Deja Boo

After more than five hours of hearing public comment Monday night, the visibly exhausted Missoula City Council sent the proposed zoning rewrite ordinance revision back to the Plat, Annexation and Zoning committee for re-evaluation.

If passed, the new zoning ordinance would replace the existing zoning ordinance, which Office of Planning and Grants Director Roger Millar described as confusing and contradictory.

“Everything we do depends on zoning, and our regulatory foundation is broken,” Millar said during his brief presentation last night. “It’s time for a change.”

Following Millar’s presentation and continuing until past midnight, about 50 Missoula residents representing commercial, organizational, neighborhood and personal interests lined up in the aisles of the Council Chamber and, one by one, voiced their concerns before the weary Council members, Mayor John Engen and City Attorney Jim Nugent. The meeting was adjourned at 12:30 a.m.
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Conference Coverage

The morning sessions at New West's Planning in the West Conference has been devoted to the key issues facing planners today: the challenges faced in an economic downturn; how to turn the buzzword of "sustainability" to actual, on the ground planning; moving beyond planning to sustainable design; and the granddaddy of all issues--the massive growth facing the region. [more]

The Smart and Narrow

Stand in the shadow of any giant residential megablock in Seattle and you can't help but wonder: Isn't there a better way to do this? The reality of massive buildings now being auctioned off at fire-sale prices seems proof that bigness alone is neither necessary nor a sufficient condition for successful development in Seattle.

Developers have long crowed — and local politicians have cowed to — the notion that "we can't make money in Seattle unless we build six-story buildings." After a round of developer-driven up-zoning we now behold the post-bubble result: fleets of full-block behemoths standing half-empty, unsold, even half-built.

What will we make of this enforced economic pause? Will we carve out urban and mental space in which to think about growing smartly and sustainably instead of just bigger and faster? Or will we simply wait for the banks to resume shoveling debt so the bulldozers can resume shoving dirt?

A few blocks from the lively Cal Anderson Park on Capitol Hill is a place that could change our thinking about Seattle urban density. [more]

A new report on the effectiveness of thinning forests under the National Fire Plan shows that most logging occurs far from communities, thus questioning their effectiveness. Plus the majority of lands that should be treated lie not on federal lands, but private lands. The report gives new credence to critics such as myself who maintain that most fuel reduction logging operations are wasting tax dollars and causing more harm than good. [more]

PLANNING IN THE WEST CONFERENCE, JUNE 17-18 IN BOISE

Why should towns in the West change the way they grow? And why should planners design healthier, greener communities?

Because if they don’t, they’ll suffer and fail.

Dire as that answer sounds, it's sparked something worth celebrating: a planning revolution and a move to sustainability across the West, according to land-use and green planning expert Christopher Duerksen.
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'THE MOST VULNERABLE GROUP'

By 9 a.m. on a cold Monday morning, Rafael Novarro has already put in a four-hour day waiting for work that never comes.

Laid off three months earlier as a carpet installer, the El Salvadoran immigrant regularly joins a group of immigrants standing at the edge of a gas station in Carbondale, Colo. They hope contractors will stop and offer jobs, even if the wages pale in comparison to just a few months ago. Every rumbling diesel truck offers hope, but each one pulls away again, and this crowd of 10 men, many wearing work boots, their work gloves stashed in their pockets, sweatshirt hoods pulled over their heads against the cold, remain behind.

“Almost nobody has any work,” says Rigoberto Leon Ruiz, one of the men waiting.

It’s a scene common in cities like Los Angeles or Houston but until recently unheard of in places like Colorado’s Roaring Fork Valley, home to Aspen, where jobs were abundant and employers relied on immigrants to fill work crews. The economic downturn has hammered the West’s resort economy, though, and it has hit immigrants particularly hard. More than others, they rely on jobs in the struggling construction and service industries. Those here illegally lack the cushion of unemployment benefits.

From Las Vegas to Jackson Hole, Wyo., many across the West are going home. Some set out in search of jobs in other states. Others hang on, relying on the kindness of friends and family, and hoping for better times ahead. “If not,” Novarro says, “I’m going back to El Salvador soon, because I can’t stay here without work – without anything.” [more]

The Struggle To Be Urban

Community redevelopment, density and pricing are going to be important issues moving forward from the recession in New West urban centers.

“I deal with a lot of naysayers,” said Roger Millar, director of Missoula City/County Office of Planning and Grants. “They tell me density and mixed-use development is ugly.”

But the fact is cities, like Missoula, have fewer homes with children. So the sprawling development patterns, which are sustainable anyway, are going to be unnecessary and unwanted.

Part of the future will be looking at creative ways to redevelop existing neighborhoods, said Ben Lloyd from Comma-Q Architecture, Inc. in Bozeman.

This redevelopment will require density, which people in the West will have to become more comfortable with. [more]

State Of The Industry

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. [more]

Designing the New West

As the national economy comes out of the recession and sets a course for the future, changes in demographics are going to radically shift demands for housing, not only in the Mountain West, but around the country.

This was the message from Arthur C. Nelson, presidential professor and director of Metropolitan Research at the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Utah, who was the keynote speaker at the Designing the New West Conference in Bozeman Friday.

“Now is the time to think ahead about the new paradigm that will come – it’s already well underway,” Nelson said. [more]

The Rocky Mountain West continues to grow with Utah, Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming all in the top 10 of the nation's fastest growing states, according to an analysis from the Center for the Rocky Mountain West.

Utah is the fastest growing state in the nation, growing 2.53 percent from July of 2007 to 2008. Colorado grew 2 percent in that time period, Idaho grew 1.8 percent and Wyoming increased by 1.8 percent. Montana grew by 1.13 percent, putting it in 14th place.

This is all from an article in the spring issue of the Center's newsletter, which looks at the trends behind this growth, of which, net migration is a big one.

From the article:

Sixty-four percent of Utah’s total population growth during the year was from positive net migration. About 60% of growth by both Wyoming and Montana and about half of growth by Colorado and Idaho was positive net migration. So migration trends play a large role in regional growth patterns.

Click here for the full piece. [more]