Re-Connecting Community By Investing Money from the Stimulus Package

Feb. 25, 2009 - PRLog -- “This hybrid development model has emerged from urban planning and economic development research of hundreds of communities and town centers located throughout the U.S. and Europe,” Marks explained.

“We tabulated characteristics that make small towns, downtown cores and town centers successful, and a hybrid model has begun to emerge that shows particular promise for U.S. and Central Florida communities,” he said.

“This hybrid model looks to integrate the best of modern development with the best of historic pedestrian-oriented development patterns,” Marks, president of Marketplace Advisors, Inc., based in Orlando, said.

“U.S. and Central Florida communities have been characterized by tremendous growth since the end of World War II.  For many of these communities the most prominent feature are the two or more arterial roads that run through them, each carrying at least 25,000 vehicles per day, making the car the dominate form of transportation.  These arterial roads have divided the community into isolated islands, limiting the effectiveness of other forms of transportation such as walking and biking,” Marks said.

“Modern suburban communities tend to be anchored with retail development such as neighborhood grocery and drug stores.  These establishments typically have a trade area of approximately a two-mile radius (an 8,000-acre area).  These markets typically have between 10,000 and 70,000 people, the size of small to medium sized towns,” Marks said.

“In many cases, these market-formed areas are not planned, lacking a "sense of place."  They are unloved environments that can lack basic community amenities such as parks, neighborhood schools, pedestrian-oriented environments, and a balanced mix of housing types and employment opportunities,” Marks said.

“In studying historic European towns such as; Amsterdam in the Netherlands, and Cambridge, Chester, Southampton, Brighton, and York in the United Kingdom, we find a similar development pattern with a major twist.  In many cases their urban areas are also within a two-mile radius of their city centre, with a denser pedestrian oriented core area within approximately a 0.5-mile radius of their city centre (a 500-acre area).  These historic communities started with the pedestrian and the horse, adding train travel and finally car travel.  When arterial roads were added to these communities, they were developed in a by-pass system that in many cases encircled instead of dividing them.  These arterial roadways around the community function like a city wall - if you live within the walled area (up to a two-miles radius) you can travel to the city centre by walking, biking, automobile or by taking a bus,” Marks explained

“Using this analysis, existing cities like Apopka and Oviedo could consider developing a by-pass route removing much of their downtown’s arterial traffic (in some cases over 50,000 vehicles per day), allowing their downtown core to be redeveloped with a more pedestrian-oriented Winter Park or Winter Garden community feel,” Marks said

“In applying this analysis to Central Florida we divided the market into approximately sixty-eight 8,000-acre communities, with an average population of 32,000 each.  The goal is to develop each of these communities with at least one pedestrian-oriented town center area, ideally up to 500 acres in size.  In the ideal community all of the residents would be able to reach the city centre without having to cross an arterial roadway.  Another goal of this type of development should be to decrease the vehicle miles traveled per adult from 12 to 15 thousand miles per year to 6 or 7 thousand miles per year, virtually doubling our existing road capacity,” he said.

“People are drawn to areas like downtown Winter Park and downtown Winter Garden, and more recently-developed areas like Baldwin Park and Celebration because their urban plan has created desirable places with quantifiable elements such as a pedestrian scale, parks and recreational amenities, along with a mix of residential, retail, office, educational and spiritual facilities,” Marks said.

“By building better self-sustaining communities we can reduce our carbon footprint, reinvent our economy, improve our health, creating safer places to raise our families, and lessen the unrealistic burden we have placed on our government to take care of us.  Money for this type of redevelopment could come from the Stimulus Package, creating a “Re-Connecting Community” version of Eisenhower’s interstate highway development program,” he said.


CONTACT:
David Marks, President, Marketplace Advisors, Inc., 07-694-7040, dmarks@cfl.rr.com,  
Larry Vershel Communications, 407-644-4142