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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWorkshop - Land Use and Development Draft Land Use and Development The physical layout and land use of our communities is fundamental to sustainability. Over the past several decades, two main land use practices have converged to generate unsustainable trends in urban sprawl. (1) zoning that separates each type of land use discouraging mixed-use neighborhoods and isolating employment locations, shopping services and housing from one another and (2) low density growth planning aimed at creating automobile access to increasing expanses of land. Community sustainability requires a transition from poorly-managed sprawl to Smart Growth planning. This entails land use practices that create and maintain efficient infrastructure, ensure close-knit neighborhoods, and preserve natural and agricultural systems. In Wisconsin,the Smart Growth law has begun to move communities in this direction. Smart Growth's vision is to promote denser settlement while providing mixed uses, open space and transportation choices—the antithesis of sprawl. The 2005-2025 City of Oshkosh Comprehensive Plan complies with the Smart Growth law and reflects this vision. Sustainable development not only addresses the broad view of community land use, but also the detailed view of sustainable sites and buildings. Emphasis is on building with nature in mind, exemplified by the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System and the EPA's ENERGY STAR ratings for homes, appliances, and fixtures. LEED promotes a whole-building and neighborhood approach to sustainability. It recognizes performance in five key areas of human and environmental health: sustainable site development, water savings, energy efficiency, materials selection, and indoor environmental quality. Oshkosh is constructing LEED certified buildings, several of which are on the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh campus and at least one commercial building, a recently built Kwik Trip on 201h Avenue. Green rating programs are showing up more frequently in communities across the country and have proven to be a reliable tool to standardize the language of"green" buildings. Sustainable ideas influence housing also, as developers begin to employ such concepts as "life-cycle" design. Objective: Guide and promote sustainable citywide development patterns and incorporate sustainable features into buildings. Promote Sustainable Development Patterns Planning and Zoning: 1.) Continue to employ and expand policies to provide more sustainable development patterns such as denser dwelling units per acre for single family development,while providing mixed uses, open space and transportation choices. 2.) Continue to focus on revitalizing the downtown and central city area with mixed uses, adaptive reuse and historic preservation. 3.) Continue to negotiate boundary agreements with neighboring towns. 4.) Discourage the conversion of agricultural land to urban development. 5.) Improve parking requirements by providing incentives to reduce parking. 6.) Broaden the range of impact,facility, and permit fees for new development. These and other policies discourage sprawl. Many are already incorporated in the Comprehensive Plan. Neighborhoods: 1. Continue neighborhood improvement strategies, striving for development patterns identified in the city's Traditional Neighborhood Development District—defined as a compact neighborhood with mixed uses and housing types. 2. Explore LEED's Neighborhood Design Rating System to help plan for more compact and complete neighborhoods. By bridging together adjoining districts, neighborhoods can have a mix of amenities close by with walkable streets, affordable housing with multi-unit and single- family homes, public spaces and well-connected streets serving pedestrians, cyclists, transit riders and drivers. 3. Encourage new neighborhood business districts near residential areas, scaled to be pedestrian friendly. 4. Examine location of schools, public safety infrastructure, green space and historic preservation. Mixed-Use Corridors: 1. Consider more defined mixed use plans and ordinances for high traffic corridors. 2. Review standards for development in the Highway 41 Corridor Overlay District to address sustainability issues and to potentially allow for mixed-use development in the corridor. 3. Consider similar overlay districts for the Highway 21 and Jackson Street corridors. 4. Identify other high traffic corridors and offer incentives to help redevelop underutilized commercial buildings, strip centers, and parking lots. 5. Assign first priority to commercial redevelopment areas already identified in the Comprehensive Plan. 6. Continue to promote attractive transit-oriented, mixed income housing near new or alongside existing retail and office developments to reduce travel time to work and shopping areas. Encourage Green Building Life-Cycle Cost Analysis (LCCA): 1.) Promote life-cycle cost analysis as a necessary component of designing a sustainable development. 2.) Provide educational materials to help developers and builders know how to assess the full range of social and environmental impacts of their projects so better choices can be made. Life-cycle costs take into account the full life of a building project or development—from its raw material production, manufacture,transport and actual use to its disposal. LCCA can be performed on large and small buildings or on isolated building systems. Proven methods to account for LCCA include the LEED Green Building Rating System or the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 14000 Environmental Management Standard. Another useful tool is Return on Investment estimates, or cost-benefit analysis, before expanding infrastructure networks, i.e., streets, sewer, water, electricity or communications. Green Buildings: 1. Practice and promote sustainable building practices using the LEED program, ENERGY STAR, or a similar system. 2. Consider requiring green building for all new city buildings and remodeling projects. The city can lead by example by establishing green building policies and goals, and creating a framework to implement them. 3. Consider offering incentives for green buildings or requiring green buildings in Tax Increment Financing Districts. Buildings and Energy: 1.) Partner with utility companies, ENERGY STAR, and others to offer energy efficiency education programs or incentives to improve energy use in buildings. Buildings account for 40%of energy consumed in the U.S. Strategies to reduce energy consumption are widely available on numerous websites, including the city's sustainability website. Cool Roofs: 1.) Consider a green or white roof pilot project on a city building. Green roofs or living roofs typically have native grasses,flowers, shrubs and vegetation planted into a layer of soil over a waterproof membrane. Other common features include gravel paths, patios, irrigation systems and photovoltaic arrays. Green roofs absorb and clean rainwater, provide insulation, create habitats for wildlife, and help to lower urban air temperatures. White roofs are another option. White roofs are painted white or use a white membrane or tiles to reflect solar radiation off the roof, reducing the building's thermal load. Material Recovery: 1.) Provide incentives to promote the recovery of all recyclable building materials including not only construction waste from new building projects, but also what exists on site. 2.) Promote adaptive reuse and renovation of older buildings while retaining historic integrity. Many of these were made of stone and brick which are long-lasting, have a good fire rating, and contain thermal retention properties. Local Materials: 1.) Promote the use of building materials and products found in the immediate area and surrounding region. Buying and using local quality building materials strengthens the local economy, creates local identity, and decreases out of the region transportation costs. Affordable and Fair Housing: 1.) Work with public and private housing providers to offer a mix of housing types affordable to low and moderate income owners and renter. 2.) Continue to employ programs subsidizing owner and rental rehabilitation and first time homebuyers, such as the Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG),the Home Rental Rehabilitation Program (HOME), Wisconsin Housing and Economic Development Authority(WHEDA) and local housing authority programs. 3.) Encourage life-cycle or adaptable design to help people live independently throughout their lives. This type of design includes fixed accessible features, such as wider doors and halls, open floor spaces and clear traffic patterns; and adaptable features, such as wall reinforcement for grabbers and removable base cabinets for future knee space. 4.) Continue to promote fair housing for all segments of the population.