My Built Environment: Good, Bad, and Really Ugly

I recently spent some time in Las Vegas for a conference. I have been there several times over the years, and have even done some work there, though it was about 15 years ago. It is fun though to go see those projects and see how well they hold up over the years. As everyone knows, Las Vegas is a study of contrasts. There is the mega resort strip, and then Las Vegas for everyone else. Of course, wherever I go, I like to stray away from the touristy areas and see how the real people live.
Thoughts On The Strip
The strip just simply boggles my mind. Each resort is basically a city unto itself complete with its own shopping mall! Each one must be able to support around 15,000 people. I can only imagine the infrastructure that it takes to support this! Can you imagine the size of the water lines and sewer mains? Not to mention the power that is required. To top that off, they are constantly rebuilding there. If a structure is about 10 years old, it is prime to be redeveloped. Currently they are building the City Centre project. This is one where a massive project has gone from conception to construction in only a few short years. Mind Boggling.

Thoughts on Las Vegas Suburbs
Most of the residential areas in Las Vegas are boring. There is no real design. Even the master planned communities are not all that exciting. They are all car centered, with no real pedestrian connections, or any real thought given to creating a sense of place. There are exceptions of course, and one in particular I will be writing about in a separate post. And then there is a lack of landscaping along most arterials. Las Vegans love walls, every yard has a masonry wall around it. Therefore, all the main streets are lined with walls right behind the walks. Pretty sterile.

Water Conservation
On the plus side, Las Vegas is getting serious about water conservation. In all of the new developments I visited, there was very little turf grass, and what little there was, was located where it would actually be used. They are even giving existing homes and residents substantial cash incentives to take out their lawns. This is something that we should all be learning from. The landscaping they are putting in is very drought tolerant, and for the most part pretty attractive. One nice thing I noticed was the lack of weeds like we get here, such as bind weed and thistle! Nice Job!

Mesquite Trees
One thing I am jealous of in Las Vegas is they get to use Mesquite Trees. I absoloutely love these trees. They are light and airy, have interesting texture and forms, and also provide some good shade to boot. I wish we could grow them here!

During these rough economic times, I am continually amazed at how the press can spin news. I have a link on my main home page (Igoogle) I use that shows the major headlines. One headline will say that a companies profits fell by 40%…and doomsday is near. Yet another one will say that profits did not fall as much as expected, and so the sky is not falling. Reading the articles, one is very glass half empty, while the other is a glass half full. It is this seesaw attitude that is helping to drive the housing crunch further down. The press (and media in general) has a very big influeynce on how people percieve things. They read about prices falling 20% in California, panic, and decide not to buy locally, where prices may have actually risen.

I fall into this trap myself. I read all the national stories and fear that we will all go out of business. Of course, I then talk to local people, and they see housing getting better locally. Of course, when things do turn around, the press will be all over the rebound, which will encourage people to get out and buy, thereby spurring it on even more. You have to love it and hate it at the same time.

Over the years, I have formed my own theories on how planning should occur. Imagine if you will, we were just now pioneers in this area with a totally clean slate. The water was pure, wildlife was abundant, the air was clean….yet settlers were ready to move in. What should we do differently? This is just my opinion of course, and is based solely on environmental and social concerns, my top 10 list if you will, not in any particular order.

1) River corridors should be given a mile wide corridor. The only development allowed would be recreational such as trails and parks, the occasional street crossings, and some public infrastructure, such as water and sewer plans. I propose this to protect our wetlands, floodplain mitigation, and to allow the rivers to naturally meander.

2) Stream and creek corridors are given a half mile wide corridor. Again, for the same reasons as above.

3) Land Ownership and political boundaries would follow physio graphic features. I understand that our grid system of land ownership made sense…in some areas. That is why we have arterial streets on section lines that are more like roller coasters going up and down hills. Roads should follow the lay of the land. Or, I know of one parcel and the neighboring parcel that both have a creek running across them. They both end up with unusable parcels on the opposite sides of the creek…the property line should follow the creek. Of course following the creek violates my rule above, but you get the point. This also is important in watershed management, wildlife management, resource management, and a myriad of other things.

4) Comprehensive planning, and mixed use would be the norm.

5) Communities would be smaller, around 2 mile radius, everything would be walkable, with all the shopping and most of the jobs easily accessible, reducing the need for private vehicles. There would be more communities at 5-10 mile spacings, with the areas in between for agriculture, recreation, etc. These communities would be connected by mass transit.

6) High emphasis would be placed on architecture, sustainability, and usability.

7) Placemaking would be the starting point…not an afterthought.

8) Designing for the pedestrian environment and socialization would be a priority over designing for vehicular circulation.

9) There would very limited development with a half mile of highway corridors, such as interstates. This is to keep them as a pleasant driving experience. The only development allowed would be occasional service centers. Also, no residential development within a mile of interstates.

10) There would be no urban sprawl. Period. End of Story.

Well, it has finally happened. As we all know, gas prices have shot through the roof, and it is hitting us all in the pocket book. In my opinion, we have been living on borrowed time for a long time with relatively low gas prices, and it is finally time to pay the bill. People have been asking me a lot lately what this will mean for the development industry that is already down and out for the most part. To me, it basically means that most of the things I have been predicting for the last decade are finally going to come true, and we will have a paradigm shift in the way people live their lives. We are finally going to have to recognize resource conservation, and not just gasoline. Anyway, here are a few of my thoughts.

DOWNSIZING
No, I am not just talking about the empty nester’s who don’t need all that room now that the kids are gone. People are going to start realizing that they don’t need the McMansion’s on the hill, 5-6,000 square feet with 1 acre and more lots. Not only is this a lot of house to heat, cool, and maintain, but that is a lot of ground to maintain, water, fertilize. People are going to look for smaller homes, I say in the 1,800 to 3,000 square foot range on smaller lots. They might even become adjusted to raising families in townhomes, condos, or other high density living areas. The “Not so Big House” phenomena will become the norm, not just the latest fad.

But even more importantly, people are going to downsize there neighborhoods. They are going to want to live, work, and shop in relatively small geographical areas. People are going to become increasingly more willing to live in New Urbanism style developments with mixed income, mixed product, and mixed lifestyles all wrapped together. The one size fits all mega-burbs with the look-alike homes are going to be a thing of the past. People really want a sense of community and belonging. And the with cost of transportation, they won’t want to drive 5 blocks to the pool, or 5 miles to the grocery store. They will walk or ride there bike.

Which leads me to my next point. I think we are going to see the rise once again of the corner grocery store…in the 10-30,000 square foot range. This supports the concept of sustainability and not having to drive for miles to pick up a gallon of milk. Of course, only denser development can support this kind of store.

This is happening now. As proof I offer up Stapleton, Lowry, and a host of other New Urbanism projects. In a down housing cycle, these projects are still selling well, and at a premium also. Stapleton is now about 1/2 built out, in only 6 years.

SUSTAINABILITY
Of course, this is hardly new, as being “green” is what it is all about. But there are multiple levels of sustainability. One level is building homes and commercial buildings that are energy efficient. This has been happening for some time now, and it keeps getting better. Of course, when I started building homes back in 2000, I was focusing on energy efficiency. Back then though, nobody wanted to pay the premium for that. I am always ahead of my time it seems.

However, another level of sustainability involves land conservation, redevelopment, higher density development, reduced sprawl, water conservation, etc. I think we will see community gardens become more popular. Maybe we will see edible landscapes. People are going to have to get used to more native and wild landscaping…and not the manicured lawns with lollipop shrubs.

We are already seeing recycling becoming a way of life…now people are getting into composting. All of this keeps stuff out of the landfill. I think we are starting to see a paradigm shift of quality versus quantity. People will buy things that will last for years, and not look at products as being disposable. If it breaks I will just get a new one. I know I have been guilty of that myself.

Anyway, I had some other thoughts, but at the moment they escape me. Of course, none of this will come about overnight, but I do believe that with the cost of transportation now, it will happen faster than it would have otherwise.

Sorry to everyone for being out of it for awhile. We have been pretty busy lately with a lot of submittals, and I have been having to write a lot of design guidelines, zoning codes and such, so I havn’t been inspired to write in my blog too!

Tomorrow I leave for Vegas for the International Council of Shopping Centers conference. I am going primarily for one of my clients. It should be an interesting experience. I am also looking forward to getting lots of fodder for my Fugly awards, and checking out the local development scene. I know that they are really hurting right now…but they have had an excellent ride for a couple of decades now. There are some really good projects going on there though that I want to check out. I will keep you all updated.