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The Planetizen News Brief - 11/19/09

19 November 2009 - 5:00am
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:

It’s been four years since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the town of New London, Connecticut could seize private land in the name of economic development. What inspired that landmark case was a 9-acre urban village the city was planning to construct to entice pharmaceutical giant Pfizer to move a 1,400-person office into town. The ploy worked, and Pfizer opened its office in New London. The 2005 Supreme Court ruling allowed the city to seize those 9 acres of land, but this month, Pfizer announced that it was packing up and moving out of town, according to a report from the New York Times. On top of that, the planned urban village was never built. So now the city is left with a blank spot of seized land, 1,400 fewer jobs, and a collection of homeowners whose property was taken, demolished and replaced with nothing. Experts say the effect of the Kelo v. New London case will have ramifications for years to come.

Meanwhile, New York City is dealing with a similar situation, though in a more optimistic light. A private developer had been buying up land in and around the Coney Island amusement park since 2005 with grand plans to remake the area as a Las Vegas-like destination. But those plans never developed, and the community is left with empty lots where local landmarks once stood. But now, the City of New York is coming to what it and many locals hope will be the rescue. The city recently inked a deal to purchase about 7 acres of land in the middle of Coney Island, according to the New York Times. Officials are hopeful that they can lure a developer to bring a year-round amusement park back to the hobbled area.

And finally, the downturn in the economy and the housing market is inspiring an era of change among homebuilders. Housing developers across the nation are watching the demand for huge houses fall, and are slashing square footage in response. A recent article form the Wall Street Journal looks at a number of homebuilders who are ditching their 4,700-square-foot floorplans and sizing things down to more affordable proportions. Floorplans are dropping under 3,000 or even 2,000 square feet for many of these homebuilders, who had made a mint with 5,000 square foot McMansions during the housing boom. The crash caused many of them to rethink their strategies. And now that demand for housing is beginning to climb again, homebuilders are finding that buyers are steering away from supersized McMansions, and towards smaller houses they can actually afford.

Stories Discussed in This Week's News Brief:

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