Sprawled Out: The Search for Community in the American Suburb

GoogleBikes: Now mapping your bike routes

 

New from Google: a "Grab Your Bike and Go" feature to give cycling directions for all maps.

Some features:

* Identifies cycling facilities (for now in "hundreds of US cities")

* Shows which routes are considered safer than others, including paths that have limited or no driving

* Uses elevation grades to estimate times and recommend routes . .

Read more at at: Discovering Urbanism: Google adds bicycle directions to maps

What a tangled web we weave: Franklin impanels a group to examine the development process

As posted by Greg Kowalski on his Franklin Today blog, listed below are the suggested members of new Mayoral Ad Hoc Development Process Review Committee, proposed by Alderman Steve Taylor and charged with untangling the development process here in Franklin.

At Monday's Economic Development Commission meeting, both James Kerr and I answered the call for volunteers (the mayor requested one each from the Economic, Environmental, and Plan commissions). Given Mr. Kerr's enormous experience in process management (he was Deputy Airports Director/COO for the Milwaukee County Airport Division from 1983-2005), I notified the mayor via email that I think his skill set is exactly what this effort needs.

I'll be attending the meetings, however, because the prospect of hearing developers give real-life examples of their frustrations in working with the city promises to be fascinating.

Suggested step one: Invest in a HUGE whiteboard and create what will likely be a complicated, multi-colored process map. And make sure you have lots of fresh markers ....

CHAIRMAN: Mayor Tom Taylor

ALDERMANIC REP: Common Council President Steve Taylor

DEVELOPERS: Mark Carstensen, Jim O'Malley, and Jim Kupfer

PLAN COMMISSIONER: Randy Ritter

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMISSIONER: Maryjane Ingersoll

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT COMMISSIONER: James Kerr

Franklin alderman wants to speed development process - JSOnline

This is a good idea -- as someone who has followed the progress of individual developments, it's abundantly clear to me that creating something worthwhile in Franklin is hamstrung by obstacles that do nothing to improve the quality of our built environment. I've inquired about this very issue in the past and was directed to the inch-thick "Ruekert/Mielke Planning Department Organizational Study" (see above). It's no fun to read.

If a developer wants to build an ambitious, mixed usage, Middleton Hills-type traditional neighborhood development subdivision, for instance, he or she will find ROOM to do so here in Franklin, but will likely look elsewhere after the first few administrative roadblocks and ambiguities appear.

"Speed" is not the specific issue; there are plenty of municipalities that have enviable fast development processes that lead to terrible results. 

The main thing is this: As long as a city's development process is clear and fair for all, that city can and should demand high quality results that will reward both the developer and the community. When a city's development process appears fragmented and arbitrary, you cannot blame developers who do no more than the bare minimum to assure their financial success.  

See Alderman Taylor's letter outlining his proposal at the Franklin Today blog, along with some conjecture by Greg Kowalski as to who might be on the committee.

Franklin alderman wants to speed development process - JSOnline.

Saying it takes too long to get developments approved in the city, Common Council President Steve Taylor is asking his fellow aldermen to create a committee to review the development process. 

Taylor is proposing a Mayoral Ad Hoc Development Process Review Committee to study what procedures work best in other communities to see if they can be implemented in Franklin. 

He said some developers tell him that a development proposed in other communities can be approved in 90 days but that it takes nine months in Franklin. 

Taylor is proposing that the committee be headed by Mayor Tom Taylor. The mayor would choose an alderman, three people experienced in development, and one member each from the city plan, economic development and environmental commissions to serve on the committee. The members would be approved by the Common Council.

NYT big idea: Ban cul-de-sacs

Sunday's New York Times Magazine ran its ninth annual "Year in Ideas" feature. One of the "idea" entries closely echos my blog entry of December 9th.

To the French linguists out there: Note that the Paper of Record uses the vernacular "cul-de-sacs" rather than the correct - but clumsy - "culs-de-sac":

The Cul-de-Sac Ban

Nothing divides suburban developers and "smart growth" advocates as much as the lowly cul-de-sac. The real estate community loves the meandering, dead-end streets; lots on them sell quickly and at a premium, thanks to their low traffic and perceived safety benefits. But critics complain that cul-de-sacs are a poor use of land; they funnel cars onto clogged arterial routes and restrict access to neighborhoods when emergency vehicles need to respond.

ILLUSTRATION BY LAUREN NASSEF

For decades the developers have been winning this battle. But this fall, Virginia, under the leadership of Gov. Tim Kaine, became the first state to severely limit cul-de-sacs from future developments. New rules require that all new subdivisions attain a certain level of "connectivity," with ample through streets connecting them to other neighborhoods and nearby commercial areas.

If subdivisions fail to comply, Virginia won't provide maintenance and snowplow services, a big disincentive in a state where the government provides 83 percent of road services. Virginia expects the new rules to relieve its strained infrastructure budget: through streets are more efficient and cheaper to maintain, and they take pressure off arterial roads that otherwise need to be widened. "It's about connecting land-use and transportation planning and restricting wasteful and unplanned development," Kaine said in March.

And how will the people respond who actually have to live and drive in the new, cul-de-sac-free neighborhoods? "There are pros and cons," says Kaid Benfield, the director of the Smart Growth Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council. "Residents like walkability and they like not having to be forced onto an arterial road where the traffic jam is. On the other hand, there is a sentiment out there that cul-de-sacs are safe" — though Benfield says research actually shows fewer traffic fatalities occur on connected roads. Other states are watching the Virginia rules closely, and Benfield says he expects to see similar regulations adopted around the country in the next few years — which means the dead end may soon be a thing of the past. CLAY RISEN

Read the rest at: The Ninth Annual Year in Ideas - Magazine - NYTimes.com

Trails Committee widens its focus to include Franklin High School

Though Victory Creek subdivision can be seen from the Pleasant View Elementary playground, there is no way to walk from here to there - yet.

Last night's Trail Committee meeting was fruitful. While our focus remains on improving accessibility to Pleasant View Elementary School through the Safe Routes to School program, alderman and committee member Kristen Wilhelm located a Wisconsin DOT Pedestrian Roadshow/Walking Workshop grant that will bring a facilitator to Franklin for a series of presentations to community stakeholders. This will provide a introduction to the Safe Routes process as well as a focus on Franklin High School access issues - - effectively widening our initial area of influence to cover two Franklin schools.

Anyone who's observed the corner of Drexel and 51st before and after a school day -- and certainly before and after sporting events -- knows that something must be done to decrease the amount of vehicles on the road. As long as students from even adjacent subdivisions (see above) need a vehicle to get to school, that congestion will continue.

While Safe Routes to School deals with engineering and trail-building issues, the program also works to educate the community, making a safer environment for non-vehicular traffic. Once we add some connectivity, drivers will learn to treat these residential streets with a great deal more respect than they do currently.

Baby steps toward a walkable community

 

Two pieces of good news: 

Monday's meeting with Franklin Public Schools Superintendent Dr. Steve Patz went very well, and we can expect collaboration with the school district when applying for Safe Routes to School grant funds.

On Tuesday night, "Request from Trail Committee for approval to proceed with the grant writing and application process for community planning related to trails and pedestrian routes" was passed unanimously by the Common Council.

The Franklin Trail Committee meets tonight to keep the ball rolling.

"Walking buses" and veggies: Town residents come together to make healthy lifestyle changes

Judy Dilling (left) and Jen Chalmers (in red) help walk Lakeview Elementary School students home as part of the Vitality Project's "walking buses" last week in Albert Lea, Minn. The project has added an average 3.1 years to the lives of residents through improved diet, exercise and living habits.

With organizers' help, the city crammed five years of sidewalk and bike trail construction into a year to make exercise easier for its 18,000 residents. Restaurants added healthier menu options and grocery stores showcased wholesome foods. People snacked on fruits and veggies more and ate less fast food.

Schools stopped celebrating birthdays with sugary treats and started setting up "walking buses" that allowed kids to walk to and from school together with adult supervision. Employers gave workers time to exercise.

Organizers say the first-of-its kind experiment added an average 3.1 years to the longevity of about 2,300 residents who calculated their life spans by answering 36 lifestyle questions dubbed the "vitality compass."

Read the rest at: Town residents come together to make healthy lifestyle changes - JSOnline

Save Franklin's historic water tower

Just kidding. Good riddance.

Trading one towering element for another - FranklinNOW.

The tide is turning: Franklin takes a positive step toward community-building

Item G.6 on this past Tuesday's Common Council agenda reads innocently enough:

Reconstruction of S. 51st Street from W. Drexel Avenue to W. Puetz Road - 60 percent plan review and policy decision relative to additional funding in addition to the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) funding.

This issue was this: The stretch of 51st Street in front of Franklin High School is due for repaving. Despite its heavy use - and single entry-point to the school -  it has been without non-vehicular features (pedestrian and bike access) for as long as the high school has been there (approximately 1964). To simply re-do it as it is would be a lipstick-on-a-pig project, to be sure.

How did we get to this point? You may remember that, during the misguided "widen 51st Street" debacle, certain council members made a point of repeatedly saying that Franklin had "pretty much zero chance" of getting stimulus - aka American Reinvestment and Recovery Act  -  funds (city engineer Jack Bennett: "A chance in a million"; alderman Steve Taylor: "No chance in hell"; alderman Steve Olson: "We will not receive any federal dollars" ), therefor it was senseless to sweat the details.

At that juncture, the list considered for submission for the "no chance in hell" stimulus grant looked like this:

a) W. Puetz Road (S. Street to St. Martins Road)
b) S. Street (Puetz Road to Drexel Avenue)
c) S. 51st Street (North of Rawson Avenue to College Avenue in Greendale; the potential widened road)
d) Additional Project

These projects were chosen without public input based on what the city had in its medium range plans. The 51st Street item was particularly troubling in that it proposed a by-default widening the road; city administrators can deny it all they want, but the only plan filed at that point was indeed a default widening plan.

I addressed these auto-centric proposals in a post entitled "Common Council Tonight: Slouch toward mediocrity or reach for excellence?", which includes some background on how the projects were chosen.

I addressed the council on March 17th, saying in part:

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding should not be used to expand a system of roads that do not provide safe travel for people who are walking or bicycling. Too many Franklin streets are designed wide and fast, without sufficient sidewalks, crosswalks or bicycle lanes.

We, in fact, CREATE traffic with huge roads and no alternative.

Now we have an opportunity for a new approach. there's not a lot of time.

We currently have little or no consideration given for the safety of older people, children, or people with disabilities.

These incomplete streets are dangerous and create barriers for people to get to jobs, school, the doctor, and fully participate in civic life....

...

... I fear that Franklin seems content to ignore opportunities to increase connectivity and instead continues to encourage volume and throughput.

I have a list of almost 600 Wisconsin bicycle and pedestrian projects funded or co-funded by the federal government from 1993 to 2007. Franklin does not appear once.

We're going to have to address this.

As for 51st street: There are clear and ready-to-implement street schemes that can be deployed there to make it a neighborhood amenity and increase commercial foot traffic.

So let’s get on that.

I was far from the only one to speak out. The council heard from many, many residents who sounded a common theme: Why always automatically widen roads? Why can't we walk or bike anywhere in this city? Why no connectivity? Don't we care about the safety of children and the elderly?

It was a watershed moment made possible by the revelation that Franklin's stimulus requests threatened to be "business as usual" - auto-centric, and connectivity-be-damned. Responsive to the enormous amount of public input received, Mayor Taylor submitted a veto aimed at A) dismantling the poorly birthed project list and, B) constructing instead a list that addresses resident's concerns about safety, walkability, and accessibility.

Not everyone thought there was particular value in the discussion prompted by the aborted stimulus application items. Alderman Steve Olson - who repeatedly mentioned his own "lack of memory" at Tuesday's meeting, by the way - said the following months ago at the March 31st meeting:

The reality is, is - and I'm going to say it - this meeting tonight is a monumental waste of time. This common council and you all have had your time wasted for the last three weeks. We will not receive any federal dollars. We do not qualify for federal dollars based on the criteria that now comes before us. So this action item, whether the mayor's veto is withheld or overridden is meaningless, just as my colleagues have said.

The discussion that we're about to have is again a waste of time because we're not going to get federal dollars. We don't qualify. So, for my part I apologize that you're here. I'm glad that you're here; it's good to have people at common council meetings - you know, frankly, I get a little tired of seeing nobody here, so I'm glad you're here. But I think there are better things you could be doing with your time than worrying about a four-lane road that's just not going to happen.

Fortunately, my district's alderman, Kristen Wilhelm, and Mayor Taylor disagreed with Olson ("we will not receive any federal dollars") and made sure public input was gathered and weighed prior to our application for funds. The discussions and meetings for which alderman Olson had such little regard resulted in the decision that the stimulus application would concentrate on 51st Street in front of the high school. Furthermore, we were able to learn the following: Listening sessions - more "monumental wastes of time"? - reiterated and made clear that neighbors are very, very concerned with making that stretch of 51st in front of the high school, at long last, safe and accessible for non-vehicular traffic. That message was delivered without ambiguity.

Surprise: Franklin was granted a $1.5 million stimulus grant for 51st Street reconstruction.

Another surprise: Turns out City Engineer Jack Bennett submitted Franklin's stimulus funding request with plans and budgeting that DID NOT include the bike and pedestrian paths that all parties assumed were part of any plan for the street. In other words, the default plan (no paths) would go into effect if additional city funding could not be appended to the project to supplement the $1.5 million stimulus grant. With the grant, the city's expense to re-do the road with paths would still be cheaper than doing a road without paths minus the grant. Still, money's tight, right?

Long story short: On Tuesday night, this city took a huge step toward becoming a much more sustainable, attractive, and desirable community by altering the project slightly (putting off reconstructing the intersection, for instance) and preserving the pedestrian/bike paths that the community expects. A decision made for the citizens and not just their cars.

Aldermen Wilhelm, Solomon, and Skowronski voted for the re-budgeting and preservation of the paths plan; Alderman Olson voted against; Aldermen Sohns and Taylor were not present.

It's one small portion of the city, but a good, positive policy step; the people have been heard. Taken in combination with possible action by the Trails Committee regarding a Safe Routes to School program and its attention to 51st Street directly north of the intersection in question, Franklin is making strides toward improving its character and desirability by becoming more than simply a collection of subdivisions.

More later ....

The library discovers Facebook

If you're on Facebook, please become a fan of the Franklin Public Library, our community's most vital - and, arguably, only - public space. It's an easy way to keep up with programs and services offered at the library, a great city resource that we cannot take for granted.