solar Electric Generating System. Brightsource En-ergy Co. http://ivanpahsolar.com/. Last accessed 12/9/10. xliSunetric Commercial Case Study: Tori Richard LTD. Sunet-ric. http://www.sunetric.com/_assets/Documents/ToriRichard.pdf. P.1. Last accessed 12/8/2010. xliiIbid. xliiiHawaii Business: SmallBiz Energy Makeover Going Green Results In Major Savings. Enay, Shara. http://www.hawaiibusi-ness.com/SmallBiz/October-2010/SmallBiz-Energy-Makeover/index.php?cparticle=2&siarticle=1. Last accessed 12/8/2010. xlivIbid. xlvIbid. xlviIbid.

About the WriterAlison Bates is an Economic Development Specialist with Camoin Associates, Inc. and Advanced Energy Economics; a Di-vision of Camoin Associates New York.

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Urban Planning and Economic Development News Magazine

“Morning sunrise at North Hoyle (2 of 2)” contributed by profes-sional photographer Aaron Crowe, of Denbighshire, UK. The photo is of the North Hoyle off shore wind farm, Liverpool Bay, Irish sea.To view more of Aaron Crowes work or to contact Arron, write to:[email protected]

“Parking Day Bogota-unfolded” and other works used provded by Carlos F Pardo. Carols is a phogotapher from Bogota Columbia. You can view more of Carlos work at www.despacio.org

“Alternative Energy” provided by Klara Pieper. Klara is a photographer based in Oberndorf am Germany. You can view more of Klara’s work at http://www.flickr.com/photos/23453626@N05 or write to:[email protected]

“Dutch Bycicle” (top left) and “French Bycicle” (botton left) provided by pro-fessional photographer Maltsev An-drey from Almere Netherlands. You can view many of Maltsef ’s works at http://www.flickr.photos/ryzhik/

“Bike Shed” was contributed by photographer Terry Farrant of Canada.

“Bike Storage” was contributed by Niko Paul Bovenberg from Amsterdam Netherlands. Niko is a teacher and also a writer for Zichtlignen, an on line publica-tion at http://www.zichtlignen.nl/content.asp?.path=t8nuni7x

“ Solar Array” courtesy of Ronald G. Hanson of Michigan. Photo of the Board of Water and Light (BWL) Cedar Street solar ar-ray located in Lansing, Michigan.

“Lafayette Greens” and other photos of Lafayeete Green project provided Beth Hagen-buch, ASLA.

“Viva Eiffel” and other photos con-tributed by Pamela G. Shinn, BS URP . To view more of Ms Shinn’s work at http:// http://www.flickr.com/pho-tos/28770937@N06/

“Sodons Energy Solutions Hooper Ave Soloar pro-ject & CR2” provided by Robert Sodon of Atlantic Highlands, NJ. For more information visit:

http://www.sodonsenergysolutions.com/

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urban planning and economic development january 2012

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