Building in the New Economy isn't business as usual. Howard Blackson lays out policy, planning, land assembly and financing tools to help us with our task at hand.
Blackson lays out some of the tools we're going to be needing in 2012 and beyond, including land assembly techniques, urban planning policies, urban design regulations, local tax districts, and city-wide tax tools. He points out:
"In startling alignment with James Howard Kunstler's stark predictions, ULI's 2012 Report, 'What's Next: Real Estate in the New Economy,' bubbly concludes: 'The real estate world is hurtling into a different place and time. Change is coming at a faster pace with more uncertain consequences. Success will take on different forms and risks will increase. Standing pat or ignoring new realities is not possible. Notably, investment will gravitate to places that welcome business and view public investments - in education, infrastructure, and innovation - as prerequisites for progress and economic sustainability.'"
"Municipalities are finally looking to new models modifying their decades-long reliance upon suburban planning tools to enable infill redevelopment. Just as suburbia was built with now vanishing state and federal subsidies, the following financing tools are available to tilt the playing field towards the difficult chore of building infill redevelopment."
Thanks to Hazel Borys
Read the full story: Money, It’s a Gas: New Economy development financing
Good for the Planet—and the Real Estate Industry?
Climate change is the new reality, and building owners and developers that want to remain in business need to adapt. So says a recent Urban Land Institute (ULI) report that calls last year's Paris agreement "a potential game changer."
Cleveland Seeking Better Fortunes with a New Zoning Code
A ULI-led symposium in Cleveland is looking at how an update of the city's outdated zoning code could revive some neighborhoods in the city.
Bay Area Warned: Millennials Will Leave if Housing Prices Don't Change
Millennials in the Bay Area are feeling priced out, and may bolt if they can't find housing they can afford.
Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.
California plans to bury El Niño’s downpour
If the state plays its cards right, it may be able to store a billion acre-feet of El Niño’s water in aquifers.
Desperate measures: Advocates weigh draining Lake Powell to fill Colorado River
Draining the reservoir could reduce evaporation losses by a couple hundred thousand acre-feet.
US buildings threatened, destroyed by fires set to triple by 2060
Researchers found a high fire risk for socioeconomically vulnerable neighborhoods in the American West.
LA residents may be allowed to paint their own crosswalks
Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky put out a motion instructing the Los Angeles Department of Public Transportation to study the feasibility of allowing volunteers to paint crosswalks.
Dallas moves to overhaul its zoning code
The city's zoning reform will allow more multi-family and mixed-use developments.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
City of Rosemead
Rutgers University, Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
One Hundred Miles
Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY)
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
City of Cambridge
Montrose County
The Pocatello Development Authority