Transect Based Planning

[Andy A]

TechPyle, you weren't at the meeting, were you? If you were in attendance, you didn't see the same presentation I did. Your opinion of the reason for community planning and how communities should be developed is warped, to say the least, IMO.

 

[TechPyle]

TechPyle, you weren't at the meeting, were you? If you were in attendance, you didn't see the same presentation I did. Your opinion of the reason for community planning and how communities should be developed is warped, to say the least, IMO.

Andy,

No I was not at the meeting and with BCC meetings scheduled at 4:30 or so on a Tuesday the chances of me attending are slim. Most people will be at work at that time.

My idea of community planning is extremly warped. I have a huge problem with the idea that the government can decide what is the best use of a private persons property is. The government can then use planning, land use, zoning and other restrictions to control what a private individual can do WITH THIER OWN PROPERTY. Since when did Government get the knowledge to be able to say what is the Best done with a private individuals property. With the knowledge that governement can control private property usage who influences the government controls of private property. It is generaly people who can afford to be at the BCC Meetings, it is people whose job it is to influence the BCC, and it is people who have a problem with thier neighbors and are trying to control them in one way or another.

As to community bassed planning or the idea that a person will live, and work withen walking distance of thier job. Great idea. Now what job will be used to support the classic Two adults, two children family in the community with $300,000 dollar homes? Will it be the local coffee shop that pays $8.00 per hour? For a real community you need real jobs most of these will center around businesses that people do not want to live next door to. Plan with the knowledge that if your "Community" is to support itself even in some limited since that it will require real businesses and not the small shops envisioned mixed into your residential areas. Show me the business that is moving into the area that will support your community. If there are no businesses that can support the people living nearby then you have a fake community. One where the help gets drove in so that the people that can afford to live their can have thier fancy coffee.

Now lets say you get your nice community with the perfect mix of business and residential all withen walking distance. People are cantankerous you will have the neighbor who complains about noise that gets resturant owners put in jail by using noise complaints, in your walking community you will have people that complain about pedestrians taking shortcuts through thier lawns or sitting next to thier porches. These things already happen and it only takes one or two people complaining and raising a ruckus to spoil a whole neighborhood.

Is the current land use and planning perfect? NOOOOOOO!!!!!! but who is to say that these new rules and regulations are any better. I do not want to be the ginney pig for pie in the sky regulations.

 

[Andy A]

TP, if you had attended the meeting (which was at 7 PM, hardly considered normal working hours by most) you would realize the concept is not just living and being able to walk to your job and the grocery store. I am not going to argue with you regarding community planning as you are obviously of a different mindset than I am. No one ever said this concept would eliminate neighborhood complaints. They will be with us 'till the end of time regardless of what kind of planning or lack of planning is done.
Oh, and BTW, BCC meetings extend far, far beyond 4:30. You won't miss much if you arrive as late as 6:00 P.M. the way things have been going lately.

 

[Chandra]

TechPyle, the government already controls what you can and can't do with your property. These regulations come part and parcel with the privilege of land ownership and these regulations are in place to control the exact outcomes you describe.

Had you been at the presentation you might have picked up on the fact that transect planning actually gives EVERYONE more choices. The PUD type of communities we have in SoWal are not legal to build based on the current codes (the same across much of the country) and therefore create a natural division between the haves and the have-less-thans. Believe it or not, there are many people that would choose to live in a walkable community, even above a commercial space. But because these places are such an anomoly, they are out of many peoples price point.

I find it quite entertaining that you can expound on something at such great length, that you really don't have an understanding of.

I especially love how you talk about "fake" communities and all the problems created by noisy neighbors spoiling a whole town. That's why urban areas (and we may as well throw in Seaside for all its fakiness) all over the country are uninhabited and failures as viable living options.

If you had been at the presentation, you may also had discovered that rural and sub-urban living arrangements are part of transect planning and architectural style and color schemes are not.