Results tagged “planning” from Green Flow

With Mumbai, one of the largest cities of the world, treating only 30-40 percent of its sewage, experiencing five-hour traffic delays and hosting massively expanding unplanned slums, urban sustainability needs to be viewed through a different lens than elsewhere.

India will add an additional 26 cities of one million or more by 2030 to its 42 one million+ cities today. The 2008 population in cities of 340 million in 2008 will soar to 590 million by 2030. The need for much improved urban housing and health services, let alone better planning, governance and carbon management, threatens the nation's and thus the world's economic stability: India's population by 2030 is forecast to overtake China's. 

A report released this month by the McKinsey Global Institute, "India's Urban Awakening," provides a rich and thorough analysis of the challenges faced by Indian cities, while also providing a clear agenda for future improvements. Changes will need to occur at the local, state and national level, and will require the active participation of the international business community through public-private partnerships.

First the bad news.

As a contrast to China, which has staged much of its recent urban growth in nationally planned phases targeted at geographies, economies and infrastructure, Indian cities are experiencing rapid unplanned growth. Major financial investment, to the tune of $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years, will be needed to address how Indian cities are falling short of meeting even a basic standard of living in:

• Water supply: will need to increase 3.5 times current supply to meet basic demand by 2030
  
• Sewage: treatment will need to increase two times current levels to meet demand by 2030
  
• Solid waste: will need to increase six times today's treatment levels by 2030 because of consumption expected by an emerging middle class.
• Public transit access and service: 20 times the capacity of metros and subways will need to be added over what has been provided in the past ten years
  
• Affordable housing: will need to increase 10 times by 2030 to meet expected needs.
• Slum populations that now comprise 24% of India's urban population will need to be addressed with formal affordable housing programs and housing structures.
  

Oddly, no forecasts were made in "India's Urban Awakening" regarding the amount or mix of energy that will be needed to meet the needs of India's cities. With massive growth in electricity use for buildings (at least 40% of India currently is not connected to the power grid), large increases in personal auto ownership, and volatile global energy supplies and pricing, India is faced with urban growth-associated issues that if unaddressed threaten the very core of its existence as a nation.

According to the McKinsey report, however, India has sufficient time and the means (with international financial, business and humanitarian partners) by which to address many of these pressing or devastating issues. The McKinsey Institute report also presented a framework for a plan by which India can meet the financial need to increase spending on cities from its current rate of 0.5% to 2% of GDP.

On a per-capita basis, India now spends 14% of what China spends on its cities and only 4% of what the United Kingdom spends on its cities.

The key elements of the report plan outlined five strategies for meeting its urban financial obligations, most of which India currently ranks "poor" in:

1. Monetize land assets.
2. Maximize property taxes and usage charges.
3. Establish a formula-based grants systems from state and central government.
4. Use appropriate debt and private-sector participation (i.e., public-private partnerships).
5. Create enabling systems and city development funds to facilitate use of revenue sources.

The report also outlined four significant "dimensions" besides funding, on which Indian cities need to concentrate improvements in order to successfully transform urban economies and sustainability opportunities:

1. Shape: Where people live. Unlike China, India has made no real attempt to plan where growth of cities will occur, or to determine where new cities will be most needed, and as a result unplanned urban sprawl is increasingly common.

2. Governance: How cities in particular are governed. Develop executive leadership at city level in mid-sized to large cities. India is currently the only G20 nation lacking such leadership. Cities in India are currently governed by their host states from a considerable distance in many cases. The report does cite the success of Kolkata's (Calcutta) mayor-commission model as a potential national model for executive power combined with administrative-technical support.

3. Sectoral policies: These include economic development, sustainability management, and housing management. India does not plan enough for affordable housing, providing 200,000 units a year versus needed minimum of 2 million units. The number of people living in slums in 2008 was some 82 million, a number that could double by 2030. Recommendations are to establish funding, draw upon external expert advice and hire dedicated managers to focus on these areas.

4. Urban Planning: Change from ad hoc and sporadic planning. Develop longer-term plans (40-50 year) with nested 20-year master plans designating land uses, transportation services, infrastructure and building typologies that are actionable on the ground with transparent public processes. Use modeling and "fly-overs" to educate stakeholders of planning options (Singapore, London and New York are cited for best practices). India's current urban planning processes exist as documents only, and are not executed or followed in reality.

The report in its introduction observes: "The speed of urbanization poses an unprecedented managerial and policy challenge--yet India has barely engaged in a discussion about how to handle this seismic shift in the makeup of the nation."

From my experience, I would dispute the assertion that the country is barely engaged in such discussions. My firm Common Current and our partners have been involved in a lively series of exchanges with high-level officials from national ministries and planning bodies in India regarding the future of its cities, with sustainability focused approaches in renewable energy, water and transportation infrastructure being key points of discussion.

How India's national urban planning plays out on localized levels in actual cities, though, remains to be seen. Whatever may transpire, "India's Urban Awakening" is an invaluable resource for determining just how the path forward can be understood and, hopefully, navigated.

Warren Karlenzig is president of Common Current, an internationally active urban sustainability strategy consultancy. He is author of How Green is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings and a Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.

 

 
 

Toledo, Ohio: The first green wave?

It's time for the United States and the Obama Administration to take a stand. Either this country will become a leader in sustainability technology, services and implementation, or it will languish forever behind the European Union, China, the Middle East, South Korea and other nations.

After a promising start by the Obama administration recognizing the importance of clean technologies, particularly clean energy and transportation, we are one year later paralyzed: Copenhagen was a qualified failure, Congress has abdicated passing climate change-related regulations, and the backdoor plan for the EPA to regulate greenhouse gases is being challenged in Congress.

Part of the blame has to go to the White House. During President Obama's first 30 days, a raft of new programs under the Stimulus, about 11 percent of the $787 billion dollars, were announced that would benefit clean technology research and implementation.

By April the administration moved on to health care, leaving the green economy and climate change measures twisting in the wind. Instead of bolstering the effort with statistics, stories and demonstrations of why the world is already moving toward green as the biggest next-generation economic opportunity, the US green D-Day troops landed on the beach without air cover, supplies or a mission objective.

During late spring and summer last year, I spoke with numerous administration and Congressional officials. I proposed that the administration develop and release detailed figures on where green job growth was occurring. I also advised projecting those figures into a future of guaranteed clean technology dominance, with specific stories about where record numbers of new jobs were already being created:

• Toledo, Ohio has 4 percent of its metro workforce (6,000 jobs!) engaged in clean technology production, at all levels including executive, research, marketing and labor. That's equivalent on the regional level to major industries that have picked up and left the Midwest and moved overseas.
• California's green economy grew almost three times faster than the rest of its economy during 1995-2008. That job growth was in geographic regions all over the state, including wealthy urban coastal areas as well as in less prosperous and recession-ravaged inland regions.
• The greater Boston metro area has become a hotbed for clean energy research and production through state programs and private sector collaboration, with MIT and Cambridge acting as important science and policy advancement centers.
  
• Austin, Texas is a leading center for incubating renewable research, production and deployment, demonstrating public-private partnerships and academic collaboration, with the University of Texas.

Obviously, the officials did not understand that supporting "green jobs" means more than talking up the merits of each technology, which was their tact.

They told me, "We can gather and promote those statistics after the stimulus jobs are created." Or, "The White House staff is taking up every day with health care discussions--there is only one day per month for environmental discussions, so it's not enough time." (I couldn't believe at this day and age, they failed to frame the issues as "economic development" not "environmental" issues!)

The urgency of demonstrating how the clean technology economy is taking root in many Congressional districts and media markets is evident: people just need to see what these new opportunities are without having to understand the complex technologies themselves.

Only through such visceral stories, demonstrations and a few choice statistics will the American public public and media recognize that taking on the challenges of climate change and foreign oil dependency present untold opportunities for domestic jobs and market leadership.

Don't believe that this stuff is important? Let's look to China, which now leads the world market in solar and wind technologies. Or Europe, which just announced a Supergrid project, that will combine deployment and research capabilities from nine nations for a renewable energy grid across the Continent.

New green cities are being either planned, designed and built in China, South Korea, The Middle East and even India, based on new clean tech ecosystems combining renewable energy, with water and material conservation processes, along with information technologies. It's ironic that a US-based company like General Electric needs to base one of its largest clean technology research investment in Abu Dhabi, but that's the reality of our new economic era.

President Obama and Congress need to illustrate that we are falling behind in this race for the future of our national economy, planet and local livelihoods. They need to shine a solar spotlight on this new world that is emerging all around us, in our factories, universities and research laboratories to make them a recognized engine of our regional economies.

The president can look to a US city for inspiration. Seattle has set a goal of making itself North America's first carbon neutral city by 2030, which will require a Manhattan Project-type approach among local government, businesses, civic organizations and local experts. Only through well-researched shout-outs from the bully pulpit of the Presidency will such efforts capture and sustain the national imagination.

Our past has proven that once our nation is inspired, we all can move collectively toward a common goal: Let's use our existing and expected progress in sustainability to define a future of hope and economic regeneration.

Warren Karlenzig is president of Common Current, an internationally active urban sustainability strategy consultancy. He is author of How Green is Your City? The SustainLane US City Rankings and a Fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.




 

Yesterday a special all-day confab in San Francisco hashed over the state and local impacts of California SB 375, the first statewide anti-sprawl measure in America, which was signed into law in September.

The law will be historic if it can hold its center.

Sprawl causes greater greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution than more compact urban or suburban development that is served by transit, walking and biking. 

Current research now points to sprawl as helping set the 2007 real estate meltdown into motion. The first foreclosure crisis occured when rapidly rising gas prices began to make long commutes more than people could afford in torid Sun Belt locations such as Phoenix, Las Vegas and California's San Bernardino County.

A study released this week by my firm Common Current provides data that demonstrates how car-dependent mainly post '50s suburbs have been hemmhoraging value, whereas central cities and suburbs served by good transit, walkability, bikeability and high telecommuting rates have held their value.

Senate Bill 375 will use carrots (permit expediting, special funding) and sticks (withholding federal transit funding) to make sure local government and developers build closer to existing or planned transit and take into account how much people will have to drive as a result of  proposed projects.

"Now we can do regional planning with teeth," said Peter Calthorpe, the long-time Smart Growth planner and head of Calthorpe Associates. "We have to determine just how sharp those teeth are."

 

While the sprawled regions of the US host a disproportionate amount of residential foreclosures, these outer rings also demand a disproportate share of service- and oil-dependent infrastructure (asphalt alone went up more than 300% between September 2005 and September 2008), proving mighty costly to government. 

The anti-sprawl bill provides regional land use and transportation guidance for the state's expansive and historic AB 32. Passed in 2006, AB 32 aims to reduce statewide greenhouse gas emissions 70 percent from 1990 levels by the year 2050. The California Air Resources Board is guiding the AB 32 policy body and enforcement with Goverernor Arnold Schwarzenegger's office, the CalTrans highway agency, and regional policy agencies.

SB 375 provides the state a new trowel for shaping the developed footprint of the Golden State's 163,000 square miles so it can limit carbon-hungry car-centric planning and construction. Besides encouraging infill, the intent is to stymie easy development of exurban agricultural land, wildlife habitat and natural resources. 

"SB 375 demonstrates we can get big complicated things done...in transportation, land use and environmental protection," said the bill's chief sponsor, California Senate President Darrell Steinberg in a video. "Together we have provided the template for Congress and other states." 

Senator-elect Mark Leno was present in the flesh, and he laid out how sprawl--non-dense, unconnected, auto-dependent exurban or suburban development--was a form of development that has seen its day. "How we plan and construct the community of tomorrow will literally determine our future.

Backed by the California Building Industry, The California Alliance for Jobs, many regional governmental and transit organizations, SB 375 contains designations for market-rate and affordable housing near transit, but not jobs near transit. This was a concern for some, as was how to garner basic program funding with decreased federal highway funding and a state budget meltdown.

Joked Steinberg, "I have 28 billion good reasons why I'm not in San Francisco," his video image said, referring to budget deficit meetings with the Governor.

Meanwhile, one member of the California Legislature called 375 not a great leap but instead "baby steps."  

"Baby steps?" I asked.

"Baby steps."

 

One of the most significant green trends makes for lighter impact on the planet while giving people what they find most valuable: more time to spend with their families and in their communities. New "mixed-use" communities such as the award-winning Dos Lagos development in Corona, California, 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles, locate homes close to amenities including shopping, entertainment, recreation and work, reducing travel time and fuel use. Through its preservation of open space and careful restoration of natural resources, Dos Lagos goes one step further, giving residents and visitors access to nature they can easily get out and enjoy.

To date, most mixed-use neighborhoods have been located in dense urban areas with easy access to transportation: think Manhattan, Chicago and San Francisco. But now, thanks to many forces including global warming and booming demand for urban-style living, more sustainable planning is beginning to come to suburban Sun Belt communities.

Dos Lagos, based in the Inland Empire of Southern California east of Los Angeles, the fastest-growing region in California, presents a vital example of a "live, work, play" approach for real estate developers, businesses and residents. State officials charged with reducing greenhouse gas emissions through more sustainable land use and planning by California's 2006 Global Warming Solutions Act, known as AB 32, are carefully following the progress of Dos Lagos.

There is an emerging need to have not only buildings be greener, but for entire developments or neighborhoods planned so that they reduce energy and resource use. The U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the entity behind the incredibly popular Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) green building certification program, is now working with Dos Lagos and 237 other pilot projects in 39 states and six countries as part of the highly anticipated LEED Neighborhood Development program, or LEED-ND. Other LEED-ND managing organizations include the Congress for New Urbanism and the Natural Resources Defense Council.

"Dos Lagos and its combined residential, retail and commercial development is a prime example of cutting energy and resource consumption through smart planning and land use," said Rick Fedrizzi, Chairman of the U.S. Green Building Council. "We're proud to have Dos Lagos as a pilot participant in the LEED Neighborhood Development program." 

Rapid growth in affordable real estate markets near urban employment centers has been typically defined by completely separate strip malls, sprawling single-family housing subdivisions and office campuses. These car-centered configurations put a strain on local traffic, nerves and the environment. Corona, a city of 153,000 in 2006 has grown over 70 percent since 1990. Located in a rapidly developing corridor along US Interstate 15, it is approximately 11 miles from the city of Riverside. The Riverside-San Bernardino metro was ranked in 2002 by the non-profit organization Smart Growth America as the most sprawled region out of the 100 largest metro areas in the United States, in its peer-reviewed study "Measuring Sprawl and its Impact."

The Smart Growth America study compared and ranked overall metro area sprawl levels by measuring four criteria within each metro: street connectedness, the presence of an urban center, amount of mixed-use development and density. Dos Lagos and a handful of other suburban developments nationally including Prairie Crossing in the Chicago suburb of Grayslake and Aventiene in the Washington, D.C. suburb of Gaithersburg, Maryland, are attempting to counter unchecked sprawl. These master-planned developments reduce at least two of the four sprawl factors measured in the study by creating mixed land uses--including residential, retail, office and entertainment--with more density than is typically found in suburbia.

Dos Lagos' mixed-use redevelopment strategy appears has been very successful. In late 2007 the master developer of Dos Lagos, Ali Sahabi, President of SE Corporation (a Common Current client), was awarded California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's only Environmental and Economic Leadership Award in the Sustainable Communities category.
 
Dos Lagos also is the only real estate development endorsed by the Riverside Land Conservancy, a non-profit organization whose mission is to protect nature and natural resources.  

In terms of economic and market measures, Dos Lagos, has also been a sensation. Located on 543 acres of what was abandoned industrial land purchased by SE Corporation for $5 million in 1996, the combined valuation of Dos Lagos including its retail and office center is today approaching $1 billion. Retail occupancy for Phase I of Dos Lagos' Promenade Shops is 96 percent and increasing. Out of  485 available units  76 percent sold. An additional  565 apartment and condominium units are in development or in the planning stages for a total of 1050 living units in the community.

Higher-density suburban communities such as Dos Lagos are designed to get people to run into their neighbors. Whether it's through shopping, jogging or biking along paths and sidewalks for recreation, walking to nearby offices, or through community events and celebrations, mixed-use living reduces the need to drive while replicating the spontaneous pedestrian interactions taken for granted as part of city living. Access to outdoor recreational opportunities at Dos Lagos includes a walkable 18-hole public championship golf course, mile-long trails along the restored Temescal Creek, generous open space access and wildlife viewing. 

"We think of the community as the focus of all we do," said Sahabi. "Our community allows people to spend more time with friends and families, have a rewarding career, stay fit and healthy, while being able to conveniently buy groceries, shop, go to restaurants or entertainment, and enjoy nature. Dos Lagos provides a balanced lifestyle that is harmonious with the community, and that includes the natural environment.".

The Promenade Shops include 60+ high-end retailers, everything from a Trader Joe's supermarket to Coach and Anthropologie stores, along with a 15-screen multiplex and several upscale restaurants. A LEED-registered six-story green office complex of 160,000 square feet is nearing completion.

Dos Lagos' redevelopment approach is more common to core urban areas. Rather than developing on so-called "greenfield" land that could be used for open space or agriculture--grapefruit and lemons are still commercially grown in this semi-desert environment--the community is located on the restored grounds of an abandoned silica mining operation. 

SE Corporation has been working closely during the past decade with habitat, wildlife and open space conservation agencies and groups, including the US Department of Fish and Wildlife Services, the California Department of Fish and Game and the Riverside Land Conservancy. After clearing derelict buildings as well as heavy machinery and autos dumped on the site, the first challenge was restoring a natural aquifer that recharges the namesake "two lakes." and reengineering approximately 10 million cubic yards of on-site soils primarily remnant mining tailing, bringing the site nearer to its pre-mined elevations.

Today the two four-acre lakes, joined by a 120-foot bamboo pedestrian bridge located within the 8.5 acre garden-lake district, serve as the heart of Dos Lagos, offering a spectacular backdrop for performances with a 400-seat outdoor amphitheater, as well as offering naturally cool refuge for waterfowl and visitors alike during hot weather. The golf course and lakes use non-potable water primarily from the restored aquifer, instead of being dependent upon imported water from faraway sources.

Native and drought-tolerant plants and wildflowers, as well as shade trees are found throughout Dos Lagos. Lushly planted "bioswales" capture and naturally filter stormwater run-off from nearby paved surfaces, reducing water pollution and irrigation needs. During the land's redevelopment a dozen young and six massive 170-year old coastal live oak trees were meticulously preserved and strategically replanted along major boulevards.  

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, California hosts the most threatened species of any state in the nation; Dos Lagos contributes a key corridor connecting the coastal sage scrub, upland and coastal habitat zones for diverse wildlife. Despite heavy development in areas, Southern California still offers habitat is for 146 rare animal and plant species found nowhere else. Dos Lagos preserved and restored 165 acres of protected open space adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest, including Temescal Creek's rich riparian habitat.

Economically, Sahabi's one overriding goal for the commercial and retail elements of the mixed-use development was to address the historic deficit of jobs available in the region. Demographics for Riverside and San Bernardino counties from 2006 show that there was just over one job in the region for every four inhabitants. In the same year, nearby Los Angeles and Orange counties, by contrast, had about one job for every two inhabitants--indicating many Inland Empire residents have been commuting long hours by car for work in Los Angeles and Orange counties.

But that portrait is changing quickly. Because of this job-residential imbalance, Riverside and San Bernardino county job growth from 2000 to 2005 outpaced the rest of the state by a rate of more than seven times as much, according to the US Census Bureau (California's job growth rate was 3.9 percent and Riverside County's rate was 28.7 percent during the same period). Dos Lagos projects it will create 4,500 retail and corporate office jobs, which will contribute to improving the job-housing ratio while offering an alternative to the teeth-gnashing commutes between the Inland Empire and coastal counties.