Roxyanne Burrus

Just read a fascinating article about how we view our cities and ways to change the way we typically plan and implement that will effuctuate real growth and reinvestment in our enclaves. I will read more about this but want to know how how other planners feel about this drastic shift in how we have been taught to look at cities. Go to the following link and let me know what you think.

  www.strongtowns.org/journal/2012/2/6/from-the-mayors-office-part-1-html

A successful public meeting was held recently on the westside of Columbus. As many of you know who live in this area, a casino is currently being constructed and will locate on the westside of town. It is locating in an area that was on the downward spiral in terms of neighborhood and community revitalization and stabilization. This area was at one time,  a vibrant community, but lost major employment centers and large retail shopping establishments during the previous 15 years. The casino is being touted as a major "boost" to the economy and is viewed by many as a catalyst for revitalization of businesses and residential development in the area. A national consultant from Bethesda, Maryland, RCLCO has been hired to assist the area with identifying economic development strategies that may help  revitalize this community. A major focus with this process is to engage the community to be a part of this process. So, my company, Cartier Burrus LLC,  was also hired to work with RCLCO on this project . My role is to work closely with the community to encourage active participation, involve all facets of the community and ensure that the process is inclusive. I am pleased to say that this community wants to be included and engaged in the planning process as the study unfolds. They are excited about the casino for the most part and even more excited about the "spin off" development that is likely to occur as a result of having the casino as their neighbor.

The first public meeting held last week attracted 150 people which speaks volumes to their level of interest and commitment to their community.  The meeting was interactive and involved and engaged the community. I have conducted a number of successful community and this meeting process that was held last week, was conducted in an effective way when seeking input from the community and was very successful. I left the meeting feeling very positive about the outcome and look forward to reaching out and encouraging even more community members to actively participate in this community driven process. I strongly encourage anyone who lives in this area to pay attention to what is going on and to try and participate with the process. I know you'll be pleased.

There are many ways to connect with the process. The easiest is to get involved with the community leadership already established. They are engaged and will willingly talk with you about this process. Stay tuned to the local Dispatch which is reporting regulary about the comings and goings of the entire development process involving the casino. There is also a  facebook page that is now active and established to provide ongoing information about the economic development process. You can find it on the Central Ohio Community Improvement Corporation page. And last but not least you can contact me, Roxyanne Burrus, President, Cartier Burrus LLC. You can locate me on facebook, linked-in and twitter and I will respond to any questions and concerns you may have about the current activity in the area. My best advice is to stay tuned!!     

 Study: Casino to revitalize West Side | The Columbus Dispatch

      Firm will write plan for area near casino | The Columbus Dispatch

I want to put a plug in for the annual Ohio Planning Conference a branch of the American Planning Association coming up next month. If you get an opportunity please register and attend the conference. We learn from each other. 

APA-Ohio State Planning Conference

September 23 – 25, 2009

The Ohio Chapter of the American Planning Association (APA-OH) will hold its annual statewide planning conference September 23 – 25, 2009.  The conference will be hosted by the Akron section of APA-Ohio and will be held at the Sheraton Suites of Akron-Cuyahoga Falls, 1989 Front Street, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

The theme of this year’s conference is “to sustainability and beyond”, and 42 session topics will be presented that focus on concepts and development practices available to communities to help redevelop older sites “in transition”; integrate new developments into existing neighborhood patterns; promote community designs that build on local strengths; minimize impacts on the environment; and conserve natural, cultural and fiscal resources.  Sessions will highlight examples of previous experiences and projects from around the state and region that other communities can model and adapt to address their needs. 

Five mobile workshops are also planned to highlight the region’s assets, including a kayak tour of the Cuyahoga River gorge, bus and bike tours of the Cuyahoga Valley and a walking tour of Akron. 

In addition, the conference program includes the following speakers:

·         Renowned planner, landscape architect and educator, Randall Arendt will lead a Professional Development workshop focusing on the conservation of community-wide open space networks and transforming highway commercial strips into mixed-use districts on Wednesday, September 23^rd.   

·         Bruce Knight, FAICP, President of the American Planning Association will be present at the opening session on Wednesday, September 24^th to provide an update on planning issues at the national level.

·         Wayne Senville, editor of the Planning Commissioner’s Journal, will present a slideshow: Planning Conversations from Coast-to-Coast, in which he reflects on his travels and conversations about planning-related issues facing communities uncovered in the course of his summer 2007 coast-to-coast road trip down US Route 50 at the September 24^th evening reception.

·         James Howard Kunstler, vocal critic of urban sprawl and author of The Geography of Nowhere (1994) and The Long Emergency (2005), will provide the keynote lunch address on Friday, September 25^th. 

Up to 17 hours of Certification Maintenance credits are available to certified planners and 11.25 hours of CLE credits are available to attorneys.  Most conference sessions will satisfy continuing education credits requirement for architects, engineers and landscape architects. 

This conference will be of special interest to planners, architects, landscaping architects, economic development and resource management professionals, elected officials, community & business leaders and citizens interested in learning more about planning, zoning, and community development issues.   

For more information about the conference, details regarding session topics or to register for the event, please visit APA-OH’s website, www.ohioplanning.org or www.regonline.com/2009APAOhioConference.

In the absence of adequate staffing, code enforcement is very difficult to operate effectively in a city as large as Columbus. Seemingly, the problem is growing proportionately with the growth of the city which seems almost inherent with large urban areas.  The economic condition of the country has compounded the problem leaving proportionately more vacant and abandoned properties than there would under better economic circumstances.

The article cited below, states that the city is considering a registry program that they think will address the problem of absentee owners. This option has been discussed many times before and for some, the school of thought is that this activity does help in finding absentee owners of vacant and abandoned properties. What it will do is add costs to the operations of the enforcement team. At the very least a full time person will be needed to effectively operate and manage the registry and additional code will be needed to follow up on the activities generated by the registry. The question is this the best use of limited dollars?  The key to having a registry that is fair to all property owners is to register every landlord and property owner regardless of the status of their property.  That is tedious and time consuming. It is common knowledge that there are not enough code officers currently to adequately administer code enforcement in a timely fashion so what happens if you add the responsibility of the registry that may or may not get you better information to the already overworked and stressed code enforcement section.   

I am not sure I am clear on why the city attorneys are focusing on establishing more legislation that will also be limited in what they city can do. Property owners have a lot of protection granted to them via the constitution and the play a major role in shaping state legislation. So unless the city is prepared to be more aggressive in enforcing the laws, new legislation won’t do much. The city currently has solid legislation on the books for code to their jobs adequately what they lack are people to do the job. Coupled with that, code needs the support of the environmental courts to help them prosecute the chronic code violators. 

Consistency in the delivery of services goes a long way to help rid the city of blighted properties. The powers that be should support the enforcement efforts of the city’s code team and allow them to administer the code consistently and they will get much better results.

 The Columbus Dispatch : City might attack blight of vacant homes with registry

There is a proposal in the city of Columbus. Ohio, to build a roundabout on a very busy, high volume, heavily traveled intersection. Roundabouts are very new to drivers in Columbus, unlike Europeans who master them as easily as cooking a meal. Europeans have had  a much longer history of roundabouts than US citizens I do believe and an even much longer history than the buckeyes in Columbus.  I like utilizing roundabouts but I think I would start installing them at less threatening intersections before building them at more complex locations. We need time and practice to learn to navigate them.  Consequently, I don't support the roundabout proposed at High and North Broadway. I think it will create more conflict than we anticipate and not really solve a longstanding seemingly irresolvable problem.

 The Columbus Dispatch : High Street roundabout sought

I was happy to read the article about Harrison Smith that supports my concern about tearing down the City Center Mall and replacing it with a park "idea" that I  blogged about on May 27th. Many describe Harrison Smith as "the development connoisseur" for the city of Columbus. He has been around for many years. I did not always agree with everything he wanted to do for the city, but I have a great deal of respect for him and what he accomplished.  I always appreciated the time he spent  talking with communty leaders about his projects. That goes a long way even if they don't agree with the project. Good article.

 The Columbus Dispatch : Harrison W. Smith Jr. hones legacy on city growth

It appears as though the Govenor for Ohio is strongly supporting and seeking dollars to build high speed rail throughout the state to transport people from city to city safely and quickly. I wholeheartedly support and endorse the concept of communter rail for our state. It not only provides an alternative form of travel for our communters that takes cars off the road, it's a green development project that will assist with the reduction and reliance on fuel for our state. It also opens the door to economic development opportunities for all of the major cities in Ohio. This is the economic engine for Ohio that we sorely need.  Kudos to Govenor Strickland.

 The Columbus Dispatch : Strickland makes case for 3C rail

Our goal as neighborhood planners is to gather information from the community as well as to educate the community about the benefits and advantages of good planning for their neighborhoods. As a veteran planner, I have learned a few things that have been most helpful to me and allowed me to successfully complete plans for the community. First of all, know that you are not going to get everyone to agree with each other or the government entity who has sanctioned the project. Consequently, it is critically important to know and understand that before going out to the community. Utilize the consensus building activities and exercises to reach decisions as well as utilizing the following tips for each community planning process: 

• Go to the meeting with an agenda. The first meeting allows you to introduce yourself and to explain your task. The public ultimately needs to trust you so take the time to be human and trustworthy.

• Establish the ground rules that everyone attending endorses. Once they are established then apply them uniformly, with everyone. 

• Be mindful that you are there to educate the community. The community will come to the table with varying degrees of knowledge and expertise in the subject matter. Most assuredly they come to the table with opinions. Make sure everyone understands what is being discussed.

• Listen, listen, and  listen again. You are the expert but be careful how you present that to the community. The community will have ideas so listen attentively and  incorporate the good ideas that get the consensus of the community. That is how you get buy in.

• Respect everyone in the room. You are the professionl so act like it. Don't allow people to insult each other but most importantly, don't insult anyone.

• Be honest with the community. I can not stress this enough. People would rather hear you say "no" to something they want then to fabricate a story when you are trying to avoid the truth.   Let them know ahead of time that you may disagree with a suggestion because the government can not or will not do what they ask.        

The following tips may seem like things we do automatically but that is often not the case.  I have experienced too many encounters with planners who feel they are the experts who should be making the decisions. If that is how you feel, you may be headed for disaster. You will be perceived as arrogant which will show at the meeting and the community will be turned off immediately. Be mindful of how you present yourself and how you are perceived by others.

The Chairman of the Downtown Commission spoke out against the razing of the downtown Mall structure. Now, his complaint was that the decision was made in a vacuum and not a public arena. According to him , the community did not have the opportunity to comment on the proposal before it was decided that this is what is going to happen. His points are well taken given that he is chair of the dontown commission, so, if anyone should be informed about plans, it certainly should include him.

My objection to the plan is that it makes no sense to invest in the construction of condo developments in the downtown when there is no support from the public and the private interest in trying to keep the mall.  Yes, downtowns are changing and the typical historic land developments may not be the most lucrative today, however, we , the public, want to see our downtown thrive and make it. The Mall for those of us who remember, and it was not that long ago, was a thriving mall, a beautiful place to visit and shop. It began to die, when we put our investments elswhere, outside of the central city, and those decisions resulted in the the untimely death of the City Center Mall.

The plan, if approved after being challenged is to raze the building and develop a park. That sounds nice, but we have nice parks in our downtown area and I am not convinced that is the best and most appropriate use of the land. We need to be more visionary and think about what is really needed need in the downtown area that will  draw and attract people to want to live there. Yet another park is not the answer. Thanks, Bill, for speaking up.  DispatchPolitics : Plan for mall's razing argued Columbus Dispatch Politics

I was asked if EveryBlock is a useful planning tool. I looked at the EveryBlock website and thought it was interesting. What it does not provide for me as planner is the history of the dynanmics of this community. That is critically important in understanding the community. In all fairness to Everyblock it was not designed to do that.  The pupose of EveryBlock is to give the reader real time information about what is going on in their neighborhood.  As a planner, if I am asked to do a neighborhood plan I would have to seek out additional information about the community before making an assessment of it.  As I said, history, patterns, trends overtime are key indicators of the real dynamics of a community. The good thing about EveryBlock is that the information provided is current which is sometimes a challenge for planners to find. So, like the move towards social networking and utilizing social media outlets, EveryBlock falls in that category. It can be used as a tool for planners but I would be clear about why and how to utilize it.  Invariably, planners will need to seek out additional information from other sources to really understand the true inner workings of a community. Check it out and see what you think.  The EveryBlock FAQ