Food

Health Problems that diet can minimize
cancer
heart disease
adult and child diabetes
us has the highest obesity rate of any industrialized nations
exercise-sprawl + obesity

Omnivore's Dilemma
What to eat for dinner?

• The Industrial Agriculture, corn and meat heavy diet
• The Industrial Organic diet (whole foods, earthscan)
• The locally grown organic diet

The Local Food Movement: How and Why

• Number of Farmer's Markets
• 1755 in 1994
• 4,385 in 2006 source USDA
• Number of Community Supported Agricultures
• 50 in 1990
• 1,000+ in 2008
• Organics increasing in sales at 20% a year
• Wegmans, Whole Foods, Wild Oats
  

Malthus
predicted that pop would outstrip food supplies
food output increased WOOT WOOT
but increases in crop yields leveled off
overfishing is a major problem

Fish
save them with no fish zones

Moving on to Farmland and SHit

Conservation Reserve Program
36 million acres of highly erodible soils taken out of production
Conservation Compliance--Soil Conservation Plans reqired for highly erodible soils or no fed farm programs.

Water
Irrigation--salinization of soils and oerdrat of groundwater (Ogallala Aquifer)- use drip irrigation
In 1996, American farmers irrigated more than 53.3 million acres
Between 1982-1997, the amout of irrigated famrland in the Western states delined by 1.5 million acres, suggesting that cities and water districts are buyin up water rights from farmers
drought

fertilizers and pesticides

1996 Food Quality Protection Act set "acceptable risk" levels of chemical residues in food.

us exports about 50 billion a year but imports 38 billion

what are we exporting? corn, wheat, soybeans, rice. About one out of every four acres grown in the US groes to the export market

what are we importing? Apples, fruits, berries, some meat, fish, wine, beer, scotch, coffee, bananas

Geneticaly Modified Food
Pros: les fertilizer and pesticide, Increased production BGH
Cons: Long term effects uncertain, consumers don't know what they are eating,, europeans wont import our genetically modified grains

sewer sludge

limits to growing food

• competition of land between farmers and developers--2 million acres a year converted to no-farm uses, of which about 600,000 acres are prime farmlands
• Urban edge ag 35% of US food production but most of nation's fruits veggies and milk
• imported foods grown with DDT and other pesticides banned in US

if you are spending more than $10,000/acre on farmland, it is too much.

5 Challenges for Agricultural Land Preservation

1. Profitability
   
2. Safe and environmentally sound management
3. passing the ranch down
   
4. resisting to sell the land for development
5. protect land from conflicting uses and conversion to famr devleopment

Impermanence syndrome: Farmers stop caring for their land because they think it is going to be bought by a developer. This is an indicator of an unstable agricultural land market.

Federal Planning for Farmland
No federal policy on the preservation of farmland
Farmland Protection Policy Act 1981

• federal agencies should avoid projects that would convert prime farmland
  
• does not give private citizens any authority to oppose federal projects
• federal gov can convert land with impunity

Farmland Proection Program (1996)

• $ for states for conservation easements

Farm Bill 2002

• 985 million over 10 years
• state and local government apply to the National Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)

Federal Soil Management Programs
1985 Farm Bill (HUGE SUCCESS)
3 path breaking provisions for soil conservation

• Required owners of 120 acres of highly erodable lands to draft plans for conseration
• Sodbuster clause: if you plow highly erodable soils you will not recieve your federal subsidies
• Conservation Reserve Program: pays farmers not to work on that soil for 10-15 years
• managed by the Farm Service Agency of the FDA

Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program

• pays farmers to plant in former cropland and restore wetlands.

Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP)
1996 Farm bill
Financial, technical, and educational help for land owners to install filter strips, tree buffers, and management plans to address soil erosion and water quality problems

Water Management (Fed)
Wetlands Reserve Program (1990 Farm Bill)
3 Volunteer Strategies
1. Cost-sharing Agreements, gov pays 75 % to restor wetlands
2. Purchase of 30 year term easements @ 75% of easement cost
3. Purchase of easements in prerpetuity with federal gov paying 100% of wetlands restoration

Federal Rangeland Management
Bureau Land Management--> manages the range land under multiple use, sustainable yeild
criticized for favoring livestock subsidizing these industries

State Farmalnd Programs

• Plannig tools awarded to state
• Purchase development rights
• Transfer of development rights
• preferred property taxing
• right to farm lands
  

cosumnes

Environmental Planning: WILDERNESS & WILDLIFE

Wilderness

• settling in america was about conquering wilderness
• Mckibben: The End of Nature
• Legislated Wilderness: ADKs

Conservation vs. Preservation

• Pinchot vs. Muir
• Sustainable use vs. no productive use
• 1897 Forest Conservation Act vs Sierra Club
• Leopold
• Thoreau: rode the middle

Federal Government and Wilderness

• Fed owns 600 million of 2.2 acres
• Main agencies: Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Federal GOv owns more than half of Alsaska, Arizona....
• Started as a utilitarian view: landscapes are aluable if properly managed
• national forest act 1905
• national parks 1916
• now government takes a stewardship role more often

Wilderness and National Forests

Wildlife Habitat

• The united States has more than 200000 native species of plants and animals about ten percent of the world's known species, and contains 21 of the worlds 28 different types of ecosystems.
• About 7 percent of America's native species are in critical condition, 8 percent endangered, and 16 percent vulnerable.
• Most of the nation's ecosystems have suffered a loss of three-quarters of their original system.

9 causes of wildlife loss

1. land conversion to suburbia
2. land degradation: soil erosion, overgrazing
3. freshwater shortages
4. dams, diversions, and water withdrawals
5. invasive species
6. over-harvesting and poaching
7. climate change global warming
8. ozone depletion
   
9. pollution

Strengths

• There still is considerable intact land out there
• funding for land preservation
• support from public, sports groups, private land trusts
• landowners who love their land

Weaknesses

• lack of cooperation among local governments
• lack of watershed planning (boundary issues)
• impaired waters (over 40% are impaired)
  
• the rush to the ex-urbs, beyond the suburbs
• pressure on wildlife

Opportunities

• Public-private partnerships
• funding/incentives
• infrastructure investment for more compact development
• regulation
• design

Continued Threats

• fragmentation of land holdings, eurban development
• run up in land values
• loss of wildlife habitat
• water pollution from on-site septics, urban stormwater runoff, suburban lawns, and agricultural run-off
• economic downturn

Landscape Ecology

• How multiple ecosystems fit together in a regional landscape of human and natural systems.
• the patch size and shape are important for dtermining what kinds of species are able to live there
• a critical mass is the minimum land or water area needed to support a healthy number of species and species types
• resilience is likely to be greater where there is a critical mass of plant and animal species.
• mammal species need a population of about 500 to remain genetically healthy (CRITICAL MASS)

Biodiversity

• A measure combining the variety of plant and animal species, the populations of each species, the interaction among those species, and the overall health of an ecosystem.
• High biodiversity creates very productive environments that generate substantial environemtnal services: climate moderation, nutrient recycling, water purification, and recharge, oxygen production, and assimilation of waste and pollutants.
• Example: Dutch Lime Disease

Loss of Biodiversity

• Habitat destruction (filling wetlands, plowing, overgrazing, or paving grasslands, fragmenting habitat and migration routes with roads, and siting sprawled and scattered development
• hunting
• qualitative changes that degrade habitat such as the transition from a forest to a tree farm
• the innovation of non-native plants, insects diseases and animals.

Planning for wildlife

• make a core wildlife area
• create buffer zones around it (with distance and allowable use)

Habitat Loss

• The larger the size of undeveloped tracts, the less human intrusion is likely to conflict with wildlife
• The development of roads, houses, and commercial areas fragments wildlife habitat into smaller and often unsustainable areas
• roadkill.

Bioregionalism

• a bioregion is a distinct collection of plant and animal ecosystems that function in certain ways and have particular needs for survival. A bioregion may consist of up to several local ecosystems with differing types and amounts of plants and animals.
• the concept of bioregionalism is the protection of native plant and animal species from non-native species, and maintaining native habitat in the face of development pressures.
• like an eco system but at a larger scale (based on temp, percipitation, watersheds, microclimates and something else).

Exotics and Invaders

• the Kudzu vine in the south arrived in the 1940s and has igorously proliferated
• In the 1990s, the zebra mussels in the great lakes
• There are 7,000 invasive species already here. COST 130BILLION a year.

Habitat Protection Strategies

• Concentrate habitat and species protection efforts on "hot sports" where there are large numbers of plant and animal species
• California and Hawaii have the greatest diversity of plants and animals of all the states, and the largest number of threatened and endangered species.

The SLOSS Debate

• Preserve a single large habitat area or,
  
• preserve several small areas
• pros: large is good
• cons: how do you get everywhere?

Endangered Species Act

• Habitat Conservation Plans WILL BE ON THE EXAM

The Federal Endangered Species Act of 1973

• endangered: endanger of extinction throughout all or significant portion of its habitat range
• Plant and animal species worldwide are becoming extinct at the fasts rate since the dinosaurs of 65 million years ago. Over the last 100 years, some 70 vertebrate and 200 plant species have become extinct in North America
• Threatened and endangered species "are of esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational and scientificvalue to the Nation and its people."
• Soecies such as frogs and salamanders act as "indicator species" of the health of local and regional ecosystems not just for wildlife, but for humans as well.

ESA II

• The ESA applies to all land in the US and an estimate 70% of threatened and endangered species live on private land
• The ESA prohibits any willful "taking" of threatened or killing endangered species: i.e. killing, hunting, harming, capturing, collecting, or destroying its habitat.
• For violations of the ESA, fines and up to 12 months in jail. Any citizen may file suit against any person, business, or agency for violations of the ESA.

ESA III

• USFWS and the National Marine Fisheries Services administer the ESA
• identify plants and animals that are threatened or endangered with extinction, and ensure that private and government actions do not harm these species.
• The agencies draft and implement "RECOVERY PLANS" to enable a threatened or endangered species to recover to a sustainable population. The Fisha nd Wildlife Service may also re-introduce spcies into former habitat e.g. wolves into Yellowstone National Park in 1990s.
• The secretary of Interior may declare a plant or animal species as endangered if the species "is in danger of extinction throughout all of a significant portion of its range." A threatened species "is likely to become and endangered species within the foreseeable future". A species must be at risk for one of the following reasons

1. the destruction or threatened destruction of habitat
2. oversuse of the species for commercial, scientific, educational, or recreation purposes
3. disease or predation
4. lack of regulations to prevent a decline in population and
5. other natural or man made factors threatening survival.

• As of 2008, there were 1238 animals and 747 plants listed as threated or endangered. The number of threatened and endangered species has more than tripled since 1980
• Hawaii has the most listed species at 308, followed by California and Florida
• From 1973 to 2004 108 species in the US became extinct
• the normal rate of extinction would have had 4 species become extinct over that time
• but 68% of the species on the list stabilized or are increasing in numbers

Shortcomings

• REACTIVE
• NOT COMPREHENSIVE: the targeting of specific species and their habitats tends to overlook the need to protect entire ecosystems and biodiversity in general
• landowners fear they will lose the abiloity to use or sell their land
  
• shoot shovel and shut up

Critical Habitat v. Development Rights

• No direct federal govt control but federal agencies can take steps to make development difficult (e.g. NEPA process)

HABITAT CONSERVATION PLANS

• a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) is a contract for large scale ecosystem management usually between the federal government and private land owners. State and local governments may be included as well.
• Provisions for Habitat Conservation Plans were added to the Endangered Species Act in 1982 to clarify where development would be allowed and where habitats should be protected
• HCPs designate critical habitats that are essential to the survival and recovery of threatened and endangered species and hence are off-limits to development
• HCPs also identify lands where development is allowed. An HCP may apply to a single species or several species. A plan may cover a small amount of territory or up to thousands of acres, and can influence forestry, ranching, farming, and urban and suburban development patterns
• HCPS for large areas can run to more than 1000 pages. HCPS are typically set up for 30-50-100 years.

PROCESS OF HCP

• In an HCP the applicant/developer agrees to minimize the "take" of listed and as yet unlisted endangered species to the maximum extent possible
• The applicant in turn receives an "incidental take permit" and "mo surprises" treatment, which absolve the applicant of responsibility for habitat and species conservation on land designated for development so long as a recovery plan for the species is in place
• A further incentive is the "safe harbor agreement." This allows a private landowner, who voluntarily "creates, restores, or improves," threatened or endangered spceies habitat to a certain biological standard, freedom from future ESA regulations if a new threatened or endangered species is attracted to the property.

HCP Cont.

• The HCP approach was remarkably popular under the clinton administration as a way to try to strike a balance between property development and the protection of wildlife habitats
• From 1982 to 1993 only 14 HCPs were implemented. But as of 2002, there were more than 400 HCPs covering 16 million acres, including one-tenth of the commercial forestland in the Pacific Northwest.

Biolgoical Principles for Local Habitat Protection

• Maintain large intact areas of native vegetation needed to support animal wildlife by preventing fragmentation through development
• set priorities for species and habitats to support and improve the numbers and diverse locations of those species
• protect critical landscapes and regulate the use of vegetation in new developments to minimize the invasion of exotic plants.
• identify and protect wildlife corridors to connect habitats and provide uninterrupted movements
• protect are species and habitats ecological processes in those habitats
• balance the opportunity for recreation by the public with the habitat needs of wildlife.

Check book for financial shiiiit.

Land Use: Form Based Code

5 pieces of euclidian zoning

1. use
2. density
3. height
4. lot coverage
5. lot size

Euclidian: No sense form of form
separates uses

Performance Zoning: You can mix uses BUT trying to regulate the impacts of the land use. It doesn't tell you what the development is going to look like. Generally what happens is, "oh well, you can do whatever you want as long as the impact is not too bad."

Planned Unit Development: You can mix uses BUT they are project by project, they are a floating zone (in the text but not on the map) that can happen anywhere. No sense of form.

Form Based Code:
Prescriptive, not proscriptive

1. Regulating Plan
1. map of FBC areas: building types that are allowed in that area, building form standards,
   
2. Building Form Standards, height min & max, storeys, functions, alignment
   

How do develop a form based code:

1. Visioning process: Charrettes
   
2. Goals and Objectives --> put in the Comp Plan sections that involve mixing uses: Housing, Economic, Development & Community Facilities; also, the future land use map because it identifies areas where you want to use your form based code (how widely used is the form based code?)
   
3. Public Spaces: sidewalk width, street width/design, streets, trees, furniture, lamps
4. Administration: how you pick the applications and process them? Condition in zoning. Use Community Viz
   

Form Based Codes
Appearance over functions
Americans fear two things: density (crime, higher taxes) and sprawl
Design Review is typically found in historic towns and districts
Regulates the appearance of new buildings
form based codes have wider application and give predictability to the appearance of what will be built.

Development Review Process
Require developer to provide a 3-D presentation of what the development will look like and how it will fit into the surroundings
e.g. community viz
serves as a verification of the FBC

Key Features of a Traditional Zoning Ordinance

1. Uses allowed
2. Density
3. By right, special exceptions, conditional uses
4. height
5. lot coverage, FAR
6. Setbacks

Parallel Codes: combining euclidian and FBC
What's good about it is that it has both text and graphics

Urban transect Zone:

Form Based Zoning
How does it differ from Euclidian Zoning?
Why are environmentalists a problem?

Duany: The Difficulty
fear of development, sprawl, lack of trust in development
Environmentalists vs. new urbanists: density is the issue, so low density results
Enviros are not about "place making " but minimizing environmental impacts (ecological footprint--or so they think).

Duany II
Need for connected streets, avoid or minimize traffic congestion (not cul-de-sacs)
Inside Portland, OR UGB weak on design. So there is a lot of "constrained sprawl." Need for a FBC inside growth boundary.
The transect and transec-based zoning
T1-T6, but T-3 and T-4 can be problems


Transect:
What would you use a special district for: locally unwanted land use (LULU), industrial center

Seaside FL

1. Compelling urban design
2. Effective public process (buildable plan)
3. Better development regulations: simplyify or avoid case by case design review process and design review board decisions
4. traditional zoning is use-based: too many zoning categories (FAR not great)
5. New urbanists: for first, management of sites second, use and density third.
6. a pattern book (what is this?)

meisner park

Louisville KY

October 23, 2008

You're hired to update the zoning code! Now what?

1. Future Land Use Map (FLUM)
2. Make and "As of" date

• Non conforming uses are the exceptions to this date:

1. Preexisting uses
   
2. Cannot expand
3. if destroyed by flood of fire or other act of man or god, they either cannot be rebuilt or must be rebuilt by 6 months after the event (this is the choice of the community during the drafting of the code)
4. grandfathered uses
   

• tangent: how do you get rid of billboards? make an ammortization clause (must get rid of billboard in five years time)

When you revamp a zoning code expect...an increase in filed development plans--> people submit their development plans before the change in order to be reviewed with the past zoning code.

• Zoning tends to be forward looking rather than reactionar
• nuisance ordinances: mow your lawn or else

Rezoning process:
who initiates?

• Planning Commission
• Developer
• Concerned Citizens

What should you (the planner) consider?

• what does the comprehensive plan say?
• spot zoning
• major change to the neighborhood
• what is the current use and zoning?
• what is the proposed use and zoning?

1. A piece of land is zoned R-1 and you want to change it to R-3, what do you do?

• Change the zoning map
• change the FLUM

2. You want to allow daycare facilities on R-1 properties. What do you do?

• Change the text in the form of an Amendment

The Re-zoning Process
1.Quasi Judicial

• findings of fact

2. Elected officials make legally binding decisions
3.Why is it a good/bad thing to go to court?

• it can set a precedent
• it is expensive and can engender lots of bad feelings

4. Re-zoning

Typical Rezoning Proposal

• Single to multifamily
  
• Residential to mixed use
• Agriculture to single fam res
• Ag to industrial
• Commercial to industrial

Conducting a Hearing

• Be respectful
• No more than five minutes from applicant to summarize case
• No more than three minutes from members of the audience (state name and residence)
  
• Tape record the meeting
• Warning--> end the meeting when there if the civility of the discourse declines.
  

Why is zoning poorly used (obviously this question is influenced by T.D.'s opinion)?

• Rigid separation of zoning
• Uniform setbacks
• municipal attorneys are afraid of takings challenges
• farmers and land speculators
• hunt for property tax base/fiscal zoning (zoning with community revenue in mind)
• often inconsistent with Comprehensive Plan

T.D. spent the rest of class showing pictures and going over the test (which he handed back).

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Zoning

What?

1. Regulate land use
2. Uses, density, height, setbacks, bulk coverage (FAR – floor area ratio)

• Have to watch how all these things interact (i.e. FAR can be effected by height limits)
  

Where?

1. LA pre WWII, NYC
2. Euclid versus Abler Realty 1926

• Zoning is okay under police power to protect health, welfare, and safety

• Euclidian Zoning

- separation of conflicting land uses

*common criticism to Euclidian Zoning is that you come up with cookie cutter style of development, 1960s cookie cutter development without sidewalks

3.Standard Enabling Act

- property values

Why?

1. Separation of conflicting land uses
2. Property values
3. Health, safety, welfare issues
4. Implement the Comprehensive Plan
5. 
   

How (hybrids)?

1. Map (developed from future land use map) and text
2. Identify zones (R, C, M, P, I) and districts within the zones (R-1, R-2, R-3)
1. Permitted Uses (by-right)
1. Single family – R-1

Go to these entities to get a permitted use:

Zoning Administrator (in smaller community)

Planning Commission (in larger city) to a staff person

1. Gives out Zoning permits
2. Rules on zoning questions
2. Special Exceptions Uses
1. Want to allow it to happen, but set certain standards on that use
2. i.e. in an R-1 district and want to put Daycare in home, must have a maximum number children allowed
3. Conditional Uses – i.e. maybe churches in an R-1 district
4. Not permitted – (if it is not mentioned in the permitted use, special exceptions or conditional use, it is not allowed) ie. Industry in residential neighborhood
3. PUD planned unit development, came about in the 1960s as a way to have negotiated mixed use

• Negotiated among developers and community through the planning commission

• Could have a floating zone in order to work a PUD

4. Overlay zone – shown on the zoning map and in effect creates a double zone

• Often used to protect environmental concerns (such as steep slope or flooding)

• Stricter provisions of overlaid zone and zone it is laid onto takes precedent

5. Performance Zoning: impacts, trees, berms, noise

• Hard to write accurately

• Elements can be written into an ordinance

6. Form Based Codes

• What is the built environment going to look like

• Because typical land use zoning does not give you an idea of what development is going to look like

*these techniques can be used to clean up the mess that 50 years of suburban development has caused. Planners will now spend their careers trying to correct.

Who?

1. Planning Commission – has ultimate responsibility
1. Staff and/or consultants
2. Perhaps a developer

Zoning Board of Adjustments (3 people, appointed)

• special exceptions
• appeals
• variances
1. physical
2. use – absolute no-no according to Daniels, has been used as a way to get around the planning commission and just use the zoning board of adjustments – should instead get a re-zoning of the property – could also be seen as spot zoning which is favoritism and will not hold up in court (spot zoning is illegal)

Exam

Some short answers (9)
Long answers (3)
Essay

Content: Water supply, water quality, air quality, something on climate change, CHAPTER 2, understand how all of this environmental planning relates locally to the comprehensive plan.

PRECISE/CONCISE/ACCURATE

Environmental Planning: October 14: WATER POLLUTION

Water Pollution

1. 40% of the nation's water ways are impaired (you can't swim or drink from them)
1. 20% improvement from before the clean water act
2. Public health threats
3. Increasing costs of clean up
1. almost always cheaper to avoid the pollution in the first place than to allow the pollution and pay to clean it up
4. Stormwater runoff
1. point (factories, sewage treatment) vs. nonpoint (can't pin it down) sources
2. non-point is 70% (the bigger problem)
3. cities--> combined sewer overflow (becomes point)
4. agriculture

3 kinds of pollution

1. physical
1. erosion
   
2. biological
1. bacteria
   
3. chemical
1. PCBs, PCEs
2. Nitrates and phosphorus are the two big ones know as NUTRIENT POLLUTION
1. Organic vs. Inorganic
2. nutrients are necessary for growth, but too much washes off and gets into groundwater. eventually it will cause algae bloom (a problem).
   E.G. CHESAPEAKE
3. when the blooms die they sink and suck up the oxygen resulting in HYPOXIA--the absence of oxygen E.G. GULF OF MEXICO (mississip holds all the agricultural runoff and dumps it)
   
4. Ground water
1. hard to clean up
2. recharge/filter issues
3. 
   
5. Surface
1. easy to pollute
2. moving (aerate)
3. wetlands/filter/buffer
4. temperature: if it is warmer it is not going to filter as easily (it is worse)
5. dissolved oxygen (when there is enough aeration the fish can breath. algae eats this up. fish die)
6. BOD: Biological Oxygen Demand, how much oxygen is being used and how much oxygen the water can hold. Measure of ability of wildlife to assimilate waste.

FIX

Clean Water Act 1972

1. Permits: NPDES--> original thinking was that we would eliminate all discharge into the water system, Administered by EPA
   
1. Permit contents:
1. what and how much you are discharging
2. five year permit
3. case by case
1. extremely difficult to determine the health of the watershed
4. point sources
5. Confined Animal Feeding Operation's have to have NPDES permits
6. Phase I and Phase II
1. for construction sites greater or equal to one acre.
2. silk fences
3. ponds
7. SPDES permit (speedies)
1. if EPA doesn't want to do it they can hand it to the state
2. Section 208
1. grants for sewage treatment plants; $ billions of dollars. they are now 30 years old.
3. Section 404
1. Wetlands
1. Army Core of Engineers-Permitting
2. How do you define a wetland?
1. one of the most controversial things in the last five years
2. land owners don't want their land to be a wetland because it is much more difficult to develop
4. Section 319
1. Non Point
5. Section 303(d)
1. every two years the state is supposed to send the EPA a list of impaired waters
2. TMDLs-->total maximum daily load
1. EPA ignored it for 22 years
2. National Resource Defense Council sues EPA
3. TMDLs are so much better because it is an assessment of what the WATERSHED can hold and still meet Class A and Class B water quality standards
1. figure out major pollutants in waterway
2. allocate an amount to each polluter
3. STATE's responsibility
1. the EPA can step in and do them...if they want

PROBLEM BETWEEN THE SCIENCE AND THE LAW

1. What is an estuary: it is where freshwater and saltwater meet
1. they clean freshwater
2. they create a very specific habitat for shellfish and mollusks
3. major breading and feeding ground
1. E.G. THE CHESAPEAKE

SLIDE SHOW

With more vegetation (sponging) you will have lower peaks

Los Angeles River

604 B state water quality planning and assessment grants. Can be used for monitoring water (TMDLs)

Three levels of treatment:
Primary: removes solids and some nutrients from the water. Primary treatment remoces about 60% of solids, which contain most of the chemical and biological contaminants in sewage,a dna third of the inorganic nutrients
secondary: uses chemical and bio treatments to break down organic matter and remove chemicals, Secondary treatment is the minimum treatment now required under the CWA for potable water, and nearly all municipal treatment plants treat sewage this level. Not two thirds of all US residents are served by secondary sewage treatment plants
Disinfection
after secondary treatment the treated water is disinfect with choline flouride or ozone to kill bacteria
Tertiary treatment is mainly use when the reviving body of water has a very high quality. One type is tertiary treatment is membrane filtration in which traps contaminants yet allows water to pass through. Tertiary treatment removes virtually all contaminants, including suspended and dissolved solids, chemicals, and pathogens. It is the only process that is effective in removing parasites such as cryptospiridium. Wastewater that undergoes tertiary treatment is generaly safe for drinking and swimming.

Commercial brings two problems: impermeable roofs and parking

Bringing Back the Chesapeake Bay:Environmental Panning Challenges and Opportunities

Lots of Ag, lots of forest,
The bay is most of maryland
48 rivers, 100 smaller rivers, 25 miles wide, 200 miles wide OBVI vulnerable to lots of non point pollution

shallow depth makes it difficult to flush out pollutants, the sun can much more easily warmed up.

excess nutrients cause algae blooms
submerged vegetation is key for fish
turbidity of the water also blocks sunlight to the vegetation
basics--> the veg is dying.

bivalves filter water--> oysters ROCK because of this

Primary Pollution Threats to the Chesapeak

• Nitrogen
• Sewage Treatment Plants
• Fertilizers on lawns and farms
• manure from livestock
• on-site septic systems
• cars and trucks
• acid deposition
• Phosphorus
• Urban Stormwater Runoff
• Put on plants around streets
• Detergent
  
• Toxics--Factories and Stormwater Runoff
• Sediment

2004

• The U.S. EPA includes the Chesapeake Bay on its list of impaired waters.
• The states bordering the bay must draft and implement plans to improve the water quality by 2010. Otherwise, the EPA will draft a TMDL plan for the plan.
• A low oxygen dead zone (hypoxia) in 40% of the Bay
• Loss of underwater grasses
• high turbidity
• rivers leading to Chesapeake a prob
• Susquehanna (headwaters in Oswego): most endangered river--American Rivers.org

Recent Land Use Change

• We found that rates of change across the Chesapeake Bay watershed are comparable to what has been observed in the Washington, DC area. Between 1990 and 300, there has been a 61% increase in developed area.

Eight Main Efforts

• Urban Storm Water Management
• BMP on Farms and Construction to minimize soil Erosion/Nutrient Loading
• Stream buffers with Trees
• Wetlands Restoration
• Reduced Use of On-Site Septic Systems
• Point Source Reduction
• Land Preservation
• Land Use Planning for Compact Growth

Marylands Smart Growth 1997

• Priority Funding Areas
• Live near your work program
• job creation tax credit
• brownfields redevelopment
• rural legacy program

Flush Ta
Maryland must upgrade 66 sewage treatment plants
MD households must pay $2.50 a month if on central sewer or $30 a year if using on site septics - pay for $750 million in bonds
Must reduce effluent from sewage treatment plants to 3mg/liter of Nitrogen and .3 mg/liter of phosphorus

Problem is that the Chesapeake is being impacted by the Sesquehana.

Chesapeake Bay Commission

• formed in 1980
• Maryland, Penn, Virginia
• legislative arm is the commission and plays and advisory role to legislatures
• 1600+ governments
  
• instrumental in Chesapeake bay agreements '83, '87, 2000.

CB AGREEMENT 2000

• super aggressive
• 50% reduction in nitrogen and phosphorus loadings
• permanent preservation of one-fifth of the land in the Bay watershed
• 8.5 billion over 10 years
• CBC said $18.7 billion

Maryland's Water Quality Protection Efforts
Farmland Preservation Program 1977
Critical Areas Law, 1984
Forest Conservation Act, 1991
ReLeaf Program, 1996
STATE PLANNING ACT, 1992
Tributary Teams, 1993
Storm Water Management Guidelines, 1983, 2000
Smart Growth Legislation, 1997
Smart Growth
Flush Tax s. Ethonol production

Design Guidelines for Smart Growth

• Density, walkability, mixed uses
• mass transit
• greenspace
• historic preservation and adaptive reuse
• brownfields
• infill
• smart codes

Land Preservation

• 15% inside the watershed is preserved
• preserve another 330,000 acres by the year 2020

Shortcomings

• County zoning varies considerably
• need better control of onsite septics
• lack of growth boundaries
• more mass transit
• growth tracking
• lack of regional government: There are 1650 local governemnts with the bay watershed, each with their own planning and zoning powers, subject to some state regulations

Good things
priority funding area
land preseration
bmp
watershed approach

Class notes/October 7

pick a water project or water situation
explain what the problem is and SWOT
what solutions have been tried
what do you recommend?
10 page double spaced.

Miami is a soul source aquifer
Florida has 5 water management districts
South Florida buys up a fair amount of land to try to restore the system.
Regional management districts are autonomous.

Lots of local shortage issues projected all over the country

Tampa
Seawater desalination plant

SAFE DRINKING WATER ACT 1974 and amendments

purpose: to reduce contaminants in public drinking water supplies
the act enabed the EPA to:

1. set national ddrinking water quality standards,
2. require water quality monitoring, water treatemnet, and the public reporting of contaminants in drinking water systems
3. fund source water protection programs to protect watersheds, aquifers, and wellheads, from potential contamination and
4. band the underground injection of hazardous wastes

Safe Drinking Water Act

• The EPA has the authority to regulate some 170,000 public water systems that provide 90% of the nation's drinking water. It is the responsibility of these systems to provide and adequate water supply of potable water to meet the present and projected future needs in the communities they serve.
• This acts as an incentive for private water departments to expand (bad idea)

SDWAII

• Public water systems also include more than 100,000 noncommunity water systems serving at least 25 people daily for six months or more a year primarily at larger business, recreational, and public sites and buildings.
• Only private water systems serving fewer than 25 people are not regulated by the EPA. Owners of individual wells supplying homes and small businesses need to test their own wells.

The SDWA established mandatory maximum contaminant levels for 90 drinking water contaminants (risk based standards)
The EPA also set secondary standards on heavy metals,
....

Surface Water Treatment Rules

• Nearly all communities that rely on surface water or surface influenced groundwater must filter and disinfect their water before it is distributed (except NYC)
• These new standards have resulted in many smaller communities abandoning their surface water or surface water influenced sources and seeking out new groundwater sources, to avoid the costs of building a filtration plant.

Wellhead Protection and Sourve Water Assessment and Protection

• The wellhead protection program requires each state to develop a program to protect the areas for community water supplies
• States must also develop source water assessment and progtectionprograms that address not only the well head areas but entire watersheds. SWAP programs require states to assess both surface and groundwater drinking water sources that serve public water systems.
• SWAP plans must include strategies for source water protection, including purchase of land or conservaiton easements and the implementation of wellhead protection ordinances and other land use planning techniques to signify limit new development and other potential sources of contamination near water supplies
• The EPA may designate a groundwater supply as a sole source aquifer for a city or area. If a federally funded project has the potential to pollute a sole source aquifer, the protect must undergo a stringent review.
• Setbacks (wetlands and streams, floodplanes)
• Future Infrastructure Needs
• The reauthorization of the Safe Drinking Water Act in 1996 included 9.6 billion in EPA grants to state and local governments and public water systems States have used the drinking water state revolving fund
  
• In 1997 the EPA estimated that community water systems would require investments of 138 billion between 1994 and 2014 to meet SDWA requirements for water quality.

Enforcement

• Most states have primary enforcement authority for the Safe Drinking Water Act. But the EPA has the power to enforce the ACT if a state does not to a proper job of enforcing the ACT states mus:
• maintain an inventory of the public water systems
• conduct sanitary surveys of public water systems
• collect annual compliance reports from public systems
• certify lab testing of public water quality
• ensure that new or modified systems comply with the state drinking water regs
• require public water systems to keep records and report violations
• assess fines for violations
• require emergency response plans for public water systems
• certify operators of public water systems.

You see with all of the Acts that there isn't a consistent level of regulation and enforcement across states.

Nitrates--> New Baby Syndrome

Class notes/September 30

Fossil Fuels

• U.S. is responsible for half of the worlds CO2 emissions
• Transportation
• Coal Powered Power Plants
• Deforestation
• Electricity
  

What's the Evidence?

• 1988: Shrinking Glaciers
• 1998 global warming a likelihood

Stern Report UK 2006

• Cost 1% of the world GDP a year (currently %350 billion)
• Failing to act would cut the world GDP by 5% to 20% a year
• Calls for a carbon tax
• Stern Report: The world must cut greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2100
• 550ppm is all C02 the world will be able to sustain

Climate Change CO2 Emissions
US CO2 emissions fell by 1% in 2006 from 2005 but they were up i17.9% from 1990
China overtook the US as the leading emitter of c02

Global Warming Threats

• Rise of 1.8 degrees F on average since 1900
• Glaciers moving faster
• rise in sea level
• coastal flooding and ice melts
• in 21C temps could rise by 2-10 degrees

Effects

• Increase in ocean temperatures, more frequent and violent storms: see hurricanes
• More open water means earth absorbs more heat, less ice (white) to deflect rays
• Droughts
• Cut off of Gulf Stream current to Europe
• as Greenland melts and fresh water dilutes to sale sea water
• Invasive species; moving north in US

What do we do?

• Kyoto Agreement: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change

Solutions

• Real pricing
• 2007 Supreme Court Ruling: EPA can regulate emissions of GHGs
• Why is a tax better than a Cap and Trade System
• Cap and trade system is more efficient
• allows the consumer to decide what they are going to do
• inspire innovation
• tax
• pass the cost to consumers
• sometimes too low
• organizational issue
  
• money goes into government
• Prevent and prepare, and repair
• get farms to reduce the use of ammonium nitrate which breaks

• California Passed a law in 2004 to cut greenhouse gases from cars and trucks
• Starting in 2009 carmarkets must reduce CO2 by 30% on they 2016 models
• 2006Cal and 9 Northeastern States setting up a cap and trade system for CO2
• Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI)

Pay someone (The Conservation Fund ) to plant trees to offeset your emissions
Set carbon emissions standards
US Supreme Court case June 2006: 12 states sued EPA to limit CO2 emissions from motor vehicles

• 100 million a year and growing
• planting trees is a good offset
• but an unregulated industry
• carban neutral is hip
• average US resident generates more than 20 tons of CO2 a year
• Lifestyle changes

Get Indians and Chinese to install scrubbers on coal fired
sunset the US coal fired plants from pre1970
invest in renewable energy
invest in mass transit
plant trees
approve no sprawl, require mixed use developments; growth boundaries; ban on site septic

China and cars
6 million in 2000, 20 million in 2006
10,000 miles of highway in 2001, 23,000 in 2006
Goal is 53,000 miles of freeways by 2030

James Lovelock: the Gaia Hypothesis
The earth is a single organism
Kenneth Boulding: spaceship earth
Recall the first law of ecologyL Everything is connected to evverything else
Cornucopians and energy companies; denial

Comprehensive Plan
Environmental Sensibility Analysis
Subdivision and Land Use regulations

• zoning
• balance between density issues of run off and
  
• identify environmentally sensitive areas

Capital Improvement Program

• planned investment

Environmental Action Plan
8 steps:

1. 
   
2. 
   
3. 
   
4. 
   
5. Vision statement
6. Action strategy
7. adopt
8. evaluate performance

Columbus Ohio- Get Green Columbus
6 Priority Areas

• Indoor and outdoor air quality
• improving recycling
• set up benchmarks
• put out progress reports

Better Development Layout

• Future Land Use map

Urban Villages: Seattle
residential urban village and neighborhood village, ten to five units per acre/limits density
Integrates design policy and

Loudon County (VA)Natural and cultural resources goals

• growth management goals
• community design
• encorporating environmental planning into their general plan

Denver

• Design guides for rehab
  

Chicago

• 2030 Metropolis Plan Concept
• Transportation Plan
• Creates more mass transit
• Decreases Emissions
• Decrease driving time
• multimodal
• TOD
  
• People live closer to work
• Farm land is preserved and protected
• integrates land use, transportation planning, finance, reduce reliability on property taxes

Oil

• Really bad for suburbs
• Peak oil
  
• peak is where we've reached the peak of cheap oil
  
• afterwhich we have to start drilling deaper and oil becomes more expenses and less cost-effective

Alternative Energy

• Clean Renewable Energy
• California and Texas have high capacity
• Solar
• passive
• active
• Solar Access Ordinance
• make it legal in building codes

Water

• impairment
• agriculture
• storm water runoff
• Philadelphia is at the downstream end of the Del and Skulyk
• Wildcat Sewers
• Discharge from sewer goes straight into the river
• desired development is concentrated in the middle
• Overlay districts
• you can constrict your zoning
• on a local level you want to prepare for the worst
• flood plane maps
• fema
• old maps
• innacurate
• even so, don't build there

Urban Parks

• key for revitalization
• urban waterfronts

Buildings in the US account for:

• Energy
• Material Use
• Waste
• Water
  
• Air quality
  

Air Quality

1950s and 60s

Manufacturing
Wood burning
agricultural
road building/dirt roads (sand)

Coal/Power Plants
Nitrous Oxide
Sulfur Dioxide
Particulates
Carbon Dioxide
Methel Mercury (bio cumulates in fish)

Vehicles
CO2
lead
CO
NOx

1970 Clean Air Act

• Establishes National Ambient Air Quality Standards
• 6 Criteria Polutents
• NOx
• SOx
• Lead
• Carbon Monoxide (CO)
  
• Particulates
• Ozone
• This was about public health
• EPA sets the standards
• State Environmental Agencies
• Command and Control Approach
  
• can fine the company
• compliance
• cost on industry
• obvi resistance from industry
• Carbon Dioxide
• EPA got sued to count CO2 as a pollutant
  
• EPA can now regulate CO2 though they choose not to
• Cap and Trade
1. You set a limit (Cap)
2. Reduce cap over time
• Coal Fired Power Plants
• Pre 1970s plants are exempt from the 1970 Clean Air Act
  
• Producing 50-60% of our air quality problems
• Vehicles
• gas was so cheap. dirt cheap. renewable source of pollution?
• fuel efficiency standards (CAFE 1977)
• problems
• average of your fleet rather than case by case
  
• classify SUVs as their own sector
  
• Catalytic converters (1975)
• Speed limit 1973: 55 speed when car is most efficient particularly for pollution emissions.
  
• 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments/1991 ISTEA
  
• Last truly major environmental piece of legislation passed in this country
• Created MPOs
• get a say in how that money is going to be spent
• recognized the link between transportation and air quality
• do 3 plans
• 20 year plan
• TIP (Transportation Improvement Plan 3-5 years)
• Projects
  
• State Improvement Plans SIPs
• create by 1990 Amendments
• MPO plans must be consistent
• don't have control over zoning
  
• SIPs must be approved by EPA
• non-attainment areas
• use sanctions
  
• main pollutants keeping them out of compliance
• Ozone/O3 (poison) -->comes from cars
  
• increase in VMP is greater than your increase in population -->indicator of sprawl
• emissions budgets
• EPA works ut a budget for the Metro area to follow and if they don't...SANCTIONS
• Air Pollution permits
• BACT/LAER
• Offsets
• Cap and trade
• lead:
  
• NOx : regional, used in the region until a few years ago
  
• SOx : they met their target 9 years ahead of time and at a lower cost than what was anticipated
• Chicago Central Exchange
• Kyoto
• took an American idea (cap and trade) and applied it to CO2

• attainment areas
• Denver is the only state to come into compliance
• Denver
• Attainment Report
• PM-10
• Particular Matter of 10 Micromillemeter
• PM-2.5 is the new reg
• State Agency dealing with air quality
• AND regional agency
• Mention no transportation control measures are going to be taken
• weird cause they are dealing with supa sprawl
• Denver just got light rail (T-Rex)
• 56 stations
• graduate of this program is in charge of finding out where these stations are going to go

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is Air?

• 80% Nitrogen, 16% Oxygen, traces of argon, neon, carbon dioxide
• 10,000 feet up
• Air has the ability to assimilate pollution
• an airshed is the local air supply

Air Quality in the City of Los Angeles

• 15 million people
  
• 20 million by 2030
• 80% drive
• mountain range holds smog in
  
• breeze from ocean side
• desert

Current situation
2nd smoggiest in the nation
90% of californians breath unhealth polluted air
78 days

TOD is their only hope

• ozone levels go down as pop rises
• LA region has a deadline of 2010 to meet all federal and state air quality standards. If they don't they don't get money federal highway funds
• the gap between what is needed for federal attainment levels and what is possible with current technology is 450 tons of pollution per day.

Present Responses

• Three government agencies with direct authority to address air quality concerns in the LA region:
• California Air Resources Board
• South Coast Air Quality Management District
• Souther Cal Association of Governments (SCAG)

California Air Resources Board

• Within Department of California EPA
• 11 members appointed by the governor
• Created by State Legislature in 1967; 3 goals:
• Attain and maintain healthy air quality
• What the ARB Does
• Sets and enforces emission standards for motor vehicles, fuels, and consumer products
• health based air qual standards
• conducts research
• monitors health
• AQMD
• 9 eleted members out of 12
• makes regulations
• must be approved by air resources board
• SCAQMD
• budget of 86 million
• funded by fees to industrial polluters
• Does not have authority to estalish emission standards but does issue permits
• SCAG
• Functions as the MPO for 6 county LA region. Covers 15 million people and 38,000
• make plans
• identify projects
• Responses
• San Joaquin Air Pollution Control District (located next to South Coast AQMD) is imposing air pollution impact fees on new development
• CAFE and emissions standards are the toughest in the nation
• Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) Program:
  
• Requires automakers to sell 2% pure SEVs, 2% advanced technology partial ZEVs, and 6% partial ZEVs.
• RGG=northeast states and california's cap and trade
  

Portland, Oregon

• Thousand Friends of Oregon
• stop the proposed highway because there will be more emissions
• LUTRAQ Study
• Transit Oriented Development
• Reduce air pollution and the reliance on automobiles...
• reduced the number of parking spots
• put stations in
  
• worked out

Orenco Station

• one developer
  
• 9 units/acre (you need at least 7/acre for mass transit)
• mixed used

congestion tax


price (getting the prices right), technology, regulation (public health and welfare), spending programs (choosing to spend money on mass trans vs highways), lifestyles (conservation).

Landis' 1st Lecture

• how and where economic analysis and planning fits
• projecting jobs and economic avitivity
• economic development strategies
• balance issues

Economic Analysis and Comprehensive Planning: Key Issues

1. How will changes in the national, regional (metro) and local economy affect the demand for sites (number, size, location) in my community? (passive)
1. what will this look like?
   
2. Which sites should be set aside for economic development? (more active)
   
1. where?
2. what size?
3. how many?
   
3. What can I do in my community to promote job growth and economic development?
   
1. what leverage do I have?
   
4. How much revenue (and resources, more broadly) of which type will future economic development generate for my community?
1. what can I tap into?

Comprehensive Planning Process

1. develop the plan work plan
2. structure the community participation process
3. baseline studies (inventories, past trends, current drivers of change, list of tools)
   
4. engage the community
5. formulate goals and objectives
6. develop the land use program
7. refine goals and objectives
8. develop "future" scenarios/alternatives
9. compare and evaluate scenarios
10. implementation
11. monitoring and updating

Economics belong in steps: 3, 5, 6, and 10

if tightly connected to city then will be impacted by what happens to philadelphia's economy.

Four Linked "economies" of interest

1. Local participation in regional (metro) industrial or jobs economy (-->commuting patterns, household income and wealth)
2. Local industrial or jobs economy (-->community resource base)
3. The retail and tourist economy (-->essential services and tax/fee revenue)
4. Local tax base (-->essential services and tax/fee revenues)

Economic Base model

• sales outside the region--><---Basic or Export Industries <--local inputs-->local-serving industries<--local serving industries--> local recirculation
• multiplier = ratio of total sales (or jobs) to export sales (or jobs)
  
• usually equal to about two or three
• you want to increase your multiplier

BASELINE STUDIES

1. What are the the major industries or sectors in our local economy? How do they compare to the region and nation?
2. What are the major businesses in our local economy?
3. Which local industries and/or businesses are growing/declining adn why?
4. Which if any local factors are constraining local industry performance ad grwth?
5. How equitably are the benefits of economic growth be distributed?

Land Use Class Notes September

RFP for:
Update of a 1992 Comp Plan for county in the Sun Belt: e.g. Prima County, AZ.
• Look at population projections
• Look at the population methods
o Look out for
• 1990 census to project 2010 cohort survival analysis
• cohort survival, look at the likelihood of survival of age groups and derive your population pyramids
 doesn’t take into account migration
• old people are moving there
• Mexicans
 Focuses mostly on women’s fertility is 2.1 kids
• Rate of Growth in U.S. from 1990 to 2000 was 13.2% or a little more than 1.1%/year
• US and Canada are the fastest growing populations in the industrialized world
o Look out for a trend line analysis
• 1970, 1980, 1990 → extrapolate from there
• in-migration is key to taking apart the exponential trend analysis
• Policy Based Method
o Takes into account land use availability
• Doubt they used it
What would our strategy be?
• Design based
• Location
• Carrying Capacity
• Estimated population
o American community survey
o School enrollment
o Housing permits
o Public Utility Co → addresses, households
• Assumptions to project to 2030
o Immigration/out migration
o Land use
o Economic activity
o Aging pop
o Climate
o Scenarios/alternatives: the good, the bad, and the ugly/high, low, medium.
• Does population just happen? Or can you use the comp plan or the projection to control


What is Your Vision

• And how does the current size and diversity and age of your pop fit that vision?
• And how many people do you want and what type in 20 years?
• What is the optimal population?
  
• A number of communities will reach build out in our lifetime.
  
• county can buy land
• make growth boundaries
  

Population current levels and future projections

• The hear ot fht Comp Plan Process
• Key for land use and other

**MAKE CONNECTION BETWEEN POPULATION GROWTH AND LAND CONSUMPTION (for paper)

Population Projection Methods

• Something to consider: are you trying to come up with a single population number for a certain future date?
• Are you looking at a range of possibilities ans selecting the most likely population change scenario?
  

Methods

• Simple extrapoalation of population trend
• linear extrapolation: oppulation will change by the same number of people in each future year as the averagae annual change during the previous
• linear extrapolation ain't good

• Actual population change vs. projected
• risk and uncertainty: catastrophic events
• faster growing communities have larger estimate errors
• larger pop have smaller errors
• the more migration is a factor, the greater errors are likely to be listed above
• the farther you go out in time the greater the errors of your projections

More methods

• complex extrapolation: regression, times series data
  
• structural models: Impact of employment growth, household size, land use
  
• note: simple population projection methods can be just as accurate as complex methods
  

Range of Forecasts and Implication sfor Land Use

• 1%,2%, 3% growth rates over 20 years: and the Rule of 70 (in 10 years your pop will double if you grow at ten percent)
  
• if your pop grows at 5% for 20 years
• Dominant development form: urban suburban infill and limited expansion, new villages, sprawl
• Water quality impact: impervious surface and on-site septics-water supply
• land consumption
• infrastructure costs
• when build-out will be reached
  

September 16th Class Notes

Economics is about allocating resources so Environmental Economics is about allocating natural resources

• Choices:
  
• price and markets
• accessibility (limit accessibility-->queue)
• e.g. Oklahoma--first come, first got the land.
• Merit/Public good
• Lottery
• Problems faced in Enviro Economics
• Rationing system (willingness to pay)
  
• pollution clean up
• public vs. private resource
• externalities
• subsidies for the kind of development you want
• valuation
• property rights/access
• biological issues that markets do not pick up on.
• markets are short term oriented but the environment is about longevity.
• market failure--a matter of degree
• Public's price of a good is equal to the private price
• market failure occurs when these aren't equal
  
• Some ways of dealing with market failure
• Raise price- tax
• Lower price- subsidy
• Regulations->technology, raise standards across the board
• The economics looks something like this: http://marketpower.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2007/05/31/beermarket2.jpg
• Increase price of oil
• income effect: it's a big impact on peoples' income
  
• substitution effect: people drive less
• OPEC: Just reduced the production of oil so people will use less (cause price is increasing). We will have oil for longer because of the glorious OPEC cartel. God Bless.
  
• Inelastic demand: you are dealing with a good you have to have. Reduce supply-->increase demand-->make more monehhhh
• Common Property Resource
1. Entry
   
2. Technology
   
3. Population growth
• I=PAT
• e.g. Oceans and fish
• global fisheries are not in good shape
• difficulty limiting entry--limiting boats
• technological advancements in fishing make the fish not stand a chance
• demand increase?
• Safe havens (Australia)--> sink the ships of those who fish Pategonian tooth fish
  
• if it is a luxury good it has an elastic demand curve which allows you to make more money by increasing price
• Valuation
1. ANWR
1. Ask public how they value ANWR/Public WTP
2. Option Demand-->6 months of oil compared to how much we would pay to go to the ANWR and visit--as if!
2. Glennon and water
1. What is the price on groundwater?
1. nothing. it is free.
2. extraction costs
3. distribution
2. Who owns the water?
   
1. water as a public trust-->VT and Hawaii (government has the responsibility of managing goods for society: yet still issues between public trust and private resource)
3. National water policy?
1. None. Blasphemous.
4. Water charge per square acre makes California farmers consume shitloads of water because hey! they are paying for it anyway! (not a great conservation policy).

Ethics and Ecology

• Ethics-Standards and Philosophy to Live by
• Ecology-the study of interaction of plants and animals and humans in an ecosystem
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient
  

Environmental Ethics

• Preservationists-keep pristine; wilderness for the sake of nature
  
• Conservationists-stewardship, manage resources
• John Muir (preservationist) vs Gifford Pinchot (conservationist)

Preservationist Examples:

• National Parks--Yellowstone 1872
• 1964 Wilderness Act
• 2000 Clinton "roadless order"
• NY Adirondack Park, Catskill Presere
• NY State OPen Space Plan
• Trustees of Reservations 18902 Mass
• Scenic Hudson--Storm King
• Open Space Institute- Sterling Forest

Wise Use of Natural Resources

• 500,000 abandaoned minds
• 500,000 brownfields
• Importing 20 billion in oil each year
• half the topsoil in Iowa eroded in 150 years
• 40% of waterways "impaired
• 80000 dams
• Economic prosperity: living off capital vs living off interest
• physical growth vs the steady state economy (John Stewart Mill)

Wise Use of Natural Resources

• Natural Resources Conservation Service
• County Soil Conservation Districts
• NEPA
• Recycling in 9,000 cities and towns
• Renewable Energy
• Farmland Preservation: Fed, State, Local
• Greenways

Environmental Justice

• The fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color or income with respect to the development implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policy-EPA
• Every American hs the right to a clean environment
• LULUs

Four Schools of Thought Today

Cornucopians-

• We are in no danger of running out of natural resources. The market system rations natural resources to their highest and best uses. Advances in technology and human ingenuity will work wonders.

• Fact: The US consumes less water today than in 1980

Alarmists

• The US and the World are in serious trouble from depletion of natural resources, global warming and pollution, Action must be taken as soon as possible.

Cautionaries

• Precautionary principle
• Some situations warrant action, others warrant study
• Some environmental situations are improving
• Fact: US air and water quality are better today than 38 years ago. Population growth proses long term concerns.

Deep Ecologists

• Nature has a right to exist separate from benefits to humans
• Nature is sacred

Conservation
Aldo Leopold- A sand County Almanac: the realtionship between humans and the land
land as a community not acommodity
masters over nature or stewards of the land

Ecology I
Ecology and ecnoomics both are from the Greek, oikos, which means "household." Ecology is the study of the household or one's surroundings. Economics refersto the management of the household.
Ecology is the science of how plants, animals, air, water, soil, and climate interact in a specific...

Ecology II
An ecosystem consists of individual organisms, a pop of each type of species, and a community of several types of species,
the diversity of plant and animal species defines the health of eco systems
ecos are thought to evolve through the state from immaturity ot a more stable climax stage. the greatest amount of species diversity and reilience is thought to occur at the climax stage. this ecosystem is most able to maintain a closed loop of growth, death, decay, and reuse.
key: maintianing "biodiversity" in a community or region

Frogs are an indicator species--> indicate toxins in water

Ecology III
Ultimately, humans depend upon ecosystems for food, water wuality and wuantity, air wuality, and the absorption of waste. Thus humans have a cery real interest in making a sustainable environment

three lawseverything is connected to everything else
first law of thermodynamics-matter cannot be created or destroyed everything has to go somewhere
there is no such thing as a free lunch
every action has a a cost
you can't fool mother nature.

Natural Cycles

• Hydrologic- rainfall and evaporation
• dams, raising the level of humidity
  
• carbon-atmosphere, plants, fossil fuels
  
• acid rain, green house effect
  
• oxygen- humans inhale and plants exhale
• air pollution makes it harder to inhale (childhood asthma is on the rise)
• using up the ability for lakes to hold oxygen
  
• nitrogen-plant and animal nutrient
• algae blooms that choke out other forms of aquadic life
  
• phosphorus-plant and animal nutrient
• nutrients are building blocks of amino acids so everyone needs them to sustain life
  
• pollution disrupts these cycles

Legal Issues in Environmental Planning

• Different types of Law
• Constitutional Law
• Legislative
  
• Judicial
• Quasi-Judicial
• Administrative
• Common Law
• Common Law-inhereited from English Law
• No one can use their land so as to harm another person-common law
• (freedom only has meaning within limits, otherwise it is chaos)
• Public Trust Doctrine- Mono Lake
• LA was sucking water out of Mono Lake, lowering the water in the lake so the cayotes could get to the islands and eat the birds so a judge ruled that they have to keep a certain amount of water in the lake
• Federal Environmental Laws
• National enironmental Policy Act
  
• Required a review
• Lead Agency coordinates review

1. Determine whether an Environmental Impact statment is need or issue a FONSI
2. Public comment is allowed
1. EIS elements
1. Current conditions and impact of action
2. Unavoidable adverse environmental effects
3. Alternative to the proposed action
4. The relationship between local short term uses and maintaince and enhancement of long term productivity
5. Any irreversible and irretrievable commitments of resources in the proposed action and;
   
6. Ways to minimize the negative impacts of proposed action.

• An EIS can be a very long doc
• Can be challenge d in fed court
• most EIS Statements are for highways
• EPA exempt from...
• reactionary

NEPA Court Cases

• Calvert Cliffs'Voordinating Committeev. Atomic Energy Commission
• Chelsea Neighborhood Associations . U.S. Postal Serice
• Named Individual Members of the San Antonio Consercation Society v. Texas Highway Department

Should Trees Have Standing

• Mineral King Case (sierra Club v. Morton)
• Disney Wants to build a Ski Area in a national forest
• Won the Case but ever built
• Should nature have a representative?

EPA Can:

1. Present testimony on Environmental Impcat Statements through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)
2. Block large development projects that EPA feels would do irreversible damage
3. clean up hazardous waste sites
4. ban the production of hazardous substance
5. require states to link land use planning and management of air quality
6. withold federal highway funds from states and metro regions that do not meet national ambient air quality standards and
7. conduct research on toxic substances and set safety standards for air and water quality based on "good science."

State Environmental Policy Acts

• 22 states have SEPAs
  
• Covers all public and some private actions by state and local governments
• eis process (or neg dec)
• fox guarding hen house problem
• SEPAs, like NEPAare reactive not proactive
• what about developments of regional impact
• NY example?

Attitude L a make it do b do without c use it up or d wear it out (minimize waste)

Where is the Community in Space and Time?

• Community Profile
• location, geography, and history
• SWOT: Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats
• Needs Assessment Survey: What do residents like or dislike about the city, community or county.
• Collect facts, not just opinions

-------------------------------------------------------

• Vision
  
• can create a framework for the rest of the process
• needs assessment survey*** super important
  
• charette
• builds trust and confidence in the incoming consultant
• this is the particular reason/value of starting with visioning.
  
• Facts (maybe you want to do one first)
• Analysis-->Goals and Objectives
• SWOT can get embarrassing to elected officials
• it is good to run this by the elected officials first

Sources of Info-Public

• Federal-Cenuss Bureau: American Fact Finder: POp, Housing, Econ Activity
• Topographic Quad maps from US Geological Survey
• Floodplain maps-FEMA (badly out of date)
• State-GIS data layers, Economic bse Natural Resources, Geology, Aerial Photos
• Water Resources Board
• Economic Development Department
• Regional Planning Commission-pop econ base, transportation, housing
• MPO-transportaiton, land use air quality
• county-GIS data layeres, soils, econ base, transportation
• County Extension, local college, natural resources, studio class
• Community-history, housing (visual survey), community facilities, economic base, land use.

Current Land Use Patterns

• Mix of existing uses
• potential to accommodate growth
• infrastructure and transport (location and problems)
• potential for natural areas (parks, greenways, trails), working landscapes (farms ad forestry)

GIS Example from Lancaster County, PA

• County "flown" for ortho photos
• Property boundaries (poperty tax maps) superimposed on orth photos
• Property tax assessment keyed to each parcel by land use and buildings
• Soils layer, waterways layer
• Street and road networks
  
• Sewer and water lines

Land Suitability, Water Suitability and Infrastructure
land suitability: idenify constraints to development: steep slopes, welands, and floodplains, waterways, prime farm and forest lands

soils land
class one (slope of 0-3%) is good for development
class two (slope 4-15%) slope
class three--> needs engineering but possible for development

Water Suitability

• Identify Water Sources and Capacities: surface and ground-State Environmental Agency, Water resources Board
• Cities that depend completely on ground water-->sole source aquifer-->Schenectady, Miami; used faster than it can be recharched, contamination, difficult to clean up.
• Water quality and potential threats
• Identify impaired waterways: state 303 (d) report -Total Maximum Daily Loads
• Treatment facilities: State Environment Agency, PA Public Utilities Commission
• Water Lines
• Climate-recent trends
• NYC spent about a million dollars fixing their water system, then had to spend more

biggest threats:
agricultural farm run-off
sewer overflows

Devise a Suitability Rating Sstem

• No building on slopes over 15%
• No construction in known floodplains
• Wetlands: CSOs Duany comment about how we need more regional control
  
• How will landowners react to this system?
• Rating syste

Note Problems with Current Lan Use patterns

• Traffic Congestion
• poor drainage
• lack of pedestrian access
• areas with substandard housing
• parking
• site distance
• empty buildings and vacant lots
• flood probe areas
  
• brownfield areas
  

Calculate the Current Land Uses in acres

• Is this a good mix of land uses
• What is the problem with zoning lots of land for industrial? It's not happening.
• do we need more or less of certain uses
• total developed land, total vacant land
• is densification needed? in-fill potential?
• should the city be looking to annex land?

Calculate Current Land Uses in Acres

• is it a good mix o land uses
• Do we need more or less of certain uses?
• Total developvel
  

Readings for September 16th

Newman, Peter and Isabella Jennings. 2008. Cities as Sustainable Ecosystems: Principles and Practices. Washington, DC: Island Press.

Chapter 1: Visioning

This chapter focussed on the importance of vision in the success of sustainability. When people are involved in the process of thinking about their future, and engaged in the formulation of the steps that will get their city from point a to point b, they are far more likely to feel committed to those steps.

The vision statement should define the citizen's values towards the three e's, recognize the constraints of the community, and identify the priorities of the citizens. This will help in the implementation process.

In the first two stages, the people and planner should identify the ecological and social assets and constraints to help guide the visioning process.

Steven Ames' book suggests these elements for visioning:

• Involve key institutions in the community, including government and private sector groups
• Attract the support of key opinion leaders
• Formulate clear goals and objectives for the process itself
• Allocate sufficient resources
• Engage people authentically

Sub Chapter: Strategies for Visioning

Ask:

1. What do we value?
2. What are human needs?
3. What are our ethics? How should we treat each other and the natural world?
4. What is the role of technology?
5. What is the role of place in sustainability?

These numbered suggestions will correspond with the above listed numbers:

1. Relate vision to ideas of progress
1. "human needs are essential characteristics associated with human evolution and thus are constant across ass cultures and time periods. While needs remain constant, satisfiers, which are the ways in such needs are met, can vary across cultures and over time. "
2. Relate vision to Human needs
1. Max-Neef's forty cell matrix can be used to find symbiotic relationships between needs and satisfyers.
2. Nussbaum
1. This approach emphasizes "the possibilities for human unfolding, the qualities that allow us to fully express our humanity..."
3. Relate Vision to Ethics
   
1. Anthropocentric ethics
1. See humans as the locus of all value and the non human world only as a resource
2. Deep Ecology
1. movement founded on the concept of self-realization and biocentric equality.
3. Newman and Kenworthy developed ethics for sustainability; they suggest that the elements of environmental spirituality associated with indigenous ethics can also be found in Western spiritual traditions.
4. Relate Vision to Technology
1. "The current direction of modern technological development seeks to find escape from "the constraints of body, nature and place"
2. "the technocratic agenda is driven by the desire for security but, in the process of creating a thoroughly technological world, undermines the possibility of a sustainable world, a world worth caring for.
3. Develop technologies that facilitate intimate engagement with the world.
1. technology that fosters bioregional and community connections
5. Relate Vision to Place
1. A city should not try to be the most creative city in the world but the most creative for the world.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Daniels, Thomas, John Keller, Mark Lapping, Katherine Daniels, and James Segedy. 2007. The Small Town Planning Handbook (3rd ed.). Chicago: APA Planners Press.

Chapters 5, 6, and 7

Chapter 5: Information Resources for the Town Plan

Identifying Info and Resources: The planning commission should always know where the data is coming from.

Human Resources

• A planner will need good Technical Advice
• Ask local professionals (a banker about the economic situation, a business person about trade, a demographic contact, etc).
• Vlaunteer Labor is valuable

Equipment (outlined in book--pg 59)

Info to Collect

• Population info
• Census
• Regional Planning Agency
• Individual state and federal agencies for data on water quality, floodplain hazards, or major highway projects.
• league of municipalities for technical assistance
• one of the first things a planner should do is contact the LOM and ask for a list of publications available at little or no cost.
• Natural Resources Conservation Service
• Soils
• maps
• soil survey
  
• electronic GIS database

After these steps are completed it is time to contact local information sources such as tax assessors, engineers, surveyors, town and country clerks, building inspectors, etc.

• Published data
• US Census of Population and Housing
• National Association of Counties, Towns and Townships
• Legislative research service
• Secretary of State
• government documents section of your state's library
• Visual data
• google earth
• Base Maps
• Community clerk
• County engineer
• State highway commission
• more listed in the book page 62
• You need
• a housing base map
• land use maps
• community facilities
• soils
  
• transportation
  
• floodplain maps
  
• Visual Graphics

_____________________________________________________________

Chapter 6: Community Profile, Geography and History

Write your community profile last because it is a summary.

• Geography and History Overview
• highlight community on state reference map
• local chamber of commerce or tourism groups
• provide descriptions of features and locations
• History
• Particularly detailed around buildings important to tourism

--------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7: Population Projections and Characteristics

Population Characteristics

• several simple tables
• types and numbers of households (average household size included)

Comparing Pop Trends

• Is my community's population increasing faster, more slowly, or about the same as the pop in the county?
• Is the population in my community declining faster, more slowly or about the same as the population in the county and nearby communities?
• Identify the median age over the decadesA median age under 32 indicates a high number of young people

Interpreting the Population Info: Why do Small Towns Grow, decline or Remain Stable?

• 
  

class notes 9/9- "What are they going to do in Vegas? That's one of the major issues you are going to have to face."

what is planning?
problem solving
organizing resources to achieve goals and objectives
avoiding problems
another name for communism

What is environmental planning?
How to make choices about:
Natural environment: wildlife, wetlands, coasts
Working landscapes: farmland forests, mineral and aggregate resources
Built environment: redevelopment of cities and suburbs, greenfields development
Public health: air and water and toxics pollution clean up, pollution prevention.


The triple bottom line/Sustainability
3 types: economic, social and economic.

Environmental Sustainability: Intergenerational equity, stewardship, durability, waste management. Trying to match population size with ecosystem (carrying capacity/environmental damage).


social justice, economic opportunity, income equality----> environmental protection-------> overall economic growth and efficiency ==>i.e. green, profitable, and fair.

Why Plan?
*anticipate the change and shape it
*orderly growth and change
*save money
*sustainable economy and environment
*social issues
*future generations

We have a lot of people coming. How are we going to move towards greater sustainability while we add 3 million/year.

Getting the prices right--> getting the right type of environmental incentives. Not just regulating.

Three events that brought sustainability to the forefront:
Hurricane Katrina
Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth
Recent spike in energy prices

Read Elizabeth Colbert's book on how the scientists are in agreement on the affects of global warming.

More frequent extreme weather
Decrease in bio diversity
Sea level rise
Drying out in the great plains

US oil peaked in 1970.

Every year the Economist prints the reserves in each country and the number of years a country has left--the US has 11 years.

The Death of Environmentalism-->STOP BEING COMPLACENT!


Who does environmental planning?
*The Federal Government
*State Governments
*Local Governments
*Businesses (there is going to be some kind of regulation so they are trying to get on board a.k.a. long term business)
*Individuals (transportation modes, location of residence, technologies, recycling, reusing, vote)
*Nonprofit Organizations

Three Key Aspects of Public Environmental Planning
The level of government involved and responsible (federal, state, LOCAL)
the form of government activity*regulation command and control, financial incentive, public goods, ban-moratorium, design)
the degree of government action (what goals and standards, and how rigorously pursued)-clean air act

public good/merit goods-->non excludable and not appropriable.

The Case for a Federal Role:
*Without national standards and controls, a fear that states would lower environmental standards as part of interstate economic competition (currently happening0
*Environmental problems caused by interstate externalities- coal fired power plants and acid rain, water pollution, and nutrients in Chesapeake Bay
*Environmental justice

externality-->result of an economic activity that does now show up in that product.

The Cast for A State Role
*State review of developments of regional impact (DRI)-siting a regional mall
*Responsible for providing clean water to citizens of the state
Urban redevelopment--brownfields.
*Transportation dollars? (Jack)

MTBE-->all you need is a drop of it to pollute 50 gallons of water http://www.epa.gov/safewater/contaminants/unregulated/mtbe.html

The Case for a Local Role
*Ecosystems, watersheds (drainage system), and air pollution do not respect political boundaries
*Spillovers from one community to the next
*Land use, transportation, air quality connection (LUTRAC study, greater Portland)
*Land use-water quality connection eg The Chesapeake Bay

New Zealand does planning according to watersheds since 1995.


The Case for a Local Role
*Local governments have control over land use planning and regulation.
*Where development is located (and the type of development) can hae major impacts on the environment (e.g. impervious surfaces, thirsty industries, etc).

Why is Local Planing for the Environment Important?
*Federal government has turned most of the administration of the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act over to the states. And state administration varies considerably.
*Local development decisions have major implications for environmental impacts, e.g. South Miami-Dade
*Land use is political and all politics is local.


Steps in the Local Planning Process
*Decision to Plan
*Commitment to money and personnel
*Inventory

Elements of the Comprehensive Plan
1. A brief history and context
2. Economic base analysis
3. Housing
4. Transportation and Circulation
5. Natural Resource Inventory
6. Land Use Suitability and Future Land Use
7. Community facilities

I=PAT (Inventory = Population+ Affluence +Technology)
http://www.eoearth.org/article/IPAT_equation

Adding Environmental Planning into the Comprehensive Planning Process
*Action Plan (SO IMPORTANT)
*Benchmarking
*Annual Report on Environmental Progress, e.g. Columbus, OH, Sustainable Seattle, WA
--> usually there is no progress and officials don't want people to know.

Land Suitability, Water Suitability and Infrastructure
*The layers approach
*Developed by Ian McHarg
*One of McHarg's students founded ESRI, another Itergraph
Land Suitability: identify constraints to development: steep slopes, wetlands, waterways, prime farm and forest lands, wildlife habitats, geological formations, soils with hallow depth to bedrock.

GIS environmentally relevant layers: parcels, zoning, floodplains, wetlands, land cover, soils, reference framework, composite overlay.

Soils map: different soils have different permeabilities, different slopes, and different capabilities.

Problems on the cape: no central sewer system and the population is rising. Ground water is being polluted by septic but the people are too cheap to pay for central sewer out of fear that more people will move in.

Slow growth:http://www.slowgrowthinitiative.com/master.html


Speth-10 Global Environmental Crises: Thick Global, Act Local
*Ozone depletion by CFCs and other gases
*Climate Change-global warming-#1 threat
*Loss of crop and grazing land-soil erosion
*Loss of tropical forests-wildlife, watershed
*Extinction of species
*Population growth
*Freshwater shortages
*Overfishing oceans


*Pesticides
*Acid rain

Six Solutions
*A Stale or smaller world population
-currently 6.2 bullion, going to 9 illion by 2050
*Reduce mass poverty
*Environmentally-friendly technologies
*Environmentally honest prices
*Sustainable consumption energy food materials eliminate toxics
*Environmental education






------------------------------------

Brief Summary of Environmental History

1. 1890-1920
a. Parks and Playgrounds
b. City Beautiful/Hygiene
c. Garden Cities (E. Howard)
d. Wilderness (John Muir) vs. Conservation (Pinchot)
-Teddy Roosevelt sort of went between the two (National Park Service)

2. 1920s-1969
a. Ecological regional planning (Appalacian trail 1921, 1938(+)
b. New Deal: Tennessee Valley Authority clean up
c. Soil conservation service; now Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS)
d. EIA/Environmental Impact Assessment (McHarvy, scientific analysis of what's going on)
e. 1970 NEPA, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, Safe species Act (Command and Control approach)
d. backlash (brings in the use of financial incentives) i.e. the cap and trade approach to reducing sulfur dioxide.

3. Sustainability Era --> will probably involve both command and control and incentives.