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The Planetizen News Brief - 11/12/09

12 November 2009 - 2:00pm
Smart City Radio

The Planetizen News Brief is a weekly rundown of some of the most interesting and important news and issues of the past week.

The Planetizen News Brief airs every week on the nationally-syndicated radio program "Smart City", which is broadcast in cities across the U.S. Learn more about Smart City and listen to archived shows.

Full Transcript:

There are planners and there are politicians. When their worlds overlap, that’s when the trouble starts. But trying to draw that line between is increasingly difficult for many cities. That was the sentiment of a group of 7 North American planning directors, who were all in San Francisco last week. Streetsblog reports on the discussion, which included planning directors from San Francisco, New York, Portland, Seattle, Vancouver, Minneapolis and San Diego. Many of them bemoaned the fact that the planning process is too tied to the politics of city government, and that connection holds back progress. The other limiting factor for many of these planners is simply the mistakes of the past. Bill Anderson, planning director for the city of San Diego says the field needs to move away from a focus on preventing bad things from happening and to enabling good plans and ideas to thrive.

Perhaps Andersen’s wish is coming true, at least within his state of California. A new project was recently announced that seeks to create a detailed strategy for growth in California. The San Francisco Chronicle describes the effort, which is being spearheaded by the cabinet-level Strategic Growth Council and the California High Speed Rail Authority. Just $2.5 million has been set aside for the effort, which aims to create a “preferred scenario” that local governments can use to approve or deny new construction projects. How well the effort works remains to be seen, but based on past experience, even the best-intentioned plans may still go by the wayside. A similar statewide planning effort from 1978 offered a list of suggestions and policy changes, but no formal plan ever materialized.

And when it comes to things not working out as planned, planners seem to be used to the disappointment. But when there are billions of dollars of public money at stake, that pill becomes a lot harder to swallow. So you kind of have to empathize with transportation planners in Denver, where their ambitiously timelined FasTracks light rail system is coming up against major budget shortfalls and operational speedbumps. The 122-mile system was slated for completion in just 12 years when it was approved in 2004. But, as the New York Times reveals, the expected cost of the system has risen nearly 50%, from $4.7 billion to nearly $7 billion, in just five years. Voters again may be asked to approve a sales tax increase to fund the plan – much of which is still just an elaborate idea on a very expensive drawing board.

Stories Discussed in This Week's News Brief:

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Whether building new streets or retrofitting existing ones, designers need to be aware of the road’s immediate surroundings.
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