A pizza slice of new urbanism life
By: Tim Chitwood, Ledger-Enquirer
For decades, urban planning has been a separatist movement.
All your different land uses -- office, retail, residential, manufacturing -- you had to keep 'em separated.
The result is what you see today: homes here, schools there, shops and grocery stores a four-lane highway drive away, offices a tedious commute. Everything's a drive, to the dry-cleaner, the dentist, the drugstore.
And if you can't get a pizza delivered to your new home in Deer Dale or Fawn Forest, then you have to drive to get that, too -- or make it yourself.
If we made pizza the way we develop land, we would divide up the ingredients and serve them separately, and the flavors would never blend, John Norquist of the Congress for New Urbanism told about 230 people Wednesday at Columbus State University's Cunningham Center.
We should build cities like we make pizza, he said: Mix retail with residential, put schools, offices, shops and services all on the same slice. Cut it up with avenues aligned to a grid instead of dead-end streets winding from cul de sacs to collector roads, so people get around more easily.
Online at www.cnu.org, the Congress for New Urbanism promotes functional, mixed-use neighborhoods, where everything is a five-minute walk or a short drive away.
That's not the way a lot of folks live today. They commute to work, sometimes an hour or more, using multi-lane expressways on which a pedestrian looks suspicious.
That's the choice such development offers, Norquist said: "You can be a criminal suspect walking along the street, or you can be in a car."
This wasteland of asphalt and concrete dividing homes and businesses can be fixed, and the market is ready to fix it, he said. "That's the beauty of America: We make mistakes, but we fix them."
Mixed-use, in-town living is hot now, he said: "The market likes urban now. The young people like it." They don't want to spend a lot of money on gas.
City planners say Columbus is adapting, allowing "Planned Unit Developments" like the Woodruff Co. is building at Veterans Parkway and Williams Road, with homes near offices and schools.
Downtown, there's the Central Riverfront District, with loft apartments over retailers and restaurants. And there's a mill overlay district to encourage the reuse of old textile mills for shops and apartments.
"And there's more that obviously can be done in certain situations and probably will be done as issues arise," said Will Johnson of the city's planning division.
The Coalition for Sound Growth and MidTown Inc., two nonprofits promoting in-town redevelopment, arranged Norquist's visit. Organizers were encouraged by the turnout of city leaders and developers.
Norquist was encouraged by the potential here: Off Macon Road east of the library are acres of land that could be redeveloped for mixed use on a street grid.
With all the growth Columbus now anticipates, it should not let such opportunities pass.