Spatial and Waterfront Planning

Question 1

Difference between Council of Governments, Regional Council, and Metropolitan Planning Organization?

Answer 1

A regional council (RC) or council of governments (COG) – these terms are generally interchangeable, and might also be called regional planning commissions, regional commissions, or planning districts – is a multi-service entity with state- and locally-defined boundaries that delivers a variety of federal, state, and local programs while carrying out its function as a planning organization, technical assistance provider, and “visionary” to its member local governments. As such, COGs and RCs are accountable to local units of government and effective partners for state and federal governments.

Conceived in the 1960s, COGs and RCs are stable, broad-based organizations adept at consensus-building, creating partnerships, providing services, problem solving, and fiscal management. The role of the regional council has been shaped by the changing dynamics in federal, state, and local government relations, and the growing recognition that the region is the arena in which local governments must work together to resolve social and environmental challenges. These organizations have carved out a valuable niche for themselves as reliable agents and many more operate independent of federal funding. Comprehensive and transportation planning, economic development, workforce development, the environment, services for the elderly and clearinghouse functions are among the types of programs managed by COGs and RCs. Of the 39,000 local, general purpose governments in the United States (counties, cities, townships, towns, villages, boroughs) a total of more than 35,000 are served by COGs and RCs.

What is a Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO)?
A Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) is an agency created by federal law to provide local elected officials input into the planning and implementation of federal transportation funds to metropolitan areas with populations of greater than 50,000. The Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which mandated the formation of MPOs, has implemented that MPOs must plan for regional transportation planning expenditures and are responsible for the continuing, cooperative, and comprehensive transportation planning process for their urbanized area. Under federal law established in the 1973 Highway Act and the Urban Mass Transit Act, organizations in urbanized areas are designated by their Governors to perform significant planning and programming of federally funded highways and transit projects. The policy leadership, committees, professional staff, and consultants, combined with the administrative capability to support MPO planning processes, constitute the core elements of MPOs activities.

Federal transportation legislation in the 1990s, such as the Long Range Transportation Program (LRTP) and the Transportation Improvement Program (TIP), have strengthened MPOs role in programming transportation projects by making MPOs responsible for approving significant expenditures of federal dollars. In addition, MPOs have become a more significant actor in regional transportation planning since they received additional resources and powers from the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991 (ISTEA) and the ensuing Transportation Efficiency Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21). The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has identified 420 MPOs as of the most recent census. Nearly half of MPOs operate as part of a Regional Council or Council of Governments serving the same general geography.

Question 2

NE Waterfront Redevelopment Issues

Answer 2

• has to do with brownfields

Question 3

To manage, develop, and protect water and related resources in an environmentally and economically sound manner in the interest of the American public

best known for the dams, powerplants, and canals it constructed in the 17 western states. These water projects led to homesteading and promoted the economic development west of the Mississippi. This federal agency has constructed more than 600 dams and reservoirs including Hoover Dam on the Colorado River and Grand Coulee on the Columbia River. Today, the Agency is the largest wholesaler of water in the country, bringing water to more than 31 million people, and provide one out of five Western farmers (140,000) with irrigation water for 10 million acres of farmland.

Answer 3

Bureau of Reclamation

Question 4

Article I, Section 10 of the United States Constitution provides that “No State shall, without the Consent of Congress… enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State.“

Answer 4

Interstate Compacts

Question 5

higher level of government’s law overrides or displaces a lower level of government’s law on the same subject matter. Essentially, it establishes which law prevails when there’s a conflict between different levels of legal authority.

Answer 5

Preemption

Question 6

Local government’s relationship to county government?

Answer 6

County has regulatory power on annexations and infrastructure provisions

Question 7

improving urban environments through temporary, low-cost interventions, often involving community participation.

Answer 7

Pop-up/Tactical Urbanism

Question 8

Rural/Small Town Challenges

Answer 8

• Maintaining small town character
• Access to infrastructure, health & social services
• Economic opportunities/limited tax base
• Loss of farmland/Gentrification/Right to Farm

Question 9

Edge Cities

Answer 9

a concentration of business, shopping, and entertainment outside a traditional downtown (or central business district) in what had previously been a residential or rural area. The term was popularized in the 1991 book Edge City: Life on the New Frontier by Joel Garreau. Most edge cities develop at or near existing or planned freeway intersections, and their development would have been fundamentally impossible without the automobile. It was not until automobile ownership surged in the 1950s, after four decades of fast steady growth, that the edge city became truly possible, in order to have ready access to development developing in cheaper, rural or suburban areas.

• Has five million or more square feet of leasable office space – destination for work, retail, entertainment
• Has 600,000 square feet or more of leasable retail space
• Has more jobs than bedrooms
• Is perceived by the population as one place
• Was nothing like a “city” as recently as 30 years ago. Then it was just bedrooms, if not cow pastures

Joel Garreau, EX: Tyson’s Corner in DC

Question 10

Edgeless cities

Answer 10

• sprawling suburban office developments that lack the density, scale, and cohesiveness of traditional edge cities.
• characterized by isolated office buildings spread across vast areas, often outside downtowns, and are not typically pedestrian or transit-friendly.
• Unlike edge cities, which combine office development with major retail, edgeless cities primarily feature isolated office buildings

Question 11

Planning Tools for Small Towns

Answer 11

• Agricultural/Cluster/Down Zoning
• Urban Growth Boundaries
• Conservation Easements
• TDRs
• Land Trusts
• Main Street Program
• Sustainable Development

Question 12

What is most likely for redevelopment of a waterfront?

Question 13

Important Themes for Waterfront Development/Plannin g

Answer 13

• Public access and visual corridors
• Zoning (bulk and density) requirements to perserve sitelines and openness
• TDRs can be used ot protect working waterfronts and public access from stupid fucking residential uses that do not need to be on a public waterfront
• Redevelopment (brownfield issues) in NE especially
• Gentrification and loss of historically important structures
• Commercial port/logistic center tissues (Panama Canal)
• Coastal hazard issues (climate change, sea level rise [SLR], natural and human hazards, security hazards)

Question 14

Rural Resettlement Act and Agricultural Areas?

Answer 14

relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government

aimed to address rural poverty and farmland degradation through various initiatives. Its primary responsibilities included providing economic relief, facilitating resettlement opportunities, and rehabilitating marginal farmlands for more sustainable uses.

▪ Greenbelt, Maryland, completely planned and constructed by the RA outside Washington, D.C.
▪ Greendale, Wisconsin, another new town built by the RA, outside Milwaukee, Wisconsin
▪ Greenhills, Ohio, the third of the RA’s new towns, built outside Cincinnati, Ohio

Question 15

Townscape evaluation

Answer 15

• The development of a practical tool for monitoring and assessing visual quality in the built environment, especially when assessing the impact of new development like newer skyscrapers in an otherwise low density place
• can be used for character preservation

Townscaping includes:
* The historical development of the urban environment.
* Any cultural associations and heritage assets.
* The existing urban structure and urban grain
* The massing and scale of existing built form.
* Legibility, landmarks, vistas and skyline.
* Green infrastructure, streetscapes and the public realm.
* Townscape assessment
* Utilities, movement and connectivity.
* Perceptual qualities, such as levels of relative tranquillity.

The TCA process analyses the spatial arrangements, relationships and
narratives that are created when the above components come together. This in
turn allows a tangible sense of place to be distinguished and clearly
articulated

Question 16

Preserving open space typically falls into four general categories?

Answer 16

• environmental (protecting groundwater, wildlife habitat, etc.);
• agricultural (preserving farming industries and communities);
• aesthetic (preserving rural character and scenic beauty); and
• managing growth.

Question 17

When do TDRs work?

Answer 17

• Private buyers want what a developer can build using TDRs;
• Private developers want to buy TDRs and transfer them to receiving areas; and
• Landowners are willing to sell TDRs while permanently restricting their land.

Question 18

Differences between cluster development and TDRs?

Answer 18

While both cluster development and Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) aim to manage land development, the key difference is that cluster development rearranges development density within a single property, while TDR allows for the transfer of development rights from one property (“sending area”) to another (“receiving area”), enabling denser development in designated zones while preserving land in the sending area

Question 19

Urban Growth vs. Urban Reserve vs. Urban Service Area?

Answer 19

Urban Reserve Boundary: land set aside for future urban development, development not currently available

Urban Growth Boundary
Regional boundary that limit/prohibit public facilities and services outside the boundary
Can either be prohibited or that the developer has to provide them at their own cost
Urban Service Area: area where services are provided

Question 20

Unintended
ConsequencesOf Preservation

Answer 20

• Raises Land Values
• Attracts Developers
• Pushes Out Cheaper Housing
• Gentrifies the Working Landscape

Question 21

• One purpose is to protect farmers and ranchers from nuisance lawsuits.
• Another goal is to prevent local governments from adopting regulations that impose unreasonable restrictions on agricultural practices.
  The right of a farmer with land in an agricultural district to be protected from nuisance suits brought by neighboring property owners or by units of government, if the farm is not negligently operated.
• The requirement that a local government provider of water and sewer service hold in abeyance water and sewer assessments for line extensions to property within an agricultural district until improvements on such property are connected to the system.
• Procedural requirements that state and local governments must observe before initiating the purchase of property within an agricultural district by eminent domain.

Answer 21

Right to Farm Laws

Question 22

Characteristics of Rural Village

Answer 22

• Village often with medium density (not low density) downtown with churches, schools, businesses
• Authenticity about the village that wasn’t all built at one time
• Generational heritage and people lived for multiple generations
• Mix of uses
• Sidewalks! Trees! On street parking! Compact development! YAY!

Question 23

Prevent lawsuits based on odor, flies or dust

Answer 23

“Coming to the nuisance”, Spur Industries, INC v. Del E Webb Development Co.

Question 24

EPA’s 3 T’s for Water Quality
LEAD REDUCTION

Answer 24

TRAINING school and child care officials to raise awareness of the 3Ts program and summarize the potential causes and health effects of lead in drinking water. *

TESTING drinking water in schools and child care facilities to identify potential lead problems.

TAKING ACTION to reduce lead in drinking water

Question 25

Rural Demographics?

Answer 25

* HIGHER poverty rate * HIGHER birth rate * 65+ and 0-16 are fastest growing age cohort * Old folks and farmers staying around * With out migration (not enough jobs with higher pay, no opportunities) * Traditional industries like agriculture , forestry and mining continue to decline while service jobs are increasing * Economic and demographic trends with persistent poverty continue to challenge rural communities

Question 26

General Small Town Characteristics

Answer 26

* Compactness and tighter form (ESPECIALLY compared to suburban; retail and residential more compact) * Medium density between cities and suburbs * Downtown Centers with mixed uses, parks and open space * Commercial activities that meet everyday needs, maybe you occasionally go to the big city to find specialized items * Residential neighborhoods are close to or in town center * Civic open spaces within and rural open spaces on the town edge; edges are defined * Streets scaled for routines and not peak hour conditions (usually 2 lane roads) * Incremental growth outward from the center; new growth typically at the center

Question 27

Challenges in Small Town Planning?

Answer 27

* Have to drive everywhere * One regional hospital within the whole county; healthcare issues * Workforce: largest employer usually School System followed by local and federal government employees * Wages are low * Long commutes to work * Unemployment high * Educational attainment lower than urban areas * Depend on single, large employer * Manufacturing is declining * Manufactured (mobile) homes and self-built houses on individual lots * Workforce housing issues (ownership vs. rental) * School teachers, fire and rescue, tourism, resort operations

Question 28

Land Trusts

Answer 28

a nonprofit organization that, as all or part of its mission, actively works to conserve land by undertaking or assisting in land or conservation easement acquisition or by its stewardship of such land or easements. Undertaking activities once considered the sole purview of planning offices: developing and implementing smart growth policies, comprehensive planning, TOD, and PDR. health, food, affordable housing, youth and education, water quality, and disaster planning and recovery. Some land trusts are also involved in mitigating and adapting to climate change, as well as providing access to natural areas and addressing distressed properties in urban areas.

Question 29

Council of Governments?

Answer 29

had existed since the 1940’s, Johnson’s 1960s Great Society programs, an era when federal assistance to state and local governments in support of domestic policy increased significantly, gave rise to the A-95 clearinghouse process that had established a regional coordination and review process for local governments receiving federal funding for planning development projects. The program was designed to force local governments to engage in more comprehensive regional coordination. For the next 12 years, almost every planner across the country, at some point or another, worked within the A-95 process. The slightly earlier Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1962, which made federal financing for urban transportation projects contingent upon the existence of a "continuing, comprehensive, urban transportation planning process undertaken cooperatively by the states and local governments” by regional Metropolitan Planning Organizations (MPOs) also incentivized the creation of COGs to undertake the MPO role.

Question 30

Net Land Area vs. Gross Land Area

Answer 30

* the entire acreage, and net land area is the acreage available for development or use net land area is the usable portion of the property, excluding elements like public roads, easements, and floodplains