Town council

dissects smart growth
By Frank Ruggiero
ruggiero@wataugademocrat.com

An audit for smart growth sparked a new round of discussion at a special meeting of the Boone Town Council.

John Cock, associate planner with the Lawrence Group, the Davidson-based business that conducted the audit, presented the results at the Jan. 9 meeting.

The audit was commissioned in spring 2007 to assess current growth policies and make recommendations for improvement based on principles of smart growth.

Cock explained that smart growth is a method of “looking at communities in a very comprehensive way,” ranging from land use to open space to transportation, housing and community collaboration.

“Folks are often more interested in the outcomes than the principles themselves,” Cock said to a full audience.
“When you talk about smart growth outcomes, they are the kinds of things that all of us are interested in, no matter what our particular political or personal interests are.

A set of principles, developed by the Smart Growth Network organization, served as a filter for the audit, addressing notions like livability, decreased traffic, thriving economies, lower taxes and land preservation.

Based on interviews with area stakeholders, such as residents, business owners, developers, local government officials and university representatives, the audit determined the devil was in the details, namely ordinances and regulations, which “are leading to a future markedly different than the vision of the long range plans and policies,” the executive summary reads.

Cock said stakeholders pointed out the most important priorities as walkable communities, mixing land uses, making development decisions more predictable, preserving open space, and transportation choices.

The report, he explained, is organized around 10 smart growth principles, with about 70 strategic recommendations included within. The first principle deals with mixing land uses, which Cock called the “lynch pin.”

He said a land-use master plan should be developed that is detailed to the parcel level, identifying transportation infrastructure and areas to be preserved. The map would identify where higher-density growth should occur and areas that should be left alone.

Cock said the Lawrence Group uses a concept called rural-urban transect, “and that’s the notion that as you move from the rural interlands into the town center, the type of development changes, the intensity of development changes.”

Areas meant to be rural should have rural standards, while urban areas should be held to urban standards, Cock said, suggesting curb and gutter as an example for urban standards.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all approach,” he said, noting that land-use regulations should better reflect the kind of development occurring.

This would include mixed use by-right in commercial districts, as opposed to general commercial developments that rely more on automobile traffic.

“Our recommendation is you flip that equation,” Cock said. “If, indeed, smart growth is what the community is committed to … allow greater mixing of uses in other districts.”

He also suggested form-based code as a means of regulation, focusing on the form of development rather than simply land use. He used the example of an old house in a downtown area. Though the house could be occupied by a commercial office, its form is a house, meaning it is appropriate for the location.

Another principle, Cock said, would see the town take advantage of compact building design, which he said is very appropriate for Boone, which does not have the luxury of building out. “If there’s going to be growth, it’ll have to be up,” he said.

Cock said the town should encourage greater density, and that compact development is key to walkable communities. “You need density to create walkable places,” he said. “It helps with having housing choices and housing affordability.”

A related principle would see a wider range of housing opportunities and choices, and Cock praised the council for having already taken such a step by allowing accessory housing in single-family neighborhoods.

The audit suggests the town should encourage more university housing, though it must be understood the university won’t be able to house all its students.

Cock also mentioned inclusionary housing, in which incentives and mandates are offered to developers to include affordable housing in developments.

As far as making Boone a walkable community, Cock said the town is off to a good start with its walkability audits, but said the streetscape could use plenty of work, like separating sidewalks from motor vehicle lanes, sidewalks wide enough for two people to walk side by side, and more crosswalks.

He said the town should also foster a strong sense of place, “creating places that people want to be, want to visit, want to invest,” which could be accomplished through revised commercial design standards and sign standards.

This concept ties into the following principle, that of preserving open space, farmland and natural areas. “By growing more compactly, more densely in your built areas, you’re able to preserve more of the areas that make this place special and are so critical to the environmental sustainability of the area,” Cock said.

Citing another principle, Cock said growth should be directed toward existing communities, based on the rationale that “the most efficient place for the town to invest … is in areas already served by [its] infrastructure.”

The next principle says a variety of transportation choices should be made available, and Cock said the town was off to a “great start” with its fare-free public transportation system, AppalCART.

Cock proceeded to describe the following principle “as one of the most important things that a community can do in terms of smart growth.” The principle would see development decisions as predictable, fair and cost-effective.

“What we’ve heard is there’s a great deal of unpredictability both for residents and developers in Boone,” Cock said, noting that both should be able to know what to expect.

If a developer wants to build, it should be made clear what type of development the town would permit in the desired location, he said.

While desirable projects, determined by the stakeholder criteria, would receive little static in the approval process, the more undesirable projects, determined by the same criteria, would have to endure a more cumbersome process, akin to the town’s current approval process, Cock said.

As such, the 10th principle would see community and stakeholder collaboration continue.

The smart growth audit is available online at the town of Boone’s Web site, www.townofboone.net, by clicking “public notices” and then “2007 smart growth audit.