'Banking' On Open Space In Florida

Maitland, Florida, has been struggling for a way to remake its core business district, but its own planning guidelines call for dense development to be balanced by more green space. The City has created a "density credit" system that awards developers for doing things that have nothing to do with creating open space by allocating "credit" from an open space "bank" of publicly owned land throughout the central business district. Any public land counts toward the bank, even roadway medians.

Jenni Ishman, eating lunch in an actual park on Lake Lilly in the city, was incredulous at the idea of counting a median as open space. "Kids can't play in it; you can't do anything in medians," she said. "That's just bizarre."

City planners see the open space credits as a clever way to benefit from public property. They hope to have developers maintain and landscape the small strips of public land that are converted into credits.

Some think the idea is too clever. Joan Matthews, a resident who sued the city over an approval that used such a swap, says the system defies logic. "You cannot say there are density credits from streets," she said. "It's insanity."