New Rules, Old Goals

The worst thing developers can do is to build by the rules.

by Bruce Schimmel

More than 1,500 progressive town planners came to Philadelphia recently to hurl their spears at a monster of a bad idea. To beat back an invasive species that, in its short life, has consumed much of the countryside and sucked this city dry.

The creature these planning reformers want to kill is sprawl. And I think the planners of the 15th Congress for the New Urbanism couldn't have chosen a better place to stop this toxic monster, and to foster a healthier replacement.

Philadelphia is primed and ready for reform. Not only have we (effectively) elected a mayor who understands sustainable development, we also passed ballot initiatives that reconstitute an incompetent zoning board, and effectively put the ax to a '60s-style city zoning code that actually fed sprawl.

Sprawl is the spawn of the suburbs and the car. And 50 years ago, Philadelphia embraced the car. Neighborhood amenities like transit, walkable streets, nearby stores and schools were considered superfluous in the age of the automobile.

We had high hopes that cars would whisk suburbanites in and out, making the city rich. What happened, as we now know, is that hundreds of thousands of city-dwellers got into cars, and left.

Urban communities faltered without the density � the sheer number of people � to support neighborhood businesses, fill jobs and create wealth.

Philadelphia needs to reverse the outflow that bad planning created, and rebuild our neighborhoods to be environmentally and economically sustainable. And this is why it was such an excellent time for the New Urbanists to visit. As one reformer's lapel button proclaimed, "We do density right."

The New Urbanists have a very good plan. Extensive, but not radical � though you could say it's revolutionary in that it returns us to our roots. Because, in fact, the New Urbanists' guidelines revive the same ancient values on which this city was built.

"If you want to learn the best in New Urbanism," someone remarked at the conference, "the simplest way to do it is to go walk around Philadelphia and copy what you like."

The New Urbanists brought with them a pilot version of LEED for Neighborhood Development. It's a comprehensive rating system, much like the LEED system for buildings, which identifies many of the old neighborhood virtues that people now need again. In a world of rising temperatures and declining oil reserves, what's old in urban design is once again new.

You already know many of the things it takes to revive and future-proof a neighborhood: a location near transit that mitigates brownfields and loves the bicycle and the pedestrian. A place that's compact and walkable, with a diversity of uses, housing types and affordability.

Neighborhoods that reuse historic buildings and encourage greening and local food production, located near parks and other public spaces that foster civility, and help people feel human.

By LEED standards, this city really stacks up, because much of Philadelphia was built long before the advent of the automobile. So it's hardly outlandish to require LEED certification for neighborhood development in this city, despite the depredations of the last 50 years.

So what's stopping us? To begin with, the old rules, the sprawling ones we're about to throw out. The old rules made it nearly impossible to make good architecture. Ironically, as in the case of the project formerly known as the Barnes Tower, the worst thing a developer could do is to build something strictly by the book.

But, till now, the only way to bypass the old rules was to have a protracted battle between the developers' lawyers and community activists. You know the drill. It was an elaborate two-sided shakedown, with the councilman in the middle.

It's time for new rules. Builders and neighbors alike need clear guidance that cuts the councilman out of the loop. In fact, developers say they'd welcome a level playing field where the rules are defined and the process is predictable.

Philadelphia is ready for its star turn. And new rules based on old values could transform Billy Penn's lovely legacy into a standard of sustainability that'd be the envy of the nation, if not the world.

(bruce@schimmel.com)