Sustainable Development, Smart Growth & What’s In a Name?

Presentation byEd Braddy

American Dream CoalitionFebruary 13, 2012

American Dream Coalition• Founded in 2002• Non-profit 501(c)(3)• Freedom, Mobility & Affordable

Homeownership• The American Dream

Gainesville City Commission, 2002-2008

“Outsider on the Inside”

Extremely Persuasive

Wake up, Mr. Manager

Exceptional Service 2002-2008

UF National Championships

Football2006, 2008Basketball2006, 2007

What’s in a Name?• Smart Growth• New Urbanism• Compact Cities• Resilient Cities• Traditional Neighborhoods• Livable Communities• Growth Management• Sustainable Development

The Trend Line on a Buzzword

U.N. Agenda 21

Sustainable Development

“meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future

generations to meet their own needs”- World Commission on

Environment and Development

What is Livability?

• “When I was growing up, I could walk to my grade school … we would bike everywhere we went. We could walk to the grocery store. We had streetcars and buses, which people used to get to downtown.… I used to take a bus to my dad's business.”

• “Where you can live without a car.”-- Ray LaHood, US Transportation Secretary

National Press Club, May 2009

• Moderator on the Livability Initiative: “Is this an effort to make driving more torturous and to coerce people out of their cars?”

• Ray LaHood: “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars.”

Ray LaHood, Secretary of Immobility

Smart Growth

“In general, smart growth invests time, attention, and resources in restoring community and vitality to city centers and older suburbs.”

(Why Smart Growth: A Primer)---------------------------------------------------------

• Increased Densities• Mixed Uses & Compact Development

• Pedestrian & Transit Orientation• Open Spaces & Urban Infill

Smart Growth Regulations

• Increase underlying land costs• Increase planning costs• Increase construction costs• Increase financing costs• Encourage the building of high-end homes• Encourage land banking• Encourage land and housing speculation

Growth Management & Affordability

8th Annual Demographia International Housing Affordability Survery, 2012

Housing Bubbles“We find that cities that are more regulated or have less

developable land experienced greater price gains between January 2000 and June 2006, and greater price declines between June 2006 and July 2009. Furthermore, the supply constraints in the housing market amplified the boom-and-bust consequences of the subprime expansion in the mortgage market.”

• Haifang Huang, H., Tang, Y., 2010. Residential land use regulation and the US housing price cycle between 2000 and 2009. Working Paper No. 2010-11.

Bursting the Bubble

Smart Growth Cities

Unspoken Trade-offs– Chronic

Underemployment– Declining Minority

Populations– Fewer Minority-Owned

Businesses– Less Family Formation– Higher Transit-

Dependency

Family Un-Friendly

• Portland boasted 43,419 elementary students … in 1927.

Source: Portland Public SchoolsEnrollment Forecast 2006-2015

When They Say …

“Sustainability/Smart Growth is About Livability”

They Really Mean …

“Smart Growth is About DENSITY.”

It’s All About Density

Place Metro Urbanized DensityBoston 11.8% 13.0% 12,793Chicago 11.2% 12.4% 11,841Baltimore 6.0% 7.5% 7,672Seattle 8.1% 8.8% 7,250Honolulu 8.7% 9.6% 5,572Pittsburgh 5.6% 7.5% 5,521

Pop / Square Mile

2010 Transit Market Shares

It’s All About DensityPlace Transit Share Density

Orlando 3.1% 2327 people/sq mileJacksonville 1.3% 1100 people/sq mileTampa 3.6% 2960 people/sq milePortland 7.1% 4375 people/sq mileOcala 1.3% 1200 people/sq mile

Growth Management in Florida1985 Growth Management Act

• Evaluation & Appraisal Reports (EARs)• 10-year Comprehensive Plans• Significant Regulatory Oversight• Smart Growth Substructure

State Mandate Local ImplementationHeavily

RegulatedLightly

Regulated

Ocala Comprehensive Plan

• Plans for the impacts of growth and development

• Provides a framework for local governments

• Provisions adequate roads, schools, water, parks and sewer facilities for residents

• Retains the character that made your community such a desirable place

A Closer Look at the EAR

Marion County Comprehensive Plan• Establishes the

“Community’s Vision”• Four workshops

averaging 50 people• “The responses echo

many of the principles of smart growth.”

• “Sustainable growth, growth management, urban services boundary, and creating mixed-use developments were mentioned frequently.”

OcalaComprehensive Plan

Page 26: “There was consensus among community members that the accepted paradigm of continually widening roadways to accommodate increased vehicular traffic was not sustainable.”

A “mandate” to provide …

•Complete Streets•Road Diets

People With Visions

Visualizing Density

Visualize Calcutta

Density: 63,000 people per square mile

Vision of Smart Growth

Dom Nozzi• “The car is the

enemy of the city”– Gainesville Sun, 18 May

2008

James Kunstler• “The project of suburbia is over. We

will build no more of it.”New York Times, 12 Aug 2008

• Richard Florida“Homeownership is Overrated”

-- Wall Street Journal, 7 June 2010

Density and the Single Family Home

US 2,300 sf

France 1,216 sf

UK 818 sf

“Study calls Maryland smart growth a flop”

• “An innovative policy to fight suburban sprawl catapulted Maryland into the national spotlight a decade ago.”

• “Scholars at the National Center for Smart Growth Research and Education found that over a decade, smart growth has not made a dent in Maryland's war on sprawl.”

Washington Post, Nov. 2, 2009

Think Outside the Bus

Sources: National Transportation Statistics; National Transit Database, “Energy Consumption” spreadsheet; Transportation Energy Data Book

The European Model

• Paris, France• Light Rail-T3

• Avg trip length per car has increased 4 km

• Congestion worsened• Carbon emissions

increased by 3,115 tons(Source: Objectif Liberté, Vincent Benard)

Bus Subway

Walk Car

50% 33% 9% 2.7%

The Law of Unintended Consequences

Australian Conservation Foundation & Residential Development Council

October 2007

• “GHG emission estimates from the recently published Australian Conservation Foundation Consumption Atlas, indicate virtually the opposite of the generally held perceptions.”

Housing Form in Australia& Its Impact on Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• “The data shows that lower density areas, which rely more on automobiles, tend to produce less in GHG emissions than the high density, more public transport dependent areas that are favored by urban consolidation policies.”

Ignoring Emerging Technology Advances

Strategic Misrepresentation

“Planners and promoters purposefully spinscenarios of success and gloss over the potential for failure. Again, this results in the pursuit of ventures that are unlikely to come in on budget or on time, or to deliver the promised benefits.”

Strategic Misrepresentation

• “An audit report found that HRT knowingly hid the costs of light rail from the city of Norfolk.”

– WAVY-TV 10December 15, 2010

Strategic Misrepresentation– Elected officials, planners, and

sustainability advocates

• A Predictable Pattern:1. Blame congestion on preferred

choices (dispersed, suburban and auto-oriented

2. Pitch multi-modal Smart Growth strategies as viable alternative to reduce congestion

3. But fully implemented, Smart Growth plans will increase congestion by design

Smart Growth ’s Congestion• “Recognizes that congestion is accepted in growing

urban areas”– Mobility: Alachua County’s Plan to Effectively Link Land-

Use & Transportation, 2011MODE LEVEL OF SERVICE

(LOS)PEDESTRIAN B

BICYCLE B

EXPRESS TRANSIT B

MOTOR VEHICLE D

MOTOR VEHICLE (SIS)

C

2011 Community Preference Survey

2011 Community Preference SurveySuburban Development Livable Community

44% 56%

Americans Do Not Prefer Smart Growth

• “The 2011 Community Preference Survey reveals that, ideally, most Americans would like to live in walkable communities where shops, restaurants, and local businesses are within an easy stroll from their homes and their jobs are a short commute away; as long as those communities can also provide privacy from neighbors and detached, single-family homes.”

How is policy made … locally?

• The Structure of Local Governments

How is policy made … locally?

• The Substructure of Local Governments

Substructure of Urban Policy

Substructure of Urban Policy• American Planning Association

• Center for Livable Communities

• Congress for the New Urbanism

• Florida Sustainable Communities

• International City/County Management Association (ICMA)

• Urban Land Institute

Smart Growth is the Dominant Paradigm

Smart Growth Leadership Institute

• Case Studies in Smart Growth Implementation• “Leadership in smart growth came largely

from the County planning staff and, to a lesser extent, from the development community.”

• “The staff was enthusiastic and knowledgeable about smart growth.”

Smart Growth as Clever Marketing

Rhetorical Appeal

Catchy Slogans

Nostalgic Promises

Heroic Purpose

Envy

Fear

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing

it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them

imaginary.”

Beware of Hobgoblins Sprawl

1000 Friends of Florida

Unless They Are Exaggerating

Source: U.S. Geological Survey

Inconvenient Truths• “All urbanized areas of

2,500 people or more occupy just 2.6 percent of the United States.”– U.S. Census Bureau

• “If every family in the U.S. built a home on a ¼acre lot, they could all fit comfortably in Ohio.”– Randal O’Toole, Cato Institue Source: U.S. Geological Survey

Graphic Design Gimmicks

Maryland Scare Tactics Florida Scare Tactics

Portland, Oregon & Envy Urbanism

The Mecca of Smart GrowthActual Google Street Cam

In Portland, Everyone Bikes …

… or Takes Light Rail

On the Portland MAX

Portland, OregonImage Reality

Nation’s 23rd worst traffic congestion & 27th in “Most Wasted Fuel per Traveler” Source: TTI-UMR

Mother Nature NetworkJan 24, 2011

• “scrubbed nearly 700 million tons of carbon from the atmosphere”

• “Depopulation over such a large swathe of land meant that countless numbers of cultivated fields eventually returned to forests.” History’s First Smart Growther

Genghis Khan

How to Fight Back

• Run Good Candidates• Educate Activists• Dig Into Documents

Mass Transit in the 20th Century

Transportation Choice in Practice

Mobility Vouchers forLow Income Families

2010 Transit Market Shares

Place Metro Urbanized DensityCleveland 3.6% 4.3% 5,107Norfolk 1.7% 1.9% 4,486Denver 4.1% 4.6% 3,922San Bernardino

1.7% 2.0% 3,546

Bremerton 7.7% 8.4% 1,328Pop / Square Mile

Best Ridership Associated With Highest Densities … Usually

Right-size the Fleet

Kitsap Transit Bremerton, WA

1,328 People / Square Mile8.4% Transit Market Share

Right-size the Fleet

Mobility Machines for Individual-Family Decision-making

• Private transportation– Commute times lower– Frees up time– Greater flexibility for jobs– Wider geographic search

net– Limits duration of

unemployment

Source: Raphael & Rice, “Car Ownership, Employment, and

Earnings,” UC-Berkeley

The Vital Role of Mobility• A half-hour commute at an average speed of

30 mph can access about 700 sq. miles.• A half-hour commute at an average speed of

42 mph increases the opportunity zone to almost 1,400 sq. miles.

• Tory Gattis, “Opportunity Urbanism Policy Framework,”2007

The Vital Role of Mobility• Low income workers who received cars through such

programs reveal that improved mobility brought them better jobs and higher wages

• Auto-ownership could cut the black-white unemployment gap nearly in half

• Lisa M. Brabo, et al. “Driving out of Poverty in Private Automobiles,” in Rediscovering the Other America: The Continuing Crisis of Poverty and Inequality in the United States, 2003

Auto-mobility IS Livability

• Smart Growth goal is to reduce vehicle miles traveled (VMTs)

• Each trip is a transaction

• A car is a “tool” used in the “pursuit of happiness”

Economic SocialRecreational CulturalEducational Religious

Defend Property Rights

“There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual & silent encroachments of those in power than by violent & sudden usurpations.”

James Madison

“Anti-Sprawl Laws, Property Rights Collide in Oregon”

• “The nation's strongest laws against sprawl are beginning to buckle here in Oregon under pressure from an even stronger, voter-approved law that trumps growth restrictions with property rights.”

Washington Post, February 28, 2005

Parris N. Glendening

• "The incentives are not strong enough, … but property rights are a heated issue. I don't believe the political realities allow you to go to a [stronger] system.“– Washington Post,

November 2, 2009

Property Rights Under Assault• “We don’t believe that

sound planning is anathema to individual property rights.”– PlanMaryland

• “Quality of Life and Sustainability: a high quality of life is achieved through universal stewardship of the land, water, and air resulting in sustainable communities and protection of the environment;”– PlanMaryland

Define Property Rightsin Comp Plan & Visioning Documents

• “The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the law of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence.”– John Adams

To Secure Property Rights

• Definable• Defendable• Divestible

The Missing Reform: Regulatory Tax Credits

Goldwater Institute Report

“require the government to pay just compensation when regulations prohibit peaceful and productive uses of land”

“force policymakers to carefully consider the costs of new regulations and ensure they are truly designed to protect public health and safety”

Defend Suburbia

• Suburbanization is a common and ancient phenomenon all over the world.

• “As cities have become economically prosperous, they have spread outward at decreasing densities.”

• “The preferred settlement pattern everywhere in the world where there is a certain measure of affluence and where citizens have some choice in how they live.”– Robert Bruegmann, Sprawl: A Compact History

Prosperous Future Requires Replacing the Ideology of Urban Form with a

Culture of Property Rights• County/City Managers Manage Their Departments,

Not Free People• Recognize Property Owners as Best Stewards of the

Environment• Mitigate Impacts instead of Prohibiting Uses• If It’s Your Property, You Build By Right• Every Square (Mile) is an Innovation Square• Covert Overlay Districts into No-Zone Zones

Should We Cheer for Smart Growth & Sustainable Development?

We’re Here to Help!• Website: americandreamcoalition.org• ADC Blog: www.adcblog.org/blog/• Email: ed@americandreamcoalition.org• Sign Up: ADC Communicator (email)