[p2p-research] Walkability: check it before choosing your next home!

[Stan Rhodes]

Regarding speculation and urban sprawl, here in the Portland Metro area, we
may actually see the urban growth boundary NOT extended this year at all,
and have urban and rural reserves designated.  I went to one of the original
meetings about it, and have tried to follow it since (we recently had a
hearing).

More information is available here:
http://www.oregonmetro.gov/index.cfm/go/by.web/id=26257

Essentially, surrounding land is assessed for agricultural and urban value.
Rural reserves are areas of rural land that are "reserves" and cannot be
developed upon any further.  Portland is built on, and surrounded by,
incredibly rich farmland, and forest.  Urban reserves are areas outside the
urban growth boundary that receive development assistance and priority,
which also allows for better planning of infrastructure (water, power,
transport) and nicer, denser urban areas.  For every urban reserve, a rural
reserve has to be designated first (not sure precisely how this works).

You can imagine who this seems to piss off: people who benefit from land
speculation, and farmers that want to try to cash out their land for their
retirements.  I have a little sympathy for the latter, but none for the
former.

The "new urbanism" movement is very concerned with walkability.  I met an
urban architect here pleased with the reserve system because it allows just
that sort of planning.  It's not that no one's thought of it, it's that a
new city is really, really, really expensive, and all the existing cities
have crumbling infrastructure as it is (the Minnesota bridge collapse comes
to mind).

While this reserve system is nice for helping protect Portland from sprawl,
consider the flip side of the coin, nationally: the higher costs of living
and lack of really cheap space tend to shift populations to those areas with
lots of available space, low cost of living, and loose zoning laws.  These
areas are mostly in Arizona, Texas, and Georgia, which experienced booms in
the past 3-4 decades.  Phoenix, Dallas, and Houston use the most electricity
per household in the US.

Anyway, some facets of this "gem" of a problem to consider.

-- Stan


On Fri, Oct 23, 2009 at 11:19 AM, Patrick Anderson <agnucius at gmail.com>wrote:

> Paul D. Fernhout wrote:
>
> > How about a new city in the USA designed for walkability?
>
> Walkability is hindered by a property tax structure that punishes
> improvements instead of weighing against excessive holdings.
>
> This creates a 'speculation' market for physical location where
> investors (or even innocent farmers that find themselves
> encroached-upon by the growth of a city) can hold large amounts of
> land *just as long* as they do not develop it.
>
> This is why we see so many underdeveloped patches within cities.
> These unproductive lots add distance to our travel and so cause
> excessive transport of both goods and humans.
>
>
>
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