Thriving Communities Coalition Proposal for Comprehensive Planning

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Thriving Communities Coalition Proposal for Comprehensive Planning Thriving Communities Coalition Proposal for Comprehensive Planning I. Principles & Comprehensive Planning Mandate ......................................... 2 II. Needs Assessment .................................................................................. 3 A. Community-Level Assessment of Current Local Needs, Access to Opportunity, and Displacement Risk 3 B. Borough-Level 8 C. Citywide Assessment of Projected Future Needs 8 III. Goal-Setting Based on Need .................................................................... 9 1. Growth & Investment Goals By Place ........................................................................... 9 2. Addressing the Needs of Disadvantaged Populations ................................................ 11 IV. Creation of Comprehensive Plan ........................................................... 11 A. Land Use & Infrastructure Framework 12 B. Strategic Policy Statement 12 C. Budgeting 13 1. Ten-Year Capital Plan ................................................................................................. 13 2. Four-Year Expense Plan .............................................................................................. 13 V. Implement, Track, Report & Enforce ..................................................... 13 A. Implementation 13 1. Community Land Use & Infrastructure Planning ........................................................ 13 2. Policy ........................................................................................................................... 15 3. Budgeting .................................................................................................................... 15 B. Data Disclosure & Mapping 16 C. Accountability 16 1 I. Principles & Comprehensive Planning Mandate The goal of comprehensive planning is to increase the power of low-income and otherwise marginalized communities over the decisions that affect their future, to advance the equitable distribution of city resources, facilities, and new development. To advance this goal, the comprehensive planning process should be guided by the following principles: • Responsive and proactive planning that seeks to correct historic divestment, meet the needs of current low-income residents of the City, and plan for growth in a way that will allow New York to continue to serve as a beacon of opportunity for future residents of all socio-economic backgrounds. To best meet current and future needs, planning must be coordinated with budgeting and policymaking such that all parts of the planning process and the resources of the City are aligned toward the same goals. • Fair distribution of resources and development: Our communities call for an equitable allocation of burdens and benefits related to investment, infrastructure, new growth, and economic development that correct for historic disinvestment, marginalization, and displacement pressure to eliminate disparities across race, geography, and income. The goal of planning should be to ensure that every New Yorker has equal access to opportunity, regardless of where they live. To achieve this, planning must focus on real outcomes for communities and people – not identical planning treatment or leveld of investment, but strategies tailored to address existing inequality and help to ensure that all people can thrive. • Enforceable commitments – No more empty promises!: Our communities call for the enforcement of commitments made to mitigate impacts from development and investment. • Integration without displacement: Our communities call for the right to stay in and access neighborhoods with quality housing, good-paying jobs, and cultural and social connections. As part of this, we believe that public land should be for public good: used to create deeply and permanently affordable housing, including in high-rent neighborhoods that would otherwise be inaccessible to low-income New Yorkers. • Transparency and accountability: Our communities call for transparent planning shaped by early and ongoing community engagement. The goal is not only to enable New Yorkers to participate, but to ensure that agency and City officials are accountable to the communities they serve, and to the principles outlined by this planning process. • Real community power and ownership: Our communities call for self-determination in the planning process, community-led development, and solutions that are responsive to our identified needs and opportunities. Communities must be equal partners in the planning process, with the goal of planning by, not only for, communities. Community members must have opportunities to set the direction of planning in both their own neighborhoods and at the City level, and have a real voice in decisions. 2 • A Right to Housing. The goal of the City’s planning processes must be to ensure long-term and not just temporary solutions to the affordability and homelessness crisis. A right to housing would direct city policy to focus Steering on permanent housing solutions, with a focus on serving Committees the lowest-income New Yorkers, people who are homeless, and those most at risk of displacement. The City Community members must have must plan for and create deeply affordable housing in opportunities not only to participate in every community and adopt a housing strategy that the comprehensive planning process, centers the needs of those with greatest need, i.e. people but to make decisions that will impact who are homeless and extremely low-income. their communities – and lives. • A balance between local self-determination and To achieve this, we propose that each strategies that make every community a partner in borough be required to create a committee that will help to oversee and building the future our City needs. Each community has coordinate efforts at the community deep expertise and experience and knows its own needs district level, and work with the best – and everyone must do their part to ensure that our Borough President to begin to identify City has what it needs to become a thriving, equitable city. priorities. In addition, a citywide Steering Committee would collaborate with City II. Needs Assessment officials to develop the specific criteria used to assess community-level needs, A. Community-Level Assessment of opportunities, and risks, and – at the point of creating goals for each Current Local Needs, Access to Opportunity, community district – would help and Displacement Risk generate goals that account for both current need, and future growth. The Steering Committee would also help The City’s comprehensive planning process must start with select from among potential land use a community-level assessment of each area’s frameworks and provide ongoing opportunities, unmet needs, and existing displacement support for implementation of local risk. This assessment should include both quantitative plans. data – a common framework of information that will permit comparison among communities, and enable These steering committees should be progress to be tracked over time – and qualitative data – required to include people of color, narratives from community members on the ground who low-income renters, immigrants, youth, are most directly impacted by the City’s planning and others historically excluded from planning processes. The citywide SC processes. Both types of data should then be considered should also include community when goals related to programming, investment in planners, affordable housing advocates, facilities & infrastructure, and growth are set for each and other subject matter experts who community district. This community-level assessment – as can support community members in well as additional steps throughout the comprehensive discussions of technical information. 3 planning process – would be guided by an appointed Steering Committee working in conjunction with the City. Community boards must also be strengthened, supported, and meaningfully representative of the communities they serve to ensure that the local-level needs assessment effectively engages local residents and accurately reflects local concerns. Quantitative Data Collection The quantitative assessment process must be designed to produce results that allow City actors and everyday New Yorkers to answer the question: which areas need what, and where should future growth be directed? Each indicator must produce data that contributes to planning that meaningfully addresses the needs of existing residents, increases access to opportunity, reduces neighborhood inequality, and plans for future growth in a way that limits the risk of displacement. The creation of a comprehensive plan every ten years will allow the City to align its planning process with the release of federal Census data, which occurs every ten years. To the extent possible, the City should seek to account for known flaws in Census data, such as the undercounting of undocumented people, and use community data where available and sound. Access to Opportunity This analysis must include examination of community-level determinants of social, economic, and physical well-being across certain topic areas to be explicitly identified within the charter: Housing, Jobs & Industry, Education & Community, Transportation, Health, and Sustainability & Resilience. The Thriving Communities Coalition suggests that this portion of the analysis could specifically measure indicators related to: ● Housing: ○ The amount and share of deeply affordable housing ○ The amount and share of rent-regulated housing
Recommended publications
  • Land-Use Planning Methodology and Middle-Ground Planning Theories
    Article Land-Use Planning Methodology and Middle-Ground Planning Theories Alexandros Ph. Lagopoulos 1,2 1 Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Development, School of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece; [email protected]; Tel.: (+30)-2310-995-484 2 Academy of Athens, Panepistimiou 28, 10679 Athens, Greece Received: 27 August 2018; Accepted: 17 September 2018; Published: 19 September 2018 Abstract: This paper argues that a monolithic land-use planning “grand narrative” is not sufficiently flexible, but that the fragmentation into innumerable “small narratives” goes against any sense of the existence of an established domain of knowledge. Its aim is to explore the epistemological possibility for “middle ground” theories. The methodology adopted for this purpose is to take as a standard reference the methodological components of comprehensive/procedural planning and to measure against them the methodologies proposed by a corpus of other major land-use planning approaches. The outcome of this comparison is that for more than half a century, planning theories in the field of urban and regional planning have been revolving incessantly around the methodological components of the comprehensive model, which seem, at least at the present stage of our knowledge, to be the universal nucleus of the land-use planning enterprise. This paper indicates on this basis the prerequisites for the construction of middle-ground land-use planning theories and how we can pass from the formal contextual variants to real life contexts through the original articulation of planning theory with input from the findings of the actual planning systems.
    [Show full text]
  • Chapter 2: the Goals & Objectives Comprehensive Plan 2025
    CChhaapptteerr 22:: TThhee GGooaallss && OObbjjeeccttiivveess CCoommpprreehheennssiivvee PPllaann 22002255 Goals & Objectives A Community Vision The City of Greenville has taken an important step in guiding its future with the decision to undertake this comprehensive planning process. The purpose of the Goals & Objectives chapter of the Comprehensive Plan is to state clear goals for the City and to identify clear directions that should be taken to achieve such goals. It is the goals and objectives established herein that will determine the focus of the Comprehensive Plan recommendations contained within subsequent chapters. In essence, Greenville’s Comprehensive Plan should reflect: …public decision-making, which emphasizes explicit goal-choice and rational goals-means determination, so that decisions can be based on the goals people are seeking and on the most effective programs to achieve them. People and Plans: Essays on Urban Problems and Solutions, Herbert J. Gans, Preface, pg. vii Identifying and establishing a community vision are important parts of the process of identifying goals and objectives. The following vision statement was devised during the comprehensive planning process. This vision statement has been used as a guide in establishing the goals and objectives within this chapter and in determining Plan recommendations. The City of Greenville should be a community that is safe, friendly, and family-oriented where residents enjoy affordable homes, quiet, safe neighborhoods, and a positive community spirit; the City should attract and promote thriving businesses which provide goods and services for our community and the surrounding area. Illustration 2-1 A Clear Vision Is Important for the Future of Greenville Comprehensive Plan 2025 2-1 Chapter 2 Goals & Objectives Chapter 2 2-2 Comprehensive Plan 2025 Goals & Objectives Issue Identification At the February 4th, 2003 Steering Committee meeting, Committee members were asked to identify major issues that they thought Greenville was currently facing or would face in the future.
    [Show full text]
  • Integrating Infill Planning in California's General
    Integrating Infill Planning in California’s General Plans: A Policy Roadmap Based on Best-Practice Communities September 2014 Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE)1 University of California Berkeley School of Law 1 This report was researched and authored by Christopher Williams, Research Fellow at the Center for Law, Energy and the Environment (CLEE) at the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. Ethan Elkind, Associate Director of Climate Change and Business Program at CLEE, served as project director. Additional contributions came from Terry Watt, AICP, of Terrell Watt Planning Consultant, and Chris Calfee, Senior Counsel; Seth Litchney, General Plan Guidelines Project Manager; and Holly Roberson, Land Use Council at the California Governor’s Office of Planning and Research (OPR), among other stakeholder reviewers. 1 Contents Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 4 1 Land Use Element ................................................................................................................................. 5 1.1 Find and prioritize infill types most appropriate to your community .......................................... 5 1.2 Make an inclusive list of potential infill parcels, including brownfields ....................................... 9 1.3 Apply simplified mixed-use zoning designations in infill priority areas ...................................... 10 1.4 Influence design choices to
    [Show full text]
  • Austin, Texas Marie Le Guen
    Special Issue Urbanities, Vol. 7 · No 2 · November 2017 The Dreams and Nightmares of City Development © 2017 Urbanities Urban Transformations, Ideologies of Planning and Actors’ Interplay in a Booming City — Austin, Texas Marie Le Guen (University Lumière Lyon 2) [email protected] The city of Austin, state capital of Texas, has been experiencing an impressive process of metropolization, while growing very quickly, since the end of the twentieth century. Its successful adaptation to the economy’s global trends and the growth it brings about are destabilizing Austin’s planning system, which is already very constrained in Texas’ most conservative political framework. Increasing tensions between established groups of actors and the emergence of newer ones prompt several changes in the professional and civic culture of the various actors involved in the urban planning field. These changes arise from the fact that these groups of actors are confronted with urban mutations never seen before. The ideology of planning, its meanings and its practices, are also evolving in this economic and social context, allowing for a larger citizens’ participation and putting sustainability on the political agenda. Keywords: Urban planning, public participation, democracy, sustainable development. Introduction Since the end of the twentieth century, Austin, the state capital of Texas, has experienced tremendous population and economic growth, as well as a diversification of its urban functions, which can be condensed into the process called metropolization. Exhibited as a ‘creative city’ (Florida 2002), Austin embodies a successful adaptation to the global trends. The quick growth, partly resulting from this adaptation, is fuelling urban sprawl, causing environmental degradation, and destabilizing its planning system.
    [Show full text]
  • Overview to the Comprehensive Plan I. History of Planning
    Overview to the Comprehensive Plan I. History of Planning When North America was settled by the Europeans, many of the new cities were laid out according to a plan. Some plans stressed a grid pattern for efficient movement of citizens and troops (like Santa Fe, Mobile and Savannah). Other plans, like that of New York, with hundreds of rectangular blocks and no alleys, were based on a plan to get the most money for land speculators. Another city, Washington, D.C., was planned with long radiating avenues and grand plazas to show the World, through its capital city, how great America was and how great America would become. Modern planning, with its emphasis on zoning, housing and transportation, grew out of the efforts of nineteenth century reformers seeking to improve conditions in America's cities. These poor conditions were largely a result of the waves of immigrants coming from Europe. New York, strained by its swelling population, implemented housing reform known as tenement laws. Soon, other major cities around the country then began more elaborate urban improvement projects in what was known as the City Beautiful Movement. Later, in the first part of the twentieth century, cities across the country began to enact zoning and subdivision regulations in an attempt to improve urban conditions through the control of land. With the popularity of the automobile and the end of World War II, cities expanded outward and municipal governments turned to planning as an attempt to contend with the sprawling city. Today, planning continues to focus on the improvement of the urban environment through urban design, planning for housing, historic preservation, environmental planning and transportation planning Planning in Mobile has developed in a similar manner.
    [Show full text]
  • Infill Development Standards and Policy Guide
    Infill Development Standards and Policy Guide STUDY PREPARED BY CENTER FOR URBAN POLICY RESEARCH EDWARD J. BLOUSTEIN SCHOOL OF PLANNING & PUBLIC POLICY RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY NEW BRUNSWICK, NEW JERSEY with the participation of THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR SMART GROWTH RESEARCH AND EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK, MARYLAND and SCHOOR DEPALMA MANALAPAN, NEW JERSEY STUDY PREPARED FOR NEW JERSEY DEPARTMENT OF COMMUNITY AFFAIRS (NJDCA) DIVISION OF CODES AND STANDARDS and NEW JERSEY MEADOWLANDS COMMISSION (NJMC) NEW JERSEY OFFICE OF SMART GROWTH (NJOSG) June, 2006 DRAFT—NOT FOR QUOTATION ii CONTENTS Part One: Introduction and Synthesis of Findings and Recommendations Chapter 1. Smart Growth and Infill: Challenge, Opportunity, and Best Practices……………………………………………………………...…..2 Part Two: Infill Development Standards and Policy Guide Section I. General Provisions…………………….…………………………….....33 II. Definitions and Development and Area Designations ………….....36 III. Land Acquisition………………………………………………….……40 IV. Financing for Infill Development ……………………………..……...43 V. Property Taxes……………………………………………………….....52 VI. Procedure………………………………………………………………..57 VII. Design……………………………………………………………….…..68 VIII. Zoning…………………………………………………………………...79 IX. Subdivision and Site Plan…………………………………………….100 X. Documents to be Submitted……………………………………….…135 XI. Design Details XI-1 Lighting………………………………………………….....145 XI-2 Signs………………………………………………………..156 XI-3 Landscaping…………………………………………….....167 Part Three: Background on Infill Development: Challenges
    [Show full text]
  • What Is Planning? Forward-Looking Reaching an Agreement
    What is Planning? Forward-looking Reaching an agreement Planning Theory 1) procedural 2) substantive (housing, environment, transportation..) Procedural Theory: 1) Synoptic Rationality a. (1) Goal-setting (2) Identification of policy alternatives (3) Evaluation of means against ends (4) Implementation of the preferred alternative b. Multiple iterations, feedback loops and sub-processes c. Advantage is basic simplicity 2) Incremental Planning (Lindblom, 1959) a. Dismissed rational-comprehensive planning as an impractical ideal b. A science of muddling through: A modest step by step approach which aims at realizable improvements to an existing situation. 3) Advocacy Planning (Paul Davidoff, 1965) a. Challenged the traditional view of “public interest” b. Applied to defending the interest of weak or poorly represented groups, such as low-income, environmental activists, minorities, the disadvantaged etc. c. A direct result of this theory: increasing requirements for environmental, social, and financial impact reports to accompany large scale project proposals. Steps in the Planning Process: 9 Steps (Anderson, 1995) 1) Identify issues and options 2) State goals, objectives, priorities 3) Collect and interpret data 4) Prepare plans 5) Draft programs for implementing the plan 6) Evaluate potential impacts of plans and implementation programs 7) Review and adopt plans 8) Review and adopt plan-implementing programs 9) Administer implementing programs, monitor their impacts Citizen participation: GIS: map making. Advantage: 1) incorporate layers of data for example, a parcel’s property value & housing tenure & zoning classification & condition of the structure….2) used to do “what if analysis” 3) present info at different scales Planning History 1) Public Health Movement a. to guarantee government involvement in public health and safety of the worker.
    [Show full text]
  • Gentrification Task Force Report (2004)
    Report of the Gentrification Task Force October 2004 Table of Contents Page Preface.........................................................................................................................................iii Gentrification Task Force Participants.....................................................................................iv 1.1 Establishment of the Gentrification Task Force.......................................................... 1 1.2 Defining Gentrification................................................................................................. 2 1.3 Effects of Gentrification................................................................................................ 2 1.4 Voluntary and Involuntary Displacement ................................................................... 4 1.5 Gentrification in Savannah .......................................................................................... 4 1.6 Types of Gentrification ................................................................................................. 6 1.7 Task 1: Identification of Vulnerable Neighborhoods ................................................... 7 1.8 Task 2: Review of Thomas Square Land Use and Zoning Plan................................... 8 1.9 Task 3: Review of Comprehensive Plan Goals and Strategies .................................. 10 1.10 Recommendations ....................................................................................................... 10 A. Land Use and Zoning.............................................................................................10
    [Show full text]
  • Master Plan for the City of Garden City, Michigan
    PLAN 2040: GARDEN CITY 2015 MASTER PLAN FOR THE CITY OF GARDEN CITY, MICHIGAN PLAN 2040: GARDEN CITY 2015 MASTER PLAN FOR THE CITY OF GARDEN CITY, MICHIGAN Adopted: September 10, 2015 Amended: December 14, 2017 Prepared by the City of Garden City Planning Commission with the Assistance of McKenna Associates 235 E Main St, Suite 105 Northville, MI 48167 (248) 596-0920 (telephone) (248) 596-0930 (fax) (888) 226-4326 (toll free) www.mcka.com ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Planning Commission Willbey R. Pistor, Chair Fred May, Vice-Chair Harriette Batchik, Secretary Tim Carner Jeffrey Dold Darin Stark Michael Steenburg Eric Turnbull Ken Versele City Council Randy Walker, Mayor Jayee Lunch, Mayer Pro-Tem Pam King Patricia Squires Margo Arnoske Patricia McKarge Jim Kerwin City Administration / Officials Robert Muery, City Manager, Police Chief Allyson M. Bettis, City Clerk - Treasurer Kimberly Dold, Interim Executive Director, Garden City DDA Dan Plamondon, Parks Supervisor, Parks and Recreation Kevin Roney, Director of Public Services Planning Consultant McKenna Associates PREFACE iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Resolution of Adoption ..................................................................................................................................... i Acknowledgements ........................................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents ...............................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Comprehensive Planning for Small Texas Cities Office Or Rural
    COMPREHENSIVE PLANNING FOR SMALL TEXAS CITIES OFFICE OR RURAL COMMUNITY AFFAIRS OUTREACH AND TRAINING SERVICES 2002 FOREWORD Comprehensive planning can help any community deal with change more effectively and make good use of changes in local economic conditions and resources. The planning process is one approach that can help small cities deal with population growth and the changes it brings. Planning is also very valuable for communities with stable or declining economic situations. The Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association has prepared a rather comprehensive manual to assist planners within this state. Titled A Guide to Urban Planning for Texas Communities , this is an extensive help for planners, yet it goes into far more detail than may be required for the smaller communities. For this reason, we believe that it is appropriate to update this manual, Comprehensive Planning for Small Texas Communities. This is the second edition of this manual, which is designed to provide local officials and citizens in small cities with an easy-to-read guide to the development of a planning program. The report does four things: it describes the elements of comprehensive planning; it suggests an organizational structure for developing and implementing a planning program; it describes the necessary procedure for drawing up a comprehensive plan; and it summarizes the planning process step-by-step. A primary goal of the manual is to encourage the use of local resources and local manpower in the planning process. The original manual was prepared in 1983 by the Texas Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations with financial support from the Texas Department of Community Affairs, now the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs.
    [Show full text]
  • Smart Growth
    Introduction The Comprehensive Plan is the official policy document adopted by the City of Eau Claire to guide the City’s decisions about long-term growth and physical development of the Eau Claire community through 2025. The document encompasses all the geographical areas of the community envisioned to be part of the City by 2025, as well as the major public functions and services which bear on physical development. The document identifies a coherent and fiscally responsible development pattern for the Eau Claire community and is intended to encourage consistent public and private decisions about future development. The Comprehensive Plan serves as the basis for the City’s subdivision regulations, official mapping, and amendments to the City Zoning Ordinance and Zoning Map. The Plan serves as a guide to the City Council, Plan Commission, and other City advisory boards in reviewing development proposals and preparing the City’s multi-year capital improvements budget. The Plan also serves as a guide to public spending for community facilities, roads, utilities, parks, housing assistance, economic development, and other municipal programs and services. Finally, Wisconsin State Statutes provide that by 2010 the City’s official mapping, subdivision, and zoning actions shall be consistent with the adopted Comprehensive Plan. The Comprehensive Plan is the most recent in a series of community plans for Eau Claire and builds on many of the directions established in prior plans. The first comprehensive plan for Eau Claire was completed in 1953 and focused on land use. This was followed in 1968 by a more detailed community plan that addressed land use, transportation, community facilities, parks, and the Downtown.
    [Show full text]
  • INTRODUCTION to the COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Alan M
    INTRODUCTION TO THE COMPREHENSIVE PLAN Alan M. Efrussy, AICP "Planning is the triumph of logic over dumb luck" -Anonymous as quoted by David L. Pugh, AICP "The best offense is" a good defense" - Anonymous as quoted by Alan M Efrussy, AICP The purpose of this chapter is to describe the importance, purposes and elements of the comprehensive plan. This discussion represents the author's perspective and recognizes that there are a number of ways to prepare a comprehensive plan and that different elements may be included in plans, reflecting the particular orientation or emphasis of the community. What is important is that a community has a comprehensive plan. This author and many cities’ planning commission members in Texas are indebted to the authors of chapters regarding the comprehensive plan published by the Educational Foundation, Inc. of the Texas Chapter of the American Planning Association, as part of earlier editions of the Guide to Urban Planning in Texas Communities. The earlier authors were Robert L. Lehr, AICP, planner and former Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Oklahoma, and Robert L. Wegner, Sr., AICP, Professor, School of Urban and Public Affairs, at the University of Texas at Arlington. Definition of a Comprehensive Plan A comprehensive plan can be defined as a long-range plan intended to direct the growth and physical development of a community for a 20 to 30 year or longer period. Ideally, and if feasible, it is appropriate to try to prepare a comprehensive plan for the ultimate development of a community. This will allow for ultimate utility, transportation, and community facilities planning, and therefore can aid in a more time and cost-effective planning and budgeting program.
    [Show full text]