October 31, 2005
G U L F  C O A S T  G R O W T H  N E W S
A publication of the Gulf Coast Institute

NOTABLE QUOTE
“I think the Declaration of Independence is very beautiful because it makes a powerful reference to happiness. In the developing world, we have no alternative but to focus on the things that make for a real quality of life. If we define success or failure strictly in terms of production per capita, we in the developing world would have to consider ourselves a failure for generations to come. It is impossible to design a city if we don't think about what kind of living will make us happier."
- Enrique Peñalosa, former mayor of Bogota, Colombia, in a Planetizen interview. http://www.planetizen.com/node/17468

“The market clearly shows a trend and demand for condominiums and an urban lifestyle.”
- Jeffrey Gault, president of KB Urban, quoted in the Houston Chronicle. http://www.TinyURL.com/d8p9q

"Our evidence shows that greater centralization in an urban area results in a reduced proportion of upper-priced homes in that urban area and a lower median priced house for the entire area.”
- Robert Wassmer, professor of public policy and administration at Sacramento State, in a study on the relationship between growth control policy and housing prices. http://sacramento.bizjournals.com/industries/real_estate/residential/2005/10/10/sacramento_daily5.html For the report go to http://www.csus.edu/indiv/w/wassmerr/WassmerBaassSprawlHousing.pdf


REGIONAL NOTES
Vote postponed on I-45/North Freeway expansion
TxDOT agrees to give coalition more time
The Texas Department of Transportation’s (TxDOT) Gary Trietcsh withdrew a controversial motion to approve the preferred alternative for expansion of I-45 at last Friday’s Transportation Policy Council (TPC) meeting. The TPC is a committee of the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The item will come up for approval again at the next TPC meeting on November 18. Speaking on behalf of the I-45 Coalition, State Representative Jessica Farrar requested the postponement to give Coalition members time to study new data relating to the project and develop additional recommendations. The new material includes information on arterial street capacity and design enhancements that recently been made available The design enhancements could encourage residents in surrounding neighborhoods to use surface streets instead of the freeway for local trips, which could lessen the need for expanding I-45. Houston City Council Member Adrian Garcia also spoke in favor of the I-45 Coalition’s request, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee sent a letter of support asking that the vote be rescheduled. TPC must approve TxDOT’s preliminary plans before the I-45 project can enter its next phase: Schematic Drawings and Environmental Impact Studies. In this phase, TxDOT will begin designing the actual roadway. The entire I-45 expansion project is expected to cost at least $2.1 billion. TxDOT estimates work will be completed in 14 years. The proposal and related materials are available at http://www.h-gac.com/HGAC/Departments/Transportation/Resources/Online_Publications.htm

TRIP 2005 released
Panel discussion points to urban development
“There is significant market momentum toward mixed-use, urban development; people want this and developers are responding,” said John Breeding, president of Uptown Houston, addressing the topic “Change the Urban Landscape” as part of the program for the release of the Great Houston Partnership’s TRIP 2005 report. TRIP 2005 is an update to the original, which was called Travel Rate Improvement Program 2000. Breeding noted the amount of pedestrian-oriented, mixed use development that is occurring in the region. Alan Clark, transportation manager for the Houston-Galveston Area Council appeared to agree, saying “We’re not going to solve the congestion problem. What we can do is offer more choices for living where you don’t need to be involved in congestion.” The report is available at http://www.houston.org/pdfs/trip2005.pdf

Report defines Houston forest
Touts benefits of trees
Trees in the Houston region annually remove over 60,000 tons of air pollution, according to a new report called “Houston’s Regional Forest,” published by the Texas Forest Service, US Forest Service, and the Houston Advanced Research Center. The report concludes that the region has 663 million trees with a replacement value of more than $205 billion. Very large trees - twenty inches in diameter or greater - contribute 90 percent of the $205 billion. Land use changes and invasive tree species are significant threats to the regional forest, the report says. Between 1992 and 2000, forest cover declined by 17 percent, resulting in a net loss of over 78 million trees. The report is available from the Texas Forest Service at (713) 688-8931 or the Houston Advanced Research at (281) 364-4007. The web version is at http://www.HoustonRegionalForest.org and http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu. A brief report is available at http://www.cechouston.org

Union Pacific to introduce hybrid locomotives in Texas
Fuel-efficient trains will cut local emissions
Union Pacific Railroad (UP) will begin using fuel-efficient hybrid locomotives in Houston/Galveston, Dallas/Ft. Worth, and San Antonio, according to Progressive Railroading. By mid-2007, UP expects to use 56 such units in Houston, 46 in Dallas, and 9 in San Antonio. The locomotives are designed to reduce emissions up to 80 percent and cut fuel use about 40 percent. The railroad will apply an $81 million Texas Emissions Reduction Plan grant toward buying the locomotives.  “Our new low-emission yard and road locomotives are the next chapter in Union Pacific's voluntary efforts to reduce emissions,” said UP Vice President of Environment and Safety Bob Grimaila. http://www.progressiverailroading.com/freightnews/article.asp?id=7649

Carbon sequestration conference
Greater Houston Partnership sponsors conference
The Greater Houston Partnership is sponsoring the conference “The Business of Carbon Sequestration: Science and Forestation.” Presentations will be made by corporations and institutions such as El Paso Corporation, BP America, Stephen F. Austin University, and Texas Parks and Wildlife. Topics include “The Science Behind Carbon Sequestration,” “US and European Carbon Sequestration Markets,” and “The Economics of Carbon Sequestration.” Nov 3, 7:30 am – 1:30 pm. Westin Galleria. 713-844-3527 or nbrown@houston.org.

NOTES FROM OTHER PLACES
URBANISM
Doze with care
Hasty demolition in New Orleans could be cultural “disaster”
“Getting the answer wrong’” to the rebuilding of New Orleans “could…be among the greatest cultural disasters the nation has ever experienced,” writes Richard Moe, president of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in the Wall St Journal. He’s concerned that much of the city’s unique cultural and architectural heritage could be needlessly lost. He’s not worried about the French Quarter and the Garden District, because they are largely intact.  But he is very concerned about the ”Holy Cross, Treme, Broadmoor and Mid-City, where officially designated historic districts showcase the modest Creole cottages, corner stores and shotgun houses…that are essential ingredients in the rich architectural mix that is New Orleans. They are the buildings most at risk.” Moe writes, “Saving as many of them as possible is essential - and I came away convinced that the vast majority of them can be saved.” He argues that the ‘’understandable” official impulse to tear down as many buildings as possible “in the name of public safety” is “almost always wrong.” He calls for “conscientious, comprehensive surveys conducted by experts in construction, architecture, engineering, and preservation,” to determine which buildings can be saved. He also urges “targeted sources of federal and state funding for the preservation of storm-damaged structures.” Moe warns, “The rush to demolition is gaining speed, with consequences that could make an already tragic situation even worse.” http://www.opinionjournal.com/la/?id=110007420

Levees collapse a symbol of infrastructure ‘dismantling’
Call for a return to days of “celebrated engineers”
The “crumbling levees” of New Orleans are the “most conspicuous evidence” of the “slow, ruthless dismantling of the nation's urban infrastructure,” Nicolai Ourooussoff writes in the New York Times. The decline is “evident everywhere, from Amtrak's aging track system to New York's decaying public school buildings.” Ourooussoff looks back to a time when engineers were as celebrated for city-building as architects. He credits William Muholland’s aqueduct with “transforming the parched Los Angeles desert into a sprawling urban oasis.” Of New Orleans itself, Ourooussoff writes, “that [city building] vision was embodied not by the ornate facades of the French Quarter but by elaborate networks of pump stations, levees and drainage canals that transformed a quiet 19th-century town into a modern metropolis.” But ever since Reagan’s successful campaign against “big government,” that vision has darkened, and the now the Army Corps of Engineer is reduced to doing “patchwork” on its earlier projects. City building now consists of private-public partnerships that produce “a cloud of tourist distractions like casinos, convention centers, spruced-up historic quarters, and festival marketplaces.” Ourooussoff says that the city builders of today “are more likely to be working in the Netherlands or Spain than in a major American city.” He points to Bilbao. The Spanish city was made famous by Frank Gehry’s Guggenheim Museum, but Ourooussoff says its “new high-tech subway system” is the “strongest evidence of the city’s enlightened planning.” He closes by writing, “It's hard to imagine a similar undertaking in an American city today, especially when the federal government seems more concerned about doling out private contracts than reversing decades of neglect.” http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/arts/design/09ouro.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=c3a0119c405ed386&ex=1286510400&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

PLANNING
Rebuilding Mississippi
New Urbanists called in to redesign devastated region
Former Netscape CEO Jim Barksdale, appointed by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to head a commission on redeveloping that state’s hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast, called on architect Andres Duany and the Congress for New Urbanism to organize a huge set of “charrettes” (community forums) to plan the rebuilding, according to columnist Neal Peirce. Working either for free, or for a fraction of their normal fees, the New Urbanists spent a week in Mississippi. Much discussion focused on creating building standards for more hurricane-resistant homes and buildings, like the new codes Florida wrote after Hurricane Andrew.  The planners also discussed the development of a coastal passenger rail line to cut back on auto dependence. Duany said that the forums would focus on creating communities “that are more diverse, less auto dependent, more environmentally friendly.” Peirce closes by saying, “In the past, big dollars by big interests called the tune, often eclipsing any public debate, certainly any voice for the dispossessed, on such issues.  If Barbour, Barksdale, Duany and the New Urbanist crew can change that, they’ll truly make history.” http://www.napawash.org/resources/peirce/Peirce_10_02_05.html  For more on this initiative go to http://smartgrowthamerica.org/katrinaessay2.html and http://mississippirenewal.com/

Do growth limits lead to higher housing prices?
Sacramento study says no
Placing Portland-style limits on sprawl has often been accused of leading to higher housing prices. But, according to the Sacramento Business Journal, a recent study by California State University Sacramento has contradicted that notion. The study looked at US Census data to study the relationship between concentration of population in the urban center and housing prices. Researchers found that increasing population in the center of an area by 10 percent reduced median housing prices by 2.7 percent. They concluded that measures to reduce sprawl and concentrate growth in the urban core tend to make fewer large homes on big lots available, pushing buyers to smaller homes on smaller lots. "Our findings show that smart-growth policies designed to control sprawl in and of themselves do not raise housing prices in a region," said Robert Wassmer, a professor of public policy and administration at Sacramento State. "Our evidence shows that greater centralization in an urban area results in a reduced proportion of upper-priced homes in that urban area and a lower median priced house for the entire area.” http://www.bizjournals.com/sacramento/stories/2005/10/10/daily5.html

Oregon’s Measure 37 overturned by courts
Ruling seen as restrictive of property rights, favorable to planning
An Oregon judge has overturned a voter-approved property rights law in that state. According to The Oregonian, the judge ruled that Measure 37 violates the Oregon Constitution by favoring longtime property owners over those who have purchased land more recently. The judge added that the measure prohibited the Oregon Legislature from exercising its authority. The sweeping ruling is expected to halt thousands of acres of rural development. Members of Oregonians In Action, which authored Measure 37 and which had a similar ballot measure defeated in court 4 years ago, said they planned to attack “rigid planning rules” again in 2006. Planning advocates hailed the decision, and called for a special session of the state legislature to address land-use and planning issues. http://www.oregonlive.com/news/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/front_page/112937422680310.xml&coll=7 http://portland.bizjournals.com/portland/stories/2005/10/10/daily41.html http://www.friends.org/

Smart growth in Ventura County
SOAR’s success not replicated elsewhere
Ten years after a lawyer and a high school teacher founded one of the most aggressive growth-control movements in the nation, Ventura County has preserved thousands of acres of farmland and open space and sown the beginnings of a new way for cities to grow, according to a story in the Los Angeles Times. A series of initiatives approved over the last decade have required that voters, not politicians, approve any subdivisions on land set aside for open space or agriculture. At the same time, city councils and planners have begun to change the rules for growth — looking up more often than out — when considering where to put the 10,000 new residents who arrive in the county every year. As SOAR marks the 10th anniversary of its first ballot success, even its fiercest opponents acknowledge that it has been effective in its primary goal of confining new development within city boundaries. "If you said in 1995 that Ventura would fully embrace the principles of smart growth, you would have been laughed out of the room," said Ventura County Supervisor Steve Bennett. "But that's exactly what we're seeing today." http://tinyurl.com/76

Chicago 2040
Comprehensive regional plan calls for mixed-use development
The Northeastern Illinois Planning Commission (NIPC) recently unveiled its first comprehensive plan in nearly 30 years. According to the Chicago Tribune, the commission hopes this guidebook will direct new growth while redeveloping existing urban areas. The report, which took 4 years, is the result of 200 workshops, involving 4,000 participants, ranging from officials to private individuals. NIPC estimates the region's population will top 10 million, and that there will be 5.5 million jobs by 2030, compared to 8 million residents and 4.3 million jobs in 2000. The plan hopes to steer this growth into existing population centers, and along corridors where transportation networks already exist, because it costs less to improve current infrastructure than to build new infrastructure in undeveloped areas.  The plan also calls on communities to consider mixed-use developments that would allow residents to live nearer to where they work. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0509280305sep28,1,4341209.story

TRANSPORTATION
‘Context sensitivity’ for highways
Highway engineers look to slow down traffic
Civil engineers across the country are changing the way they think about highways, according to Governing.org. They’re beginning to consider road designs that slow cars down, and they’re planning with “pedestrians, bicyclists and other people who share the road with autos” in mind. The new catch phrase for traffic engineers is “context sensitivity.”  Trenton’s Route 29 is a good example of the new mindset, the article says. The original engineers designed the road to make it safe for high-speed driving. But now Trenton engineers have become convinced that essentially encouraging people to speed only makes driving more dangerous. This new thinking is surprising because, for 50 years, highway engineers have applied a “bigger-is-better” formula to every road they worked on. Now engineers are considering replacing Route 29 with an urban boulevard that would be integrated into the dense grid of downtown Trenton streets. “Everything in New Jersey is a highway,” one official says. “DOT has always been about six-lane highways, and they’re not doing it anymore. They’d rather build 14 miles of small roads than a few miles of big ones.”  http://www.governing.com/articles/10speed.htm

Bus Rapid Transit line opens in Ventura County
Train-like buses are like those coming to Houston Metro
The first mass transit line built entirely within the San Fernando Valley opened recently. According to the Los Angeles Times, the “Orange Line” will be a high-tech Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line running on a dedicated 14-mile concrete roadway. Transit planners hope the $350-million line will encourage the development of more apartments and mixed-use projects along the route. Some boosters predict the line will tie the Valley together with downtown Los Angeles, 3 years after the Valley tried to secede from the city. But some observers feel that only low-income residents will use the line. Other critics say the line "doesn't go anywhere you would want it to go. It's a tour of the industrial bowels of the Valley. And there's no place to stop to get a cup of coffee." Others are more enthusiastic. One resident said, "From one end of the busway, you can go to Long Beach and look at the aquarium." The Orange Line marks a compromise from the rail line that was first proposed.  Officials switched to the bus approach after concluding that it would cost 75 percent less than rail. Officials point out that the bus line could be converted to light rail if it became wildly popular. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-orangeline18oct18,0,4715270.story?page=1&track=planetizen

Connectivity is the key
Portland is the model
In a recent report, "Planning for Street Connectivity: Getting From Here to There," transportation planning experts analyzed 13 communities that have passed connectivity ordinances. Most of the cities and towns in the study have set block length limits for local streets. Some have also placed maximum distance limits on spacing between intersections along arterial streets. Of course, requirements vary: commercial arterials need more space between intersections and driveways in order for traffic to flow properly, while more frequent cross streets in residential areas can help to slow traffic down. Creating more direct connections shortens travel time, which effectively brings people closer to their destinations. With more available connections, community residents can get to places that previously seemed too far out of the way. The report notes that it's unnecessary and impossible to force these requirements on every subdivision. “The key is to create strategically located links that benefit broad cross-sections of the community.”  http://www.plannersweb.com/216free.pdf

Commuters increasingly turn to public transportation
Gas prices driving some people out of their cars
$3-a-gallon gas prices have led to increased use of public transportation across the country, according to MSN.money.  Cities from Austin to Washington, DC are reporting double-digit increases in ridership on their bus and light-rail systems. Transit officials in Knoxville, Tenn, reported that September ridership was up 15 percent over last year, with some express routes up more than 100 percent.  A spokesman for Dallas Area Rapid Transit said that light-rail ridership was up 18 percent in the first two weeks of September over the same period last year, while bus ridership was up 11 percent. "With gas prices going up, and up dramatically, that's when people started turning to transit," the spokesman said, adding that much of the growth is fueled by new riders. High gas prices are leading some commuters to take a second look at bus transportation, particularly the Rapid Transit buses Metro plans to introduce to the Houston area. “[They’re] like trains on rubber wheels,” said one official. Some offer work-friendly amenities such as WI-FI.  Public-transit commuters also save money.  "If the average [California] commuter, driving 30 miles per day, switches to public transportation, carpool or vanpool, they save about $5,400 a year," says an LA County Metro spokesman. http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Savinganddebt/Savemoney/P132460.asp

Deflated in Paris
Anti-SUV activists lead playful but serious campaign
An anti-SUV group known as Les Dégonflés (the Deflated) carries out a playful guerrilla war under cover of night, according to the Los Angeles Times. They deflate tires without damaging them, smear doors with mud, and paste handbills on windshields proclaiming that the vehicles do not belong in the city. "We use the mud to say that if the owners will not take the four-wheel-drives to the countryside, we will bring the countryside to the four-wheel-drives," says the group’s leader. He adds, "We emphasize the comic, the burlesque side. It would be hard to take us to court. We don't slash tires, we deflate them. Air doesn't cost anything.”  Anti-SUV sentiment is on the rise in France. The Deflators have considerable support at City Hall, much to the dismay of SUV owners. "It's comparable to extremism, to discrimination, to inciting hate," an SUV spokesman said. "You can't stigmatize a category of the population with impunity under the pretext that they drive a kind of vehicle.” http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-deflate10oct10,0,802879.story?track=planetizen

HOUSING
No more McMansions?
New home buyers more interested in amenities than square footage
After more than 30 years of steady increase, the size of the typical American house appears to be leveling off, reports The New York Times. "The Generation X-ers who are becoming home buyers right now want more amenities - and they are willing to trade away space to get them," said an executive of the National Association of Home Builders. The size of the average American house rose from about 1,500 square feet in 1970 to more than 2,300 square feet in 2001. But from 2001 to 2004, that growth practically halted.  Consumers’ changing priorities were reflected in a 2004 survey, in which homeowners chose “a smaller house with high quality products and amenities” over a larger house by 63-37 percent. In 2000, the same question gained a 51-49 percent split, with “larger house” winning.  Developers are seeing signs of this shift across the country, including in Dallas. An executive with Urban Edge Developers there said her company’s new houses average 2,500 square feet, “small for Dallas.” She explains, "In a city where $1,000-a-month air-conditioning bills are not uncommon, people are beginning to say, 'Maybe I can have less space, and spend the money on a trip to Europe.’” http://tinyurl.com/cvk2g

DEMOGRAPHICS
Will mass retirement of baby boomers swamp state governments?
Evidence suggests not
The oldest members of the baby boom generation will turn 65 in around 5 years, causing alarm in some quarters about a “retirement tsunami,” according to Stateline. But many experts believe the impact of this demographic shift on budgets and services won’t be as so negative. Florida is a good example of how to manage and care for an aging population. The state established a Cabinet-level Department of Aging in 1992. Older Floridians brought more revenue to the state in the year 2000 than they cost in services, and their per-capita income was 25 percent higher than that of citizens ages 18-49. Pennsylvania, which has its own significant senior population, also benefits economically.  Elders contribute significantly to state tax revenues as they spend their Social Security, retirement savings, and Medicaid dollars in the state, and they’ve “had a huge impact on jobs, particularly in the health care sector,” one state official explained. Not all experts are so optimistic. A best-selling book, “The Coming Generational Storm,” predicts that the retirement-age Boomers will spell economic doom. “The forces that would expand the younger (and working) population paying for Social Security and Medicare taxes are in reverse. The result is a kind of perfect demographic storm,” the authors write. http://www.stateline.org/live/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=136&languageId=1&contentId=58924

RETAIL
On Target for urban design
Retailer finding new ways of fitting into urban landscape
Target stores are adopting new design styles for urban settings, according to New Urban News. In the last 5 years, Target has built or acquired 35 multilevel stores with structured parking, and another 8 stores with parking underneath. In all, about 3 percent of Target’s 1,350 stores nationwide have unusual urban formats that Target calls “unique.” Target has even built a Brooklyn store with no dedicated parking. Another store planned in Queens, New York, will be under 800 housing units. The trend is growing, according to Target officials, who say there are dozens of unique Targets on the drawing board.  Wal-Mart, on the other hand, has resisted the trend to unique urban design. http://www.newurbannews.com/TargetInsideOct05.html

CONSERVATION
National parks up for sale?
California Rep also wants to sell naming rights
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-California), Chairman of the House Resources Committee, has proposed that the federal government sell 15 national parks to oil and gas interests and private developers, according to the Slatin Report. In addition, Pombo suggested that the National Park Service sell advertising space on its vehicles, buildings, and publications. Naming rights for National Park buildings would also be up for sale.  Included in the proposed “for sale” list are vast undeveloped tracts like the Aniakchak National Monument and Preserve in Alaska, with more than a half-million acres, but also many smaller properties, including eight parcels in the District of Columbia, such as Theodore Roosevelt Island. The Slatin Report writes that this “sell” list is Pombo’s response to the Bush administration calls to slash his committee’s budget, and speculates that Pombo’s “real agenda is to push the sale of drilling rights in ANWAR,” as an alternative to selling parks. http://www.theslatinreport.com/top_story.jsp?StoryName=1012pombo.txt&Topic=Opinion&fromPage

EDUCATION
Schools should become ‘community centers’
Akron mayor calls for cooperation between city governments and school boards
In an interview with Planetizen, Akron, Ohio mayor Don Plusquellic called for greater cooperation between city governments and school boards.  Citing the need to “help those children, especially from those difficult homes,” Plusquellic said schools should stay open longer, and offer more after-school programs, both academic and recreational. He wants schools to become “community learning centers,” funded by both the city and the school board, and therefore jointly owned. “That way we have access to them for after-school programs, programs in the summer, weekends, and virtually any other time that the schools aren’t using the buildings.” The mayor acknowledged strong opposition to his idea from the schools and teachers unions, but says, “Society has an obligation” to provide services and opportunities to lower income children. http://www.planningreport.com/article/1114

EVENTS
LOCAL
RDA civic forum - Sustainability in Houston. Brown Auditorium, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. December 7, 7 pm http://rda.rice.edu/index2.php?

NATIONAL
New Partners for Smart Growth 5th annual conference, Denver, Jan 26-28, 2006. http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/SmartGrowth/

Prepared by David Theis

Gulf Coast Growth News is a publication of the Gulf Coast Institute. The Gulf Coast Institute is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the quality of life in Houston. To support the Institute, go to http://www.gulfcoastinstitute.org. To join the Institute's 1000 Friends of Houston, go to http://www.1000friendsofhouston.org