Computing the Value of Urban Trees
St. Louis: Fitting a Federal Spy Center into a Disinvested Urban District
Houston: Reconsidering Regulation After Another Megastorm Contents APRIL 2018 | VOL 30 | NO 2
COEDITORS Maureen Clarke & Ted Smalley Bowen FEATURES DEPARTMENTS
PRESIDENT & CEO George W. McCarthy 8 St. Louis and Missouri Bank on 2 Message from the President CHAIR & CHIEF INVESTMENT OFFICER Kathryn J. Lincoln Federal Spy Center Lessons from David C. Lincoln
DESIGN & PRODUCTION City and State Link Project to North By George W. McCarthy Studio Rainwater www.studiorainwater.com Side Revival 5 City Tech PRODUCTION EDITOR St. Louis and Missouri officials welcome the Susan Pace decision of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Quantifying the Economic Benefit of Trees
Agency to remain in the city and build a new, By Rob Walker billion-dollar facility in the under-invested North THE LINCOLN INSTITUTE OF LAND POLICY St. Louis neighborhood. But the spy agency’s is an independent, nonpartisan organization 32 Mayor’s Desk whose mission is to help solve global economic, crosstown move is a challenging one, given the social, and environmental challenges to improve 8 agency’s security requirements, questions about Syracuse Endorses the Value of its Legacy the quality of life through creative approaches the opportunities it ultimately brings to local to the use, taxation, and stewardship of land. By Anthony Flint As a private operating foundation whose origins residents, and the steep cost to city and state date to 1946, the Lincoln Institute seeks to governments of keeping the large federal employer. inform public dialogue and decisions about 35 New Lincoln Publication land policy through research, training, and effective communication. By bringing together By Kathleen McCormick Reinventing Development Regulations scholars, practitioners, public officials, policy makers, journalists, and involved citizens, the By Jonathan Barnett and Brian W. Blaesser Lincoln Institute integrates theory and practice and provides a forum for multidisciplinary perspectives on public policy concerning land, 37 Place Database both in the United States and internationally. 20 Houston Surveys Post-Harvey Houston-Area Brownfields Located in Flood Zones Land Lines is published quarterly in January, Policy Landscape April, July, and October to report on Institute- By Jenna DeAngelo sponsored programs and related subjects. The “Bayou City” Considers Land Use Rules Changes
Lincoln Institute of Land Policy In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey’s record- 113 Brattle St, Cambridge, MA 02138 breaking rainfall and devastating floods, the T (617) 661-3016 or (800) 526-3873 F (617) 661-7235 or (800) 526-3944 nation’s fourth-largest city grapples with its legacy of minimal regulation and lack of zoning
EMAIL FOR EDITORIAL CONTENT as it seeks to build resilience and gird for future [email protected] 200 climate-enhanced storms. EMAIL FOR INFORMATION SERVICES
[email protected] By Kathleen McCormick
www.lincolninst.edu
Cover: Tree-lined street of historic brownstone buildings in a Greenwich Village neighborhood in New York City. Credit: iStock/Getty.
2 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 1 MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT GEORGE W. McCARTHY
David put these principles to work on a daily David supported other venues where basis and in all of his endeavors. For example, in students could explore and understand the Lessons from David C. Lincoln the companies he ran, he adopted the practice of importance of ethics and ethical behavior across profit-sharing with employees—a concept that a variety of disciplines. In 2001, David and Joan was piloted at Lincoln Electric. As he explained in established the Lincoln Center for Applied Ethics his 1996 Founder’s Day talk, this involved at Arizona State University (ASU), to foster the “providing a fair but not excessive dividend to study of ethical dilemmas in law, biomedical shareholders and investing in new products and sciences, and spirituality. In 2005, the couple production methods. Beyond these costs, founded the Lincoln Center for Ethics in Global employees at Lincoln Electric get to keep any Management at the Thunderbird School of Global WHEN I LAST SPOKE WITH DAVID C. LINCOLN, on the table for others. One could accomplish extra profit they produce. Recently bonuses have Management at ASU. In 2008, they created a WE WERE IN HIS STUDY REGARDING HIS DOG AND this by subscribing to a simple principle, the been about 50 to 60 percent of annual salaries.” permanent endowment there to support faculty, BEST BUDDY, PEPPER. David told me, “You know, Golden Rule. Although David was a leader of David understood that living ethically isn’t scholarships, and research efforts. For two I calculated Pepper’s age in dog years, and industry, inventor, humanitarian, philanthropist, sufficient to generate a positive-sum game; one decades, they supported the exploration of he’s exactly the same age as me, 92.” With father, and teacher, to us at the Lincoln Institute, needs to create additional value through hard ethical behavior through the Lincoln Program a twinkle in his eye and a wry smile, he contin- he was a mensch—a man of integrity and honor work and invention. But a commitment to ethics in Applied Ethics at the Chautauqua Institution in ued, “So, there you have it, two elderly guys who didn’t just talk about the Golden Rule, he is necessary to ensure that the benefits of that upstate New York. All these efforts illustrated the same age, happy to be living under the lived and breathed the ethical code he inherited hard work and invention are distributed fairly. David’s faith that civil intellectual exchange same roof, sharing meals together, enjoying from his father, John C. Lincoln (1866–1959). would not only lead to better understanding each other’s company . . . both with bladder In David’s words: Don’t avoid difficult conversations; find a way among participants—it would help to make a control issues.” to promote civil discourse. better world. This was characteristic of David’s generosi- My father’s core ethical principle was to ty. Rather than skirt his obvious health issues, treat people as you would like to be treated. David adhered to the Golden Rule, but he also he lightened the conversation with humor, This implied the following precepts: understood that even such a simple ethical putting me at ease and opening the space for guideline left a lot of room for interpretation, the more meaningful, lengthy conversation Treat people with absolute fairness. and even conflict. To confront this challenge, that followed. This means all people. In business, it he created venues where people could It is with immense sadness that we includes all the constituents of a company— convene to discuss and understand various mark the passing of David Lincoln—founder, employees, customers, owners, and the interpretations of ethical behavior, and resolve architect, chairman, and spiritual leader of community. In society, it means government or avoid conflicts. Claremont Lincoln University the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. David’s must treat individuals fairly, and vice versa. (CLU)—an institution founded in 2011 by David importance to this organization is impossible and his wife, Joan, and Jerry Campbell—is to capture in words. He was the visionary who Whoever creates something should be designed to give students the opportunity to saw the need to launch original research and entitled to keep it. Receiving the fruits learn how to cooperate and collaborate with to train and assist others who understood the of someone else’s labor—a windfall— others who have different viewpoints. Students central role of land in driving economic and often occurs. But for each windfall there build solid bases of self-knowledge and then add social progress. He forged this vision in bricks is a wipeout—someone doesn’t get all he critical but constructive engagement skills and and mortar 44 years ago when he founded the or she produced. Both the windfall and the deep understanding of key differences among Lincoln Institute that we know today. wipeout are unethical. religions and governments. Students learn In the brief four years that I knew David, how to respectfully explore the differences I learned valuable lessons. I will share some People are important. They should be and reconcile them both intellectually and of them here. treated with respect and dignity, not as emotionally. David stated his goal for CLU machines or cogs in a wheel. simply: “I believe that if we could get people It isn’t hard to do well while doing good. who practice religions working together, —David C. Lincoln understanding each other and cooperating For David, life was a positive-sum game. Annual Founder’s Day Lecture, instead of fighting, then everybody would be One’s needs can be met while leaving more Cambridge, MA, August 1, 1996. better off.”
2 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 3 CITY TECH ROB WALKER
Always have goals and a plan to reach those Meet the world where it is, not where you wish goals, but remain open to discovery. it was. Quantifying the Economic Benefit of Trees
David was the youngest son of John C. Lincoln, David was an aerospace engineer who trained the Cleveland industrialist and preacher’s son at the California Institute of Technology. As such, A 2012 UNITED STATES FOREST SERVICE STUDY OF dioxide, for instance, adding up to a reduction in who founded the Lincoln Electric company in he approached problems in a practical way. URBAN TREE COVER ESTIMATED THAT AMERICAN CITIES carbon emissions that i-Tree values at $5 million 1895. John held 54 patents on inventions that He was comfortable with the messiness of the WERE LOSING AROUND FOUR MILLION TREES PER YEAR. annually. Other tree payoffs—some quantified, included arc welders, variable-speed electric world. Gravity and friction were natural obsta- Worldwide, agriculture, logging, and other factors others not—include absorbing ultraviolet motors, and brakes for streetcars. His inventions cles to overcome, using human ingenuity. He was eliminate 18.7 million acres of forest annually, radiation, helping absorb rainwater, and reducing helped to build the industries and cities that a little mystified by the purely theoretical worlds according to the World Wildlife Fund. Yet the cost noise pollution. established the United States’ global economic constructed by academics, like economists of that loss is hard to quantify. It’s widely In another i-Tree analysis, conducted in 2017, and military dominance in the 20th century. and physicists, who assumed away worldly recognized that plants absorb carbon dioxide, researchers in the United States and Italy David followed in his father’s footsteps, serving complications in the models they constructed. helping to mitigate the effects of climate change, concluded that, worldwide, cities with popula- on the board of Lincoln Electric and, among his Engineers like David confronted the real world but city planners could benefit from a more tions over 10 million realize median annual many ventures, founding Lincoln Laser Company with all its complications and figured out how precise, data-driven assessment of the urban savings of $505 million from reduced air pollu- and Cross Spear Marble Inc., both based in to make things work. He couldn’t understand canopy’s value to guide how trees and other tion, mitigated “heat island” effects, and other Phoenix. David’s ventures were guided by how things that worked only in purely imaginary vegetation can most sensibly figure in the design benefits derived from their urban canopies. clear goals: to produce a product of value and or theoretical contexts could apply to the real and planning of the contemporary city. to do it ethically. But it was the Lincoln Laser world. As he once noted, “I guess there’s a value After all, that’s how we evaluate and install experience that best captured David’s openness to understanding how objects move in a world gray infrastructure, counting every light pole and City planners could benefit from a more to discovery. without gravity or friction, but it will give me parking lot to help us think about how these precise, data-driven assessment of the David and Randy Sherman founded Lincoln only a little insight into how things work on this elements work in a city’s design. Historically, we urban canopy. Laser in 1974 with a simple proposition. They planet with all its friction and dust and gravity.” haven’t been as thoughtful or demanding about wanted to use lasers to make wooden jigsaw And he added, wryly, “Sometimes, theory guys quantifying, and thus managing, green infra- puzzles. They began experimenting with mirrors throw the baby out with the bathwater. If you’re structure, according to David Nowak, a senior sci- This type of analysis can help cities deploy to use in conjunction with the lasers, to help cut trying to overcome gravity, you’re going to need a entist with the U.S. Forest Service. green resources for maximum impact and the wood in a jigsaw pattern. They soon realized little friction. Otherwise, how will you generate As a rule, cities compile and track the details understand the tradeoffs involved in many that the combination of lasers and mirrors lift for your wings?” of the built infrastructure, but not trees. This planning decisions. Clearing trees to make way opened up all sorts of other possibilities. David founded the Lincoln Institute to focus makes it harder to plan for, or even debate, the for a parking lot entails a loss, not just the gain Hughes Aircraft came to the same realization on practical things that affect the quality of life various potential impacts of maintaining, associated with increased parking, Nowak noted. and began purchasing the company’s mirrors for residents of this planet. He understood that increasing, or reducing urban vegetation. In the past, trees were more likely a concern for its infrared-detecting cameras. Soon, Xerox land policy often bridges theory and practice But that has been changing. Nowak leads a for the parks or forestry department. Increasing- came calling, seeing the mirrors as a solution and insisted that we try to solve worldly pioneering effort in the form of a Forest Service ly, they’re central to cities’ responses to climate to challenges it faced in duplicating images. challenges using creative approaches to the project called i-Tree, a suite of Web tools drawing change. “I can tell you definitively that cities and Through its own process of discovery, Lincoln use of land. in part on geographic information system (GIS) towns across the nation are very interested in Laser continued to find new uses for its technol- Since he passed away, I don’t feel that a light data. I-Tree combines satellite imagery and other figuring out, whether or not you can talk about ogy. Today, Lincoln Laser produces mirrors that has gone out, as we sometimes do when we lose data to help citizens, researchers, and officials climate change politically, ‘What exactly are we are used in such disparate applications as bar someone of true greatness. I know that the understand urban canopies and other green going to do about it today?’,” said Jim Levitt, code scanners, tattoo removal, biomedical imag- flame he lit—under notable organizations, for infrastructure elements, often in economic terms. associate director of land conservation programs ing, navigation systems for jets, and solar cell hundreds of family and friends, and for the For example, an i-Tree analysis of Austin, at the Lincoln Institute, and director of conserva- production. David laughingly told me, “You know, thousands of people whose lives he touched— Texas, found that trees save the city about $19 tion innovation at the Harvard Forest. That’s true we never made a jigsaw puzzle, but I bet we will continue illuminating our efforts to make million a year in residential energy use, $11.6 from New England to Miami to Newport News, would’ve made good ones.” the world a better place. Thank you, David. million in carbon capture, and almost $3 million Virginia, and Phoenix, he added, even if the in pollution removal. The city’s arboreal infra- specific reasons vary, whether flood issues, heat structure produces oxygen and consumes carbon island effects, or others.
4 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 5 Recent arboreal infrastructure-related MIT Senseable City Lab and founder of the design The U.S. Forest Service technology responds directly to this city-level firm Carlo Ratti Associati. and partners developed iTree to assess urban interest. In late 2016, MIT’s Senseable City Lab, “Cities are trying to acquire better information tree cover by analyzing in collaboration with the World Economic Forum, and understand the current state of the urban Land Cover Classifications satellite imagery. The suite launched a tool called Treepedia and has since canopy,” Ratti said. “Most of them do not have the High Resolution, Urban Tree Canopy of tools includes Landscape, published analyses of tree coverage in 27 cities resources to manually survey the entire city. Other shown at left displaying around the world. In an interesting twist, it Treepedia data can give them a solid baseline” and Tree the breakdown of land draws not on the satellite data behind many GIS focus efforts where they may be needed most. Grass/Shrub cover in Cambridge, MA. Bare Earth projects, but on imagery culled from Google “Others, like planners and designers, find it useful Credit: U.S. Forest Service Water
Street View. It offers a different skew on tree as a proxy for measuring the perception of green Building data, since, for example, it underrepresents space and trees by citizens,” he said, because it Road large urban parks. But this is by design. The captures a kind of shared perspective “from the Other Paved Agriculture
tool’s creators believe that detailing the “street ground.” The lab will soon release an open-source Wetland greenery” citizens actually experience can version of its software to let cities, nongovernmen- inform the planning process. The lab will tal organizations, and community groups compile continue to add cities and has a backlog of their own data. The hope is that NGOs and local requests from municipalities, academics, and groups will use Treepedia “as a tool to both others, according to Carlo Ratti, director of the determine where planting is needed and lobby
their local governments with evidence-based One i-Tree Web application, Landscape, is
MIT’s Senseable City Lab created Treepedia to allow researchers, city officials, community groups, and others to take campaigns,” Ratti explained. intended for planners in particular. Users can stock of urban tree cover from the ground-level perspective of city dwellers, using Google Street View panoramic This is consistent with a broader interest explore tree canopy, cross-matched with basic images. The resulting Green View Index, presented on a scale of 1 to 100, indicates the percentage of a particular among citizens and planners in green city demographic information down to the cen- location occupied by the urban canopy. Below: MIT Senseable City Treepedia view of Sydney, Australia. Credit: MIT initiatives, including high-profile projects from sus-block level, offering data related to pollution Senseable City Lab New York to Atlanta and beyond. Nowak, of the mitigation, temperature impacts, and other i-Tree program, said that its tools helped guide factors. For example, users can easily identify the organizers of Million Trees NYC, a public-pri- areas with high population density but low tree vate initiative that increased New York’s cover. The i-Tree project is adding data on tree aggregate urban forest by an estimated 20 species over the next year and is seeking percent. The London i-Tree Eco Project, accord- feedback to modify the tool in ways that make ing to its 2015 report, used i-Tree to quantify most sense for planning, according to Nowak. “the structure of the urban forest (the physical The broad idea is the same one that has attributes such as tree density, tree health, leaf shaped i-Tree from the start—a data-driven area, and biomass),” with a specific eye toward approach to thinking about green infrastructure. capturing its value “in monetary terms.” Carbon “We want to help answer the question: If I can sequestration savings logged in at £4.79 million plant only one tree or make one change to the (roughly $6.75 million) annually, according to the city’s green landscape, where should I do it?” report. “Our hope is to provide numbers that are Nowak said. locally derived, to help people make informed decisions—whether it’s pro or against trees,” Rob Walker (robwalker.net) is a columnist for the Nowak said. Sunday Business section of the New York Times.
“We want to help answer the question: If I can plant only one tree or make one change to the city’s green landscape, where should I do it?”
6 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 7 St. Louis & Missouri Bank On Federal Spy By Kathleen McCormick
ST. LOUIS OFFICIALS EXULTED WHEN THE NATIONAL West will be attractive to millennials and the GEOSPATIAL-INTELLIGENCE AGENCY (NGA) ANNOUNCED next generation of the NGA workforce,” Cardillo in June 2016 that it planned to stay in the city said at the August 2017 Department of Defense and build its new facility, Next NGA West, on the Intelligence Information Systems Worldwide disinvested North Side. The $1.75 billion complex, Conference, in St. Louis. known as the “spy center,” would be the largest The new NGA facility, which will be located federal project in St. Louis history, representing about a mile northwest of downtown and thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in tax several miles northwest of NGA’s current location revenue and development. Had the NGA opted on the Mississippi riverfront, will spur “a trans- to leave, the city would have lost its single largest formation with reinvestment and redevelopment” source of tax revenue. City and state officials in the city’s North Side, said Don Roe, executive committed significant resources to keeping director of the St. Louis Planning and Urban the facility. Design Agency. CITY AND STATE LINK PROJECT TO NORTH SIDE REVIVAL The NGA is the nation’s primary source of The NGA’s plan calls for one million geospatial intelligence, providing the U.S. square feet of buildings and the same amount Department of Defense and intelligence of structured parking, surrounded by a 500-foot community with digital mapping for counter- security perimeter. Given the North Side’s terrorism and counter-narcotics efforts, history of disenfranchisement, economic border and transportation security, and humani- stress, neglect, and blight, some wonder tarian and disaster relief. NGA Director Robert whether this ultra-secure facility will be an Cardillo said the agency chose the North Side unapproachable fortress in the neighborhood, site because of the city’s partnerships with and whether it will ultimately benefit the universities and technology companies, the community. appeal of the urban setting to younger workers, and because the NGA’s data facilities and workforce were already in town. “Next NGA Credit: Chris Lee/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Polaris
8 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 9 Site Opportunities and riverfront west to Forest Park, and encompassing Figure 1 the city’s major universities, museums, and Next NGA West Site in Proximity to Areas Challenges other popular amenities. Cortex Innovation with Federally Funded Initiatives Community and T-REX have attracted a highly From 1866 to 1904, St. Louis was the fourth skilled workforce. The 200-acre Cortex campus— 2014 Strong Cities, Strong Community largest city in the United States, with booming formed in 2002 by Washington University, BJC flour mills, shoe factories, meatpacking plants, Healthcare, the University of Missouri–St. NorthSide Regeneration, LLC TIF* Boundary and brick, paper, and paint manufacturing Louis, St. Louis University, and the Missouri 2015 Promise Zone facilities drawing thousands of European- Botanical Garden—has generated over $550 2015 Choice Neighborhood immigrant workers. But the second half of the million in investments and 4,200 jobs within the 20th century saw large-scale loss of industry, 250 companies located there. And the T‐REX 2015 North Riverfront Open Space suburban sprawl, and white flight, and the technology incubator building has provided a and Redevelopment Plan urban population declined from 857,000 in 1950 home for 200 companies since 2011, including 2015 CityArchRiver to 312,000 today. 180 startups and 2,230 jobs. Its annual economic In the past two decades, the city has output is over $350 million. * tax increment financing worked to reinvent itself as a technology and But the city has remained deeply divided bioscience center. These efforts have borne fruit racially and economically. The South Side of the Credit: St. Louis Development Corp. for the downtown Central Corridor, stretching city has become increasingly white and affluent from the iconic Gateway Arch on the Mississippi and has attracted the lion’s share of new development. In the core North Side neighbor-
Former Pruitt-Igoe playground, near Jefferson Avenue, between Cass hoods around the NGA site, 93 percent of Avenue and Carr Street; and a recent view of the western end of the residents are black and half live below the Pruitt-Igoe site, near Jefferson Avenue. Credits: left, The State Historical federal poverty level, and there are hundreds of Society of Missouri; right, Michael R. Allen. vacant buildings and empty lots. On the North Side, which has some of the apartment buildings were demolished in the nation’s highest violent crime rates, development 1970s following years of neglect, high crime comes mostly in the form of self-contained, rates, and abandonment, and the project became subsidized affordable and low-income housing, a case study in how not to provide public housing. said Alan Mallach, city planner, senior fellow for Most of Pruitt-Igoe’s 57-acre site was never the Washington, DC–based Center for Community redeveloped and now exists as a wild urban place Progress, and author of The Empty House Next with vacant fields and heavily forested areas. The Door: Understanding and Reducing Vacancy and city wanted the U.S. government to assume some Hypervacancy in the United States, to be pub- responsibility for a federal site that had so lished by the Lincoln Institute in May 2018. The spectacularly failed the community, but the NGA neighborhoods there have few jobs and lack plan was scrapped in 2015, when the agency resources such as new market-rate housing, expanded the site’s size requirement to 100 acres. health-care facilities, transportation connec- The city chose a new site for the NGA campus tions, grocery stores, and other amenities. The just north of Pruitt-Igoe at the intersection of area encompasses several federal economic and North Jefferson and Cass Avenues, in the St. community development zones (figure 1). Louis Place neighborhood, and ultimately St. Louis officials initially proposed building delivered 97 acres. This new site proved challeng- the new NGA complex on a vacant 34-acre North ing and costly to procure. Side site where part of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe In the decades after Pruitt-Igoe was razed, public housing project once stood. Erected in the few incremental public and private efforts to The South Side of the city has become increasingly white and affluent and has 1950s and acclaimed as a monument to modern redevelop the North Side with new housing and attracted the lion’s share of new development. In the core North Side neighborhoods architecture, the project was supposed to be a services succeeded, outside of reinvestment great leap forward for the large number of pockets such as the Old North St. Louis historic around the Next NGA West site, 93 percent of residents are black and half live below residents living in overcrowded 19th-century district. Roe, who presented the NGA project at the federal poverty level, and there are hundreds of vacant buildings and empty lots. tenements. But Pruitt-Igoe’s 33 high-rise Lincoln’s 2016 Big City Planning Directors
10 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 11 Institute (BCPDI), said two federal initiatives The Effort to Keep a land was vacant, and 6 percent had vacant “It’s an unusual relationship where the city by the Obama administration will leverage buildings, for a total of 84 percent vacancy, is making a lot of efforts to keep a federal revitalization around the site: the 2015 designa- Valuable Asset according to the Environmental Impact State- tion of North St. Louis as part of a Promise ment for the NGA campus. Roe said 137 struc- employer as opposed to a private-sector Zone, giving the high-poverty area priority The city looked at the new NGA facility as “a tures on the site included active businesses and employer. To the extent that it sets a access to federal investments, and the 2016 retention effort” that will spark new growth 63 homes inhabited by owners or renters. Most precedent, it’s a precedent we really want award of a U.S. Department of Housing and and services in the North Side neighborhoods, property owners agreed to sell to the city, though Urban Development Choice Neighborhoods said Otis Williams, executive director of the St. as the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and other local to think about carefully.” grant. The $29.5 million grant will go toward Louis Development Corporation (SLDC). Williams media reported, the process was somewhat rehabilitating a distressed 625-unit public led the city’s initiative. contentious. housing complex into a less densely packed One fundamental reason the city wanted to A historic brick house was moved several group of buildings, funding social services, retain the NGA presence was tax revenues. blocks to an appropriate infill site, but the city and building a new community center. The idea People who live or work in the city contribute 1 demolished 17 structures on the National is to invest in low-density, mixed-income percent of their earnings each year, and this Register of Historic Places, according to the housing in diverse neighborhoods, green space, income tax represents the city’s largest source of Post-Dispatch. One was the redbrick Buster educational opportunities, job training, and general revenue. If NGA had selected another Brown Blue Ribbon Shoe Factory, built in 1901, social services for some 14,000 residents. location outside St. Louis—such as its nearest ri- when St. Louis was one of the nation’s largest “We see [the NGA relocation] as a complemen- val for the project, a cornfield site near the Scott shoe manufacturing cities. (Listing on the tary project” that will, at the very least, bring Air Force Base east of the Mississippi in St. Claire National Register does not, by itself, prevent a better transit to the near North Side, said County, Illinois—the city would have lost as much property’s demolition.) Esther Shin, president of Urban Strategies, Inc., as $2.6 million in annual payroll-tax revenue from The city spent $69 million acquiring properties in St. Louis, the nonprofit managing the Choice NGA’s 3,100 current employees, who earn an within the 97-acre NGA site, including approxi- grant efforts. average salary of around $85,000. mately $3.75 million to compensate owners of “If you’re going to grow in the next few years, the 46 properties taken through eminent domain, you’re competing with Amazon and Google, and and funds to buy back properties that the city had The city looked at the new NGA facility as The family home of Charlesetta Taylor, an early opponent of the NGA’s you need to be in the city and make a place previously sold to a local developer, according to “a retention effort” that will spark new growth North St. Louis relocation, was itself relocated—from 2530 North where people want to be,” said Mark Johnson, Russell Halliday, principal with consulting firm Market Street to nearby 2200 St. Louis Avenue. As St. Louis Public and services in the North Side neighborhoods. principal of Denver-based Civitas, an urban Stantec and NGA site preparation manager for Radio reported, the city spent roughly half a million dollars moving design and landscape architecture firm that the SLDC. the 367-ton house. Credit: St. Louis Development Corp. consulted on the NGA site for the city. “Staff recruitment and retention needed to be the most important issue.” Since the early 1950s, the Springfield, Virginia–based NGA and its precursors, including the Defense Mapping Agency and the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, has operated its Figure 2 western headquarters in a series of converted State and Local Contributions Backed The state and the city have 19th-century riverfront buildings at the 27-acre committed to paying for the tax by Tax Revenue, Credits $114.5 St. Louis Arsenal complex. In 2014, the agency increment financing bonds over million announced it needed a new facility to allow for the course of 30 years by directing half of NGA employees’: workforce expansion, heightened security, and The funding from the State of Bonds new technology. The NGA plans to move into its Missouri and the City of St. Louis State Withholding Tax has come primarily through the new home by 2024. up to $12 million annually sale of $114.5 million in bonds and In their successful bid to keep the National Geospatial-Intelligence In its bid to keep the NGA, the city offered free $36 million in transferable state City Earnings Tax Agency’s western headquarters, the State of Missouri and City of land, cleared of buildings on the North Side site. brownfield tax credits (which State Brownfield up to $1.5 million annually St. Louis offered to acquire and deliver the land for the project, ready This meant assembling 551 properties quickly. A netted the state $33.1 million). Remediation Program for construction. Credit: National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 2015 blight study reported that 78 percent of the Tax Credits $33.1 Credit: St. Louis Development Corp million
12 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 13 The City of St. Louis is expected to Community Wants and Needs residents see this as an opportunity to leverage finish preparing the 97-acre NGA site— other jobs for folks who live in the neighborhood,” a process involving the acquisition, The agency has said the project will create Shin said. clearing, and remediation of the north jobs in construction, security, maintenance, “Some residents don’t want this facility in St. Louis property—by late 2018, and administration that do not require a college their neighborhood,” noted Martinez, “but the and transfer it to the U.S. Air Force. education and will be made available to the greater percentage are excited about what this Construction is scheduled to begin by 2020. Credit: Robert Cohen/St Louis community. The city is working to help neighbor- can do for North St. Louis and the city. I’m very Post-Dispatch/Polaris hood residents prepare, said Sal Martinez, confident that amenities will come with redevel- executive director of the North Newstead opment around the NGA, such as sit-down Association, a community development corpora- restaurants, major shopping, and other retail tion. The St. Louis Agency on Training + Employ- entities that will want to take advantage of ment (SLATE) has opened offices in the area these new workers and the residents.” In the In addition to razing the buildings, the Site Preparation and Financing and is focusing on the skills needed for NGA past, it has been difficult to bring in “grocery city agreed to clear the site of infrastructure employment—technical skills like coding and stores, shoe repair, dry cleaners, office and including 27 streets, relocate utilities, and NGA West site preparations are slated to be software design. school supplies, everyday things that people remediate arsenic in the soil. And it agreed to completed by November 2018, when the land “SLATE programming could be a gateway to in thriving neighborhoods take for granted,” construct new infrastructure such as sidewalks will be transferred to the US Air Force, which that world and spark an interest in residents,” he noted. “But now we’re getting calls and and a full highway interchange. also owns the current NGA facility, said Stantec’s Martinez said. interest from commercial developers because The State of Missouri is providing the majority Halliday. The project is being overseen by teams Choice grant manager Esther Shin said they see the potential for customers.” of the total $147.6 million in public funding from four separate entities: the city and its residents understand that NGA’s highly skilled needed to ready the site and provide access— redevelopment corporation; the NGA, which will and relatively affluent staff of 3,100 will largely National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, city and state $114.5 million in bonds has been set aside for lease the site; the Air Force; and the Army Corps, transfer to the new site, potentially displacing officials, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers pitched construction costs, and $33.1 million in funds which has issued a request for proposals (RFP) for existing residents and businesses as new the NGA West project to area residents and local resulting from the sale of Brownfield Remediation design-build firms. housing and services are built. “There’s definitely businesses in a series of events preceding construction. Program tax credits. The city will allocate half of By early 2019, the Corps will select a firm to some tension, but the important thing is to be On offer: blight reduction, public safety, and development the earnings tax generated by the NGA—up to design and build the project. Its total $1.75 billion sitting at the table with NGA. The city, NGA, and opportunities. Credit: St. Louis Development Corp. $1.5 million per year—and the state will direct price tag includes $700 million for design and up to $12 million in state withholding taxes for construction; the rest will pay for outfitting the the next 30 years to the project (figure 2). campus with specialized NGA equipment, as well The city and state investments in the NGA’s as the city’s costs for preparing the site for cross-town move, which is effectively the development. shuttering of one military/intelligence installa- Construction, due to begin by 2020, will tenta- tion and construction of another, reverses the tively include a 900,000-square-foot office building, usual roles in military base closings. In those a visitor center, inspection facility, access control cases, the federal government typically cushions points, one million square feet of parking garages the blow to the local economy, said David plus surface parking, a cafeteria, fitness center, Merriman, professor of economics at the meeting spaces, and a campus landscape of University of Illinois at Chicago and author of grass, trees, and walking paths. Roe said the land Improving Tax Increment Financing (TIF) for within the NGA site, upon the federal govern- Economic Development, a Lincoln Institute policy ment’s request, has been consolidated into one report to be published in July 2018. “It’s an zoning district that allows for mixed-use unusual relationship where the city is making a buildings—offices, housing, small commercial, lot of efforts to keep a federal employer as retail, and restaurant spaces—at greater heights opposed to a private-sector employer. To the than in the surrounding residential area. extent that it sets a precedent, it’s a precedent we really want to think about carefully,” he said. “This really raises questions about the federal government’s responsibility here.”
14 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 15 Project Connect manufacturing and industrial development that A potential scheme for the NGA campus could bring more permanent jobs. The nonbind- includes the facility’s requisite 500-foot In 2016, the city launched Project Connect, an ing plan is also intended to guide future invest- security barrier and buffer zone. A key initiative to engage neighborhood stakeholders ments in streets, transit, bicycle access, social question is how such a secure facility can be integrated with the surrounding and coordinate redevelopment efforts by the services, parks, open spaces, and storm water neighborhood and how amenable the NGA public and private sectors. Project Connect facilities. Public realm redevelopment can draw and the Army Corps of Engineers, which is provides “a vision for city and regional agencies on revenues from a tax increment financing overseeing the construction, will be to collaborate,” said Isa Reeb, a Civitas urban district established in 2009 that allows for up to creative solutions. Credit: St. Louis designer and Project Connect coordinator. to $390 million to be used primarily to finance Development Corp. Working with over 30 entities, including federal, infrastructure improvements, but because the state, and local agencies, community groups, and neighborhoods have been so distressed, other some 30,000 residents who live and work in the funding sources likely will be needed. A newly eight neighborhoods surrounding the NGA site, hired Project Connect manager will work with the group produced the Project Connect Action the SLDC on a process for reviewing redevelop- Plan, published in April 2017. ment projects. The action plan summarizes market, traffic, “Continued alignment and coordination is key and storm water studies; financial modeling; and to the success of this area, and to changing the community and city goals for catalytic redevelop- perception of this area,” said Reeb. “We’ve had a ment around the NGA site. The plan presents lot of discussions with developers, [and] we want priorities and locations for infill development to to hold them accountable.” improve the place and character around the NGA site, gateway mixed-use development east of the The NGA’s new western headquarters is taking shape in NGA site to connect with downtown, neighbor- the St. Louis Place neighborhood, north of downtown. hood redevelopment with a community center, A diminished but cohesive community of roughly 200 new retail and service development, including a people resided within the construction footprint when the Security Buffer: Isolation v. potential local and regional retail center on city began purchasing the land. It acquired 46 properties members would like to see ample green space the Pruitt-Igoe site, and locations for light through eminent domain. Credit: Paul Sableman (Flickr) Engagement around NGA that would provide a “calming and welcoming feel,” perhaps with monuments to the Probably the greatest controversy surrounding area’s cultural history and art created by local Next NGA West has to do with its rigid security schoolchildren, “to soften the wall and honor the protocols. Post-9/11, federal regulations for an neighborhood.” Residents desire places for intelligence-mapping facility require 500 linear community members to meet within the building feet of defensive space from property line to and outside the perimeter, as well as tours of building. The March 2017 RFP soliciting design what he said could become a “destination site.” and construction firms indicated the site would “Space and programming within the building need a “layered security” approach, with access for exhibits and educational opportunities like controlled by fences, bollards, and other barriers. mapping and data-analysis programs for kids A visitor control center, remote inspection could benefit the community and help bridge the facility, and checkpoints will manage access to divide,” said city planner Alan Mallach, who has the main operations building, which will have not worked directly on the project but offered another layer of security. perspective during a presentation of the NGA The NGA has discussed the 500-foot security project at the 2016 BCPDI. barrier at community meetings that include Mallach said Next NGA West is “very chal- city and Army Corps representatives. “The lenging” and unlike any project he has seen in community respects the need for security,” other U.S. cities. Because of the “sheer size” of Martinez said, “but we don’t want this to be an the facility and the buffer, he said, “it runs the intimidating barrier.” He said many community risk that what you’ll have is a black hole with no
16 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 17 real connection to the neighborhood. If it’s just a everything employees need during their day. With Next Steps for St. Louis Despite the agency’s non-negotiable security high-security box, there are no spillover bene- the number of employees at NGA, “that’s a fairly demands, an August 2017 Post-Dispatch article fits,” he said. “What would make a facility with a large consumer potential if the workers were “There’s no playbook for a project of this size quoted NGA director Cardillo as saying the agency big wall and security gates attractive for encouraged to patronize businesses within the and complexity,” said Civitas’s Reeb. “The area wants close collaboration on its campus with housing, cafes, and shops in a commercial neighborhood.” is so distressed that single projects here and contractors involved in geospatial mapping, cyber- district?” The NGA buildings will be a self-con- For project leaders, security is the primary there will not be effective in changing the security, and other defense systems. “We wall tained workspace, he said, and most workers objective, rather than integrating the facility opportunities and perceptions of the area. ourselves off at our own risk,” he said. Reinforcing would not feel the need to relocate from a within the urban fabric. “We’ve expressed that We need everyone to focus on the same vision that the agency is looking to develop its future pleasant and more stable neighborhood to move our security requirements specify a secure for the same areas” and pursue opportunities workforce in St. Louis by encouraging science and across the street from a gated facility in a barrier,” and that shared public space for “where the city can make an impact.” technology education in local school districts and transitioning area. elements like recreation fields and walking Around the NGA site there is vacant land, universities, Cardillo added, “We’re placing a bet Toni Griffin, professor in practice in urban paths within that barrier would not be permitted, and Roe said the city is evaluating zoning and on St. Louis, and it’s a hundred-year bet.” planning at the Harvard Graduate School of said David Berczek, chief of corporate communi- proposing short-term changes, with an overlay Design, who also provided an independent cations for Next NGA West. zone “to enhance and protect the site and goose perspective at Lincoln’s 2016 BCPDI, observed Residents don’t want the facility to “look development.” He said the city is considering that “It’s challenging when you have a suburban like a fortress,” according to Halliday, who has public-realm projects that would benefit Kathleen McCormick, principal of Fountainhead Communi- typology in an urban environment in this very been asked by the city to find out what the residents and encourage new commercial cations, LLC, in Boulder, Colorado, writes frequently about big lot site with very little development.” Griffin, community wants. “A barrier wall can be done in development for firms that work with NGA, healthy, sustainable, and resilient communities. who has worked on urban revitalization projects so many ways” and does not have to be a brick innovation clusters, and service-oriented in Detroit, St. Louis, and Washington, DC, noted wall with barbed wire, he said. “We’re informing businesses. that NGA’s security perimeter width is more than the NGA and Army Corps: please consider the But the classified nature of the NGA’s work twice the 200 linear feet of an urban block in neighborhood.” and its strict security requirements limit the many cities. To make the site as urban as NGA security forces will have jurisdiction facility’s potential for spin-offs and other possible, she said, designers will have to be adjacent to the site to protect NGA employees development compared to university research “more creative about what they allow to exist and neighborhood residents, and the site and technology hubs, according to Merriman. within the security belt,” she said. “There has to will have 24-hour security patrols. How will Reeb, meanwhile, is focused on two areas not REFERENCES be some sort of value and usable amenities for this security scenario play among residents of immediately adjacent to the NGA site. At Cass the community there.” Project designers could North Side—a community with a racial dynamic Avenue and North 14th Street, about a mile east National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA). 2016. place the building at the perimeter, at the edge and socioeconomic conditions similar to those of of the site, manufacturing could give way to “Environmental Impact Statement for the Next NGA West of the street wall, to activate local businesses, nearby Ferguson, Missouri, which experienced mixed-use development as a segue to down- Campus in the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan Area.” and use that as a first line of defense, with more protests and riots after a white police officer town. At Florissant and St. Louis avenues, about April 1. https://www.nga.mil/MediaRoom/PressReleases/ Pages/-Next-NGA-West-Final-Environmental-Impact- secure functions set back, she noted. killed an unarmed black teenager, Michael a mile northeast, vacant land could be redevel- Statement-to-be-published-by-Army-Corps-of-Engineers,- Griffin points to the Navy Yard in Washington, Brown, in August 2014? oped for apartments and neighborhood-serving NGA-Identifies-Preferred-Al.aspx. DC, as an example of the project’s catalytic Martinez said the grand jury’s decision not retail, and infrastructure enhancements could NGA. 2015. “National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency potential. Contractors for the Navy set up their to indict the police officer for any crimes related improve safety and connectivity. (NGA) Briefing Book,” second edition. December 11. offices adjacent to the secure federal facility, to Brown’s death “strained things a bit, but that Developers will begin planning more projects https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/ which “created demand for investment in the happened outside of this district.” Martinez said “when they see NGA starting,” Halliday said. mayor/documents/nga-briefing-book.cfm. neighborhood,” including not just commercial the Fourth District of the metro police assigned “We’re hearing interest from local and outside St. Louis Development Corporation. 2017. “Project office space but also restaurants, shops, and several officers specifically to building strong developers about mixed-income housing and Connect Action Plan: A City of St. Louis Initiative.” April 3. services, as well as market-rate and affordable relationships within the community. “They commercial development.” Redevelopment plans https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/ housing. Griffin said St. Louis could ask NGA and show up at block meetings, neighborhood underway include a nearby medical clinic and a sldc/project-connect/upload/ActionPlan_FINAL_ the Army Corps not to program the campus with association meetings, and other events, and grocery store/gas station. Printable-3.pdf. we have a very good working relationship.” “We wall ourselves off at our own risk. Even if the place ends up being a fortress, Martinez said, NGA’s security measures, such We’re placing a bet on St. Louis, and it’s as new exterior lighting and strengthened police a hundred-year bet.” presence, will provide the “ancillary benefit” of helping make the North Side safer.
18 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 19 HOUSTON SURVEYS
By Kathleen McCormick
LATE LAST AUGUST, HURRICANE HARVEY SWEPT Houston’s city and county officials are pivoting THROUGH TEXAS, CAUSING WIDESPREAD FLOODING AND to stricter regulations on building new homes in DESTRUCTION WHEN IT STALLED OVER THE HOUSTON floodplains, and considering a wide range of flood METROPOLITAN REGION, dumping over 50 inches of mitigation strategies, infrastructure needs, and rain in four days. Harvey paralyzed Houston, the development changes. These include creating new nation’s fourth-largest city and a global center for flood barrier and detention facilities, rehabilitat- the oil industry, and it tested the resilience of a ing urban drainage systems, buying out more state that’s home to nearly one in twelve U.S. homes in flood-prone areas, and creating green workers. As Houston recovers and faces the next infrastructure. An important test of resilience- hurricane season, preparing for inevitable and building will be how well the region can communi- potentially more devastating storms is highly cate and collaborate on these strategies. stressful for urban planners, public officials, “Harvey was a wake-up call that it might be business leaders, and others who live and time to revisit the sins of the past,” said Houston work there. Having been slammed with three director of planning and development Patrick 500-year floods in the past three years, the region Walsh, who presented a summary of Harvey’s POST-HARVEY is reconsidering its “build and let build” attitude. impacts at the Lincoln Institute’s 2017 Big City Harvey has occasioned a rethink—though not a Planning Directors Institute last October. Walsh complete redo—regarding urban planning and has been involved in several aspects of post- development. Harvey planning. “There’s a broad consensus from Nicknamed the “Bayou City,” Houston is the community and from developers and builders naturally flood-prone. But critics say the region’s that we need to do better, that we’re all in this longtime approach to urban planning (read: the together. We need a resilient city.” Houston has lack of it) has resulted in zone-free development, recovered reasonably well in the short term, said POLICY low-density urban sprawl, and weak regulations the Houston native, “but many people are still that have led to or exacerbated destructive suffering.” A new way of operating may be needed, flooding. Many are calling for resilience planning he added, “if we want to continue to attract that takes a regionwide, long-term, and greener talented people and businesses to the city.” approach to land planning, urban development, and storm water management. Many are calling for resilience planning that takes a regionwide, long-term, and LANDSCAPE Credit: Maribel Amador/SWA greener approach.
20 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 21 Figure 1 City of Houston and FEMA Estimates of the Number of Structures Damaged During Harvey
(Not So) Equal Opportunity Harvey slammed the region’s economy and Disaster quality of life. Before the storm—spurred by jobs Number of Structures in oil and gas, tech, healthcare, and other with Damages Houston has a long history of flooding from industries, as well as relatively cheap and 1-25 tropical storms. Hurricanes in the 1920s and plentiful housing—Houston was considered an Houston 1930s caused catastrophic floods that killed affordable region. Its median July 2017 home 25-50 thousands. Tropical Storm Allison triggered mass price of $230,000 compared to a national median 50-100 flooding and caused 20 Texas deaths in 2001. of $293,400, according to Redfin. Housing supply Harvey came on the heels of the Memorial Day declined and costs jumped in the months 100-200 Flood of 2015 and the Tax Day Flood of April 2016. following Harvey as residents competed to 200-400 But Harvey was exponentially bigger, causing resettle in neighborhoods that weren’t flooded. 400-800 flooding in about one-third of the Houston metro Roughly 80 percent of Harris County homeowners Note: City Damage assessments are based on visual observation. region, including highways, waste-water treat- lacked flood insurance; many weren’t located in This data should not be viewed as a comprehensive damage survey. ment plants, and City Hall in downtown Houston. areas designated as flood-prone. Prospects for Half of the homes and businesses that were renovating or rebuilding damaged homes, and the Credit: January Advisors. © OpenStreetMap © CartoDB
flooded by Harvey had not flooded previously, availability and cost of flood insurance, remain while many others flooded for the third time in uncertain. Recipients of post-Harvey federal three years. Harvey caused 68 deaths and $125 disaster assistance will have to purchase flood billion in damages in Texas, according to the insurance, the New York Times reported. National Hurricane Center’s official report, While homes in the region’s high-, middle-, and mandating disclosure of flood risk for new along major thoroughfares and neighborhoods which noted that it was the most significant and low-income neighborhoods alike were home buyers or renters. Meanwhile, officials in tucked away on smaller streets,” he said. tropical cyclone rainfall event in U.S. history, affected, many regional leaders note the impacts Houston’s Harris County are considering a bond According to Walsh, other factors contributed both in scope and peak rainfall amounts, since on middle- and lower-income households have referendum to finance more than $1 billion in to Harvey’s impact, including the storm’s extreme reliable rainfall records began in the 1880s. In the been much greater, considering these households flood control projects. rainfall, the region’s clay soils, which don’t absorb Houston area, Harvey damaged an estimated have fewer resources to rebound from flood water well, its aging and inadequate storm water 300,000 housing units and displaced more than damages, lost wages, lost jobs, and the lost fabric infrastructure, and a “significant amount of 1 million people, forcing some 42,000 of them to of community. National media reported on Magnified Flood Risks low-density sprawl” in the surrounding county. seek emergency shelter. The storm left 200 million problems faced by renters in poorer neighbor- Walsh noted that Houston drains from west cubic yards of debris. hoods near petrochemical plants and other Houston is often criticized for its lack of zoning: to east and that intensive growth on the western With climate change, rising ocean tempera- industrial areas, including high levels of toxins in It’s the only major U.S. city without a zoning code periphery has increased the volume of runoff tures have fueled more frequent and more intense the floodwater and air, and lack of resources for to help determine land-use planning and develop- flowing through the city. “Altering this growth storms and higher sea levels, increasing the risk storm preparedness, response, and recovery. ment rules. While urban planning alone can’t pattern will be difficult, but we should be of flooding. Harvey could have caused an even Many renters could not pay for proper home prevent a disaster like Harvey, critics have said considering options like protecting the Katy greater catastrophe. A storm surge from the Gulf clean-up or find alternative housing. that zoning, along with careful land-use planning Prairie,” he said, referring to the shrinking of Mexico could have destroyed oil refineries and As of early December, the budget-strapped and stricter development regulations, could have remnant of the vast prairie and wetlands west sent toxic floodwaters up the Houston Ship Federal Emergency Management Agency prevented much of the destruction (figure 1). of Houston. Channel to the Houston region. That threat (FEMA), facing clean-ups from multiple cli- Planning and Development Director Walsh About 20 miles west of downtown, thousands remains, and many say Houston cannot rely on mate-related disasters, had promised $160 billion maintains that zoning would not have made the of homes that flooded for the first time had been past data to predict future storms. in post-Harvey aid for Houston, in addition to city less flood-prone. “It’s time that we dispel the developed decades ago inside the “dry” basins of funds for individual recovery assistance and myth of zoning,” he said. “If we were a zoned city, the Addicks and Barker reservoirs. The U.S. Army debris pickup. The federal funds are only a we would have been a zoned, flooded city with Corps constructed the basins in the 1940s to A storm surge from the Gulf of Mexico could fraction of what’s needed to recover and plan for Harvey. Any zoned city that is flat like ours would control the flow of water along Buffalo Bayou have destroyed oil refineries and sent toxic resilience. The Houston Chronicle noted the state have flooded.” He said the city’s “tremendous and prevent downtown flooding. Because FEMA legislature won’t reconvene until 2019, but amount” of development regulation such as maps didn’t place these basins in the 100-year floodwaters up the Houston Ship Channel to lawmakers will be asked to consider a range of setbacks, parking, and landscape requirements, floodplain, mortgage companies did not require the Houston region. That threat remains. proposals, such as increasing local governments’ plus a market-driven approach, determine how flood insurance, and prospective home buyers ability to bar development in certain areas, and where development occurs. “We look a lot like had not been informed of the risks. Concerned changing the operational guidelines of reservoirs, a zoned city. We have commercial development that the reservoirs would fail during Harvey, the
22 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 23 Corps allowed a controlled release of water from said Laurie Johnson, a Bay Area planning Development Regulations the dams into the bayou, inundating downstream consultant who specializes in catastrophe risk areas, including downtown. modeling, and coauthor of After Great Disasters, David Hightower, executive vice president of Unchecked development has heightened flood published by the Lincoln Institute. Johnson, lead Midway Companies, a Houston-based developer, risks regionwide, according to hydrologists, author of a recovery plan for New Orleans after is a member of the city’s redevelopment and environmental engineers, and federal officials Hurricane Katrina, said that one of the biggest drainage task force. He said solutions may interviewed in 2016 by the Texas Tribune and tests for Houston is whether the city and county “require some out-of-the-box thinking, which is ProPublica. At an elevation of about 50 feet above can work together effectively. a challenge when you’re dealing with bureaucrats sea level, the region is drained by 22 watersheds managing over 600 square miles.” Developers in which storm water flows west to east in a would consider “reasonable, equitable, fairly network of bayous and drainage channels that Resilience Efforts applied” rules, but they object when people empty into the Houston Ship Channel. Once a blame development such as strip malls for great expanse of prairie, wetlands, and woods that In October 2017, Harris County officials released a The upscale Meyerland neighborhood is among the areas flooding, “when factors like aging and inadequate were better able to absorb rainwater, much of the 15-point plan calling for strategies such as a under consideration for a buyout program. Rice Universi- drainage infrastructure” are really to blame, area is now covered with low-density development. regional flood control organization to coordinate ty’s Baker Institute for Public Policy recommended such a Hightower asserted. A city of 2.2 million people, Houston spans water management across county lines, and program in its post-Harvey report. Credit: Citysqwirl, via Hightower, also a member of a Harris County 627 square miles. It lies within 1,777-square-mile tougher regulations on development in flood- iStock/Getty flood mitigation committee, said 2009 county Harris County, which has nearly 4.6 million prone areas. The plan also proposed buying out drainage regulations proved effective. The county residents, according to 2016 U.S. Census all homes that are located in the 100-year analyzed where and how Harvey flooded homes in estimates. The vast metro region has a population floodplain or that have flooded repeatedly, an The city and county collaborate through a its unincorporated areas, he said, and found that of 6.8 million people and, at 9,000 square miles, is expansion of an existing county buyout program storm water management joint task force and only 467 built after 2009 were flooded. equivalent in size to New Jersey. Since 2000, over that could cost billions. with the Harris County Flood Control District “It’s the areas that are much older, like Meyer- 80 percent of Harris County’s nearly 1 million new The City of Houston has begun to define its (HCFCD), a nonregulatory special district that land, developed in the 1960s and located mostly residents have moved into unincorporated areas, own strategies. “We’re now focusing on recovery develops storm water management plans and within the city limits, that got hit really hard,” said connected by thousands of square miles of paved and looking at long-term resilience,” said Stephen builds and maintains flood control infrastructure. Hightower. In Meyerland, an upscale enclave of streets, parking lots, and over 360,000 new Costello, a former city council member and an The county’s five elected officials determine 2,000 homes located west of downtown Houston buildings, according to the Houston Chronicle. engineer with 40 years of storm water manage- regulations for unincorporated areas. Each of the along Brays Bayou, some homes have flooded Development has increased storm water runoff, ment experience who was appointed the city’s county’s 34 municipalities has its own criteria for three years in a row. Many homeowners say these and during Harvey, the record amount of rainfall chief resilience officer in 2016 by Houston Mayor drainage systems, including storm water deten- older homes have flooded because of newer caused storm water, mixed with toxic chemicals Sylvester Turner. Costello said Houston does not tion storage. HCFCD, among others, has asked for upstream development, and they want buyouts. and sewage, to rise to new heights and spread have a resiliency plan per se, and that his role is a “big-picture regional planning effort,” said Rob Planning consultant Johnson said risk out, inundating areas previously not considered “to open the discussion, and hopefully the Lazaro, communications officer. Costello said he modeling can show scenarios that link develop- vulnerable to flooding. regulatory issues.” He organized and led the city’s doesn’t favor a regional flood mitigation authority. ment with flooding risk. “You can show if you put “Cities that have a strong planning culture, redevelopment and drainage task force, which “Rather than creating an overlapping entity, we a house here, that impervious surface will affect including general plans and a tool kit of policies issued a report in February addressing rules on need intergovernmental agreements.” the system in a certain way.” Three years of they use as part of everyday practice—with detention for redevelopment, placement of fill Houston is considering building a coastal 500-year storms in Houston “shows that the past disaster plans, natural hazard mitigation plans, dirt in floodplains, and protection of the city’s barrier of dunes and gates to provide storm-surge is no longer a good indicator of the future,” she and zoning that reflects risk—tend to do better,” rights of way that obstruct drainage flow. protection for the region’s vulnerable oil refineries said. “What is lacking is a common understanding In September 2017, Mayor Turner appointed and shipping channel. Construction of the system of the future risk, and that’s the challenge right former Shell Oil Co. Chairman and President could cost $10 billion. Harris County has support- now with a changing climate. As modelers, we Marvin Odum as Houston’s chief recovery officer. ed the concept, which was also included in a have to add in the range of possibilities, the “Cities that have a strong planning culture, Odum led Shell’s business recovery after Hurri- request for FEMA funding. uncertainty.” including general plans and a tool kit of cane Katrina. He is charged with expediting policies they use as part of everyday disaster recovery and preparing the city for the “Risk modeling can show scenarios that link development with flooding risk. practice—with disaster plans, natural next record-breaking storm. The resilience and recovery officers report to the mayor, who brings You can show if you put a house here, that impervious surface will affect the hazard mitigation plans, and zoning that policy recommendations to the 16-member system in a certain way.” Three years of 500-year storms in Houston “shows reflects risk—tend to do better.” elected city council for a vote. that the past is no longer a good indicator of the future.”
24 LAND LINES OCTOBER 2017 25 Houston is using climate modeling to predict Speiler noted. It is unlikley that new regulations future flooding impacts, according to Walsh. will stop homes from flooding in older developed Post-Harvey, Harris County is requiring that all areas, however, because “a very large portion of new buildings on unincorporated land be raised the city is legacy building stock, which preceded at least 24 inches above the flood plain. The first any flood regulations at all.” finished floor of new construction must be at Walsh agrees that many homes were built in least as high as the 500-year flood level. New places where they never should have been, such houses in the floodplain must be built on piers as along the bayous. Four out of five structures in and cannot use fill dirt to elevate construction. the city’s official floodplain areas were built The regulations received wide support from the before stricter regulations were adopted in 1981, Greater Houston Builders Association, Houston he said. “For decades, we have allowed develop- Real Estate Council, American Council of ment in the floodplain, but we’ve had to build it Engineering Companies of Houston, Houston higher.” Current city regulations require new or Houston, with its limited and aging storm water management infrastructure, faces the daunting task of preparing for more Apartment Association, and the Houston chapter rebuilt homes to be raised one foot above the of the severe storms experts attribute to climate change. Credit: (left) Houston First Corporation; (right) Geoffrey Lyon/SWA of the American Institute of Architects. 100-year FEMA floodplain elevation; as a result, “These regulations apply in 100-year, in some neighborhoods, ground-level homes that 500-year, and outside of 500-year floodplains,” were flooded by Harvey sit side-by-side with Floodplain and Detention said Christof Speiler, vice president and director elevated homes that were not. of planning for Houston’s Huitt-Zollars architec- In January, Mayor Turner proposed new Mitigation effective drainage. Another new rule would require ture and urban planning firm and project manager development regulations that would require all those redeveloping lots under 15,000 square for the Greater Houston Flood Mitigation Consor- new buildings to be raised two feet above the Detention is Houston’s main method of flood feet to pay a fee in lieu of providing detention. tium. “These are very fundamental changes that projected flood level, noting that Houston could control, but lack of available land limits the city’s Proposed changes also would provide detention have a very real impact on new development.” not call for more state and federal flood and ability to build large detention infrastructure that credit for low-impact development options like The regulations apply only in unincorporated resilience funding “without showing that we are could handle Harvey-like flooding. HCFCD green swales—typically planted, shallow basins areas of the county, however, and Houston and moving urgently at the local level to find solutions manages about 15,700 acres of storm water designed to absorb and filter runoff. other municipalities make their own regulations, for ourselves.” reservoirs across a 1.1 million-acre area. In the Much of the city’s detention and drainage past year, HCFCD invested over $100 million in infrastructure dates from the 1940s and ’50s. A capital improvement projects to repair detention January 2017 report from Houston’s Storm Water basins and widen and deepen channels along the Maintenance Branch said certain areas devel- Roughly 80 percent of the county’s major bayous. The state plans to pay for oped before 1985 were prone to flooding because city’s buildings located in a third reservoir to better protect areas west of of “inadequate and undersized infrastructure.” mapped floodplains were Houston and to avoid the kinds of releases from The city spends over $250 million per year on constructed before the Addicks and Barker dams that swamped Houston street and drainage infrastructure, and its public maps were drawn. Harvey during Harvey. A systemwide upgrade to protect works department estimated it would cost $650 inundated some areas that the region fully from a 100-year storm would million annually to rebuild and maintain decaying had flood control measures require an estimated 52,000 additional detention storm water infrastructure to reduce flood in place. Credit: Karl acres, but the cost of acquiring that land exceeds threats along the city’s bayous, remove properties Spencer, via iStock/Getty HCFCD’s annual budget several times over. from the floodplain, replace storm sewer and Mayor Turner in January proposed new outfall pipes, regrade ditches, and accomplish detention rules based on the recommendations of other upgrades. the redevelopment and detention task force. The city faces other big decisions. Harvey Under current measures, only new development flooded 18 of the city’s 39 waste water treatment is required to manage storm water runoff from plants, eight of which were completely inundated, rooftops, parking lots, and other impervious said Costello. Does the city retrofit and design surfaces by means of detention. The task force protection for inundated plants, or does it advised closing this loophole, so that a developer relocate them to other sites? Does it consolidate intending to build a skyscraper on a parking lot the waste water treatment system at an estimat- would now have to provide detention to support ed cost of $10 billion?
26 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 27 New Mapping Needed and ditches during storms and by projecting where and how high the water would rise. In Harris Walsh said the city adopted more stringent County, a “100-year event” equates to between floodplain mitigation regulations after FEMA 12 and 14 inches of rainfall within 24 hours, reissued maps for Harris County in 2007. Homes and a “500-year event” produces between 17 built after 2007 are generally elevated and and 20 inches of rainfall within 24 hours. Initial protected from floods. In neighborhoods that were post-Harvey National Oceanic and Atmospheric flooded by Harvey, many homes that were not Administration estimates for Houston increased elevated had their first floor flooded. New maps the 100-year-event level to 18 inches of rainfall would help regulate floodplain development and within a 24-hour period. Data show that Harvey facilitate other resilience efforts, he said. was at least a 500-year event across the county FEMA maps floodplains and flood levels by and in some areas rose above a 1,000-year modeling how water spills out of creeks, bayous, storm level. Costello noted, however, that remapping Data show that Harvey was at least a 500- might come too late, at too high a cost, and with too little effect. “Even if we were to decide to year event across the county and in some remap, it would take a couple years for regula- areas rose above a 1,000-year storm level. tions to change,” he said.
Figure 2 Houston Floodplains Credit: Federal Emergency Management Agency. Buyouts Harvey’s record rains dispersed waves of floodwater mixed with toxic chemicals and sewage throughout the A post-Harvey report from Rice University’s Baker city, depositing tons of debris and silt, and raising Institute of Public Policy, recommended a home questions about the residue’s composition. Credit: buyout and removal program, noting that many Jonnu Singleton/SWA Floodway homes had flooded three or more times since 1% (100-year) Tropical Storm Allison. Advocates say more buyouts would have a Floodplain Although buyouts involve an initial public host of resiliency benefits: They would relocate 0.2% (500-year) investment and remove properties from tax rolls, people out of harm’s way and eliminate future Floodplain they mitigate flood-risk and reduce the cost of flood damages and health and safety risks, reduce 1% (100-year) repeated damage to property and infrastructure repetitive subsidized flood insurance payments Coastal Floodplain while bolstering communities’ resilience and federal disaster assistance, and allow for
(Freudenberg et al. 2016). restoration of the floodplain to its natural function Since 1985, the HCFCD’s voluntary buyout for storm water storage and release. program has purchased more than 3,000 proper- On the other hand, a larger scale buyout ties; over 1,060 acres have been restored as program could cost billions and have other natural floodplain. By November 2017, the county downsides. “In a lot of very established sub- had received over 3,000 requests for buyouts divisions, people like their homes and schools, related just to Harvey, and in February HCFCD and you’d damage the fabric of the community,” notified the state it would request $180 million said Walsh. “How aggressive should a buyout for home buyouts. Countywide, over 100,000 program be? Do you take the first row of houses – A floodway is defined as a waterway and adjacent land, kept free of obstruction, that can carry homes and other buildings currently sit within backing up from the bayou? Do you take the first flood water downstream and keep water levels from rising above a certain height. 100-year floodplains along 2,500 miles of three rows? We have limited resources. It’s a – A 100-year flood has a 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year. waterways, said HCFCD. difficult policy question.” – A 500-year flood has a 0.2 percent chance of occurring in any given year.
28 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 29 Green Infrastructure In downtown Houston, a 2.3-mile stretch of Many say Houston is not likely to enact a Buffalo Bayou Park—part of a $58 million zoning code as a resilience measure, nor is a A regional planning strategy focused on natural bayou that didn’t overflow its banks during public-private project led by the Buffalo Bayou prohibition or even a moratorium on development infrastructure like wetlands would provide Harvey,” noted HCFCD’s Lazaro. In a $480 million Partnership, the city, and HCFCD—included in floodplains likely. But Walsh said Houston is “shock protection” from climate-related floods project with the Corps, HCFCD is building four restoration of the banks with reinforced infra- taking a more thoughtful approach. He said city and store and slowly release floodwaters, said detention ponds and widening and deepening a structure and a riparian landscape, walking trails, and county officials are considering a resilience Forster Ndubisi, professor of landscape architec- 21-mile stretch of the Bray’s Bayou channel, boat launches, and picnic areas. During Harvey, plan and making decisions with resilience in ture and urban planning at Texas A&M, senior which they will plant with native vegetation. The when water from the Addicks and Barker dams mind. City council, for example, is looking more fellow with its Hazard Reduction Recovery Houston Parks Board and the city’s Parks and was released into the bayou, the flood level carefully at infrastructure and development- Center, and contributor to Lincoln Institute’s Recreation Department, collaborating with reached as high as 25 vertical feet, said Scott related decisions they used to approve routinely. Nature and Cities. The city and county could HCFCD, are developing the Bayou Greenways McCready, senior project designer and principal “They’ve shown they’re concerned about develop- provide flood protection and amenities like parks 2020 project, a 150-mile greenways trail system of SWA Group in Houston. The deluge left 8-foot ment in flood-prone areas,” he said, “even and trails by buying and removing homes in that provides drainage, transportation, and piles of sand, but compared to engineered bayou something like a MUD [municipal utility district].” certain neighborhoods and redeveloping bayou recreation along eight bayous. A voter-approved channels, he said, the park worked as intended, Ultimately, Walsh said, Houston’s long-term riparian zones with detention ponds and native bond referendum is funding $100 million of the detaining and slowly releasing floodwaters. concern is “keeping the focus on resiliency— vegetation, he said. “It’s a proactive plan, and it’s $220 million project. Houston region officials may also use golf that’s the political challenge when the skies so much cheaper” than engineered solutions. courses as storm water detention basins. The are blue.” The Houston region has already begun to metro area has more than 200 golf courses, which Advocates of an extensive network of “green infra- create detention basins and bayous that double are generally easier and cheaper to redevelop for structure”—including parks and golf courses running as parks. On the Sims Bayou, HCFCD and the along Houston’s bayous—point to the success of such flood control purposes than areas with construc- Army Corps built two regional storm water landscaped buffers as Buffalo Bayou Park (below) in tion. Clear Lake City, a master-planned communi- Kathleen McCormick, principal of Fountainhead detention basins and planted trees and shrubs detaining and slowly releasing Harvey’s floodwaters. ty 23 miles southeast of downtown Houston, had Communications in Boulder, Colorado, writes frequently along the channel banks. “Sims was the only Credit: SWA a history of flooding, and in 2011 the city’s water about healthy, sustainable, and resilient communities. authority acquired a former golf course for detention purposes. A nonprofit organization is now developing a detention and open-space park, Exploration Green, with contoured basins, wetland preserves, and miles of trails that can survive flooding. It passed its first trial during Harvey by saving 150 homes from flooding. When REFERENCES completed, it will manage up to one-half-billion gallons of storm water and protect up to 3,000 Blake, Eric S. and David A. Zelinsky. 2017. “National homes, according to the Texas Tribune. Hurricane Center Tropical Cyclone Report, Hurricane Harvey.” (AL092017). August 17–September 1. National Hurricane Center. Focus and Accelerate City of Houston. 2018. “Final Report Redevelopment and “There is a larger conversation that needs to Drainage Task Force.” February 6. http://www.houstontx. happen,” said Speiler. “What is resiliency for the gov/council/g/Final-Report-Redev-Drainage.pdf. region?” He said many local efforts “seem to be Freudenberg, Robert, Ellis Calvin, Laura Tolkoff, and the right things, but we just haven’t done enough Dare Brawley. 2016. Buy-In for Buyouts: The Case for of them.” Some changes may be required to Managed Retreat from Flood Zones. Policy Focus Report. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. retrofit infrastructure for older developed sections of Houston and protect natural habitat Ndubisi, Forster. 2016. “Adaptation and Regeneration: upstream. But generally, he said, “it isn’t so much A Pathway to New Urban Places.” In Nature and Cities: The Ecological Imperative in Urban Design and Planning, that we need to change, but rather that we need ed. Frederick R. Steiner, George F. Thompson, and to focus and accelerate what we’re doing.” Armando Carbonell, 191–211. Cambridge, MA: Lincoln Institute of Land Policy.
30 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 31 MAYOR’S DESK BEN WALSH
BW: We actually don’t have a large philanthropic BW: It forces the region to work together and base. We have local foundations, but they’re on collaborate and prepares us for future, perhaps the smaller side. It’s a blessing and curse of our more realistic, opportunities. We’ve seen our fair Syracuse Endorses industrial legacy. We never relied on one industry share of hard times over the years, and I think it or company, so we never went as high but also has made us a risk-averse community. the Value of Its Legacy didn’t go so low. Eds and meds are a significant I liked the way we thought outside the box. part of the city. One of the highest concentrations of colleges and universities is in this region. AF: Another important element for many Three great hospitals [are] major employers. St. regenerating legacy cities has to do with history Joseph’s Hospital has very intentionally grown in and a sense of place. What are the urban “bones” ANTHONY FLINT: You were born into a political a way that supports the neighborhood around it. of the city that give Syracuse a competitive family—your grandfather was mayor and Same for Syracuse University. We would like to be advantage in this regard? Congressman, and your father was also elected doing a better job of commercializing the to Congress—but you took some time before technology that comes out of those institutions. BW: When you look at the renaissance of Ben Walsh was sworn in as the 54th running yourself. What finally prompted you If you look at our legacy institutions, [they have] a our urban core, it’s the adaptive reuse of mayor of Syracuse in January 2018, to want to be chief executive? foundation of knowledge and expertise to create our industrial and historic building stock. new companies and industries. . . . We see a lot of People are looking for that sense of place, leading a postindustrial metropolis that, BEN WALSH: It’s the public service that is impor- companies in the UA (unmanned aerial) space that authenticity. It’s real. We’re not trying to like many, has struggled with job and tant. I admired my dad’s ability to see politics as based on radar technologies going back to recreate a Main Street. We’ve used both federal population loss. The 37 year-old, who a means to an end. I was never confident in my General Electric. With Carrier, though the and New York state historic tax credits. It has helped establish the Greater Syracuse own ability to strike that balance. But ultimately, manufacturing is gone, they have maintained been a major driver of our redevelopment. Land Bank and redevelop the Hotel when I came to work for the city [under the R&D, and some great work is being done on indoor previous mayor, Stephanie Miner], I started to air quality technologies. Syracuse, is known for a pragmatic and consider running for office. “If you look at our legacy institutions, [they creative approach to urban planning. AF: Syracuse made a bid for Amazon HQ2. AF: In your first weeks on the job, what would Did you learn anything from that process about have] a foundation of knowledge and expertise Prior to becoming mayor—a job held you describe as the biggest challenge, and the Syracuse’s assets or shortcomings? to create new companies and industries. by his grandfather—he was the city’s biggest promise, in leading a legacy city such as Syracuse? deputy commissioner of neighborhood Mayor Walsh advocates and business development. He also held BW: We have a structural deficit, anticipating a replacing the elevated positions at the Metropolitan Develop- $20 million [shortfall] this year. The good news is section of Interstate 81 ment Association and the private firm we have built up a good funds balance over the running through Syracuse Mackenzie Hughes LLP. He has a years. The bad news is we are drawing down on it. with a ground-level But that’s balanced by all the ingredients that transition into the city’s Master’s degree in public administration Syracuse has to be a vibrant city. I look at the street grid. Credit: City from the Maxwell School at Syracuse trends and where young people want to be, and of Syracuse. University. He resides on the city’s west we can offer them urban amenities, proximity to side with his wife, Lindsay, and his two work, density, and walkability. daughters. He was interviewed by AF: According to our recent report Revitalizing Lincoln Institute Fellow Anthony Flint. America’s Smaller Legacy Cities, many post- industrial cities have a strong tradition of foundations, other nonprofits, and “eds and meds,” or anchor institutions. What kind of partnerships are you developing?
32 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 33 NEW LINCOLN PUBLICATION
When you look more broadly [at] the importance BW: I’ve been a vocal proponent of removing the of history here, a few things come to mind— elevated portion of I-81 in favor of the community Reinventing Development Regulations [the Syracuse region was] the birthplace of the grid option. We have existing infrastructure to Iroquois confederacy, an important stop on the reroute through-traffic around the city and Underground Railroad, the birthplace of the accommodate traffic coming into the city through By Jonathan Barnett and Brian W. Blaesser women’s suffrage movement, the hub of the an enhanced street grid. There are primarily salt industry. We’re embracing that history. suburban interests that understandably see any alteration of the existing conditions as a threat. AF: Can you tell us about your interest At the [state level], it’s taking longer than anyone and experience in land banking, and how expected. We’re waiting on a draft EIS (Environ- that might translate to more equitable mental Impact Statement). [The options include] development? replacing the viaduct, which would require it to Every community across the land can Development regulations deter- be higher and wider, and a tunnel option. We’re and should revise their zoning and mine the urban form of our cities, BW: We saw it as an opportunity, first of talking a difference in billions. The community subdivision regulations—a move that suburbs, and towns, and have a huge all, to help the city be more effective in grid option comes in at $1.3 billion; the least will build sustainability and resilience, impact on the natural environment, collecting taxes. We made a policy decision expensive tunnel option is $3.2 to $4.5 billion, increase affordability, and improve influencing how, when, and where real in the past not to foreclose on delinquent and goes up from there. That’s a pretty big quality of life, say the authors of a new estate development occurs. Develop- properties, and that created an environment difference for a mile and a half stretch. Even if book published by the Lincoln Institute ment regulations can help solve of Land Policy in October 2017. pressing land use and environmental where there wasn’t any accountability. we could afford to build the tunnel, we don’t In Reinventing Development problems. But current regulations have Properties were falling vacant. We also need it. Eighty percent of the traffic already October 2017 / Paperback / $35.00 / 213 pages Regulations, two well-known experts— structural deficiencies and biases that wanted to be more intentional in how we comes into the existing grid. It’s just bottlenecked ISBN: 978-1-55844-372-3 urban designer Jonathan Barnett and must be corrected to achieve public dealt with these vacant lots, not as liabilities at a couple of off ramps. This is a once-in-a- real-estate lawyer Brian W. Blaesser— objectives for land use and develop- To order, visit www.lincolninst.edu/publications/ but as assets. What we had been doing was generation opportunity to right a past wrong. argue for major adjustments to land ment in balance with market realities. books/reinventing-development-regulations. selling tax liens. We realized we owned the use regulations that are within existing Changing official zoning maps so problem regardless. We passed state legis- AF: Not every city can be a tech hub alternative legal frameworks and respectful of they incorporate topography, streams, lation to create a city-county land bank. to Silicon Valley. What is it about Syracuse that property rights, making the politics of flood plains, and other natural features We have built up a sizeable inventory of could create a niche? the necessary changes much more and pinpoint locations of existing properties and have sold over 500 to date. manageable. Their recommendations buildings will make it easier to develop Now we turn to more equitable development. BW: We can’t compete in every arena, so we include integrating development with sustainably and adapt to the effects of We favor selling to [homeowners], and we’re identify where we have core competencies, like natural ecosystems and using climate change, the authors argue. disrupting the basic governance enabling affordable housing development indoor air quality and unmanned aerial systems. regulations to manage climate change, Walkable neighborhoods with a variety frameworks and real estate markets of using low-income tax credits. The first step I believe we’re the only city in the country where which is particularly urgent for of different housing types and compact, cities, towns, and suburbs. The right was getting our arms around the problem, and you’ll be able to test drones beyond line of sight. communities confronting wildfires, mixed-use business centers could be regulations can help cities, towns, and floods, and volatile weather, which will built today if the regulations that stand now we’re looking at planning processes. suburbs preserve the natural environ- become even more serious problems as in their way are modified. ment, create desirable civic places, AF: What will it take to get younger people to stay global warming continues. While some advocate jettisoning conserve historic buildings, reduce in Syracuse? Do you have a target population size “This is an eminently practical outdated zoning and starting over, housing inequality, ease the pressures We passed state legislation to create a in mind? city-county land bank. We have built up a guide to transforming development Barnett and Blaesser lay out strategies for urban sprawl, and deal with floods, rules to deal with some of the to amend existing regulations to erosion, and wildfire, without infringing sizeable inventory of properties and have BW: I don’t have a target in mind. For decades, we most pressing challenges faced by promote better land use without upon fundamental property rights. sold over 500 to date. lost population. The first step is stabilizing. We’ve communities today,” said Armando done that, and we’re right around 140,000. When Carbonell, senior fellow and chair of we peaked as a population, we didn’t have the the Department of Planning and Urban Barnett and Blaesser lay out strategies to amend exist- AF: The era of urban renewal took a particular suburban sprawl we have today. The region Form at the Lincoln Institute. The work ing regulations to promote better land use without toll on cities like Syracuse. How important remained stable as we were losing [downtown spells out “a robust set of measures is the proposed dismantling of the Interstate residents], as people moved to the suburbs. Now that can be implemented primarily at disrupting the basic governance frameworks and real 81 viaduct through downtown, and what can be when you look at the national trends, the city is the local level.” estate markets of cities, towns, and suburbs. done to make that project become reality soon? what young people are looking for.
34 LAND LINES APRIL 2018 35 PLACE DATABASE JENNA DeANGELO
• Relate development to the natural • Create more affordable housing and environment. Current regulations promote environmental justice. recognize land as a commodity but Zoning and subdivision regulations ABOUT THE AUTHORS not as a living ecosystem. The authors have been used as a way to exclude show how to incorporate modern low-income people from some Jonathan Barnett has served as the environmental information into a communities, and the location of director of the graduate urban design regulatory framework that, up to now, industry and infrastructure has had program at the University of Pennsylva- Houston-Area Brownfields Located in Flood Zones has been largely blind to it. a disproportionately negative effect nia and previously at the City College of on low-income communities. The New York, and as a visiting professor, • Manage climate change locally. The book addresses how to mitigate critic, and lecturer at many other consequences of a changing climate, these biases in the existing regulatory universities. He worked in the reform particularly flooding and wildfire, system. administration of New York City Mayor have an increasing effect on land use John Lindsay and documented the city’s and development. While the problem • Establish design principles and innovations in the book Urban Design is global, there is a significant role for standards for public spaces and as Public Policy (McGraw-Hill: 1974). local governments in both mitigating buildings. Zoning and subdivision Barnett is also author of the book City climate change and adapting to it regulations have been written to Design: Modernist, Traditional, Green, through changes to the way develop- prevent the worst development, and Systems Perspectives (Routledge, ment regulations are written and not to encourage the best. Regula- 2nd edition 2016), exploring the history implemented. tions can be used to foster better and practice of city design, and coauthor design for the places most important of Ecodesign for Cities and Suburbs • Encourage walking by mixing land to the public. (Island Press: 2015), among other works. uses and housing types. Walking is the most efficient form of transporta- • Implement regulations while Brian Blaesser is a partner in the law tion for distances of a quarter of a safeguarding private property firm Robinson & Cole LLP and heads the mile, and very competitive with buses interests. Any overhaul must be Land Use and Real Estate Development and even taxis for up to half a mile. informed by an understanding of Group in the firm’s Boston Office. He is Walking is also important for main- fundamental legal principles essential coauthor of the books Federal Land Use taining health. Current regulations to safeguarding private property Law & Litigation (Thomson-Reuters: make it difficult to develop walkable interests in the formulation and 2017) and Discretionary Land Use neighborhoods and business centers. implementation of regulations, and in Controls: Avoiding Invitations to Abuse of government decision making on Discretion (Thomson-Reuters: 2017), and • Preserve historic landmarks and proposed development projects. co-editor of Redevelopment: Planning, districts. Much of the success of Law, and Project Implementation (ABA historic preservation has been Reinventing Development Regulations Publishing: 2008) and Land Use and the achieved in opposition to zoning and made its debut at the 18th annual Big Constitution: Principles for Planning other regulations that are designed to City Planning Directors Institute in Practice (Planners Press: 1989) Insufficient Data facilitate new development. There are Cambridge, Massachusetts. The In the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey, the Environmental ways to bring designated historic gathering of city planning directors Brownfields Protection Agency reported that 13 of the 41 federal buildings and districts into harmony from the U.S. and around the world, No Brownfields Superfund sites in Texas had flooded. The Texas Commission with regulations where permitted many of whom say their cities are on Environmental Quality lists 26 federal and state Superfund development creates an incentive to overhauling zoning, is a partnership of High Flood Risk sites in Harris County. Houston is the county seat. tear down a historic structure. the Lincoln Institute, the American Planning Association, and Harvard Moderate Flood Risk University’s Graduate School of Design.
Regulations can be used to foster better design for the places most important to the public. Credit: The Place Database. www.lincolninst.edu/research-data/data/place-database
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2018 Publications Catalog
The Lincoln Institute’s 2018 Publications catalog features more than 130 books, ebooks, Policy Focus Reports, and multimedia resources. These publications represent the efforts of Institute faculty, fellows, and associates to help solve global economic, social, and environmen- tal challenges and improve quality of life through research on property taxation, valuation, and assessment; urban and regional planning; smart growth; land conservation; housing and urban development; and other land policy concerns in the United States, Latin America, China, Europe, Africa, and other areas around the globe.
All of the books, reports, and other items listed in the catalog are available to purchase and/or download on the Institute’s website, and we encourage their adoption for academic courses and other educa- tional meetings. Follow the instructions for requesting exam copies at www.lincolninst.edu/exam-copies. To request a printed copy of the catalog, send your complete mailing address to [email protected].
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