Co-housing

You know I guess that most of us have experienced something like this if we have experienced the dorm life. I am just not sure if it extends very well later on when you are living independently or if you want to share all of these facilities again later on in life. It may be an interesting concept for a few but I'm not sure if it will work large scale. I guess it would be more economical and Earth friendly and we would all be in a better society, but I must say it is not for me. I guess I am more reserved and prefer my own space, but that means I would be representing the typical American suburbanite. Oh well, suburbanite I am...

Neighborhood Design, Circulation, Greenways etc...

I have always had lively and spirited with our Police Department concerning the creation of subdivisions and the pedestrian/bicycle connections. In a police world, these types of connections are escape paths for criminals, while in are world they are useful methods to encourage non-auto trips. So, we have such a conflict into whether or not we are going to have such connections because the police officers are not likely to want to get out of their cars if they would ever have to chase someone on foot. It's a rather interesting proposition because while there is limited crime and I can argue that point, in my town everyone is tied to their cars, so there is limited action in pedestrian connections. So, it really ends up being the preference of the developer as to what they want. Who knows, maybe we will get some progress on this issue if we can just find interesting places for pedestrians to go to that don't require a trip in the car.

We have an interesting issue in Greenfield where we are completely surrounded by agricultural land. Therefore, we require buffers between the fields and the developed areas that usually take the form of drainage ponds, parking areas, or other non-descript areas. Then one developer thought of the interesting idea of actually turn the buffer zone into a greenway. It looks great and is interesting, however not many choose to use it. The problem is that it doesn't go anywhere, it is just a walking path to nowhere on both sides. At least put something there that is of interest, and maybe it can be seen as useful. Sometimes I wonder if anyone cared about planning in this town. Now of course that I am here, no one wants to build anything given the slumping economy so we will still wait for a while until we get a chance to correct all of these problems by building better places.

Sustainability / Public Places

Sustainability indexes are interesting, since it follows environmental principles and revolves around a world that we wope to achieve, but seems rather impossible if we are going to disturb the planet with development. I would consider myself someone that looks more at the excitement of the development process and usually am not interested in sustainable principles. I must admit that I can't stand the horrible bureaucracy that is the California Environmental Quality Act. It drives me crazy and there are times that I could leave California for only the reason that I could get to of having to apply the boredom that is CEQA stuff.

There was also some interesting stuff about learning cities and collective communities and the value of the public space. I definitely agree that we need to focus more on our public spaces in the planning field and really look at the usage and get people involved to see what we can do to improve public areas, parks, plazas, etc. I am looking forward to getting more involved in the Parks and Recreation Master Plan that we are doing so we can focus on many of the public spaces here in town. I am hoping that this will trigger the public involvement that we usually lack during the public hearing process for subdivisions and other public planning projects. My hope is that the central gathering locations will inspire people to move forward and take more interest in collaborating and coming up with an sustainable and practical area for their own neighborhood parks.

The role of the Facilitator

Wow, I must say all of these rather smart concepts are so foreign to me in my professional and personal life. I don't know why however, it seems so simple on the surface. But then again, in local politics I must agree that in many if not all cases, the decisions have already been made by the few politicians that run the Council, or they are not really open to any suggestions. Very practical of politicians to act that way, I guess. I look at this reading, and see all of the excellent pointers and wonder if we could see that ever in the formalities of the City Council meeting. Facilitated discussions can be rather interesting, especially if there are people that are flexible to having open minds and actually take things away and are not so polarized. It would seem that we as a nation need to reconsider all of our past methods of doing things and move forward in making changes and trying different approaches. It appears that this country is moving in a downward spiral, so what does it hurt to change things a bit??? Good luck to the happy person that gets to be the mediator in the middle. What a thankless job...

State DOF Report

We are still growing (surprise) at a clip of 4.4% over the last year. Biggest percentage growth in Monterey County. Our current estimated population stands at 17,316!!! Big news for us... just thought I'd share.

Win-Win Plans? Are they possible in small-town government?

I preface by saying that I work for a small municipality. As such, working in government gives me the idea that a win-win plan just is impossible to reach because there always are the two polar opposites in so many decisions: developer v. city, Democrats v. Republicans, public v. private, mega-mall v. mom-and-pops. I say the list goes on and on and on... Well, the great author Mr. Green outs forward many concepts and ideas about how we can re-focus our efforts ofrom being naturally combatative to being collaborative. I think it makes a whole lot of sense and would work better if we could do things without having to consider the evil influence of the almighty dollar. It's amazing how greed can take over when there are financial considerations involved for at least one of the parties. When there are finite rewards at the end, it only seems logical that the end result is that people can't collaborate at the risk of losing money. My experience of dealing with developers would tell me that. Every time we talk exactions and dedications, oh the chill in the air that cringes at reduced profit margins, etc. I just see in many cases this bing a competition in the battle that I face on a daily basis, but it is an idea that deserves proper thought and evaluation. There are many cases in which things like this work, especially the cases where money is not involved. Unfortunately, I don't gt the opportunity often to get into these things. Maye someday i can go to a happy place where collaborative win-win decisions are mad outside of the ultimate locale where fiscalization of land use is king.

A Parks Plan for Greenfield

Our 203 project centers around the first ever Parks and Recreation Facilities Master Plan of the City of Greenfield. A town of 17,000, we have been behind en ensuring that the people are well represented and that we know what the people of Greenfield are looking for in recreational facilities. We are primarily a residential town, so our parks are of great importance. It is something that the public expects, and that we are charged to maintain. All this is made more difficult without the presence of a Parks & Recreation Department for teh city. Right now we contract with the YMCA for this service. They do a good job, but it doesn't cover the entire needs of the city in all aspects. This is where we hope to begin to bridge the gap and come up with site-specific solutions and most importantly, look for funding mechanisms to make sure these ideas can be implemented. We are working feverishly to come up with ideas to help engage the public and make sure that the public is the creator of the document and it is not just the staff and consultant that we will hire to do the project. That is where we are looking at collaborative methods to engage the public and ensure that they will take owenrship of the project. We will meet soon to interview the bidding consulting firms. It should be a fascinating experience.