Planning and Zoning News Podcast

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Farmers’ markets, food trucks, nightclubs and even bicycle parking would be regulated in the new zoning ordinance proposed for Providence.

urbnist: Just imagine: a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood. Man,...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Wed, 11 Dec 2013 08:40:55 -0500

urbnist:

Just imagine: a walkable, mixed-use neighborhood. Man, what an idea.

Photo

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 17:39:12 -0500

urbangeographies: AGRI-URBAN SPECTRUM: Designed by Stephen’s...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 22:45:32 -0500

urbangeographies:

AGRI-URBAN SPECTRUM: Designed by Stephen’s Planning, this infographic illustrates different sustainable agricultural methods at different points in the rural-urban continuum. As you can see, there are ways for every kind of community to get involved in promoting a sustainable food system:

1. Silviculture/forestry: preserve and manage forests by controlling growth, soil erosion and quality, and various other methods.

2. Aquaculture/fishery: cultivating and harvesting marine organisms in a controlled envrionment

3. Agriculture/farm/ranch: traditional forms of harvesting crops or raising livestock

4. Viticulture/vineyard: managing vineyards such as controlling pests, fertilizing, watering and maintaining

5. Organic farming: restrictions on pesticide use, sustainable farming practices. For more information on organics click here

6. Agri-tourism/farm stay: usually increases awareness about farming practices by encouraging the community to visit or stay at the farm.

7. Farm stand: a location where farmers sell their own produce

8. Boutique farm: farms that offer other services like bed and breakfasts or unique and special products

9. Backyard animals: owning your own sources of livestock, like a goat or a chicken co-op

10. Raised garden bed: a form of home gardening with a planter a few feet of the ground, which can keep pests away and keep crops warmer and away from less than ideal soils

11. Edible landscape: instead of filling your garden with flowers, using vegetables and edible plants to landscape your yard or even in public spaces (e.g., functional fruit trees instead or ornamentals on side walks)

12. Greenhouse: a way of continuing agriculture despite natural weather occurrences. On one hand this keeps food available in winter, but they are heavy on energy use and cost a lot to maintain.

13. Farmer’s Markets: a central location where farmers in the area can sell their produce to the community

14. Community garden: gardens that are open to all community members where everyone works to maintain the garden, along with having the benefits of taking home the produce grown

15. Civic/park garden: a similar concept as community gardens but sponsored by the city or governing body

16. Market/street festival: similar to a farmer’s market but extends to all community businesses; allows the community to come together by exposion to individual projects.

17. Community supported agriculture: members of a community purchase a share of a farms crop, and in return, receives a box of produce from that farm

18. Roof-top gardens: becoming popular in urban settings, adding green vegetation and reducing energy by keeping the building by keeping it cool in the summer and warm in the winter

19: Living building: perhaps the most sustainable architecture conceivable, as the building incorporates living vegetation. For more info click here

20. Vertical farm: Planting tiers of crops throughout highrise buildings. Still conceptual, but relevant to conditions of global urbanization. For more information click here

Source: openhands

Planning and Zoning News Podcast - Episode 8

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Sun, 01 Dec 2013 19:35:29 -0500

Planning and Zoning News Podcast - Episode 8

Articles

The Challenges of Re:Coding L.A.

The Woodlands’ New Urban Face Challenges Suburban Feel

Populist Urbanism: Beyond the Creative Class

Ways to Fail at Form-Based Codes 03: Misapply the Transect (to the region rather than the neighborhood)

El Paso Teaches New Urbanism to Architects, Engineers

Planning and Zoning News Podcast - Episode 7

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Sun, 27 Oct 2013 21:21:00 -0400

Planning and Zoning News Podcast - Episode 7

Article Links:

Toronto’s Advertising Sign Companies Push Hard for Digital Billboards

The Case for Cul-de-Sacs

Strong Towns for Conservatives

Ways to Fail at Form-Based Codes 02: Make it Mandatory Citywide

We Seek Your Help in Forging a New Plan of Chicago

Light, Quick And Cheap: The Big Shift In Urban Planning - Forbes

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Thu, 24 Oct 2013 13:50:36 -0400

Light, Quick And Cheap: The Big Shift In Urban Planning - Forbes

mapsontheweb: Relaxed & Creative Regions of America The...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:03:02 -0400

mapsontheweb:

Relaxed & Creative Regions of America

The psychological profile of this region is marked by low Extraversion and Agreeableness, very low Neuroticism, and very high Openness… In general, the qualities of this region depict a place where open-mindedness, tolerance, individualism, and happiness are valued.

Article and more maps: There Are Three Americas Hiding Inside Our Country - Which Do You Live In?

via josephtbradley

The ABC of City Planning

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Tue, 22 Oct 2013 14:00:05 -0400

The ABC of City Planning:

A kids book from 1937 explaining urban planning in New York City

thenewurbanist: Heart of Peoria Plan by DPZ The historic street...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Sun, 13 Oct 2013 08:12:37 -0400

thenewurbanist:

Heart of Peoria Plan by DPZ

The historic street grid of Peoria reveals a strong underlying structure of walkable neighborhoods. The charrette team observed locations of neighborhood centers by studying historic maps and existing conditions, in an effort to establish what is currently or had once been neighborhood-related commercial activity.

Based on these observations, the team developed a map of neighborhood centers and their surrounding pedestrian sheds—the quarter-mile, 5-minute walking area within which a person will choose to walk over drive. Some locations are suited for a more intensive mix of uses, capable of serving a broader neighborhood with a greater selection of goods and services. These locations fall at the center of a wider pedestrian shed, defined by a half-mile radius or a 10-minute walk.

The resulting map identifies specific opportunities for completing and strengthening the existing neighborhoods. One of the first tasks undertaken by the charrette team was a review of the current zoning codes and future land use map. The general recommendation is that the City should pursue a reorganizing and streamlining of its zoning code using a transect-based system.

Toward this end, the Heart of Peoria Plan proposes a series of specific interventions that would enable a translation of existing zoning into transect-based classifications. The Transect is a system of classification of human habitats based on a conceptual continuum from the most rural to the most urban conditions. This system makes it possible to specify the character of the typical elements of the built environment—streets, buildings, landscaping, etc.—in a way that is appropriate to different kinds of places located at different points along this continuum. For example, a street is more urban than a road, a curb is more urban than a swale, a brick wall more urban than a wooden fence, and an allee of trees more urban than a picturesquely arranged cluster.

seltaire: A collection of landscape shoots from Vermont by the...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 22:37:45 -0400

seltaire:

A collection of landscape shoots from Vermont by the esteemed photographer QT Luong, a huge inspiration of mines. I no longer feel roused to move anywhere else but here. Happy Fall!

Vermont fall colors

urbanresolve: itscolossal: Vertical Aerial: A Monumental 3-Ton...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 07:21:30 -0400

urbanresolve:

itscolossal:

Vertical Aerial: A Monumental 3-Ton Aerial Mosaic of Johannesburg

So cool!

urbangeographies: U.S. cities: Where can the middle classes...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 07:12:40 -0400

urbangeographies:

U.S. cities: Where can the middle classes still afford to live?

The most expensive U.S. cities are increasingly unaffordable for even the upper-middle class – those relatively well off by local standards. Even though expensive cities tend to offer higher incomes, the disproportionate rise in housing prices makes it even harder to live in such cities as San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York. As reported in The Atlantic Cities, real-estate data calculated by Trulia shows that only 14 percent of those earning the median income in San Francisco can now afford to buy a home there. In more affordable Akron, Ohio, 86 percent of the homes on the market this month are within reach of households with the local median income. The tables above show the cities currently considered the most and least expensive according to this measure of real-estate affordability.

thenewurbanist: Uptown Dardenne Prairie, Missouri Located in...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Fri, 11 Oct 2013 07:07:13 -0400

thenewurbanist:

Uptown Dardenne Prairie, Missouri

Located in St. Charles County, one of the fastest growing counties in Missouri, Dardenne Prairie is a small city located about thirty five miles west of St. Louis. When incorporated in 1981 the City was rural, consisting mainly of farmland. As the local population grew in accordance with the expansion of the St. Louis metropolitan area, and the area’s infrastructure was enhanced commensurately, City officials recognized the need for a City master plan.

In an effort to accommodate this growth and avoid sprawl-style, piecemeal development prevalent in nearby suburban municipalities, the City hired DPZ to design a new downtown on three infill sites. The opportunity to retrofit a fourth already-developed site was identified during the charrette and planned in consultation with City officials. The new mixed-use ‘Uptown’ area is intended to provide the town with a civic core and to offer an example of compact, mixed-use development. Through the provision of quality services and amenities, Dardenne Prairie’s new core will help create a desirable job base and enhance its residents’ quality of life.

The plan includes four sectors, each with a distinct character and function that features a mix of commercial, residential and civic offerings. The sectors include a town center, a live/work area, a technology employment campus and a mixed-use community center retrofitted from an existing strip shopping center. Prominent landmarks within these sectors include the historic Church of the Immaculate Conception, which is framed by the street network in order to offer views from the site’s many civic spaces; the preserved baseball field, which is framed with mixed-use buildings and a new City Hall; and the technology employment campus, which is located at the highest-visibility site along Interstate (I-40).

These districts are designed to become a unified, comprehensive center for the community connected by pedestrian-friendly thoroughfares. Accordingly, proposed traffic network changes include the adaptation of a proposed highway extension into a treelined boulevard, as well as the creation of a network of paths designated for pedestrians and bicyclists; enhancing both its connectivity and walkability.

Planning and Zoning News Podcast - Episode 6

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 19:39:00 -0400

Planning and Zoning News Podcast - Episode 6

Article Links:

To Connect or Not to Connect?

Strong Towns for Libertarians

I Have a Problem With Your “Issues”

Ways to Fail at Form-Based Codes 1: Don’t Articulate a Vision

City Tosses Out Residential Parking Requirements

urbanination: Avenue d’Lena, Paris.

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:48:15 -0400

urbanination:

Avenue d’Lena, Paris.

archimaps: Inside the lobby of an office building on 29th...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 22:46:58 -0400

archimaps:

Inside the lobby of an office building on 29th Street and 5th Avenue, New York City

citymaus: NYC DOT turned 9th Ave. in Manhattan into a complete...

brianmabry@gmail.com (Brian Mabry) — Fri, 04 Oct 2013 20:50:50 -0400

The only good way to ride down this street was at a hell-bent pace, taking a lane, praying that raging drivers would see you and respect your physical safety.

A physically separated bicycle lane and quality pedestrian crosswalks.

citymaus:

NYC DOT turned 9th Ave. in Manhattan into a complete street in 2009.

Is there any wonder why Janette Sadik-Khan has become an icon to livable cities advocates and transportation wonks?

News From New York: The ABC’s of Trial Plazas and Complete Streets. streetsblog, 02.04.09.

she’s my hero!!