[Calclg-l] Preserving & Enhancing Communities

[Nelson, Marie]

I have had the opportunity to review a book I am recommending you take a
look at. It has a great deal of meat and is very relevant to the
planning issues you all face. Here is part of the review I wrote:

 

Even when there are professional planners on staff, critical land-use
policies and planning decisions are made at local, regional, state, and
national levels of governments by citizens from all walks of life who
have been elected or appointed to serve as members of committees,
commissions, councils, and boards. Responsible for making decisions that
will shape the character and livability of their communities today and
in the years to come, many of these "citizen planners" lack either the
awareness of possible alternatives to existing zoning practices or the
professional knowledge, skills and expertise needed to make choices
which will both support preservation of what contributes to the
community's character and quality of life and promote desirable and
appropriate growth.

 

Preserving and Enhancing Communities, edited by Elisabeth M, Hamin,
Priscilla Geigis, and Linda Silka, is as its subtitle proclaims, "A
Guide for Citizens, Planners, and Policymakers." Growing out of a
collaboration between members of the Community Preservation Working
group established through the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Partnership
between the Executive Office of Environmental Affairs and the University
of Massachusetts, the impetus for this work is providing
"citizen-planners" with the "best information and ideas available in the
field ... in nontechnical language that is still sophisticated enough to
respect the importance of the decisions local communities face." (2)
Drawing on a range of ideas and emerging best practices for community
preservation, more than thirty researchers and practitioners have
authored seventeen chapters, organized by five themes, intended to be an
introduction to a particular topic or aspect of community preservation
and local planning and provide a set of references readers can use to
access more detailed guidance. Although the illustrations and case
studies are drawn primarily from projects and communities in
Massachusetts, the planning and zoning issues addressed are common to
communities throughout the country. 

 

The four chapters in Section I, "Gathering Perspectives and Getting
Involved" explore various ways individuals can get involved in local
planning processes, and suggest tools and strategies for reaching out
and developing buy-in from diverse populations including those not
typically involved in public decision-making, and building coalitions
and consensus for policy changes and initiatives. 

 

Chapters in Section II, ""Developing a Vision" address "how to get
municipal policy set up so that the right thing becomes easier and
neighbors don't have to gear up for a fight each time a project is
proposed." (55)  Conventional zoning codes are generally inadequate for
protecting agricultural land, wetlands and other open spaces; the
chapters in this section focus on creative zoning strategies and special
permit processes that make it easier to protect open spaces, create
denser, walkable, mixed-used neighborhoods, provide affordable housing,
and regulate the location and pace of development. 

 

Section III, "Preserving Natural Resources" addresses the importance of
biodiversity and ecosystem protection, watershed planning, and
preserving and protecting green spaces, and outlines land-use planning
tools and strategies that will preserve and enhance the community's
character and well-being of its residents while allowing for intelligent
growth and development.

 

"Enhancing Community Strengths," Section IV, focuses on the need to
"consider all elements together that shape a community's future - that
is, transportation, open space, historic preservation, economic
development and housing." As noted in Chapter 12, titled "Housing and
Community Preservation - A Home for All," "Each factor influences the
others: new housing is a major consumer of open space, transportation
needs are affected by decisions about where to locate new housing,
adaptive reuse can create more housing, and decisions about which
industries to recruit affect the need for housing in the future." (167)
Based on the recognition that transportation problems are not always
resolved by building more roads and housing problems are not resolved by
building more units, these chapters make the argument that successful
development in the "New Economy" of the twentieth-first century will
require communities to adopt such planning strategies as adaptively
reusing existing building stock, upgrading existing infrastructure, and
working on attracting sustainable and diversified economic developments
that will enhance the quality of life of the community. 

 

Section V, "Keeping the Best" provides several case studies that
demonstrate the environmental, economic and social benefits a community
can realize through zoning changes, creative partnerships, and
redevelopment strategies focused on abating brownfields, adaptively
reusing old commercial, industrial, and residential buildings, and
preserving the natural and historic landscapes and cultural resources
that link a community with it's past and give it character. 

 

As this volume demonstrates, what makes a community a desirable place to
live is a combination of natural systems and human systems. Policy
choices and planning decisions made at the local level affect how well
those systems support each other and, as a result, the character of the
community and the quality of life available to its citizens. Public
historians, whether working as professional consultants, serving as
citizen planners, acting as advocates, or simply in the role of
concerned citizens, will benefit from knowledge of the innovative and
creative strategies and the comprehensive, holistic approach to land use
planning and community preservation offered here.

 

Marie Nelson

 

Survey/CLG Coordinator

Office of Historic Preservation

1416 9th Street

Sacramento, CA  95814

www.ohp.parks.ca.gov 

 

916-653-9514

mnelson at parks.ca.gov