Being married to a guy who grew up in North Dakota has made me very aware that the word “urbanism” doesn’t mean the same thing to everyone.  As generally used and understood academically, urbanism is not about cities and city life per se (as opposed to villages, towns, suburbs, etc.);  rather it refers to the development patterns of human civilization in organized clusters. In this sense, it applies to the places that most people live. (I live in a small city of roughly 20,000–if I include the 5000 college students who are temporary residents–and urbanism and urban planning are very relevant to my community, whether most people are aware of it or not.)

May 10-12 was the 20th Congress for the New Urbanism.*

*  “New Urbanism” is also a misnomer, as it really means “the way that most of Europe and North America was built before about 1920″ (a/k/a before the era when Henry Ford’s innovation profoundly changed certain aspects of human civilization).  So New Urbanism is really just old urbanism trying to understand how to recover the best parts of what was lost when America  departed from humanity’s collective understanding of the previous 5000+ years of settlement.

Again, I digress; this post is really about the CNU20 conference. New Urbanism has its detractors, but one of the things I appreciate most about CNU is that it’s interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary, and perhaps even more significant, appears able to acknowledge criticism and embrace divergent points of view within its ranks. This, to me, is a mark of intellectual honesty, and an organization that can continue to grow and thrive as new facts and new ideas are evaluated and assimilated. So, I was genuinely inspired by even my  secondhand exposure to the ideas of people from so many different backgrounds who came together around a central theme.

Anyone unfortunate enough to spend time with me last weekend found me glued to my smartphone, making lame apologies as I followed the Twitter stream and live blogging from the conference. All week I’ve been trying to set aside time to write up a recap, since there were so many terrific resources to share and ideas to discuss. I’m sure those who were actually in attendance at CNU20 were either on an adrenalin high, or feared their heads would explode, or both. As it turns out, my procrastination worked in my favor, because it gave time for all those people to return home and write up their views on the event, which makes my task of sharing resources much easier. Plus, most of them are much funnier, more cogent, and/or more detailed than I’m likely to be.

So let’s get to it. If you’re not interested in the wonkish aspect, but just want to hit the highlights:

• Start with this YouTube video of Richard Florida (of “Creative Class” fame) at the Friday plenary session, of whom one tweeter said, to my great amusement, “I was hoping he would run out to the Star Wars music, maybe with a cape?”

• If you hate video for being too linear and can handle maybe a few too many inside jokes, read this summary of the conference by Canadian writer Chris Turner. The link is part 2 of 2; if you like it or have the stamina, go back and read part 1 and follow those links too.
• Another summary I appreciated is this one by architect and urban planner Erin Chantry, who addresses  some of the critiques of New Urbanism, and also offers a terrific explanation of  why streets and street designs are so important to get right.

Speaking of streets, one of my favorite tidbits from the conference was watching the rising star of Minnesota native Chuck Marohn of StrongTowns.org and in particular his clever and memorable description of stroads, “the futon of transportation options”.  I love seeing the idea gaining traction: 1) because it’s true, and 2) because Chuck is a great guy, and one I hope more people can listen to.

And speaking of Strong Towns, Chuck made several podcasts from recordings he took at the conference; I’d like to call your particular attention to the one by Andrew Burleson regarding some of the quantitative benefits of New Urbanism/old urbanism development (for the developers, realtors, free marketeer types out there who are skeptical of all this). More on the economic benefits of good urbanism here.

Some of the best tweets from the conference came from Steve Mouzon of The Original Green, (@stevemouzon) who was excellent at capturing and distilling some of the more significant comments from the presenters.   Subliminal message – BUY HIS EXCELLENT BOOK.

Of course, no talk of CNU, especially from me, would be complete without mention of the thinking woman’s (ok,  maybe the thinking woman urbanist of a certain age’s) sex symbol , Andrés Duany, who followed CNU co-founder Dan Solomon in the opening address to the congress. Duany starts at about the 34-minute mark, but listen to the whole thing. His address included a rousing libertarian-style defense of the suburbs… sort of (at roughly the 57-minute mark).

This has been much, much longer than I anticipated, and I feel like I barely skimmed the surface. For more links to resources, summaries, etc. I’ll refer you to the #CNU20 hashtag on Twitter.  I hope to be able to summarize live next year from #CNU21 in Salt Lake City; then perhaps I can do shorter and more focused posts…. just more of them.

I read an interesting article about leadership in Forbes, which was very thought-provoking. Though the article’s focus is business leadership, its message is also relevant to the public sector (especially in an election year) as well as to leaders and leadership in general.  If I wanted to be snarky, I might observe that the people who talk about leadership the most are often providing it the least. But I don’t want to be snarky.

When creating the IBM Executive School, there was a desire to identify and measure the skills that go into the makeup of great leaders.  After the good folks at Educational Testing Service (the makers and administrators of the S.A.T.)  failed to determine any meaningful way to quantify the information gathered, the IBM exec in charge had an epiphany:

. . . after many a dark night of the soul [Mobley] finally hit upon the answer. Unlike supervisors and middle managers, what successful executives shared were not skills and knowledge but values and attitudes.

I won’t list the values and attitudes themselves here – go read the article – but I found some of the conclusions drawn from the list quite interesting. Among them:

• Leaders are comfortable with nuance and shades of gray.  Great leaders are able to hold apparent contradictions in tension. They use the tension these paradoxes produce to come up with innovative ideas.
  
• True leaders aren’t threatened by differences of opinion, and in fact welcome it.  They surround themselves with the best people they can find: people strong enough to hold a contrary opinion and argue vociferously. . .
  
• They want to be held to account, not avoid responsibility.  Great leaders want to be measured and evaluated. They continually look for ways to measure things that may seem immeasurable, and they cheerfully accept the blame when they are wrong or fail to deliver.
  
• They understand the value of interdisciplinary and cross-disciplinary thinking.  They constantly dive below surface “facts” searching for new ways to knit those facts together. . .  They know that the answers they are seeking will probably emerge from outside business and from disciplines that may seem utterly unrelated.

Okay, let’s see…. comfortable with ambiguity, desire to be held to account, welcomes different opinions, understands that genuine solutions don’t typically arise from conventional sources…  I’m not seeing a lot of that.  We face a lot of challenges – personally, in our community, and globally – and never has the dearth of genuine leaders been so noticeable to me.

I’ll be mulling this over as I decide whom to vote for, and which civic horses I choose to back in dealing with the multiplicity of challenges we face in Northfield and beyond.

But I don’t want to be a spoiler. Read it for yourself:   10 Leadership Lessons from the IBM Executive School.

I don’t think this video was originally intended to be humorous, but I have to admit to laughing regularly throughout the commentary. And I don’t think Chuck of Strong Towns was trying to be terribly funny, either.

By the way – don’t miss Strong Towns’ Curbside Chat on Nov. 29 in Northfield! Let’s hope there will be more details soon on the City website.

First Ward Councillor (and former Planning Commissioner) Suzie Nakasian included a status update on the Land Development Code in her report of 2011 Council activities to date:

Thanks to many months of devoted work by the Northfield Planning Commission, we now have an draft LDC that reflects the land use principles that are articulated in the 2008 Northfield Comprehensive Plan. This consistency will help insure that the built environment we will see in 2030 is one we will welcome! There will no doubt be details to correct, and kinks to work out once the LDC is adopted, but overall the new code brings forward a workable “blueprint” for future land use in the community.

Reading her update made me realize that I should do the same.  I’ll post details later this week.

The Northfield Planning Commission is holding a public information meeting next Monday, Feb. 14, at 7:00p at Community Resource Bank, to present the draft of the Land Development Code and to answer questions and hear comments from the public.  (See the announcement on the City website, and this post in the Northfield News.)

The Planning Commission is trying to get the word out. This morning I spoke with Scott Peterson from KYMN Radio about the meeting and its purpose; he’ll have  information via news broadcast and on the station’s website. Notice has been submitted to Northfield.org, and I’ll mention it on Locally Grown as well as here. Please help spread the word! (Patch! Where are you?!)

The Planning Commission had hoped to have an “FAQ” of sorts on the City website, to help people navigate the unwieldy document, something along the lines of,  “If you want to know about ordinances regarding building a garage, shed, or outbuilding, see Sec. X.xx“, or “If you’re looking for information about ___________, see Sec. XX.xx“, but that was just too much for City staff to put together under the current timeline.

As I said to Scott at KYMN, if anyone has specific questions, or ideas that could help us more effectively shape the presentation next Monday, please send an email to LDC@citycommons.net – this forwards to both my email, and to City staff.

Hey! How did it get to be February already?

I’ve been so preoccupied with the Land Development Code, work demands, and family schedules that I didn’t do my Happy New Year post and 2010 recap.  Rather than trying to “catch up”, which I’ve learned is almost impossible, I’ll just jump right in with a few items.

First, the Land Development Code: The Planning Commission turned over the draft to the City Council at their December work session. The Council requested that we hold a public information meeting to present the draft and ask for feedback.  This has been scheduled for Monday, Feb. 14 at 7:00p. I hope to have more details and content about this meeting posted on the City website soon. After that meeting, the Planning Commission will compile the feedback along with any response, if necessary, and present that to the City Council at their March 8 work session. Stay tuned for further developments.

Planning Commission activities in January consisted mostly of housekeeping issues – tying up loose ends on the LDC, mapping out the process for public meetings, reviewing bylaws and electing officers, brainstorming our 2011 goals, etc.

In the “web roundup” department, here are a few tidbits:

• An excellent article from StrongTowns.org on why community emphasis should be on resilience, not growth. I sent this around to all our City Councillors and Planning Commissioners.
• Interesting implications from a 3-year Gallup study:  Passion for community related to economic growth.

  A three-year Gallup study of 26 US cities found that peoples’ love and passion for their community may be a leading indicator for local economic growth. Surprisingly, social offerings, openness, and beauty are far more important than peoples’ perceptions of the economy, jobs, or basic services in creating a lasting emotional bond between people and their community.
  The 26 cities in the survey with the highest levels of . . . “community attachment,” also had the highest rates of GDP growth over time.

• From Planetizen.com: Placemaking: Practices Evolve, Basics Remain (timeless qualities and modern techniques in placemaking)
• Crowdsourcing, empowering the locals, innovative market research. Whatever you call it, “I Wish This Was is a very cool idea.





• And now for something completely different: New York subway as a stringed instrument (visualization, with sound)

That’s all for now.

On 11/16, the Northfield City Council approved a motion requesting the Planning Commission “to review the two CUP applications, and make a recommendation to the City Council for the Dec. 7 meeting”.

Here’s the context.  There are two Conditional Use Permit (CUP) applications for wind turbines before the Rice County Planning Commission. The Northfield Planning Commission and City Council have no jurisdiction in these matters, but Rice County ordinances establish an “urban reserve” district, essentially a one-mile-wide belt around our current municipal boundaries, which has certain limits on development; and,

Notice of all proposed plats, variances and conditional use permits shall be submitted to the adjacent incorporated municipality and the appropriate township for review and comment at least ten days prior to the scheduled appearance before the Planning Commission. All reviews and comments by these affected parties shall be submitted in writing to the Planning Commission. (510.05 Intergovernmental Powers Review)

This is meant to ensure that adjacent municipalities have a chance to weigh in on things that may happen in their urban reserve. I  believe it’s the City Council’s intent to provide written comments to the Rice County Planning Commission, and that’s why they’ve asked for a recommendation from the Northfield Planning Commission on the suitability of granting these two CUPs.

Both CUPs happen to be in the Urban Reserve district and are subject to the same process; the circumstances of each application are different. The Northfield Planning Commission will review Northfield’s various planning documents to determine whether granting either or both of these CUPs would limit Northfield’s planning and land use options in a way incompatible with our Comprehensive Plan.

The Planning Commission will be taking information and formulating its recommendation to the City Council on a special meeting on Monday, Nov. 29, 7:00p.

The “Friday Memo” tradition is being continued by Interim City Administrator Tim Madigan. The memo, intended to summarize the week’s activities at City Hall, is written by the City Administrator and various City staff. The Friday Memos are published and archived in PDF format at the bottom of the City Administrator’s web page. Once a month, the Friday Memo also includes a report from the various City boards and commissions.

I missed last week’s memo; here it is (PDF). Most departments were focused on flood cleanup activities.

This week’s memo (PDF) has several juicy bits:

• Preparations for upcoming election
• Updates on flood recovery, legislative actions, loans and grants available
• Summary of the week’s many library activities and community participation in same

Also, an important note from the Streets department – Don’t push leaves and yard waste into the street. (“Just a reminder during this fall season, citizens are not allowed to rake, blow or discharge debris into City streets as per the Storm Water Ordinance. . . “)

There is a City Council meeting this week; you can view upcoming City meetings on the City Calendar.

[See previous Friday Memos on my blog, and on Locally Grown]

NOTE: This informational update was included in the monthly Boards & Commissions report (PDF) in the City Administrator’s Friday Memo for Oct. 1, but I like the idea of also making the report available on the web in text form, with easily accessible links.

The Planning Commission continued to meet weekly (and sometimes more than once per week) through September. As of this writing the Commission remains on the aggressive schedule for Land Development Code review set by the City Council.

September accomplishments include:

• Completed regulations for the C1 District.
• Completed 85% of the regulations for the C2 District; introduced the concept of a “two-track” approval process to provide greater flexibility to developers in meeting zoning district goals and objectives.
• Completed draft of the LDC Parking Regulations, including the introduction of standards for bicycle parking.
• Met with the City Council to review C2 District and Parking Regulations.
• Met jointly with the EDA and Business Park Steering Committee to review the development guidelines prepared by the consultants for the proposed business park
• Held public hearing and heard request for zoning district change. The Planning Commission recommended that the zone change request be denied as it was not the appropriate or preferred mechanism for addressing issues concerning artisan’s workshops in residential zones.
• Participated in the public Open House for the business park master plan; met after the open house with HKG representatives and the Economic Development Manager to discuss Planning Commission questions and concerns regarding the residential and retail components included in the master plan.
• Established liaison with the Dundas Planning Commission.
• Received report from Dundas PC liaison: “The City of Dundas has been working on an updated Parks & Trail Plan. The plan is nearing completion and input is being sought from the Park Board on the draft vision statement, guiding principles, policies, and trail map. After the input is received, the final draft of the plan can be completed for review and/or public review. “
• Attended the informational meeting between Carleton College and the Northfield East Side Neighborhood Association (two commissioners)
• Gathered at the last September meeting to recognize and thank City Planner Dan Olson for his years of service to Northfield and his work on the LDC.

For October, the Planning Commission anticipates continued progress on the review and revision of the draft Land Development Code, beginning with the Landscaping section, which includes an anticipated state-of-the-art “Recommended Tree” list compiled by the Tree Advisory Group of the Environmental Quality Commission.

- Submitted by Suzie Nakasian, September 30, 2010

The “Friday Memo” tradition is being continued by Interim City Administrator Tim Madigan. The memo, intended to summarize the week’s activities at City Hall, is written by the City Administrator and various  City staff. The Friday Memos are published and archived in PDF format at the bottom of the City Administrator’s web page. Once a month, the Friday Memo also includes a report from the various City boards and commissions.

As you might expect, this week’s memo (PDF) contains some administrative and regulatory details about the recent flood event and follow-up, particularly regarding parks, streets, water, and wastewater treatment. This week’s memo page also includes the Boards & Commissions report (PDF) for September.

There is a City Council meeting this week; you can view upcoming City meetings on the City Calendar.

[See previous Friday Memos on my blog, and on Locally Grown]