====== Topic Name ====== Local Climate Change Planning: Beyond Land-Use ====== Participants ====== * Renee Lazarwich * Paul Markowitz * Ethel Wilderson * Carrie Deegan * Leslie Strader * John Adams * Marjan Van Der Belt * Jonathan Weiss * Karen Parolek * Jean Dedam * Chrsitin Forde * Sandra Gillis * John Adams * Cheryl King Fischer * Shanna Ratner * Gloria Gould-Wessen * Tim Traver * Bruce Seifer * Brent ? * Patrick Putt * Milton Ospina ====== Big Idea ====== As planners, how can we move beyond addressing climate change planning at the local level -- and moving beyond strictly looking at land-use as a way to address climate change? When we talk about climate change, what are the factors that contribute to climate change? Renee: Could break up climate change into components first, since some will be more concerned with land use planning than others. Marjan: Also, how are communities affected by climate change, and how can they affect it? "Municipalities" used loosely, small rural or big city. Karen: What do people see as "land use planning"? Conventional zoning organized around land use- actually can cause sprawl. New coding called "form based" organizes based on hierarchy of urbanization intensity. Looks at what is appropriate for a given environment, taking into account transportation, visual issues, other services, etc. Form based codes regulate how development happens in a sustainable way. Uses same regulatory mechanism though. Paul: I would like to move even beyond that, beyond regulation by municipalities. Jean: Would like to cover affordable housing also in this discussion. Burke, VT has large development proposal in a very small (600 people) population. Once this resort is built, where will the workers live? In terms of climate change, how to create units that don’t create long commuting distances. Bill: Scope is very broad can we narrow it down? Would like to talk about local food system and their impact on building sustainable communities and reducing carbon footprint. Renee: Best strategy is to break up into different components... Paul: Local level action on climate change, how to get citizens and governments involved. Governments involved but in a non-traditional way. Marjan: Governments often need to simply REMOVE OBSTACLES to energy efficiency, understand how regulations can really prohibit this in some cases. Ordinances and zoning codes may not allow for flexibility necessary to make best use of technologies and strategies to impact climate change. Brent: Wants to talk about stakeholders that can also be catalysts for change on local level, besides governments. =========CATEGORIES OF CLIMATE CHANGE ACTION========== * Vehicle efficiency, transportation * Provision of goods and services (subset under transportation) * Building codes and efficiency * Land use decisions that have energy impact * Heating/Power systems, generation * Carbon storage, forest conservation ======Notes====== Jennifer: IN NH, a non profit brought together 400 communities to have clean energy vote at their respective town meetings: encouraging towns to set up energy committees, consider energy in municipal decisions, relaying to higher levels of government the local interest in energy issues. Now 60 towns out of those 400 have started energy committees. How do you provide assistance to municipalities to get ball rolling? Patrick: What's missing is who owns the responsibility for these actions? How do you get the citizens engaged to the point that they own the issue and will work on it? How to get people to understand how simple actions in their lives affect energy issues and ultimately global warming? EDUCATION is a huge issue.... how to get people to care. Carrie: Municipal energy planning can be done on many different scales and levels. John: Williston, VT just re-wrote Comp Plan and is re-writing zoning, looked at energy issues in all code areas. For example planning of parking, streetscapes, etc. Karen: Best to keep general plans really general, allows for flexibility. Provide principles that you expect developers to follow, not strict rules that may need to change as we realize new methods and technologies to make things more energy efficient. I.e. not having parking standards. Have performance based rather than prescriptive. Patrick: Have to realize legal implications as planner’s courts mandate prescription, rather than flexibility. Marjan: Involving stakeholders in energy planning- how to utilize collective intelligence. Carrie: Need large group, diversity to hopefully gain largest perspective. Brent: Has anyone worked with Carbon Marketplace idea? Cheryl: Get away from carbon credit notion; look at what local people are doing and what people can do to make their industries, lives more local-based. This concept was nonexistent 3 years ago. Now it is hopefully making a difference. In NH, people are trying a "carbon diet" to reduce their individual carbon footprints. This idea has really spread. Brent: Why wouldn't/couldn't you use market based incentives also? Cheryl: Buying carbon credits makes people feel like they don't really have to change their lifestyles. Brent: But maybe in a different sense, like asking developers to buy carbon credits to get an extra parking space. Bill: Idea of laying out broad principles to stay flexible...need to have vision though. Williston is doing a community vision to action forum. Can come up to broadly accepted principles in this type of visioning process. Then adapt strategies that allow for flexibility in reaching them. Should we organize around "global climate change" or really our industrial and consumptive way of life? Climate change is just one of the results of that. Building healthy communities is broader, and may accomplish the same goal. Renee: Greenfield development outside of Edmonton AB is near oil sands development. First seasonal solar storage system heats homes of community year round. Integrated design process, bring different people into process early, applying at neighborhood development scale. Bring in client, developer, engineer, municipality, all part of design process. Getting everyone to table at the outset, instead of usual process of development review that is very concentrated on set regulatory steps. Conversations already been had by the time the development site plan is "submitted." Federal Government provided funding to look at the process as it happened. "Sustainable Urban Neighborhood Process” If you are interested in the write-up review, Renee can get you a copy when it comes out in Nov/Dec. Ethel: We have had success in a similar process in the natural resource field. Maine forest resources- northern Maine has lots of forest companies and then small communities. Asked communities what they want forests to look like. Realized indicators not important, what was important were the conversation between the companies and the community. Talked about things both groups valued, and then build relationship. Harder to point fingers in the future. Patrick: Had a problem in Park City UT, strong opinions from several groups. Made decision to select the fundamental representatives of each group to meeting in neutral location. Has developed into ongoing round table discussions that will go back out to constituency groups. If you get these groups together and personalize the discussion in an environment, seems to engender real communication between groups, usually more commonalities than differences in views. Jean: Economic interests are a driving force in how decisions are made. Values are not that far apart but what drives decision-making, more has to do with economic drivers; a reality that has to be dealt with. Brent: Not all negative...economic drivers put food on people's tables often. Can work within the system and provide incentives, solutions. Jean: Farmers are good example, live poor but die rich. Their wealth is in their land. In NE Kingdom, VT, in winter the economy is based on tourism, and ultimately snow. If you as a community outlaw mechanized trail use, will really affect the community. Need to consider these things economically. Paul: How to get local governments to buy into new processes, ideas. Underpaid and overworked...how to get governments to tackle these ideas with such limited resources. SO, are governments the best vehicles for this? Or do we have to establish new groups, non-profits, etc? Patrick: I think governments have to take a role, for reasons of fiscal responsibility. Karen: Flipside of open regulations is how to get communities to understand the breath of the issues, so they can help regulate. When people meet in iterative process, making requirements of each group known, wisdom of crowds makes project happen in a good way. Is role of planning dept's just to facilitate this process? Sarasota City, FL has just done that. Have to have a public process for each development. Local government needs to require processes as opposed to finite results ?: This is great in theory, but in practice it is complicated. Politics outside of the process (economic, for example) will always be involved. Patrick: Peer- review process for pre-application. Need to build transparency into process. Peer groups and community stakeholders will be convened in advance...Patrick has details if you want them. Patrick: Conventional zoning works well only when consistent with application of the rule. Problems need to be solved before the application comes in. John: Idea of bringing it away from municipalities, or municipality responsible for implementing a process, not regulations. Paul: Municipality should be convener, facilitator...but there are times when municipality is not the appropriate group to be convening and facilitating. Lots of times there are local non-profit or private companies and groups that are already doing what you need. Jean: Responsibility of municipal planners- when zoning ordinance in place, planners no longer accept responsibility for the regulations. The facilitated group model puts the responsibility back on the community. Karen: Town may be facilitator but also arbiter. Need to make sure that each group lives up to its responsibilities in the process. Patrick: UT has developed a process that is a public pre-application meeting. Before you can submit an application, developer submits concept for community meeting (convened at planning comm, but not a true public hearing)--just concepts, not full drawings, etc. PC makes a finding whether the project is consistent w/ general plan. Starts discussion early before people spend lots of money and get entrenched in their positions. Worked well also for IDing "holes" in comp plan. Best tool we have come up with to work on these issues Gloria: Have a question about neighborhood associations and covenants... want to circumvent HOA government at the town level, and how to protect opportunities to use alternative energy sources. Quasi-governments established by homeowners could block alternative energy access, how to avoid that. Renee: Co-worker lives in a row house, had to take down awning shading sunny window...now has higher cooling bills. Patrick: Municipalities review covenants, but just to make sure no conflicts with town law, covenants can be more restrictive Bruce: Unless you pass a law saying they can't be more restrictive on certain issues... John: Can have HOA review committee? Karen: Covenants are between individuals in development, town and state law trump that. Jean: Can you pass a law saying that HOA covenants can't do certain things? Bruce: Burlington, VT has municipal electric utility with large percentage of renewable energy, work with homeowners and businesses to reduce energy use, developed climate action plan many years ago. Have mostly met goals of this plan with the exception of transportation. Program for restaurants b/c they use lots of energy, to reduce their energy use. Started "green street" program to green up streets. Have windmill for power generation, natural gas for municipal vehicles, and biofuel busses. Working on a car-share program. Looking at outdoor lighting pollution reduction options. Better lighting in some areas of Burlington has reduced police calls & criminal activity. Not more lighting, but smarter and better placement. Challenge: what can be done to help communities and companies rely less on vehicle usage. Shanna: There are programs out there to help reduce car use, often health-based, getting people outside and walking, biking etc. Bruce: What about companies with large trucking components, besides switching to bio-fuels, what can we do? Karen: What about trains- Burlington has the rails but not being used... Bruce: There are obstacles to that but it is an option to increase and encourage rail use. Gloria: Use airline concept of shipping: use boxes, smaller packages, might work for a train model. Give distributors more options. Karen: Walmart has been pretty innovative in terms of effective transportation and supply system management. Shanna: Burlington should do a survey or inventory of shipping/transportation efficiency. Probably would find a great number of areas for improvement. Renee: So many levels of complexity to understand why people do or don't use more efficient transportation. Complexities can make more of a difference than the service itself. The efficient alternative needs to be attractive on so many different levels, not just affordability. Toronto has a system that does work and people do use it. The cars are nicer, more and more comfortable seating... Karen: Can offer wireless access, also regularity of the schedule is key... Renee: Are bus shelters nice? Warm? Provide incentives for people. John: One problem is the stigma attached to public transit. Renee: The conception is a big issue. In Europe there is such a different perception about riding your bike or walking, etc. Everyone does it and things have been developed to make this easier. Karen: Working on how to make public transit "cool" at a very young age. High school students are already ingrained in their thinking. Renee: Need to both enable and foster. Need to provide the options for people (how you develop your transit system) and then actually get people to use it. John: Saw an ad in Vancouver (by Saturn) with a creepy guy riding bus that said "tired of the creeps?" so the implication was to buy a Saturn so you don't have to take public transit. Gloria: I-5 through Seattle had to be closed recently and detours were publicized, including public transit. Was closed for 4 weeks and people responded by using rail lines, buses, alternative routes. People changed their patterns, and also after it were opened up again. Four weeks gave people the ability to get comfortable with a different alternative. Bruce: Burlington has Way To Go Week (WTGW), which encourages people to use alternative transportation for one week of the year. People log into website and quantify how many vehicle miles saved, and can see the overall energy savings. The event is heavily marketed, and occurs each May. Karen: Get kids involved early. They may make choices that surprise you- my daughter wants to ride her bike to school although it takes longer than the bus, or driving. Renee: Great example in Germany of a card you can use to pay for either cab ride or bus pass, etc. Models for ways to serve multiple functions at once could help people choose to utilize public transport. Patrick: Will employ this idea for children's bicycle service to help people with tasks like delivering groceries, etc. Jean: Psychology is that we're a culture of consumption. Need to build concept of quality over quantity. Bruce: Promotion of mixed-use developments makes sense. Jean: In NE Kingdom, Newport and Derby are 2 communities that have taken different strategies. Newport is re-vamping their downtown and trying to make it mixed use. Derby is going the big-box route. Patrick: Can a community be retrofitted after it has been poorly planned? How do we get it back to a community feel? ====== Next Actions ====== Renee: Has been valuable to hear different perspectives from people at different levels, and differences between Canada and US. Gloria: Hope we can continue conversations individually throughout today and beyond.