State Of The Industry

Recession Offers Opportunity for Longer-Range Planning, Design

By Greg Lemon, 4-17-09

In the depths of a recession, there are ample opportunities for more thoughtful planning, architecture and design, panelists said Friday at the Designing the New West conference in Bozeman.

Andy Epple, planning director for the city of Bozeman says is appears the economy is at its very bottom, and that means a slow down in the city planning office. That, he says, has allowed some discussions to happen that didn’t or couldn’t when times were busy.

The slow down has also seemed to stimulate good development, Epple said, referring to two projects the planning department is currently considering: a condo unit near downtown and an urban redevelopment project.

Cynthia Parker, the regional president for Mercy Housing Inc., says sees the recession as an opportunity for developers to find a niche in the market, which they can take advantage of when the economy gets better.

But, those are the silver linings. Parker is also the director of the Federal Home Loan Bank of Seattle, and so she did share some bad news: capital is going to continue to be short.

Gary London, the president of London Group Realty Advisors, says in the last year, the economy hit bottom and its likely to stay there for awhile.

One thing that will keep the economy from turning around quickly is the surplus of the housing.

“We haven’t arrived at the bottom in dealing with over supply,” London said. “That has to be dealt with first.”

The recession will fundamentally change the way Americans spend money, he said. This shift will be permanent. Construction costs will drive people toward smaller and more efficient homes closer to services.

“We’re not ever going to spend as much money as we did before,” London said.  “We’re going to need less than what we thought we needed five years ago.”

In resort communities, the recession has hit especially hard, said Louis Bieker of 4240 Architecture, Inc.

“It has been profound, it has been swift and it has been impactful,” Bieker said.

During the early part of the decade mountain resort development was like a gold rush, he said.

But now successful developers are looking at long-term projects that have buy-in from the community.

“Communities are now taking the time to be considerate of the those long-term issues and really plan for those,” Bieker said. 

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