New Urbanism
The Talk
*Note: Drawings can be downloaded on the "Synopsis" page.
This is going to be a talk on a topic that I am learning about. I am not a planner, I am an architect who was on the Boulder Planning Board in the 80s for five years and has a continuing interest in planning and a love for our city. I don't intend to present solutions for the future of Boulder or any other city. I have used the preparation time of this talk to try to tie together some of my thoughts, to look at some problems with conventional planning and to point to some fresh and positive current directions in planning.
When I was a student at the University of Colorado, I wrote an article in 1950 titled "The Anatomy of a City" for the student magazine. It was based on a theory by Professor Leo Aspinwall, a very creative marketing professor in the business school at CU. He developed a theory on the birth and development of a city that he named "The Rule of Uniformity". It generally describes the conditions for the birth of a city and how it naturally grows without the interference of city planners. (See Drawings). It states that the birthplace of a city occurs along an inter-community flow of traffic such as a highway, a railroad line, or a major river and is named a major axis. On this major axis at a point of distribution of supplies and people to the surrounding area a city is born. At this point a main street develops upwind and at right angles to the major axis. It is named the principal axis. At right angles to the principal axis a minor axis develops as the city grows away from the major axis. The intersection of the principal axis and the minor axis is the high point of value of the city or the "hot spot". The city continues growing with the minor axis moving away over time from the major axis until it reaches a bounding board such as a civic center, university campus or major park. It then rebounds to renew along the principal axis. The area down wind from the major axis is where industrial uses develop or "the wrong side of the tracks". Residential areas grow out from the bounding board with the higher density closest and the lower density and more expensive areas are on the perimeter. (See Drawings) Neighborhood centers develop within a reasonable walking distance to every residence. The silly drawing of a figure is to emphasize the organic nature of cities. Cities are continually in the process of growth and change. Some mature into specialized cities, like, a university town, a government Center, a tourist town, etc.
I applied this theory to Denver where I grew up and found strong fits to the theory. (See Drawings) The railroad line is the major axis. Union Station is the start of the principal axis. The minor axis parallel to the major axis moved upwind southward. The Civic Center is the bounding board and as the minor axis reached about California St it rebounded and renewed the areas back to the Union Station on the major axis. It is still doing that in the revitalization of LODO. Denver at the time had a number of residential areas, Park Hill, Washington Park, the West Colfax area, the north side, the south side and others They contained many neighborhood centers, often on a corner and extending a block or so in one to four directions. The vestige of them still exists in Denver. There is some renewal of these neighborhood centers today.
City planners intervened in the natural growth of the city in the 40s and 50s to dictate patterns of city growth by separating and subdividing uses into many zones that are difficult to change. This was originally done to protect residential uses from industrial fumes. This has continued exponentially to today. As an example, the new simplified Land Use Code for Boulder has partitioned "Office" use into ten categories: data processing facility, financial institution, medical or dental offices, administration offices, professional offices, technical offices of less than 5000 sf, technical offices of greater than 5000 sf and finally, offices-other. Conflicts in the interpretation of complex codes have largely contributed to the need for very large planning staffs and excessive hours of service for Planning Boards and City Councils. Changes in the land use codes are a major event that also requires a lot of staff, Planning Board and City Council time. Change ought to be expected and allowed without major efforts.
This is where we are in the current planning environment. What have we lost? We have lost the walkable neighborhood where you would send your 8 year old child to the store for a bottle of milk or to the bakery for a baguette and coffee roll. We have lost a neighborhood pub and the neighborhood coffee shop where you can meet and socialize with your neighbors. We have lost the meaning of neighborhood.
What have we gained? We have gained a city planned around the automobile. It dictates the plan of specific sites, the aesthetics of the streets and the overall plan of the city.
Jane Jacobs in 1961 wrote "The Life and Death of Great American Cities" about the hazardous state of urban living. It was a significant message to the conventional planning theory of the day.
In 1980 Andres Duany and Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk developed new concepts of planning in reaction to conventional planning. They studied what we have lost from the past and developed new ideas in planning to recapture the best from the past. In their first city plan for a town in Florida named "Sea Side" they designed a New Urbanism community for a developer, Robert Davis, who wanted to build a place with the values and charm of a North Florida traditional town. It has traditionally-inspired houses with front porches and garages accessible only from an alley behind the houses and all within walking distance to a center of the neighborhood. They have since further developed their planning theory into New Urbanism and have designed over 225 planning projects to date. They have developed the Smart Code, an outline code that is the basis of a number of city codes. (See Drawings) It is structured around a "Transect" that is a diagrammatic plan view of a series of 6 stages of the growth of a city. It progresses form T1: Rural Preserve (farm land) to T2: Rural Reserve (lowest density)to T3: Low residential density) to T4: General Urban (Medium residential density and limited commercial) to T5: Urban Center (Medium Residential density and more dense commercial) it is a Pearl St downtown area to T6: Urban Core (High residential density and more intense commercial). This Leon Krier’s drawing of the Transect (See Drawings). It has a European flavor. Krier is a French architect-planner. The uses, forms and density are linked to each different transect stage. Change is simplified by reviewing the Transect zones periodically to determine which ones have grown to the next level. Form Based Zoning is how the zoning is set for each transect zone. It is form-based primarily and use-based to a lesser degree. Uses generally are broadly defined and flexible to allow for diversity and change. Uses may be different for each level of a building. Change is thus accommodated by de-emphasizing narrow and rigid definitions of uses. These are tools to provide for New Urbanism goals of diversity of uses, forms and densities and also to allow for organic or market changes over time.
The New Urbanism movement has also focused on the neighborhood to make it walkable, vital with a neighborhood center within 5 minutes of every house. This named Traditional Neighborhood Development.
An organization of planners, architects, business people, politicians and others was founded in 1993 and named the Congress for the New Urbanism. It now has 2300 members in 20 different countries and 49 states. Included in their stated principles are "Neighborhoods should be compact, pedestrian-friendly and mixed use." and "Many activities of daily living should occur within walking distance... Interconnected networks of streets should be designed to encourage walking, reduce the number and length of automobile trips and conserve energy." From their statement of purpose: "We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology and building practice." All are values worthy of support.
As an aside: New Urbanism seems to be an extension of Prof. Aspinwall's theory of the birth and organic growth of a city.
New Urbanism is not a magic solution to our cities problems. Each urban project is very complex and unique. New Urbanism defines goals of the design of a vital city and adds innovative tools that can be used in the design of a solution
The design of Boulder's Transit Village as well as the selection of a new Planning Director is before us. These are two places in the future where the principles of New Urbanism could have a positive effect on our city. I have tried to raise the issue of providing for change in the planning of the Transit Village Plan by suggesting the use of Form Based Zoning. This would avoid resorting to multiple public, Planning Board and City Council reviews for changes for innovative ideas. The present review process is too dependent of the political vicissitude of the population and is thus very weak in bringing about innovation and change. There are a number of very innovative developments in the City today, but it becoming more and more difficult to do with our rigid zoning. The City has installed a new Zoning or Land Use Code that basically has modularized the old Land Use Code so even more types of zones can easily be added. I give the planning staff under Bob Cole a great deal of credit for eliminating much duplicity and organizing each zone into three components: form, use and intensity. Except for eliminating a lot of duplicity it still retains the complexity of uses of the old code. It could be the structure of a simpler Form Based Zoning code if the city moves in that direction.
The three candidates who were recently interviewed for the Planning Director's position were all eliminated and the search goes on. This is an opportunity to hire a person on the cutting edge of planning.
Thanks for the opportunity to present some ideas. I hope it made some sense. It is an extremely complex topic.
