‘Free money’ for CoolTown projects

Say you want to develop a $10 million

Town development - transforming a number of historic buildings into contemporary loft offices, residences and indie (independent) businesses.  Say you have only $6 million.

It can be done without giving up any equity.  The federal government already has two programs in place to provide that other $4 million, and they are:

Historic Tax Credits:  Provides up to 20% of the rehabilitation costs (essentially all the

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The dawning of public-private partnerships in innovative development

Let’s face it - creative urban development is costly, much more so than in suburbia, for reasons previously explained.  Land and parking provisions are simply too expensive for the private and public sectors to handle alone - which is why public/private partnerships (PPPs) accounted for $75 billion in real estate last year - ‘creative alliances’ if you will; meeting both financial and social bottom lines.  There are ways to

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West Palm Beach’s second encore

As presented yesterday, first came the renaissance of the downtown, then CityPlace, now West Palm Beach’s first transit-oriented development (TOD).  The buildings in the bottom right of the image make up CityPlace - notice the pie-shaped ‘square’ that is the epi-center of free entertainment in the area.

With three times more housing than CityPlace (2000 residences vs 600), a million s.f. of office (CityPlace has none) and 100,000 s.f. of retail (a third

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Success spreading in West Palm Beach

In 2000, downtown West Palm Beach had no more than 2000 residents with only 20% of its main street occupied.  Today the main street is at 90% and the downtown population is on track for 10,000 in a few years.

“I’ll have what they’re having.“

Leadership, vision, and more leadership.  It starts with one forward-thinking mayor, Nancy Graham (pictured), initiating a form-based planning code that guides what the urban fabric will look like (i.e. think San

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‘The projects’ - 2005

Everyone knows what ‘the projects’ are - ugly, federal-government-financed, high-rise stand-alone buildings surrounded by parking lots in neglected regions of the city, or low-rise concentration-camp-looking complexes.  No defined public or private spaces, just leftover space in between the structures.

Thank goodness for evolution.  This is an image of Bradenton Village, a $70 million ‘garden urban village’ replacing failed federal government projects (the origin of

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Why do cities die rather than change?

You’ve heard it before, “There aren’t any young people here.“ “This place has no women.“ “This town is so dead.“ Perception is reality.

Why do 90% of us choose death over changing for a prolific future - socially and economically?  In continuing the series that began yesterday, Change or Die, the answer is perhaps that the brains of city and business leaders have become physiologically incapable of change, unless…

Contrary to popular belief.

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How did St. Louis’ downtown attract $2.5 billion?

It started with public-private leadership.  City officials, business groups, banks and nonprofits formed a public-private partnership, Downtown Now! in 1997 to develop a 5-7 year plan to revitalize downtown St. Louis. The City of St. Louis officially adopted this Downtown Development Action Plan in December of 1999, directing $1.5 billion in public (one-third) and private (two-thirds) investment into four clearly distinct areas (see

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Elements of a city code for CoolTowns: Building height

Continuing our look at how CoolTowns are supported via city codes, beginning here, building heights are one of the most noticeable features in any built environment.

While the code pictured above shows height limits of up to six floors in T6 zones (see transect), that’s the default if one was building a town from scratch.  It would certainly change over time, or if it were applied to an existing area like downtown Chicago.  The point

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Elements of a city code for CoolTowns: Residential, office uses

In relation to the previous blog on retail and civic uses, today’s will illustrate why CoolTowns are walkable and suburbia/rural neighborhoods aren’t - by law.

Understanding that higher densities and mixed-uses are key elements in walkable neighborhoods, notice in the CoolTown-friendly zones (T4-T6) (see transect), every single house type is allowed except the estate house (mansion with extensive greens) and manufactured

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Elements of a city code for CoolTowns: Retail, civic uses

Continuing our look at what a city code needs to allow CoolTowns, it’s amazing to realize how many uses (retail, civic) are often illegal in a majority of what’s built today.  Using the transect image in the blog two days ago, you’ll see what kinds of uses are generally not permitted in ‘T2’ (rural) and ‘T3’ (suburban) zones, or even ‘T4’ (borderline suburban/urban).

No fooling, shops and restaurants aren’t permitted in suburbia!...

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What are the elements of a good city planning code for CoolTowns?

As explained in the previous blog, today’s modern, progressive, people-oriented city planning codes are graphical-based.  However, what are the graphics of, and are they supportive of CoolTowns?

Building frontage standards: The idea is to create great public rooms, so a uniform setback of buildings best achieves that, and sometimes further back to establish a grand outdoor dining plaza.  Burlington, Boulder and Barcelona do

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So what does a legislated city plan look like?

The results of the planning process described in the previous blog below are transformed into a city code or ordinance, usually in hundreds of pages of legalese. Like how Apple evolved command lines into graphical user interfaces, Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company has done the same for these piles of text, turning them into just a handful of graphic-based codes - SmartCodes, although it could still be less car-oriented.  The code is based on the

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So how did the City of South Miami’s Hometown Plan that led to investment in model development happen?

It began in 1992, when South Miami Hometown, Inc., a nonprofit, was established by local visionaries that raised funds to create a blueprint for an uninspired 55-acre area in the city, with the cooperation and matching funds of the City.  Through a charrette process that involved key business associations (very important), government agencies, nonprofits and citizens facilitated by Dover

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Legalizing CoolTowns begins with the City

As you know, most of what has been built in the last 80 years looks like what’s pictured in the top left-hand corner of this image.  Here’s a summary of how it happened, and how it literally became illegal to build anything else, no matter if developers and investors wanted to to build, say, cool urban villages.

The rest of the image is what cities and developers are beginning to invest in, as highlighted in Dover Kohl’s HomeTown Plan in the

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South Miami’s inspiring “100% Models” idea

The

Town approach to bringing economic and social vitality to an area via a compelling pilot project doesn’t have a better legislated example than South Miami’s HomeTown Plan: “The “100% Models”  idea was to choose an area (however small) then totally transform it to create as dramatic and visible an impact as possible.  Instead of spending precious funding across large areas, public funds are to be concentrated on these 100% Models.“

The best

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Planning and economic development: Like oil and water?

Usually, unfortunately, honestly, yes.  Planners are often from the left, economic development the right.  Planners look 5-20 years ahead.  Economic development reps focus on the now.  Planners have policy backgrounds, academic debate and focus on, well, general plans.  Those in econ dev have business educations, think entrepreneurially and concentrate on site/company specific projects.  These of course are generalizations, but guess

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The first and only CoolTown-oriented regional leadership

In January 2003, the Federal Reserve Bank announced a new economic development initiative it sponsored to invest in New England’s “creative industries, a creative workforce and community life that is rich in creativity and cultural heritage.“  Business, cultural and political leaders from each of New England’s states came together to establish the progressive regional industry association, the Creative Economy Council.

Why?  They

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Legalize this

The neighborhoods we really want our illegal.  Really.

Yesterday’s blog touched on how creative people can take charge in building their own neighborhood. ChangeThis is a national forum for change, publishing daily manifestos and guides to improving one’s quality of life and purpose.  One of their most recent publications is Legalize Neighborhoods Again!

City governments control the way our streets and buildings are laid out through zoning.  The worst part is that this zoning

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June 2, 2004: Governor Jennifer Granholm announces Cool City pilot projects

Based on input from her local Cool City advisory groups, Governor Granholm’s initiative has identified 20 pilot projects to receive $100,000 grants to create places that attract the creative class, including access to over $100 million in a “Resource Toolbox” of 75 state community improvement grants, loan programs, and assistance programs.  The state Cool Cities web site was also launched.

Here are three of my

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September 19, 2003: Governor Jennifer Granholm launches Cool City initiative

Inspired by Richard Florida’s Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life, Governor Granholm has asked 250 Michigan mayors to form advisory groups and design plans to attract this creative class.

The ideas from these advisory groups will be presented to the statewide advisory panel consisting of representatives from 30 of those cities. The panel will then use that

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Governor to his citizens: “Don’t make an effort”

“We don’t make an effort in Iwate,“ prefecture (state) Governor Hiroye Masuda has declared in a nationwide government ad campaign running since 2001.  By the way, that’s really what it says on their business cards.  Realizing his people couldn’t compete in Japan’s fast-paced economy, “Here, I want people to go home early in the evening, take a walk with their family, and talk to the neighbors.“

It makes more sense than it sounds.  An

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CoolTowns in Utah?

Many people believe Utah may be the most entrepreneurial state in the country - its Mormon values for individual success being a factor.

Joe Alfandre and I visited three towns in Utah this week:  Pleasant Grove, St. George and Logan.  Pleasant Grove valued revitalizing its downtown, though more from a historic preservation point of view.  St. George wanted to revitalize its downtown as a regional destination with some artistic, cultural excitement.  They both understood

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Q&A: Which comes first?  A city-wide master plan or a built project?

This was asked by a city manager when discussing where to focus initial CoolTown investment.

The answer for the public sector is obvious:  The city-wide master plan.
The answer for the private sector is obvious:  The built project.

The CoolTown answer would be both, and more specifically, to build a touchstone CoolTown neighborhood that raises the standards for how the rest of the city could be master-planned, ideally at

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To answer the previous entry’s questions:

Municipalities (economic development agencies in partnership with planning agencies) have the power to reverse the ‘greenfield easier’/‘infill-harder’ reality.  The overwhelming desire to truly accomplish this is years away unfortunately.

What municipalities can do to help build CoolTowns:
1. Property/site identification and assembly assistance.
2. Tax increment financing (TIF) program to fund public infrastructure, namely project-killing parking

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To answer yesterday’s question:  Why is it easier to build greenfields/sprawl?

Because it’s legislated that way, and the private sector has followed.  How’d this happen?  A quick history:

Early 1900s to 1934:  A group of home builders lobbied the government relentlessly to allow them to mass-produce homes just like Henry Ford mass-produced automobiles.  Of course, people lived in villages, which were anything but.

1934:  As a result, Congress passed the FHA (Federal Housing Administration)

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