Four the Future - January 26

Today: Real estate default, Phosphorus fertilizers, transportation connectivity, and animal control.

• N.Y. Housing Complex Is Turned Over to Creditors
  Source: New York Times; January 25, 2010
  Summary: Four years after the most expensive real estate transaction of its kind in US history, the owners of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village have turned them over to their creditors. The owners owed $3 billion after purchasing the 110 buildings and 11,227 apartments but could not collect enough rent to pay the mortgage. The development was built after World War II for middle class families, and it stayed affordable until the latest purchase. The new owners performed expensive upgrades to the apartments and attempted to rent them for higher prices, to no avail. The owners had been warned that their plans were risky by tenant advocates and urban planners.
  Opinion: Another part of the real estate bubble bursting. Clearly they had too much money on their hands and needed to purchase something. They depended on highly speculative instruments and their willingness to move out middle class renters caught them with their pants down. There is way too much irrational speculation in America.

• No P on Grass
  Source: The Inlander; January 21, 2010
  Summary: Washington State Representative Timm Ormsby and Senators Lisa Brown and Chris Marr are sponsors of a bill which would ban the use of phosphorus-containing lawn fertilizers. The purpose is to reduce the amount of fertilizer entering the Spokane River. Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District banned phosphorus several years ago. However, the Washington Friends of Farms and Forests opposes the measure, as it does not think it will help. The State of Minnesota banned it years ago, and the City of Ann Arbor banned it and phosphorus pollution in the river went down by 28 percent. Marr and Ormsby say that Costco and Wal*Mart are amenable to stocking low phosphorus fertilizers.
  Opinion: One of the ways this region will become compliant with future limits on phosphorus in the Spokane River, not to mention cleaning it up so we can eliminate unnatural algae blooms, is to reduce what is called non-point (or "not-from-pipes") sources of pollution. The soil in Spokane County is naturally rich in phosphorus, and needs no amendment past the first year of growth for lawns. The City of Liberty Lake took the initiative to stop using phosphorus for regular use on the golf course, and there were no complaints. It's simply not necessary. (However, it must be noted, that the Liberty Lake Sewer and Water District's ban is nothing but talk. They don't have any authority to any such thing. Even if they did, to be effective the ban must be region wide.)
• Complete Streets needs you
  Source: Down to Earth; January 24, 2010
  Summary: Spokane County is updating its subdivision ordinance regarding transportation connectivity. Connectivity is a measure of how "connected" the community is--how many ways there are to travel from one place to another. Connectivity is important for cars, bikes and pedestrians to get around, is more compliant with other jurisdictions' street plans, and saves taxpayer dollars for emergency management, transit, and cooperation with other jurisdictions. The Spokane County Planning Commission approved of the change, but Commissioners Mielke and Richard don't find their work valuable. However, the commission receive no opposition and the Cities of Spokane and Spokane Valley, the Inland Northwest Trails Coalition, Futurewise and the Neighborhood Alliance all approved of the change. Details, and the letters of support, can be found in the planning commission report.
  Opinion: People who like gated communities and long commutes are not going to like this change. I'm all for it. Having multiple routes to where you're going means that you're not going to be forced onto as many congested arterial roads. Additionally, vehicle accidents are less frequent on connected roads than on unconnected roads. Then add that this will make the routes our children take to schools safer, and it's a home run.
  Update: Heard from Kitty Klitzke. She says, "In the face of overwhelming public support two commissioners want to...extend the public comment period." I guess Mark and Todd didn't want the public opinion they got, so they're ordering new opinions.
• Animal control options limited
  Source: The Spokesman-Review; January 23, 2010
  Summary: The City of Spokane asked voters to support funding to expand the regional animal control facility to allow the entire region to have a single animal control authority, but didn't get the funding. They have now asked Spokane County to ask for $14 million for the region to build the facility. Such a tax would cost $14/year for a $200,000 home for 6 years. Commissioner Mielke says we should look at building a new facility, but Commissioner Richard says he can't support a new tax. SpokAnimal is raising rates by 5% a year, but wants to get out of the animal control business.
  Opinion: I have advocated a regionalized animal control policy for years. This is something that just must be figured out. Some of the readers' comments that are on that page show that not everyone understands that this is a service to everyone, though I do support the idea that animal owners do have a greater responsibility. Ultimately, the real problems that we face are not caused by animal owners, though, as there is also a feral animal population which we all have responsibility to manage.
  Postscript: The City of Spokane did renew the SpokAnimal contract.

Four the future - December 28

This edition: bicycle highways, rural land institutionalization, phosphorus pollution reduction, and a planning failure.

• Bicycle Highways
  Source: The New York Times, 091228
  Summary: While American planners are beginning the process of considering a national highway bike infrastructure, the city of Copenhagen is creating segregated bike highways between the suburbs and the city center. Several technologies are being considered to help create pelotons (groups of riders moving together); GPS and RFID could be used to trip traffic lights in their favor. Highways are not the first element of a strong bike system.
  Opinion: The Centennial Trail is our highway in Spokane, though it's not always in the most effective location for commuting. It also connects to the North Idaho Centennial Trail (pdf map, 1.5MB). But, that just gives us the responsibility to make the branches grow from this trunk. Liberty Lake has its own trail system, connected directly to the Centennial Trail, and I am personally aware of people who use it as a commuting asset. The Liberty Lake community supported the concept to such a degree that they taxed themselves through a Transportation Benefit District and used city general fund to build missing sections of the trails and provide matching funds for state grants resulting in a highway overpass. Other neighborhoods would benefit from a biking plan.
  
  


• When the land's worth more than the trees
  Source: The Oregonian, 091226
  Conservation groups hope to buy forestlands to manage
  Source: The Oregonian, 091227
  Summary: This two-part feature story documents the process and effects of Real Estate Investment Trusts and how they have been instrumental in destroying rural communities for the purpose of storehousing institutional cash reserves for tax-avoidance purposes. Due to the real estate bubble, the land under the forests has become more valuable than the trees. The problem grew slower in strong growth management states, such as Oregon. Forest loss in Washington is 10 times faster than in Oregon. Conservation groups are hoping to use the popping of the bubble to gain ownership of private lands to protect them from inappropriate conversion to urban uses.
  Opinion: Encouraging local economic development is difficult because you must assemble both the labor and the means of production simultaneously. History is littered by efforts to create remote utopian towns which are self-sustaining and prosperous. All failed; they only survive by changing their goals. Given the difficulty to leverage a community into economic stability and the significant national conversation about the importance of creating jobs, one would think that considerable, coordinated effort would be applied to make it happen. However, one must wonder how a planner encourages long-term local economic development when the national government interferes by having a tax code which encourages not working for your money over working for your money. After all, why would you work for your money? It's hard to do and you get taxed at a higher rate. As long as the capital gains tax rate is lower than the income tax rate, rural job creation will be hampered because it's better to merely own an asset, especially if a glut of surplus cash raises prices, than put it to work (provided you're not the last one to dump the land as the bubble bursts). Planners must account for this bias when they're attempting to perform this kind of work. They can help mitigate the federal policy by putting in place enforceable growth management policies which preserve resource lands, in part by preventing subdivision. Subdivision of resource lands is ultimately self-defeating because eventually it's so subdivided that it becomes unproductive. At that point, it's not a resource land anymore.


• Filters show promise in river cleanup
  Source: The Spokesman-Review, 091227
  Summary: Municipal wastewater treatment plants emit phosphorus-rich effluent into the Spokane River. Standards will be strengthening to reduce this pollutant. The City of Spokane has been testing various technologies for phosphorus reduction, and there is optimism. Blue Water Technologies, a local company, has been operating a system in Hayden for years. It has sold systems in the Midwest and South Korea. At least 20 American municipal systems were identified in 2007 which achieve the required standards.
  Opinion: Chalk it up to human ingenuity that we have the ability to take out more phosphorus, a highly hydrophilic (water-loving) ion, than is present in the Spokane River as it enters the State of Washington. Unfortunately, innovation and politicians don't always mix. This technology has been available for several years. I received a briefing on it years ago because one of the dischargers, Liberty Lake Sewer & Waster District, wouldn't give Blue Water Technologies a public hearing. Spokane County's current commissioner majority has been publicly supporting more expensive technologies which do not solve the problem while disparaging these proven techniques. Too often, engineering firms have an interest in the type of technology that is used, either because they hold the patent or they want all their plants to be identical because it reduces design costs. Worse yet, they may be driven by the possibility to get Design-Build-Operate-Maintain (DBOM) contracts which allow them to operate a public facility. This gives them profit while the public takes on the risk. The company to which Spokane County granted the contract refused to put their name on the discharge permit: if they make a mistake, they're immune. Only the ratepayers, and the environment, suffer. As awareness of these newer technologies becomes more widespread, we have to count on unbiased experts to become louder, because the public won't voice strongly on these highly technical issues.


• Neighbors fear swales plan
  Source: Portland Tribune, 091228
  Summary: The proposed stormwater swale installation along 44th Avenue in Portland, Oregon, has run into a snag because neighbors oppose the construction. They are not opposing it because of the benefits its designed to produce, but because of other effects the swales will have on transportation, public safety, and delivery of public services.
  Opinion: This is a planning mistake of the first order. One of the fundamental requirements of good planning process is to engage the people who are affected by the plan. After all, they know things that planners don't about the particular character and habits of a neighborhood. Whether the swales are effective or not is a secondary issue at this point. The community must be engaged if planning is to be useful, and all this incident has caused is a rift between a group of people attempting to solve a stormwater management problem and the people they're meant to serve. It's time for the advocates to go back, review the planning method, and start over.