Planning

New Urbanism

New Urbanism is a 1980s movement that promotes more walkability and the restoration of the true definition of a neighborhood. It bases its ideas upon past urban communities and has similarities to Smart Growth. New Urbanism hopes to preserve the natural environment and use the infrastructure that already exists being based upon the Transect, which “uses environmental methodology towards the creation of community design by developing zoning areas that encompass the natural progression from rural, natural settings to dense urban core environments” (Miami 21). New Urbanism takes into account the walkability, connectivity, mixed uses and housing, quality architecture and urban design, traditional neighborhood structure, higher density, smart transportation, sustainability, and quality of life when retrofitting an area. It is at times criticized for being too nostalgic, often appearing like a neighborhood of dollhouses or being exclusively for wealthier residents, and not allowing for privacy which Americans have in the last half-century been so conditioned to crave.

New Urbanism critics use Celebration and Seaside, Florida as examples of artificial, planned communities which also appear to be isolated, exclusive settlements.  Celebration, in Orlando, is a fifteen year old Disney-owned community which claims it has a “diverse” population and a public spirit in which residents can become friendly with their neighbors. For a family who would like to experience the traditional all-American lifestyle, with neighborhood events, sports and school programs, civic groups and committees for those who’d like to get involved, and private facilities, residing in Celebration is perfect. The architecture exudes a small town America look, with lovely front porches, southern style homes, corner cafes and a fountain square. Similarly, Seaside has the pastel house, picket fence look, but for my taste, it’s a bit more realistic. It has the ice cream shop and the bike paths and a mix of Victorian, Antebellum, and Charleston influenced architecture, which makes me see the place as more of a quaint vacation spot. The perfection present in both of these communities leads us to believe that they are just exclusive for like-minded people who can afford to live perfectly assembled lives. Why don’t we just implement some of these ideas into our real world instead of creating separate, escapist communities? Peter Calthorpe, co-founder of the Congress of New Urbanism, understands that the New Urbanist method will not appeal to everyone, just for this reason, nor will it be able to replace all suburbs, but it is advocating affordable housing, placing middle-class homes in wealthier neighborhoods, and trying to bring townhomes, single and family housing, and rental and ownership homes together in one neighborhood. He realizes it could be called “crime” in suburbs and “gentrification” in cities, frightening to local residents, but it can be compromised (Lehrer).

from Seaside, Fl's main website gallery

Smart Growth

Smart Growth, began as a 1970s anti-sprawl movement, and now attempts to plan public spaces while taking into account environmental sensitivities, economic viabilities, sustainability, and community. Miami is currently implementing this trend through its Urban Boundary Line, which prevents further growth into the Florida Everglades. Smart Growth’s core principles are based on mixed use, compact building design, different housing opportunities, walkability, attractive communities that have a sense of place, preservation of natural beauty and environment, development toward existing communities, transportation choices,  predictable and cost-effective development, and collaboration of community  and stakeholder in development decisions. The Environmental Protection Agency, Smart Growth America, and the Florida Department of Health currently support and promote these principles. Miami’s current zoning code, 11000, keeps uses scattered, so growth spreads out across the city. Commercial and residential neighborhoods “require expansive buffers,”  however, if Miami21 implements Smart Growth strategies, “commercial corridors” would be retrofitted so that residents would have amenities close enough to them so they wouldn’t have to drive (Miami 21). More condominiums would be built with businesses on their ground floors to promote more housing diversity and neighborhood compactness. Under our current zoning code, “retail or any other use,” is not allowed in the same building as a residential building. In Smart Growth, coffee shops, restaurants, and drycleaners are permitted on the ground floors of the same building bringing pedestrian activity closer to home. What separates Smart Growth from other planning trends is that it takes advantage of already existing infrastructure and conserves resources by using specific strategies to enhance a site. Since Miami has a lot of physical space and potential for improvement, using Smart Growth may be the best bet for urbanizing the city, without requiring too much new development.

from Suffolk County website

Sustainable LEED

Sustainable LEED is a development technique which focuses on actual building practices and architecture. Buildings which are LEED-certified meet the terms of sustainable development which defined by the United Nations is “development that meets social and economic goals without the depletion of resources, by protecting the environment, and by ensuring health and human welfare.” LEED architecture takes into account water savings, energy efficiency and resources selection, and quality of indoor environments. In Miami, the Kendall and the downtown Wolfson campuses of Miami Dade College has designed its future campus centers to be LEED- certified with large public spaces, mixed uses, energy efficient windows, and upward building. The College’s architectural decisions are hoped to pioneer a city-wide architectural transformation.

from Miami 21's Planning Trends

TOD 

The fourth plan is TOD, transit-oriented development, which as mentioned previously, means increasing density and walkability in neighborhoods especially around transit routes. These areas will have more pedestrian facilities, reduced parking spaces and ratios, and they will make buildings smaller the farther away they are from transit nodes. Curitiba, Brazil, has become a pioneer city in the transit-oriented city movement. Curitiba’s urban planners have taken a holistic approach over the last generation to solve the city’s ills. They implemented a bus system, that is  color-coded including a tourism bus line. Curitiba’s success partly results from independent leadership by innovative civil engineers and an investment in environmental education for the general population. Jaime Lerner, the leading architect in the project, proposed to minimize sprawl. This idea as well as a main linear transit route to provide quick and direct routes taking commuters in and out of the city was included in the master plan. Other innovations have included Brazil’s first pedestrian-only street, a trinary road design to minimize traffic, regional instead of centralized government, and a citywide recycling program.  

Curitiba’s traffic arteries prioritize public transit use. For example, there are five different types of buses. These include express buses, which only run in public transit- exclusive arteries for buses only. Rapid buses, share the same concept, but they run on main streets as well, and serve on demand. They accommodate all types of passengers, and their stations, which are tube-shaped, protect commuters from bad weather conditions. A third type, a “bi-articulated” bus travels on the outside of high capacity lanes. They are actually three buses combined in one, capable of transporting 270 passengers. The fourth type, inter-district buses link the routes of the express bus to the bi-articulated bus. They operate within sectors of the city between arteries. The fifth type, feeder buses, run with normal traffic and transfer passengers to stations called “District Terminals” which are surrounded by new urban and commercial activity. Due to this change, the city carries fifty times the number of passengers compared to twenty years ago. Only 10% of a person’s yearly income is spent on transport. As a result, Curitiba’s living environment is admirable.

from D.C. Streetblogs 

If Miami implemented Smart Growth, the car would become unnecessary as a result of the neighborhood becoming a TOD; parking lots could be transformed into pedestrian zones by being cut in half. If architecturally possible, Cutler Bay’s strip malls roofs could be built on top of, or new buildings would be constructed in terms of LEED methods. Parking garages could replace parking lots or be created on top of businesses. This is one way to increase density. 

To increase walkability, sidewalks should be pushed back and made consistent. In New Urbanism, such techniques are used. Also, in existing cookie- cutter neighborhoods with houses and streets in a straight line, houses could be retrofitted, being brought closer to sidewalks and the backs of houses facing alleyways with garages so that residents can walk out of the front of their homes instead of driving out of them. Crosswalks should be made visible. Parallel parking or bike paths could be placed on unused paved spaces. Parallel parking, according to New Urbanism, protects pedestrians. It makes lanes smaller, creating less traffic and discourages people from driving larger vehicles.

As walkability is said to increase economic options for businesses, empty lots could be transformed into small businesses which could begin to thrive or into public spaces like parks. To use another local example, near my neighborhood is the large expanse of grass (the corner of 87^th Avenue and Old Cutler) which could be transformed into a mixed-use park, the farmer’s market being there on Sundays already. Expanding that farmer’s market would encourage more urban development around the neighborhood. Valuable corners, now taken by gas stations could be transformed into corner stores. Empty walls would be given windows so no streets would appear abandoned and unsafe to pedestrians. 

Of course, making these changes isn’t as easy as I have described it to be. Our current mentality would not allow us to make this transition within five years because our cultural norms show we desire largeness, “convenience”, separation of industry and home life, privacy over community, overconsumption, automobiles, and it appears that many of us lack trust in others.