New Urbanism and Walkable Communities -
the Theory Behind the New White Flint
The theory behind the new White Flint is simple: change an automobile-centered area into a green, transit-oriented urban community. Thoughtul, green, pedestrian-friendly urban design, instead of mindless, uncontrolled suburban sprawl. The prevailing theory being applied to the White Flint Sector Plan is called "New Urbanism."
New Urbanism is an attempt to be more environmentally-sophisticated by reducing dependence on automobiles, increasing environmental awareness and design, and providing opportunities to develop walkable communities. In many ways, New Urbanism is a return to patterns of human cities over hundreds of years, where people worked, lived and played in small areas without the need to use a vehicle. The modern results, however, can be measured in lower Greenhouse Gas Emissions, improved sustainability, and improved quality of life.
The Congress for New Urbanism has a video explaining New Urbanism.
From Wikipedia:
New Urbanism is an urban design movement that arose in the United States in the early 1980s. Its goal is to reform many aspects of real estate development and urban planning, from urban retrofits to suburban infill. New urbanist neighborhoods are designed to contain a diverse range of housing and jobs, and to be walkable.
New Urbanism can include (neo)traditional neighborhood design, transit-oriented development, and New Pedestrianism. New Urbanism is the re-invention of the old urbanism, commonly seen before the advent of the automobile age, while New Pedestrianism is a further elaboration of less common, pedestrian-oriented, urban design experiments that date to the early 20th century.
One of the first major attempts at New Urbanism in the United States was at Kentlands, in Montgomery County. The current head of the Kentlands Company, Joseph Alfandre, is a member of the Montgomery County Planning Board, and is heavily involved in crafting the White Flint Sector Plan.
New Urbanism in White Flint:
White Flint is one of the last areas in Montgomery County which can be remade in a major way. The Montrose Parkway, whic borders White Flint on its northern edge, is one of the last major road projects which will be built in Montgomery County. Population and economic pressures are moving White Flint steadily away from its suburban history toward a more urban character; New Urbanism attempts to harness that movement in an environmentally- and pedestrian-friendly way, rather than allowing it to develop haphazardly. Urban design, not suburban sprawl.
White Flint has a subway station, an enormous amount of economic activity, and a road network strangled by traffic. Members of the Planning Board have been explicit in their belief that White Flint must be remade into an urban area to maximize its potential, and to satisfy many needs for housing and economic activity in Montgomery County.
Royce Hanson, the Chairman of the Montgomery County Planning Board, recently said that Montgomery County has "outpaced suburban growth standards" and "needs to adopt an urban development model."
Walkable Communities:
One of the leaders of the "walkable communities" movement is Dan Burden, of Walkable Communities. Walkable Communities offers many articles and information resources on how to find, or make, communities which are not automobile-oriented. A Walkable Communities Resources article by Burden, for example, describes what makes up a walkable community:
Walkable Communities Have:
1. Intact town centers. This center includes a quiet, pleasant main street with a hearty, healthy set of stores. These stores are open for business a minimum of 8 hours a day. The stores include things like barbers/beauticians, hardware, druggist, small grocery/deli, sets of good restaurants, clothing, variety store, ice cream shop, stores that attract children, many youth and senior services, places to conduct civic and personal business, library, all within a 1/4 mile walk (5 minutes) of the absolute center. If this is a county seat, the county buildings are downtown. If this is an incorporated town the town hall is in the town center. The library is open for business at least 10 hours a day 6‐7 days a week. There is still a post office downtown.
2. Residential densities, mixed income, mixed use. Near the town center, and in a large town at appropriate transit locations there will be true neighborhoods. Higher densities are toward the town center and in appropriate concentrations further out. Housing includes mixed income and mixed use. A truly walkable community does not force lots of people to drive to where they work. Aspen, for example, is a great place to shop and play...but fails to provide housing for anyone who works there. Granny flats,
design studios and other affordable housing are part of the mix in even the wealthiest neighborhoods.
3. Public Space. There are many places for people to assemble, play and associate with others within their neighborhood. The best neighborhoods have welcoming public space within 1/8th mile (700 feet) of all homes. These spaces are easily accessed by all people.
4. Universal Design. The community has a healthy respect for people of all abilities, and has appropriate ramps, medians, refuges, crossings of driveways, sidewalks on all streets where needed, benches, shade and other basic amenities to make walking feasible and enjoyable for everyone.
5. Key Streets Are Speed Controlled. Traffic moves on main street and in neighborhoods at safe, pleasant, courteous speeds. Most streets are designed to keep speeds low. Many of these streets are tree lined, have on‐street parking and use other methods that are affordable means to keep traffic speeds under control. There is an absence of one‐way couplets designed to flush downtown of its traffic in a rush or flight to the suburbs. In most parts of the nation the streets are also green, or have other pleasant landscaping schemes in dry climates.
6. Streets, Trails are Well Linked. The town has good block form, often in a grid or other highly connected pattern. Although hilly terrain calls for slightly different patterns, the linkages are still frequent. Some of the newer neighborhoods that were built to cul‐de‐sac or other fractured patterns are now being repaired for walking by putting in trail connectors in many places. These links are well designed so that there are many eyes on these places. Code for new streets no longer permits long streets that are disconnected.
7. Design is Properly Scaled to 1/8th, 1/4 and 1/2 mile radius segments. From most homes it is possible to get to most services in ¼ mile (actual walked distance). Neighborhood elementary schools are within a ¼ mile walking radius of most homes, while high schools are accessible to most children (1 mile radius). Most important features (parks) are within 1/8th mile, and a good, well designed place to wait for a high frequency (10‐20 minutes) bus is within ¼ to ½ mile. Note that most of these details can be seen on a good local planning map, and even many can be downloaded from the web.
8. Town is Designed for People. Look for clues that decisions are being made for people first, cars second. Does the town have a lot of open parking lots downtown? Are a lot of streets plagued with multiple commercial driveways, limited on‐street parking, fast turning radii on corners. Towns designed for people have many investments being made in plazas, parks, walkways ... rarely are they investing in decongesting intersections on the far reaches of town. Towns designed for people are tearing down old, non‐historic dwellings, shopping plazas and such and converting them to compact, mixed use, mixed income properties. Ask to review the past year of building permits by category. Much is told about what percentage of construction that is infill and independent small builder stock versus big builder single price range housing or retail stock.
9. Town is Thinking Small. The most walkable towns are boldly stepping forward requiring maximum parking allowed, versus minimum required. Groceries and other important stores are not permitted to build above a reasonable square footage, must place the foot print of the structure to the street, etc. Palo
Alto, for instance, caps their groceries at 20,000 square feet. This assures that groceries, drug stores and other important items are competitive at a size that is neighborhood friendly. Neighborhood schools
are community centers. Older buildings are rebuilt in place, or converted to modern needs. Most parking is on‐street.
10. In Walkable Communities There Are Many People Walking. This sounds like a silly statement at first ... but think again. Often there are places that look walkable, but no one walks. Why? There is always a reason. Is it crime? Is it that there is no place to walk to, even though the streets and walkways are pleasant? Are the downtown stores not open convenient hours? You should be able to see a great diversity of those walking and bicycling. Some will be very young, some very old. People with disabilities will be common. Another clue, where people walk in great abundance virtually all motorists are courteous to pedestrians. It is true.
11. The Town and Neighborhoods have a Vision. Seattle, Washington, Portland, Oregon and Austin, Texas are just three examples where neighborhood master plans have been developed. Honolulu sets aside about $1M per year of funds to be spent by each neighborhood. Visionary, master plans provide
direction, build ownership of citizens, engage diverse people, and create opportunities for implementation, to get past sticky issues, and deal with the most basic, fundamental, necessary decisions and commitment. There are budgets set aside for neighborhoods, for sidewalks, trails, links, parks. The community no longer talks about where they will get the money, but how they will change their priorities.
12. Decision Makers Are Visionary, Communicative, and Forward Thinking. The town has a strong majority of leaders who "get it". Leaders know that they are not to do all the work ... but to listen and respond to the most engaged, involved, broad minded citizens. They rarely are swayed by the anti‐group, they seek the opinions and involvement big brush citizens and retailers. They are purposefully changing and building policies, practices, codes and decisions to make their towns pleasant places for people ... reinvesting in the town center, disinfesting in sprawl. These people know the difference between a green field, brown field and grey field. They know what Active Living by Design is all about. The regional government understands and supports the building of a town center, and is not attempting to take funds from the people at the center to induce or support sprawl. Often there is a charismatic leader on the town board, chamber of commerce, planning board, there is an architectural review team, a historic preservation effort, and overall good public process. Check out the web site of the town ... if they focus on their golf courses, tax breaks, great medical services, scenic majestic mountains, or proximity to the sea ... fail to emphasize their neighborhood schools, world class library, lively downtown, focus on citizen participation ... they are lost, bewitched and bewildered in their own lust and lure of Walt Disney's Pleasure Island.
Many other materials are available at: http://www.walkable.org/resources.html. You can also visit the Congress for New Urbanism, and NewUrbanism.org.