A large part of smart planning is reversing the decisions of gov't planners - who made major roads one-way to facilitate the fleeing to the suburbs from the cities at 5:01 pm, bulldozed amazing buildings for parking lots, and gave tax credits to sprawl big box stores while they didn't fix the potholes on main street.
Yes, and if this group can work with Walton County government to affect some of these kinds of reversals around here, it would be great.
I was dismayed when the historical building was bulldozed up in DeFuniak to make a parking lot....an example of the mind set that has allowed concrete and asphalt to take over our towns and fields.
The other day, as I drove down Nursery Road past the property that Mrs. Kellogg donated to the County for a nature preserve, I was dismayed to see that one of the first things to be done is: to pave a parking lot!
And yet, less than a half mile away Chat Holley road is a disgrace because no pot holes are filled, no white lines painted...the paving which needs to be done on the road, is done, instead, on a nature preserve!
I lived for many years in Tallahassee and one of the things I love most about that city are the trees--and the tree ordinance that preserves them. I spent many years at the Tallahassee (Junior) Museum with my son and his friends...and there were no paved parking lots...it was a nature preserve and the parking areas were natural....
In order to achieve some of the sense of community that the " new urbanism" promotes, leaders and citizens must have a mindset change...that is what I see missing here as it is in many places across our country.
DeFuniak has the potential to be a beautiful little town...it has all the community things that New Urbanism promotes. Yet, the leaders in the town and county have done little to revive those things that made it a good town to live and grow up in. Even when the basic plan is still there...
and, as someone pointed out in another post, the "powers that be" decide to plant Palm Trees in DeFuniak...and oak trees in Seaside! Maybe the oak trees add to Seaside, I have not seen them yet; but, the Palm Trees do not add anything to DeFuniak IMO. What's wrong with oak, dogwood, magnolia....
We had one of the most beautiful beaches/coastlines in the world here in South Walton, yet the planning and zoning that was allowed to run amok has allowed it to become less than it might have been....and the unintended consequences are abandoned neighborhoods with half finished buildings and empty strip mall stores and and office buildings.
And, for all the visioning that has gone on in the last 10 years, as Shelly says above, there seems to be little actually getting done that follows the so-called vision....
I hope this latest effort makes a difference so that my grandchildren can enjoy living in a place that offers a sense of community, a viable economic structure, and the recreational aspects that make for a balanced life.
