November 18, 2002
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A publication of the Gulf Coast Institute
“You can dream, create, design, and build the most wonderful place in the
world, but it requires people to make the dream a reality.”
—Walt Disney
Next meeting: Toward a Houston General Plan - Continued
The Blueprint Houston process to arrive at a vision and a set of values,
goals, and priorities for the City of Houston is underway, and the meeting
participants will continue to discuss this throughout the year. At this
meeting, the group will test a couple of facilitated exercises that might be
used in the coming public events as part of the Blueprint Houston process to
arrive at a vision and a set of values, goals, and priorities for the City of
Houston. The meeting, which is open to the public, is Wednesday, November 20,
at 11:30 am at the Houston-Galveston Area Council, 3555 Timmons, second floor.
Bring your own lunch. For more about the Houston plan, http://www.blueprinthouston.org.
Blueprint Houston kicks off with luncheon
Blueprint Houston recently held its kick-off steering committee meeting at City
Hall. Blueprint executive committee members Peter Brown, Claudia
Williamson, and David Crossley talked about the overall Blueprint initiative
and James Calaway of Center for Houston’s Future talked about the Center’s
collaboration with Blueprint. Special guests included Mayor Lee Brown,
who spoke of the City’s support of the project; Ann Hamilton, grants
officer of the Houston Endowment, who spoke about the Endowment’s support
for the project; and Dr. Stephen Klineberg, Professor of Sociology at Rice
University, who spoke about the city’s need for Blueprint Houston.
Enthusiasm for the initiative was evident as almost 100 percent of
committee members volunteered to participate in separate task forces.
Texas transportation plan Houston meeting
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) will hold a series of public
meetings on the statewide transportation plan, including one in Houston on
November 18. The Texas Transportation Plan is the blueprint for a multimodal,
statewide transportation system, and contains a rail system plan as a
component. This effort will update the 1994 plan. The meeting in Houston
will be held from 3-8 pm in the TxDOT District Office Main Building Conference
Room located on 7721 Washington Avenue. The meeting will follow an
informal open house format with a presentation to be given at 7 pm. For further
information call Michelle Conkle (512) 486-5023. Draft materials for the
plan can be found at http://www.dot.state.tx.us/tpp/transplan/transplan.htm
Houston demoted to “Challenged” on real estate list
Houston received lower marks for real estate investment in part because of
“lax controls on new construction in their wider-open spaces –
which translates into higher vacancies and lower rents,” according
to this year’s Emerging Trends in Real Estate, a PricewaterhouseCoopers publication. Houston
fell from “Hot Town” to “Challenged” on the list.
Other reasons for the decline include the energy industry deterioration
and related company declines. Washington DC, New York, and Los Angeles
retained good investor marks at the top of the list, while Houston came in
further down at 15th place. Last year’s outlook revealed that
“properties in better-planned, growth constrained markets hold value
better in down markets and appreciate more in up cycles. Areas with sensible
zoning (integrating commercial, retail, and residential), parks, and street
grids with sidewalks will age better than places oriented to disconnected
cul-de-sac subdivisions and shopping strips, navigable only by car.”
Source: Emerging Trends in Real Estate, October 4, 2002
Audubon joins fight against Bayport Terminal
The Houston Audubon Society, a chapter of the National Audubon Society, has
this month come out in opposition to the construction of a major new container
port facility at Bayport by the Port of Houston Authority. "Until
recently, Houston Audubon had not taken a position on the project because it
did not appear to affect bird conservation in a discernible way. However,
recent written objections of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to the
project based on damage to prairie habitat that is certain to occur has made
this a conservation issue affecting birds," said an Audubon report in a
recent issue of the group’s Newsletter, The Naturalist. Houston Audubon now joins the USFWS,
Galveston Bay Conservation and Preservation Association (GBCPA), EPA, and Texas
Parks and Wildlife, and a number of other groups in objecting to this facility.
Source: GBCPA, November 11, 2002
Group meets to promote “wilderness”
In a bid to spark interest in a new organization to embrace and preserve
the Houston region’s ecological capital, a large group of
“green” leaders met November 13 to hear Debra Shore, a founder of
Chicago Wilderness, explain how that group operates. Chicago Wilderness is a
ten-year-old Chicago-area alliance of 147 public and private organizations working
together to study and restore, protect, and manage the natural ecosystems of
the Chicago region. The event, held at the Houston Museum of Natural Science,
also featured talks by environmental attorney Jim Blackburn, former State Parks
& Wildlife Executive Director Andrew Sansom, Quality of Life Coalition
co-founder Ann Lents, and Houston Endowment Grants Officer Ann Hamilton. Rosie
Zamora, a board member of the Center for Houston’s Future, organized and
moderated the event.
Hines receives 2002 Urban Land Institute prize
Developer Gerald D. Hines has been chosen as the third annual recipient of
the Urban Land Institute J.C. Nichols Prize for Visionary Urban Development.
The honor recognizes an individual whose career demonstrates a commitment
to the highest standards of responsible development. The Houston-based
Hines company was founded in the 1950s and has become known for its high design
and environmental sustainability standards. One of their recent projects
is the $600 million Diagonal Mar mixed-use community in Barcelona, Spain, which
will include everything from apartments, stores, offices to a convention
center. Source: PRNewswire,
October 23, 2002
Central Texas visioning exercise
Envision Central Texas, a non-profit organization, is providing Central
Texas residents an opportunity to get involved in the region's planning
process. Through a series of workshops in each county (Bastrop, Caldwell,
Hays, Travis, and Williamson), Envision worked with Fregonese-Calthorpe,
national planning consultants, to find out how local residents would handle
the expected 1.1 million population growth over the next 20 to 40 years.
The results from the meetings will be used to create three to four possible
growth scenarios that residents will vote on during the spring of 2003.
http://www.enewsbuilder.net/capmet/e_article000104616.cfm?x=262163,8241520
PLANNING
A new trend of city-county mergers?
In a move to boost its competitive advantage in relation to other U.S.
cities, the city of Louisville, Kentucky, is merging with its county, Jefferson
County, according to a recent article in USA Today. The merger will move Louisville from the 67th
place to 16th place in the population charts. In a country where
“size matters” for jobs, corporate investments, and professional
sports teams, the article asks whether this could be an emerging trend.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2002-11-03-louisville-usat_x.htm
L.A. votes no to secession
Voters in Los Angeles overwhelmingly cast their ballots to keep the city
intact, thereby erasing hopes of separate San Fernando Valley and Hollywood
cities. An article in the Los Angeles Times states that the secession campaign was crippled with
money shortage, leadership troubles, and a lack of volunteers. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-secede6nov06021420,0,6416662.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dcalifornia
New Orleans approves master plan's QOL documents
Having already approved a “vision statement” several years ago,
a land-use blueprint in 1999, and three of the seven “quality of
life” documents earlier this year, the New Orleans City Planning
Commission unanimously passed the remaining “quality of life documents”
recently. According to a recent article in the Times-Picayune, all stages are ingredients for a 13-part long-range
master plan for the City. Under the just approved quality of life
documents, the City will improve social and economic conditions for the
advancement of arts and culture; support businesses, diversify the economy and
create quality jobs; protect and promote its historic character and its
neighborhoods through preservation and revitalization; and minimize the impact
of tourism on historical and cultural resources, while expanding the range of
visitor activities beyond the French Quarter. Source: Times-Picayune, October 23, 2002
Residential development no boon for counties?
Because residential land is generally taxed higher than agricultural land, one
might think rural residential development would be a boon to a county’s
bottom line. However, a recent study has shown that because of the increased
county services after the farmland conversion to residential land, rural
residential development in aggregate is a net fiscal loss to county
governments. “What matters to public service providers and taxpayers
alike is ultimately the net, not the gross, revenue generated.” The
report, written by three Agricultural and Applied Economics professors at the
University of Wyoming, cautioned that the type of development should be studied
before assuming a particular development is a net loss.
http://www-pam.usc.edu/volume5/v5i1a3s1.html#contents
Anti-sprawl checklist
New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey and his Cabinet recently announced a
number of sprawl control initiatives for the state. Associated Press
author P.L. Wyckoff has come up with ten ways to measure their success.
http://nj.com/opinion/ledger/perspective/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1035726108225670.xml
Business case for developing around demographics
To cash in on the 73.8 million Baby Boomers, 72.7 million Echo Boomers
(ages 6 to 23) and 63.2 million members of racial and ethnic minorities,
“A Nation of Niches: Real Estate’s Demand Demographics”
co-authors Leanne Lachman and Deborah Brett say that real estate owners and
developers need to develop with demographics in mind. One such
development is the $260 million mixed-use International Gateways of the
Americas that will link San Diego, California with Tijuana, Mexico.
http://nreionline.com/ar/real_estate_demographics_shape_development/index.htm
MOBILITY
The SUV: just a hunk of junk?
The automobile industry’s worst qualities, “comparable to those
of the 19th-century coal barons,” are all represented in the making of
the SUV, according to the recent book entitled ''High and Mighty'' by Keith
Bradsher as reported in a recent article in the New York Times. The article delves into how and why the
SUV became a “hunk of junk” that earns a profit margin close to
that of “crack cocaine.”
http://query.nytimes.com/search/full-page?res=9901E4DA1139F935A35753C1A9649C8B63
High speed rail market share growing in Europe
Travelers are flocking to rail as its low cost and high speed combined with
heavy car and air traffic make the switch more than appealing, according to a
recent Business Week article. For
example, train trips between Paris and Brussels now make up 50 percent of total
trips between the two cities, versus only 24 percent in the mid-1990s.
During the same period, car trips have decreased by 30 percent, now
making up only 43 percent of total trips. http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/oct2002/nf20021031_8250.htm
Transportation funding moving to your local polling place
Voters are increasingly being asked to approve transportation funding
– a trend that a new Surface Transportation Policy Project report calls a
significant shift from the traditional method of financing transportation
projects via legislatively approved “user fees” (e.g. gasoline
taxes). In 2002, as much as $117 billion in new transportation funding
will have appeared at polls across the nation. http://www.transact.org/report.asp?id=201
Speeding and Sprawl
Police going easy on freeway speeders has been linked to encouraging
sprawl, according to the Fulton County Daily Report. As speeding shrinks the perceived distances
between places, commuters pushing the pedal to the metal think that far out
really isn’t so far out after all and are encouraged to move out to the
suburbs. Enforcing speeding would halt the distance misconception, thus
lessening sprawl. However, officers often let speeding go unpunished as
freeway pullovers tend to create bottlenecks, which in return create safety
hazards and driver frustration. As a result, the legal norm is not
enforced while the informal norm is aggressively enforced. http://www.fcdr.com/directpn.htm
Palace of Mobility
Anaheim, California, is planning a “palace of mobility” - a
transit station that will link Metrolink (Southern California’s commuter
rail system), Amtrak, a proposed high speed maglev train to Las Vegas, the
state's own high-speed rail project, and the county's proposed CenterLine rail
system. Plans for the station had been shelved for almost a decade when
the California High Speed Rail Project and the maglev train from Anaheim to Las
Vegas looked like they were going nowhere. But now the state has decided
to put the high-speed rail question to voters so planning for the station is
back on the table. http://www.latimes.com/news/local/orange/la-me-anaheim10nov10,0,5869673.story?coll=la%2Deditions%2Dorange
URBANISM
Private and public partner up to improve cities
Nonprofit organizations, foundations, corporations, neighborhood
enterprises, local governments, and more are partnering up with creative
structures and incentives to improve city centers according to a study by the
Urban Land Institute. The study examines initiatives in the following
four cities: Chattanooga, Tennessee; Indianapolis, Indiana; New London,
Connecticut; and Vancouver, Washington.
http://research.uli.org/Content/UL/UL_Sample.htm
California getting centered
Californians are wondering if they’re correctly centered. The
state recently fell down on the Smart Growth America “centeredness”
rank that measures the strength of downtowns and other concentrated activity
nodes. According to an article from the California Planning and
Development Report, Californian officials and public remain conflicted about
the need to be centered. http://www.cp-dr.com/binn/main.taf?function=&type=detail§ion_id=2544
Challenges and opportunities for the American metropolis
“In many respects, smart growth is a movement whose time has
come,” says a new report published by the London School of Economics.
“The changing demographics of the country, the restructuring of the
market economy, the rise of congestion, the backlash to excessive
suburbanization – all support the desire for a different pattern of
growth, a different ethos about growth, than the one that has dominated the
American landscape since the end of the second world war.” The report,
written by the Brookings Institute’s Bruce Katz, talks about the state of
the American metropolis and what challenges it needs to address in order to
achieve sustainable communities.
http://www.brookings.edu/dybdocroot/es/urban/publications/20021104katzlse2.htm
Salt Lake City’s downtown revival gaining ground
Salt Lake City’s downtown condos and apartments have grown from 1,900
to 3,300, or 73 percent, over the past five years according to a recent article
in the Salt Lake Tribune. Such growth has made City officials push for
faster reinvigoration of the struggling Main Street corridor and step up their
efforts to encourage more housing throughout the city. The city is
currently looking for sites to purchase and resell to mixed-use developers,
while also helping nonprofit developers financially. Some residents have
cited the downtown’s diversity and convenience as reasons for their move
yet many complain of its increasing price tag and are calling for the city to
put money directly into downtown housing. Source: Salt Lake Tribune,
October 21, 2002
Unions join the smart growth movement
Realizing that sprawl problems are also often unions’ problems,
metropolitan federations of unions are educating their members on how smart
growth and sprawl affect their day-to-day lives according to an op-ed piece by
Greg LeRoy in the Michigan Land Institute. “Teachers, for example,
see how the erosion of the tax base in older areas is a prime cause of school
overcrowding,” LeRoy says. http://www.mlui.org/growthmanagement/fullarticle.asp?fileid=16361
GREEN SPACE
Boston businesses took bold steps
for green space
In their quest to create more green space, some Atlanta leaders are looking
toward an initiative in Boston that creatively combined businesses, parking,
and parks according to a recent article in the Atlanta
Journal-Constitution. Concerned
about green space, some inventive Boston businesses got together to raise funds
and create a park where once there was only a decrepit parking deck. http://www.accessatlanta.com/ajc/opinion/1002/30feiler.html
New Partners for Smart Growth, Jan 30, New Orleans. The main show
in the Smart Growth movement. http://www.outreach.psu.edu/C&I/SmartGrowth
Note to readers: If you have news to
share, or have reports from events, or would like to add additional subscribers
names (it’s free), please let us know at issues@gulfcoastideas.org
Prepared by Catherine Rentz Pernot
_____________________________
David Crossley
Gulf Coast Institute
3015 Richmond Suite 250
Houston TX 77098
Ph 713-523-5757
Fx 713-523-3057
http://www.livablehouston.org
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