Mixing It Up

One of the most interesting sessions I attended at the national conference of the American Planning Association last month was Mixed Use Suburban Redevelopment Projects, which was a tour of three redevelopment projects in the MSP metro that utilized current or former industrial sites. I was interested in the session because we are planning a mixed use development for the South Shore, which is a former industrial site. Our application will be heard by the planning commission at the end of the month.

Our mixed use tour started at Centennial Lakes, which is a mixed use redevelopment project in Edina that is built on a former gravel pit. It includes a linear city park surrounded by condo units, an office park, and commercial retail. We also toured a project at I-394 and Highway 100 in St. Louis Park and the Arbor Lakes development at the I-94/494 split in Maple Grove.

What is different about a mixed use project? Traditional zoning codes are all about separating "uses" and traditional zoning codes generally only allow one use per zone (e.g. residential, industrial, commercial). Mixed use means two or more different types of uses in a single building; for instance ground floor commercial and apartments on the upper floors (vertical). Horizontal mixed use has uses placed next to each other and connected together with pedestrian and vehicular access; for instance, a subdivision containing residential units that are adjacent to and connected to a neighborhood commercial development (like Centennial Lakes).

Downtowns are considered mixed use because there is ground floor commercial with residential above. Our Downtown was the only district in Bemidji where mixed use was allowed prior to adoption of the new joint planning ordinance in 2007. The new ordinance provides for mixed use developments through a conditional use permit and a general planned unit development (PUD)--but only in certain zones. Confusing?

It can be confusing, even for the planning commission and planning board who review developments nearly every month. The key to mixed use is providing a transit or pedestrian oriented development. Having a lot of images helps clarify the concept. The City's plan includes both vertical and horizontal mixed use, so we'll have a bunch of pictures to show the PC when they review the South Shore PUD at the end of May.

Common Themes: National Conference and Bemidji

I was gone last week taking in the American Planning Association national conference in Minneapolis. "Sustainability" and "Green" were common themes of the conference sessions followed closely by "Walkability."

The City has been working at making the Bemidji more walkable and bikeable through the Active Living project and it will take continued community support to make it a priority for the community.

New life seems to have been breathed into the idea of sustainability by council member Kevin Waldhausen who asked to start a sustainability committee, and the Mayor supported. He appointed Waldhausen chair of the new committee at Monday's meeting.

A good place for Bemidji to start may be to look at what other cities are doing to become more sustainable. One city that has a jump start is the City of Madison sustainability program, which was showcased at the APA conference session, Implementing APA's Sustainability Policy Guide.

The (full version) Policy Guide can be found at the APA website or a summary can be found here.

I believe the persistence of people like Erika Bailey-Johnson, sustainability coordinator at the university and B-WELL, the organization that is working on the Active Living project, have helped shift perceptions in Bemidji. If you support these themes, then keeping the vision of a better connected, more energy efficient community at the top of the list for our elected officials is your job too.

Calling All Citizen Planners

Live in the City of Bemidji? Want to have a say in development activity? Like to get paid $50 a month?

There is an opening for a City resident on the Joint Planning Commission. In an effort to spread the word about this "volunteer" opportunity, we've had an ad in the Bemidji Pioneer the past week. The JPC is a twelve-member board charged with long range planning and reviewing planning cases for the greater Bemidji area.

This used to be a volunteer position, but since last year, members are paid $50 per meeting. Applications are available at City Hall or by calling the City Clerk's office (218-759-3570).

Weekly Bits from the City Newsletter 5-1-09

For inquiring minds who want to know what's happening at the City of Bemidji, check out this link to the City Manager's weekly newsletter. The newsletter is a mix of information from department heads who contribute updates, a list of upcoming meetings and various correspondence and sundry announcements.

This week the City Engineer gives an overview of his department's current projects. Also, there is an interesting list of items that were salvaged from the old MN DOT building by Habitat Restore. The building is being demolished in preparation for future redevelopment.

On the front page of the City's website you can link to the RFP for facilities management services for the event center and find information about the upcoming Police Auction that will be on Thursday, May 7th at 5:00pm.

Eco Expo at Paul Bunyan Mall

By Tab, The Calgary Sun

If you missed the Earth Day events on Wednesday, there is still time to take part in celebrating the earth.

The Eco Expo, organized by the Headwaters Earth Day Committee will be held Saturday 10-4 at the Paul Bunyan Mall. Guest speakers will begin at 11 AM and include Mayor Richard Lehmann, BSU Sustainability Coordiantor, Erika Bailey Johnson, Rural Renewable Energy Alliance’s Sarah Hayden, Representative John Persell, and HED Project Coordinator: Karen Kimbrough.

The press release for the event cites several city programs that are earth friendly: Project Pride, Bemidji in Bloom, Park Partners and Bemidji Green-UP. (Green-UP, a plan to plant 10,000 trees a year for 10 years is a Bemidji Leads project.) These are great programs, but at least one person thought we could do better. Former city councilmember, Onen Markeson wanted to form a sustainability committee for the city. His idea did not generate much excitement among the rest of the Council at the time and we still have not seriously considered sustainability.

It seems to make sense that we should, because the Mayor signed the U. S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement three (?) years ago at a clean water forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters. The agreement has specific strategies to meet or exceed Kyoto Protocol targets for reducing global warming pollution. A sustainability committee would be a step in the right direction to begin work on the strategies outlined. AND, we wouldn't have trouble answering the question I posed in this post about bike lanes.

Opportunity Knocks

To stripe or not to stripe. That is the question. Should Irvine Ave. from Third Street to 23rd Street have painted bike lanes on each side? The street is being reconstructed and the question about how to stripe the traffic lanes after it is paved has been raised.

Last year, Irvine was restriped with three lanes: a center turn lane and two driving lanes, one in each direction. Parking was also removed as part of the detour that was created for the Bemidji Ave. reconstruction. When the detour ended, the City chose to put the striping back the way it is today: two driving lanes and calendar parking on either side.

With the reconstruction project, the community has a chance to make the key route more user friendly for bicyclists and pedestrians. Should we
A.) Ban parking on Irvine and paint (5-6' wide) bike lanes on each side? or
B.) Ban parking on Irvine and paint a center turn lane and two driving lanes, one in each direction?

Some pros and cons that I thought of:
A.) Option A is the bike friendly option. Painting bike lanes has the subconscious effect of narrowing the road, which slows traffic. It also alerts drivers to the presence of bicyclists. This option works well for more confident bike riders, but not necessarily for families with children.
B.)Option B is the vehicle friendly option. Widening the road tends to speed up traffic. With a continuous turn lane, drivers don't have to slow down for cars turning left and naturally speed up. Bicyclists can ride with the traffic, but this only works for highly confident riders.

The picture at right shows a blue painted bike lane in Europe.

How we paint the road depends on our goal: slow traffic and improve bike safety with marked routes or move traffic unimpeded from 23rd Street to 3rd Street and let bicyclists ride with the traffic flow. If you care about this issue, I hope you will share your opinion about this issue, either here or by calling city hall.

You Ain't Goin' Nowhere

Yesterday I wrote about Robert Putnam's research on how mobility (moving a lot) affects civic engagement. He concluded that high mobility tends to decrease participation in community. Well, if that's true, a blurb from the New York Times in the Star Tribune today was good news for civic engagement: "Americans Stayed Put Last Year." According to the report, "fewer Americans moved in 2008 than in any year since 1962."

"It does show that the U.S. population ... seems to have been stopped dead in its tracks," said William Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution.

The housing crisis and recession have changed how much we move. Maybe it will also change how much we volunteer.