 VOLUME XXI, ISSUE 6 JUNE 2008
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PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE
The big event to report on this month is the National Planning Conference in Las Vegas. I am proud to say that the 160 planners from Washington had a presence out of proportion to our numbers. I had the pleasure of attending the ceremony of the Class of 2008 of the College of Fellows of the American Institute of Certified Planners, where Washington Chapter members Steve Butler, Bill Trimm, and Jerry Ernst were inducted. Our new FAICP colleagues were introduced by the event’s master of ceremonies Brad Collins. Also attending the ceremony were Susan Winchell, Dick Winchell, Roger Wagoner, Nancy Eklund, Paul Stewart, and Paul Krauss.
Presenting conference sessions on the innovative new Regional Development Strategy for Central Puget Sound were Rocky Piro, Talia Henze and John Owen. The Conference Delegate Assembly debated and finally adopted a new APA Policy Guide on Climate Change. Representing Washington Chapter were Jill Sterrett, Paula Reeves, Dan Shulte and Roger Wagoner. Thanks also to Anindita Mitra and Keith Maw who helped prepare our delegation for this event.
Chapter members had several things to celebrate in Las Vegas. One was the election of Paul Inghram as President-elect of the American Institute of Certified Planners. Way to go, Paul! Now we’ll have a direct connection to all things AICP, including the recently announced reforms to the important Certification Maintenance program. Another cause for celebration was the acceptance by yours truly of the 2008 Distinguished Contribution Award for my role in helping to defeat Initiative 933. Because there would have been no victory to celebrate without a great Chapter-wide effort, I asked Chapter members to join me on-stage for a celebratory picture. Allan Giffen, Joe Scorcio, Brad Collins, Paul Inghram, Patrice Tovar, Nancy Eklund, Cari Hornbein, Richard Hart, Mike Davolio, and Steve Butler whooped it up with me. I want to thank Shane Hope for putting together the nomination on my behalf and appearing along with Robin McClelland on the video presented at the award ceremony. I also want to again thank the hundreds of you who contributed in many ways to the Chapter’s efforts in the I-933 campaign. I don’t often quote George Patton, but this one seems to fit: “I would be proud to lead you wonderful guys into battle. Any time. Anywhere. That is all.”
On a different, but equally important note - I have always believed that our Chapter has been able to work so hard and achieve so much because many of us also know how and when to play hard and have fun. This was much in evidence at the Chapter’s Reception at the Canaletto restaurant at the Venetian in Las Vegas. In addition to many of the above-named folk, we also raised a glass to fellowship with David Nemens, Mary Lynne Evans, Bob Thorpe, Norm Abbott, Emil King, Ted Gage, Michael Cardwell, Heather Trautman, Lenora Blauman, Chris Green, Tom Hauger, and others.
Speaking of conferences and fun, by now you have probably received your “Save the Date” mailer for the Chapter’s Annual Conference this coming October 13-15. In addition to all the knowledge and skills building (including CM credits for AICPers), I’m looking forward to the awesome reception being planned by the Inland Empire Section folks and the pub crawl in downtown Spokane. Of course, the partaking of spirits is an after-hours, privately funded optional event for consenting adults. (That disclaimer is in there for the Toby Flendersons and Angela Martins in your office). Lastly, here’s a reminder for those Chapter members in the Southwest Section – the next Chapter Board meeting will be on Friday June 27 from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Vancouver, WA. I hope you’ll join us for part of that meeting. It’s a chance to meet me and the other twenty folks on your Chapter Board and to learn about some of the Chapter committee work. Esther Larsen and Mike McCormick will join me that morning to explain the recent and upcoming activities and issues for the Legislative Committee. We’re always looking for more people to get involved in the Chapter’s Leg Committee. It’s interesting, fun and important work, so please attend if you can. Check out the website for a copy of the Agenda and details about location and other logistics. That’s it for this month. Enjoy your summer! 
LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE
The Chapter’s Legislative Committee met on May 9, 2008, at Puget Sound Regional Council in Seattle to debrief regarding its work during the 2008 Session and to begin preparations for its work during the interim and the 2009 Session. Eighteen members participated discussing the following items. The Committee’s work program during the 2008 Legislative Session, a short session with tight deadlines for all involved, was reviewed to determine what worked well, what needed improvement, and suggestions for continued success for the Committee and the Chapter. The Committee members’ work was exemplary. They participated in weekly phone conferences, reviewed bills and task force studies, gave recommendations on bill language, met with legislators and other stakeholders and attended hearings and meetings in Olympia. In addition, the Committee took on the task of developing a detailed process for running bills and other changes in the work program to provide for more effective use of our Chapter lobbyist, Michael Shaw, and to give the Chapter membership more opportunities for direct involvement in the legislative agenda. The weekly phone conferences were enhanced by changes in the format, including agendas and bill tracking lists provided prior to the call; devoting the first 20 minutes of the hour-long call to a report from Michael Shaw, and concentrating on selected bills with the potential for significant impacts on planning and the planning profession and that appeared most likely to pass. Consideration also was given to achieving collaboration among stakeholders with shared issues. For all who participated this past session, thank you for your time and expertise. Michael Shaw, who previously provided details in the April newsletter gave a report on legislation significant to the Chapter. This included E2SHB 2815 Providing a Framework for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the Washington Economy, E2SHB 2844 Regarding Urban Forestry and ESSB 6580 Addressing the Impacts of Climate Change Through the Growth Management Act. This last bill requires DCTED together with a 25-member policy committee to provide a climate change report to the Governor and Legislature by December 1, 2008. APA Washington is a named member of the policy committee, and Joe Tovar will be representing the Chapter. Legislation that is likely to surface during the 2009 Session includes bills addressing vesting, buildable lands, eminent domain, transportation and shorelines. “Economic vitality” and “fiscal health” are emerging as central themes for the coming session, according to our lobbyist. Michael also noted that as a result of its members’ expertise and collaboration provided in the last year and a half, APA Washington has gained considerable credibility with members of the Legislature, their staff and other stakeholders. In addition, due in part to the stature the Chapter has been able to build, Michael and members of the Committee have been approached to support legislation that other stakeholders are proposing. The consensus of the Committee is that we need to be strategic in how we decide to, and at what level we would, support these efforts. Part of that decision-making will include meeting with other stakeholders. Plans are underway for APA Washington to co-host a summit with other stakeholders prior to the end of the year to explore further shared values and issues for the 2009 Session. Included in the Committee’s work program during the past nine months was the task of developing a proactive process for proposing legislation. A subcommittee consisting of Ivan Miller, Yorik Stevens-Wajda, Michelle Zeidman, Anna Nelson, Mike McCormick, Nicole Faghin, Scott Greenberg, Josh Peters, Michael Shaw, Joe Tovar and Esther Larsen developed the process, which was adopted by the Board in March. Administrative items were added to implement the process, which includes a schedule, a set of steps and criteria for the Chapter to use in deciding whether to propose legislation. A message was sent in May 2008 to the Chapter list serve requesting input via proposed legislation from the membership. Details are included in a companion article in this June 2008 newsletter and is available on the Chapter’s website at the Bill Proposal webpage. Progress is being made on another work program to create a process that will provide a Chapter Bill Review and Tracking System using the prior bill review process, the Legislature’s Bill Tracking System, a database using Access and the addition of a format for inclusion of questions or check-boxes relating directly to the goals of APA Washington. Yorik Stevens-Wajda is currently the contact person. Members are needed to work during the next few months to assist in fine-tuning the process, including exploring mechanisms to share comments during bill reviews. The plan is to have a combined system available for presentation to Board at its December meeting and to be able to use the system during the 2009 Session. Interested members should contact Yorik at ystevens@psrc.org. Other issues discussed included the following with names of contact people if members are interested in participating with these work programs: Legislative Platform for the 2009 Session, Esther Larsen; GMA-WAC updates and revisions, Reid Shockey and Mike McCormick; the Chapter’s Climate Change Task Force, Anindita Mitra and Keith Maw; shoreline issues, Nicole Fahgin; the study and establishment of TDR programs in Washington, Brad Collins; and the Community Planning Assistance Team’s review of infrastructure funding issues, Kristian Kofoed and Paula Reeves. Additional suggestions and recommendations for furthering the legislative work of the Chapter included: continuing to recruit at least one person from each Section as the legislative liaison to the Legislative Committee; a session proposed for the Fall Conference in Spokane with a follow-up meeting to involve more members directly with legislative issues; using web-based technology, including “Wiki”-style production of the Legislative Platform and “Blog”-style review of bills to generate more discussion; scheduling a legislative update for the corresponding Section in the location of the Board meetings; and working with National APA to share and discuss similar legislative issues and solutions with other state chapters. The Chapter would like to recognize at the Fall Conference two members of the Legislature for their work during the 2008 Session. Send your nominations before the end of July 2008 to either Josh Peters or Esther Larsen. Include the legislator’s name, the district represented, the person’s party, whether member of the House or Senate and how the person furthered the work of the Chapter. There is much work to accomplish for our Chapter as we are increasingly asked to provide expertise on legislative issues while still being responsive to our diverse membership. We welcome members interested in joining the Legislative Committee to participate on any of the items mentioned above or other issues relating to legislation of interest to the Chapter. Contact either of the Committee Co-Chairs to get involved: Josh Peters at jpeters@co.jefferson.wa.us or at (360) 385-9167 or Esther Larsen at elarsen@spokanecounty.org or at (509) 477-5709. MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE
Ivan Miller, AICP In March 2008, the APA Washington Board adopted a Process for Proposing Legislation. Based on research on other chapter's efforts, we think we are the first chapter in the nation to have adopted this type of process. Congratulations to the Proactive Subcommittee for their hard work and the Board for their leadership! Starting in May, the chapter began implementing the adopted process. On May 14, a listserve email was sent to chapter members providing them an opportunity to submit ideas for possible legislation. Also, the chapter website was updated with a new page that describes the process, schedule, and links to all of the relevant materials. Currently, the Executive Committee of the Board – which includes all of the chapter officers and section chairs – are in the process of reviewing the only proposal that was submitted by the May 26th deadline (a proposal for State smart growth planning). Next steps are for the Executive Committee to meet on June 9 and determine whether they think this proposal is ripe for moving forward. If so, the full Chapter Board will consider it at their June 27 meeting. The purpose of having an adopted process is not necessarily to begin proposing legislation. Rather, it is to provide a structure to work within when the chapter considers proposing legislation. Drafting, promoting, and passing legislation will be difficult and time-consuming, and the chapter will exercise caution in determining whether to propose legislation; this means it is possible that no ideas will move forward at this time. At the same time, in the right circumstances, the process recognizes that the chapter and its members may benefit from showing leadership and taking the initiative to propose good planning-related legislation; this means some ideas may move forward. Look for a future newsletter article that describes what got submitted and what the Executive Committee and Board decided! If you have questions or comments, contact the co-chairs of the Legislative Committee: Esther Larsen at 509-477-5709, elarsen@spokanecounty.org, or Josh Peters at 360-385-9167, jpeters@co.jefferson.wa.us.
Scott Greenberg, AICP, has been elected to be the Washington Chapter’s President-Elect. Scott will officially take on this position, starting July 1, 2008, for a one-year term and will then serve as Chapter President for the subsequent two years. Scott’s experience with the Chapter, including his recent service as Vice President and member of the Legislative Committee, will be of great benefit during the transition to his new position. A large debt of gratitude is due to Jennifer Aylor, AICP, for having been a President-Elect candidate. She will continue to provide her leadership as the Washington Chapter’s Northwest Section President. There was a record level of participation in this year’s election, with total of 259 ballots cast. The ballots were counted by Steve Butler, FAICP, Nominating Committee Chair (and Chapter Immediate Past President) and Esther Larsen, Nominating Committee member (and Chapter Legislative Committee Co-Chair). Bill Grimes, AICP, Nominating Committee member (and Chapter Secretary) and Heather Trautman, AICP (Inland Empire Section President) certified the election results.
Jill Sterrett, FAICP Mid-year 2007 marked a significant tipping point in the scientific study of climate change issues. With the 2007 reports of the United Nations’ IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change), leading scientists agreed that climate change is occurring and human-made factors are significant causes. By the end of the year, the IPCC and Al Gore were awarded the Nobel Prize for this work and their efforts to increase public awareness of these issues. Now – more than ever before - it is clear AND it is urgent that we mobilize to take action addressing the problem Climate scientists, oceanographers, and natural resource scientists have been dealing with climate change for decades. Architects, landscape architects, and other professions have already taken leadership in finding ways to respond within new construction projects. Planners – in their roles in involving the public in visioning, in integrating data across disciplines, and in creating long range community-wide plans – are ideally suited to be central in community response to climate change. Although our national leaders have been slow to respond to climate change, we live in a region of the country that has fostered political leadership in this issue. Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has led the successful effort across the United States to get mayors to commit to the Kyoto Agreement, limiting greenhouse gas emissions. King County Executive Ron Sims has set the stage for King County to be a model of sustainability in both government operations and land use planning. What is APA doing?
If you would like to be part of this committee to work on these actions and share information with other interested planners, please contact any of our 3 co-chairs: Jill Sterrett, FAICP at jill.sterrett@gmail.com, Keith Maw, AICP at kmaw@ci.lynnwood.wa.us, or Anindita Mitra, AICP at amitra@crea-affiliates.com. Speakers Series Webcast – Approved for CM credits! With the support of APA Washington, Puget Sound Section APA, and the University of Washington, we have developed a Speakers’ Series on Planning for Sustainable Communities. Our primary focus is on what planners and individuals can do at a local level to take action. Local architects, landscape architects, transportation planners, and urban planners working in this area, are the “teachers’ who can help us all. We also provide reading lists and an annotated bibliography so planners can further their education beyond the series itself. Although the live sessions are completed, you can still watch the entire series via webcast on your computer. Gather a group of your co-workers to watch the webcasts together and discuss the recommended readings. (We ask that you send us your attendance list so we can track our outreach). A list of sessions and registration information is at: www.washington-apa.org/events/training.shtml. Cost is $10 per session. These sessions are now approved for Certification Maintenance credits at 12 credits for the series and 1
AMERICAN PLANNING ASSOCIATION 100TH NATIONAL CONFERENCE REVIEW
The American Planning Association held its 100th annual national conference on April 27-May 1 in Las Vegas. The conference was billed as one thousand conferences in one, with numerous workshops covering the spectrum of the field of planning. More than 6,000 planners from across the United States and beyond attended. U.S. Representative Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon) gave the opening address on the role of Congress in creating a national plan for infrastructure. In the practice keynote, ESRI president and founder Jack Dangermond discussed the history of GIS, its present uses and future possibilities. The conference closed with a thought-provoking talk by New Yorker architectural critic Paul Goldberger. Basing his talk on the 1970s book Learning from Las Vegas authored by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown, Goldberger brought listeners through the history of the Las Vegas strip and offered suggestions for what planners could learn from the city. For those who attended the conference, copies of session handouts will be made available on the conference website: http://www.planning.org/nationalconference/ where pictures and other conference wrap-up are available. For those unable to attend this year, ask your colleagues who did attend for their impressions. After all, what happens in Vegas shouldn’t stay in Vegas! The 2009 APA National Planning conference will take place in Minneapolis April 25-29, 2009. Mark your calendar now!
SOUTHWEST SECTION
The Southwest Section has been very active this year! In January, our GMA Planners Forum was held in Woodland and featured a presentation that focused on industrial development and methods local jurisdictions can use to attract and retain industrial development. In March, we had our winter social event – the first annual bowling tournament – with prizes awarded for costumes, best team score and best individual score. Clark County won the Golden Pin trophy amid stiff competition. In April, the GMA Planners Forum was held in Camas and speakers from Portland Metro and the Washington Employment Security Department presented a program focused on demographic and economic forecasting. On May 9th, the Southwest Section presented a SEPA training workshop, which focused on three technical issues:
Around the region, numerous jurisdictions are currently revising development ordinances in order to implement recently adopted comprehensive plan changes:
In addition, Vancouver and Clark County are jointly working with Cascadia Green Building Council to review development and building codes in order to identify and eliminate obstacles to sustainable development. The City of Washougal is also working on a similar effort. Jurisdictions in Clark County are facing code updates to implement the new NPDES permit requirements related to low impact development. There has been controversy over the Washington Department of Ecology’s requirement that stormwater treatment and infiltration meet the standards of original forested landscape.
PLANNING AND THE COLUMBIA RIVER
Huge. Incredible. Awesome. These are just a few of the adjectives that describe the Columbia River. They describe its beauty. They also describe the immense amount of water that flows down the river each second of every day. In this regard, these adjectives seem to be a gross understatement. Approximately 265,000 cubic feet, or six acre-feet, of water is discharged from the Columbia River into the Pacific Ocean each second. Over the course of a year, roughly 190 million acre feet of water are discharged from the Columbia River. Even with this huge amount of water, it is not enough to quench Washington’s growth needs. Nearly two-thirds of the water that flows down the Columbia River is needed to power the region’s hydroelectric generators at several dams along its 1,200 mile course. The demand for the remaining water outnumbers the number of gallons available.
Recently the state of Washington arranged for the release of millions of gallons of stored water from Lake Roosevelt, which is located behind Grand Coulee dam. This additional water will help meet the water needs of cities, farmers and support stream flows for endangered fish. However, it may not be enough. Columbia Basin cities are growing. In the next 20 years, the basin will have approximately 450,000 new residents. The state of Washington’s Department of Ecology predicts the region will need an additional 87,000 acre-feet for domestic and municipal water use. In addition, fish runs in the Columbia and its tributaries have declined to less than 10% of historic levels. Hundreds of irrigators risk temporarily losing access to their water rights during years of extreme drought. Without water, they will lose their crops. Climate change will exert additional demand for water. Climate models predict more floods in the winter followed by parched earth during the summer. The US Geological Survey predicts climate change will result in the need for an additional inch of water per acre in the Columbia Basin. This additional inch means 140,000 acre-feet of water will be needed to maintain current crop production.
In 2006 the Washington State Legislature created the Columbia River Water Management Program. The legislature declared the development of new water supplies as a high priority. It directed the Department of Ecology to aggressively pursue developing water supplies that benefit both in-stream and out-of-stream uses through storage, conservation and voluntary regional water management arrangements. In November 2006, just four months after the effective date of the legislation, the Department of Ecology released its first Columbia River Water Supply Inventory. The inventory reviewed all known reports of water storage and conservation opportunities. They found several thousand projects that would save over 1,000,000 acre-feet of water. In addition, on-going studies for water storage could produce projects with a potential savings close to 10 million acre-feet of water. These reports, plus much more, are available on the Columbia River Water Management Program’s website. It has tomes of information about the Columbia River. The web pages are regularly updated with new information and developments. Each webpage contains links to more in-depth studies and reports.
Included on their website is a link to the “Columbia River Mainstem – Water Resource Information System." This website provides an interactive map that connects the place of water use to existing and proposed water right permits, certificates, applications and claims for water. The map provides an aerial view along with multiple links to other sources of information. Planning involving the Columbia River entails dealing with very large numbers and huge projects of historic proportions and impacts. These projects will preserve the Columbia River as the life-blood of the state of Washington for generations to come. They will continue to leave us all looking for adjectives to describe them. ULI REALITY CHECK 2008
Picture 250 adults playing with legos—45,000 red and yellow legos. And yarn—blue for transit and orange for roads. No, this was not a Dunder-Mifflin (“The Office”) team-building retreat. This was a “Reality Check” sponsored by the Urban Land Institute (ULI) at the University of Washington. Reality Check was a collaborative regional visioning process bringing together the central Puget Sound region’s private, public and non-profit leaders for substantive dialogue about how the region should look in 2040. Speakers and panelists for the presentation portion of the day included Governor Gregoire, UW President Mark Emmert, ULI Fellow Ed McMahon, Enrique Penalosa (former Mayor of Bogota, Colombia), and the Executives from King and Pierce Counties and mayors of Seattle, Bellevue, Everett and Bremerton. Between 2000 and 2040, the central Puget Sound will see 1.7 million new residents, 1.2 million more jobs and nearly 900,000 new households. At current rates, that means 6.6 million more trips per day on our roads, rails, buses and ferries. Our challenge was to collaborate with others at each of our 30 tables to arrive at a consensus on where this growth should be directed in the coming years. Each table had participants from a variety of backgrounds. My table had elected officials, builders, realtors, and non-profit members. We started by sharing our guiding principles—jobs/housing balance, growth in centers, preserve resource land and green space, etc. Each table had a large map of the region, showing existing major transportation corridors, city and county boundaries and PSRC’s regional growth centers. First, we were provided with pre-measured plastic bags for each city, unincorporated urban area and rural area. These bags contained legos representing the amount of planned growth from 2000-2010 (our “current” growth). Each yellow lego represented growth of 2,000 people; each red lego represented growth of 2,000 jobs. These were placed on the map, as directed on each bag (6 reds for Bellevue, 5 yellows for Kirkland, etc.). Then the fun began. We got to determine where all of the growth between 2010 and 2040 should go—based on our table’s guiding principles. Generally, the big cities were to receive most of the growth, followed by regional growth centers. A large homebuilder at my table lobbied for some low density development in the rural area in south Pierce County (at rural not urban densities). This led to a good discussion of the need for housing choice—not everyone should or wants to live in a high density area. We discussed where new transit should go (serving centers and high density areas) and where new or expanded roads should be. My table decided to invest in I-605, the “Foothills Freeway” connecting Issaquah, Carnation, and Duvall. (I was away from the table when they slipped that one in.) The Kitsap County folks wanted more passenger ferries connecting everyone to everything. The “Mosquito Fleet” came back to Lake Washington connecting Kirkland and the UW. Following lunch, we viewed the results of the exercise. The top 3 were:
We also identified barriers to achieving our guiding principles. The top 3 were:
The top 3 solutions identified during the exercise were:
Three representative tables were selected for a cursory analysis of possible reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from their land use patterns. As you would expect, the more balanced scenarios had a greater GHG reduction than the more dispersed patterns. The event also unveiled a new ULI organization—the “Quality Growth Alliance.” The Alliance will focus on education and technical support and will work on policy innovation and public investment. For more information about the event, including copies of some presentations, check out http://www.realitycheck2008.org/.
ITALIAN FOR PLANNERS
Unlike many things in life, fellowships are what they’re cracked up to be: experiences that change the way you think and live. Last October, thanks to the generosity of the APA and other organizations, I studied international planning issues for five weeks in Tuscany. “Home base” for my fellowship was Civita di Bagnoregio, ninety minutes north of Rome. Civita is a particularly pure example of Etruscan hill-towns, and as I walked up the steep bridge into Civita for the first time, I reflected that I was tracing planning to its original source.
Etruscans and Romans were some of the first Western urban planners, and their marks are still visible in Civita. The main piazza – in Roman planning terms, the forum – was the intersection of the Roman ‘Cardo’ and ‘Decumanus’ (the east-west and north-south axial streets). Like any well-planned forum, the cathedral framed one side of the piazza. Across the square, the locals gathered on warm fall evenings, as perhaps the Etruscans did, to drink wine, argue and gossip.
Civita is the home of my fellowship hosts Astra Zarina and Tony Costa Heywood, husband-and-wife architects who have made Italy their permanent home. Astra is from Seattle, and was a principal in the U.W.’s Rome Program. Her teaching and leadership have helped build a cultural bridge between Seattle and Tuscany, and she has been a profound inspiration to a generation of Seattle architects, urban designers and planners. NIAUSI (Northwest Institute of Architecture & Urban Studies in Italy), my principal fellowship sponsor, is a Seattle organization comprised of some of her students. The highest honor of my fellowship was a seat at Astra and Tony’s dining table; some of the world’s most influential modern architects stop there regularly. Astra won the Rome Prize for architecture at the beginning of her career, and her knowledge of the theory and practice of urban planning is legendary. For five weeks, I and the other Seattle fellows learned and argued about planning theory, post-modern architecture, and Italian politics far into the night – over heaping plates of Tony’s fantastic cooking and carafes of the local vino. So local, in fact, that it came from the bruschetteria next door. My experience with our CPAT (Community Planning Assistance Team) project informed my planning questions in Italy. My co-chair Paula Reeves and I have seen the same planning tension in Washington cities that I was to find in Tuscany; in both regions, cities are attempting to preserve their cultural and historic character, while simultaneously revving their economic engines. Like the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, they must run faster and faster just to stay in the same place. Civita is an extreme example of this planning conundrum. The highway signs pointing to Civita identify it as “il paese que muore” – the city that is dying. The year-round population has shrunk to less than a dozen. When I arrived in September, the famous piazza and cathedral was the backdrop for a Belgian action film (http://www.holymoney-movie.com, currently in post-production). Thick black cables snaked everywhere, and Los Angeles accents filled the hazy Tuscan air. When I left in November, a British TV company was filming Pinocchio, and “Geppetto’s workshop” was being constructed next door. Civita has been shot dead on location and buried in a cemetery with lights: Klieg lights. Is it really still a city, or does it just play one on TV? Civita’s struggle to maintain its authenticity is an extreme example – but it is just one example of many. The ancient centro storici of Italian hilltowns have emptied out. An economy dominated by tourism translates into a poorly paying service job, a commute from suburban concrete block housing, and living with Mom and Dad till you’re 35. Most Italians can’t afford to live in the hilltowns, but a tourism economy is a harsh mistress which must be served. If Rick Steves and his clients stop paying to turn on the lights in the cathedrals and museums, the rest of the utilities will be cut off too.
What can planners do about this? I convened a meeting in Perugia last October to see how planners from Perugia, Orvieto and Viterbo answered the question. Although their approaches differed, a common element was similar to what we have found in CPAT charrettes. Expedient transit, pedestrian and bicycle connections, coupled with the compact urban development that these connections can foster, is essential. It is ironic that much of Italy, that cathedral wherein we worship compact urban development, lags behind many American cities in even basic transit connections. In Rome, of course, you can’t walk down the sidewalk without being hit by a bus, but once you’re out of Rome, you’re on your own. Take it from me: Civita is a 50 minute bus ride from the nearest train station, library, internet café, bookstore, or museum – and it can be a long, unpredictable wait. I was almost the only person between 16 and 60 riding a bus, by the way; everyone in Italy owns two cars and drives them everywhere.
What I learned in Perugia was the beginning of an answer to the much larger questions my fellowship inquiry prompted. Three lessons occur to me from the whole experience. First, the similarities and differences among each city’s planning approaches were instructive. This leads to a surprising second lesson, though, that was brought to me by a Perugia city official. She told me that the meeting I convened was a rare experience; she could not remember planners from different towns addressing the same planning question in the same room. She speculated that this was a cultural artifact from medieval times, when hill-towns were each fortified against each other. The lesson is not to underestimate the importance of regional cooperation, such as the APA’s work with Vision 2040. The challenges are significant here, but they may be even greater for planners in other cultures. Third and last, a personal lesson: the memory of the kindness and warmth of the people I met, both Italians and Americans living in Italy: Astra and Tony; Professor Franco Filippi (who created the Orvieto plan) and his wife, who kindly invited me to a sumptuous lunch in their flat overlooking the Colosseum; and Donna and Mike James, without whom my meeting in Perugia would never have happened. Thanks again to the APA, the City of Seattle, NIAUSI, and the Seattle-Perugia Sister City Association. Their generosity made possible planning lessons that will influence my thinking, my planning career, and my participation in APA.
HOME ALONE
Actually, this story does start with me working at home alone. I am sitting in my 3rd floor office with a 315 degree view of the rolling hills of Hockinson, Washington and in the distance Portland, Oregon. My dress today is truly casual. By casual, I mean I am wearing a t-shirt, sweat pants, slippers and my Columbia fleece coat. I sip my coffee as I answer my email, write reports and even wrote the occasional essay. Nice work if you can get it. I have been a planning director – at the city, county, regional and state level – for some 30 years. But on my 60th birthday (last October), I decided I needed a change of scenery. My last job was as the director of Clark County’s Community Development Department. After nine years, I was the longest serving director they ever had. The job was demanding because I was managing a staff of 160, had an annual budget of about $15 million and we reviewed about $600 million a year in new construction. According to the 2000 Census, Clark County was the fastest growing county in the state of Washington and in the Portland-Vancouver metropolitan area. But after 30 years, I wasn’t happy. Dealing with tight budgets, unending personnel problems and elected official constituent issues took its toll. I wouldn’t call it burn out. I would call it enough-is-enough. When the housing industry, and the department’s revenues, tanked in late 2007, the political discussion turned to layoffs. That’s when I decided to quit. I didn’t spend all those years building the finest community development department in the nation, just to start dismantling it. Now that may sound a bit hasty to you. I mean retirement usually isn’t until you are at least 65 years old. But I am not a retirement kind of guy. I technically retired out of the Oregon PERS system a few years ago, but I kept working for Clark County. Truth was my wife took an early retirement from Kaiser Permanente and she collects my retirement check. She obviously is the smart one in the family. We have 21 acres, three horses, three dogs and five chickens, so she keeps busy. As a master gardener, she has a lot of land to work with. We also have two adopted Chinese daughters, ages 8 and 12, who need our attention. My quitting was not a rash act. Back in the year 2000, the county hired a consulting firm called Citygate Associates to do a best management practices review of my department. Actually, doing the review was one of my better ideas. Better that I asked for it early in my tenure and got the credit, than having one forced on me later to my discredit. Now a review may sound pretty scary. But in reality it means that an objective third party comes in and reviews your organization, processes and procedures against tried and true best management practices. My experience with Citygate Associates was so positive that over the years I kept talking to them about working with them. And last year I made the leap of faith. It has been an amazing and rewarding experience. As a planning director, the world of best management practices ends at your in-box. In other words, you don’t have time to talk to other directors about what they are doing. The best you can hope for is reading about what others experience in publications like Planning, Public Management or Governance magazines. In my new job, I travel around the country talking to planning practitioners and learning from them. For example, our current clients include San Diego, Sacramento and Solano Counties in California, and Salt Lake City, Utah. What occurs is a two-way dialogue where I learn a lot about what they have tried, and what they thinks works or doesn’t, and why. It is one of the most amazing and rewarding educational experiences I have ever had. Now to be fair, I don’t spend all my days in my home office. I spend about a third of my time on-site with my clients doing interviews, surveys and focus groups. You have to understand the place you are working for through the eyes of both their internal and external customers. Every job is different because every city or county is different. But they all have one thing in common. They all want to be the best they can be. And that is a virtue I can really agree with. Richard Carson is a Senior Associate for Citygate Associates and General Manager of their Pacific Northwest office. Rich is also a doctorate candidate at Washington State University. He can be reached at his 3rd floor office at richcarson@Q.com or at www.CitygateAssociates.com.
REMINDER Last year the board approved a new chapter-only group membership opportunity. This membership is available to planning commissions, city councils and commissions, tribal councils, and board members of non-profit organizations and other professional associations. Up to 10 members may be included in a group membership. The group rate is $150 and is administered by the chapter office. To obtain a group membership form or learn more about the benefits of this membership, contact Anna Nelson, AICP, Membership Committee chair, at (206) 382-9540 or anelson@GordonDerr.com.
MONTHLY NEWSLETTER Have a project you want to highlight for planners across the state? An issue you think more planners need information on? Planning Northwest is always looking to highlight projects and research of our members. If you are interested in having an article published feel free to contact the editor. The deadline for the newsletter is the fifteenth of every month, preceding the publication month. Please submit all newsletter articles to newsletter@washington-apa.org. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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