Ukiah Daily Journal

Near-utopian future presented at smart growth workshop
By SETH FREEDLAND/The Daily Journal

Saturday, January 21, 2006 -

As optimism poured into their hearts and knowledge crammed into their brains, more than 100 local residents peered with a wan smile into their collective future Friday during the first official smart growth educational workshop.

Four erudite speakers presented a path toward a near-utopian life for Ukiahans -- full of walkable communities, slower traffic and more prominent greenscaping.

But it was the far-reaching, more intimate impacts of smart growth that produced a series of gasps from the audience.

A cross-sectional crowd of elected officials, public and private planners, contractors, builders and other concerned citizens took part of the workshop, co-sponsored by the city of Ukiah, Mendocino County and the Ukiah Smart Growth Coalition, the citizen group aiming to translate a general malaise and fear of the Ukiah Valley's future into thorough planning.

The coalition's largest event to date certainly appeared to burrow the seed of smart growth into the assemblage's consciousness, considering the thunderous applause anytime a speaker, starting with Planning Director Charley Stump, orated, "The time is now."

Paul Zykofsky, a land use director with the nonprofit Local Government Commission, began the presentations by outlining how smart growth principles aid a city's growth. All facets of civic life are bettered, he said, including economic development, street design, public transit, emergency response, safe paths to schools and others.

Weak or no pedestrian crossings lead to low qualities of life, Zykofsky said, with the creation of a sedentary lifestyle. An approach to public transit that amounts to little more than "loser stands here," has little benefit to our cities, he added.

Zykofsky, director of the commission's Center for Livable Communities, emphasized that Ukiah's future will be shaped by continued growth and, with budgets under siege, an efficient use of land can be a financial windfall. Using colorful slides of gorgeous, lush neighborhoods, Zykofsky suggested Ukiah fill its older land first, focus on compact and mixed uses and creating communal centers and destinations easily accessible by walking and biking.

The European model as a timeless example of the benefits of compact building became obvious when the crowd realized the entire map of downtown Florence fit within the land allotted for a modern highway offramp system.

Because it costs less to build houses with smart growth -- vehicle miles traveled is half that of urban sprawl and infrastructure costs are 10 percent less -- local governments need to incentivize infill growth, Zykofsky said.

Shorter wait time for emergency services and increased traffic efficiency also bolster smart growth's case. With wider streets, drivers instinctively speed, resulting in more accidents, he said, but narrower, more pedestrian friendly roads help across the board. Also, by placing a greenery buffer between wide sidewalks and streets, and placing angled walkways that force pedestrians to look the other way on the median strip, streets become more desirable for walkers, Zykofsky said.

This theme was picked up by Alex Kelter, a chief officer within the California Department of Health Services, who said a lifestyle endangered by sprawl directly leads to decreased quality of life, because of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and early death, not to mention increased health care costs for individuals and the public and private sector.

Kelter called on Ukiah to enable more physical activity by rejecting the sedentary lifestyle, which is the unintended consequence of a city built with a reliability on the automobile. More pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods reduces short car trips, prevents injuries and helps individuals' moods, he said.

The increasing lack of mobility -- children today walk to school less than half of the rate their parents did -- leads to a few astounding statistics. One-third of all children will become diabetics, leading to 15 fewer years alive and creating the first generation not to outlive their parents in American history, Kelter said.

But the most prevalent diagnosis in the county is depression, which Kelter pinned, in part, on young people not making relationships and instead sitting in their homes watching television.

The average U.S. household makes 12 car trips a day, Kelter continued, which is mostly because there is no place to walk safely in our towns. Cities like Ukiah's dependency on cars hurts those who cannot drive more than most, creating a sense of isolation for those who rely on baby strollers, walkers and wheelchairs -- which can be literally life-threatening, Kelter said.

John Anderson, a developer with the New Urban Builders, discussed how to move the theoretics to on-the-ground creation. He poked fun at typical neighborhood structures with garages facing roads, bland facades and wide streets that eventually lead parents to demand speed bumps to slow traffic.

"These are all regrettable places built with great precision," he said, adding that city planning codes resemble "glacial debris left behind by former planners," a group he suggested created zoning rules like "orangutans playing with scissors."

Anderson, like the other three speakers, slammed the current system of placing individual plots for places to live, work, shop and go to school. Instead, "mixed use" and smart growth can create friendly, walkable communities to integrate all that residents need.

Lastly, Laura Hall, a principal at Fisher & Hall Urban Design, frowned on a "system run amuck" with dozens of zoning codes. She suggested six codes, creating a simple gradient from most urban to most rural. This sort of form-based coding will be discussed by the Ukiah City Council in the next few months.

Hall's biggest suggestion was to avoid piecemeal city design, and instead lay out every foot of public realm -- schools, parks, farmland -- before plotting individual buildings. Hall, who is assisting the post-Hurricane Katrina rebuilding, cautioned against confusing mixed use with awkward "hybrid" zoning, which butts residential and commercial against one another instead of a cohesive fit. During the question-and-answer period Hall seemed resistant to artificial restraints like urban boundaries and growth controls. Instead, allowing a big-picture perspective to guide growth will create an attractive place to live, she said.

"Learn from the mistakes made south of you," Hall said. "City development could improve your quality of life. That hasn't happened in five decades. But hold out hope."

Seth Freedland can be reached at udjsf@pacific.net .