Donjek :: The Cents of Place Blog

Announcing Strong Towns

Over the last two years, I have been privileged to work with Chuck Marohn and Ben Oleson of the Community Growth Institute (CGI) on a number of projects, including planning and analysis of the prospective realignment of State Highway 371 in central Minnesota. This week, Chuck, Ben and I are pleased to announce the launch of Strong Towns, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization established to make American places viable through improved land use. My role with Strong Towns will be independent of my management of current and future Donjek projects.

Here's how we at Strong Towns describe what's wrong in short (and ironic) form:

Our desire for independence has made us dependent. On automobiles. On cheap energy. On transfer payments between governments. On debt.

Our expectation of plenty, and our expectation to pay only a portion of the full cost of growth, has led to a scarcity of resources. Our approach to land use now constrains us, growing our financial commitments at an alarming rate. It threatens real American prosperity with long-term economic stagnation and decline.

We can do better.

My experience in core cities and suburban areas, and the years of collective experience Chuck and Ben bring from outstate Minnesota, have led us to strikingly similar conclusions. Much real estate in small towns, big cities and suburbs has been developed in a form reflecting fading realities: Exclusive reliance on large cars for transportation; cheap energy; relatively free access to public and private debt. Today, forces ranging from climate change to fiscal stress and an aging population call for us to think harder about how to build durable, successful places.

In the coming months, we will be working to further our vision of giving individuals tools to make their places Strong Towns, by changing the way we approach development and redevelopment, land use and policy. I hope you'll chime in with your ideas by commenting on the Strong Towns Blog and on Facebook, following Strong Towns on Twitter, or by calling Strong Towns at (888) 454-5226.

In the meantime, count on continued Donjek projects and regular posts at the Cents of Place.

@Strib: Reconnecting Minneapolis' Seven Corners and West Bank

Like many urban and rural places, Minneapolis and St. Paul each have plenty of underutilized land area. 

One of Minneapolis' most striking examples is the Washington Avenue "trench," a 1960s-era highway that today splits the Seven Corners area, the University of Minnesota's West Bank, and the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood. Current plans call for construction of light rail transit service through the middle of the trench, a station beneath the 19th Avenue bridge, and a pedestrian/transit mall on Washington Avenue just across the river. In tandem, these plans translate to an opportunity for fundamental rethinking of how the trench inhibits the health of the places around it. 

I have posted a piece about these issues at the Star Tribune (link to that post), and I have included here at the Cents of Place, additional images created by University of Minnesota graduate students of architecture working with adjunct professor Mic Johnson, also of Ellerbe Becket. My thanks to Mic for his permission to include these images.

Donjek Project: Picturing Value in Walkable Neighborhoods

Over the last several months, I have been working with developer and consultant Michael Lander (Lander Group) and urban designer Peter Musty (Peter Musty LLC) to develop a concise, visual statement about the prospective impact that transportation investments can stimulate. Hopefully, you'll find the graphic product below clear and persuasive - and you can download a pdf version here if you prefer.

Low Interest Rates, High Anxiety Borrowing

Money is cheap today. In a conversation yesterday with developers, low rates seemed to make it only more aggravating that lending remains a challenge to procure for new construction or rehabilitation. 

Measures to gauge risk as perceived by banks (such as the “TED spread,” shown, and swaps spread) suggest that lenders are currently charging interest rates much closer to the risk-free Treasury yield than they have since the spring of 2007. That ought to mean that lending is flowing more readily for projects with strong fundamentals. Still, looking at interest rate graphs ignores multiple issues that confound borrowers – namely, underwriting criteria put in place in crisis.

One developer described yesterday, difficulty finding a lender to underwrite a 70% pre-leased commercial development in a prime location – soon to be less than 200 feet from a new light rail station, in a growing metro area with a diverse economy. It could be that banks’ perception of risk as illustrated by interest rate spreads has changed – in which case underwriting criteria need to follow suit.

@Strib: Twin Cities Gearing Up for Greenways

In mid-July last summer, gas prices peaked, remaining in the range above $3.50 per gallon until late September, 2008. One consequence of the spike was a boom in interest in commuter bicycling. July traffic on the Midtown Greenway, the principal bike commuter infrastructure in the Twin Cities, was 30% higher in 2008 than the previous year. An average of over 4,100 cyclists per day used the Greenway at Hennepin Avenue.

Greenway traffic diminished slightly this summer, thanks largely to a 40% drop in the price of gasoline. But interest in establishing a network of greenways has continued to rise. Two new efforts – the Twin Cities Greenways Initiative and the St. Paul Greenway Committee – suggest that the many interests who stand to benefit from an effective bike commuter system are joining together to move it forward.

The Twin Cities Greenways Initiative, inspired by the combination of ridership and development in Midtown, is working with neighbors to explore conversion of residential streets to greenways, linked together eventually in a network to link neighborhoods, schools, open space and commercial areas. “As we talk to neighbors,” said advocate Matthew Hendricks, “we find that 90% of them respond very positively to the idea of converting their streets to greenways.” Auto access would remain to homes via the alleys, as illustrated above.

The St. Paul Greenway Committee is stimulating interest east of the river in a facility akin to the Midtown Greenway – to which many in St. Paul have long sought a connection. Led by transit advocates St. Paul Smart Trips, the committee intends to begin planning with neighborhoods, to determine which connections will link high-priority destinations most effectively.

Greenways play a key role in a transportation system where implemented. They also enhance property values – a case proven by numerous studies of comparable cities. Gas prices will rise from current levels in the future, and providing affordable choices for getting around is key to our region’s competitiveness and quality of life.

Note: This post is also available at the Star Tribune, with fewer images. 

All images courtesy of Michael Nelson and Twin Cities Greenways Initiative.

Quantifying Open Space Benefits: Donjek Presentation at MRPA Conference

Today, I am presenting to the annual conference of the Minnesota Recreation and Park Association on the costs and benefits of open space, with Jenna Fletcher, project coordinator of Embrace Open Space. View my part of the presentation here, and see Jenna's presentation here.

Intuitively, we all agree that parks, open spaces, greenways and natural areas have economic value. The real estate marketplace recognizes this: Studies consistently indicate that residential property owners pay up to a 30% premium to live within walking distance of a park. Similarly, access to bike and pedestrian infrastructure such as greenways also boosts property values.

Despite a surge in academic and practitioner analysis of open space premiums, many policy makers continue to view parks as cost centers, as opposed to stable assets that consistently support social and economic activity, as well as tax base, located nearby.

The case for identifying the benefits of open space more effectively is important. In addition to its relationship to residential and commercial property values, local policy stands to be improved by better information about the economic value of the physical activity, non-motor transportation, stormwater management and other benefits.

We have the tools in the form of property data sets and GIS analytics. We have the need to respond to overwhelming budget pressure. And we need urban design that helps rather than hinders our efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Each of these factors call for a change in the way we understand, talk and make decisions about the role of open space in our cities and towns.

Learning Land Use Lessons at the Minnesota State Fair

The Fair works.

This year, 1.8 million visitors attended the Minnesota State Fair, breaking the previous record for annual attendance. Our enthusiasm for the Fair is both cause and result of a single fact: For two weeks every year, it’s an incredibly successful place. 

I know the Fair is a seasonal event, a carnival, and that not everything that makes the Fair successful can be applied to Main Street. At the same time, the Fair achieves what those of us involved in redevelopment seek to do with places: Make them economically and socially viable for the long term, and make them work for the people who live, work and visit there. 

After 150 years in operation and 125 years at its current location, the Fair is more than viable – it’s vital. What’s to learn?

New and old each have value. The Fair as an institution dates to 1859, and it’s occupied its current site since 1885. Over the last 125 years, we’ve built open spaces, barns, the Grandstand and other permanent structures. Vendor stalls and exhibits have come and gone, changed or remained as timepieces. Others are new this year. In between are incidental spaces to put up feet away from the crowd. We connect to redeveloped spaces with a relationship to their past; they convey authenticity.

Mix it up. Who can imagine the Grandstand without its hosting evening shows while serving as a forum for small merchants below? Placing the Eco-Experience Center adjacent to the petroleum-oriented Machinery Hill challenges us to see the Fair as truly a big-tent event. The land use blends food preparation with political exchange, exhibits for children with crop art, places of religion with bandshells. It also provides an experience for patrons who arrive with a roll of bills, and those who visit on a tighter budget. But the core element of success is its vital (even chaotic) mix, a combination that many of today’s zoning ordinances would discourage on Main Street or in commercial districts.

Reinvest. The Fair’s private and public roles are mixed, too. In my limited experience working food stands at the Fair, the pace – of people and dollars changing hands – can reach a fever pitch. That’s possible because the infrastructure at and around the Fair can sustain nearly two million visits in less than two weeks. State Fair revenues fund operation and maintenance of the streets and the Grandstand, and private investment provides for much of the vending infrastructure. It's all closely located and maximizes the existing systems, meaning that gate receipts can support reinvestment in what's there, as opposed to funding wayward and costly expansion.

As a consultant interested in making places more effective, it’s impossible for me not to take notice of the durable place that is the Minnesota State Fair.

Photo: Courtesy of Mike Keliher.

Donjek Tools: Advocating for Local Stimulus

Federal and state efforts to spur creation of jobs and economic activity have dominated news in the last year. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (“ARRA”) constitutes stimulus funding to states and local governments. Funding resources are made available in some cases by formula, and in others, by competitive process.

Donjek is working with school districts and cities to:

• Identify stimulus-related funding sources that address their needs. As part of this evaluation, we also identify long-term operating costs;
• Partner with school district and city staff to apply for those funds to be awarded on a competitive basis, and to ensure that funds awarded on a formula basis are effectively distributed;
• Advocate for appropriations for school districts and cities at the state and federal levels. 

As described in further detail below, execution of the ARRA provisions will be large scale and necessarily complicated; as program details emerge, this expectation has been confirmed. Large municipalities are effectively pursuing these resources, and Donjek is proposing to create additional capacity in stimulus funds procurement for municipalities large and small.

Stimulus funds are, generally, to be appropriated in two ways:

• From federal agencies to states, either for state-level investments or state distribution to local governments;
• Directly from federal agencies to local governments or other end users.

The first tranche of stimulus funding for Minnesota school districts took the form of stabilization funds. The State of Minnesota is exchanging these dollars ($500 million) with state funds, meaning that Minnesota districts will not receive new money through this program.

School districts do have an opportunity to access a range of additional stimulus programs, including those in the following general funding categories:

• ARRA Title I;
• ARRA Title II;
• Individuals with Disabilities Act (“IDEA”);
• McKinney-Vento Act;
• Expansion of qualified bonding authorizations;
• Rural Community Facilities program.

Cities may also have access to stimulus funds designated for various uses, and associated with different allocation processes and mandates:

• Broadband Access;
• Brownfield Remediation;
• Energy Efficiency in Public- and Private-Sector Buildings;
• Fire and Emergency Response Staffing;
• Highway Infrastructure;
• Housing Finance and Retrofitting;
• Public Building Renovation;
• Rural Business Development;
• Rural Community Facilities Investments;
• Solar Cities Program.

School districts and cities are financially pressed currently. Evaluating which stimulus sources are worth pursuing in a competitive process will reduce the potential waste of chasing programs as their resources and provisions are unveiled. 

Donjek Project: Little Rock's MacArthur Park District Master Plan Wins Awards

Last fall, Donjek was hired to support a master plan process for MacArthur Park in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas, producing findings on feasible investment models for the City and its partners to reinvent the space. 

The process,  led by Conway+Schulte Architects of Minneapolis, has since received two awards for the MacArthur Park District Master Plan: A Citation of Urban Design from the Boston Society of Architects, and a 2009 Merit Award from the Minnesota Society of Landscape Architects. Congratulations to Conway+Schulte and their partners at the University of Arkansas Community Design Center and Oslund and Associates.

As part of the planning process, I examined multiple park revitalizations, searching for sustainable models for renovating, operating and maintaining quality urban open space. 

Pack Square Park in Asheville, North Carolina provides an example. Just over six acres, Pack Square Park is today the focus of a $20 million redevelopment effort involving the public, private and philanthropic sectors, at the helm of which is an effective conservancy.  Private capital will finance half of the renovation, and the new Pack Square Conservancy is raising an endowment of $2 million to bolster ongoing maintenance by the City of Asheville and Buncombe County.

Funding the capital and operating components of open space is a key area of public finance. Open space, in turn, is a key driver for effective places and a substantial influence on surrounding property values. If your community has an underutilized space or a park calling out for reinvention, contact us.

Mall Reuse: An Opportunity for More Durable Places

Earlier this month, Presidential economic advisor Larry Summers presented remarks that speak directly to an important issue for placemakers: The future of the American mall. Summers:

The rebuilt American economy must be more export-oriented and less consumption-oriented, more environmentally-oriented and less fossil-energy-oriented, more bio- and software-engineering-oriented and less financial-engineering-oriented, more middle-class-oriented and less oriented to income growth that disproportionately favors a very small share of the population.

The retail marketplace is in transformation. The U.S. now has 45,000 shopping centers, only 1,200 of which reflect the typical mall design – large, enclosed spaces with anchor and secondary  tenants, surrounded by large tracts of car parking capacity. Since 2006, only one of these has opened, an estimated 300 have been converted or repurposed, and hundreds more have closed. Relatively flat earnings growth, a rapid jump in the personal savings rate, and a drop in total retail that appears very likely to exceed 10% this year all suggest the market will soon have other plans for many enclosed malls.

Federal and state policies that increasingly require recognition of environmental costs such as stormwater runoff from large parking lots, as well as growing volatility in fuel costs, will put further pressure on this building form. The results touched on in a recent article in Planning magazine suggest some modest mixed-use alternatives. I agree that a mix of uses probably makes sense for many of these parcels, and recommend redividing the land and adopting zoning to allow a more diverse mix of ongoing, distinctly owned uses. This allows the marketplace to move incrementally and be flexible, not inertia-bound like many of the malls have become.

This is a topic in lively discussions across the country. I identified 340,000 hits when searching for “mall reuse” on Google. Here are a few samples:

• An interview with “Retrofitting Suburbia” author Helen Dunham-Jones.
• A visual tour of big box store reuse scenarios.
• This blog post from the Architect's Newspaper, suggesting that New York City malls are poised to enter a new chapter.
• An article from the Columbus Dispatch, describing an ambitious plan to retool City Center in Columbus, Ohio with a supersize mixed-use plan around open space.

The enclosed mall is a fitting symbol of the shift Summers identified. As the U.S. economy begins to recover from the current recession, it remains to be seen how these large parcels of prime land will be designed and used. Regardless of whether now or in the not-too-distant future, most U.S. communities will be asking the same question.

What’s the next step for your area mall?