Page 36 - Green Builder Magazine Nov-Dec 2017 Issue

CREDIT: DUANY PLATER/ZYBERK & CO.

Urbanism pioneer. Considered to be one of the first environmentally designed towns, Seaside, Fla., homes and other structures in the town
have metal roofs to better resist wind, and long overhangs that provide shade and allow windows to be kept open in the rain.
game for real. With the scans, we’ve begun to talk to residents and familiar with the process to come into a city and build a hotel, a large
developers and we’re finding real interest. This isn’t about wholesale apartment complex or a subdivision. But it creates a very high barrier
redevelopment. It’s about filling in missing pieces. to entry for the person who wants to do a four-unit building, or four
FALK: We offer municipalities a way to diversify their economic to five shopfronts on an arterial roadway, or convert an older building
development, which very often take a large approach, larger into artist studios. The person who’s doing this for the first time
employers, larger projects, etc. By focusing on the smaller projects doesn’t have ready access to the expertise of the traffic consultant,
and the smaller players who are often overlooked, they get to the architect, the landscape architect and the lawyer. There isn’t an
diversify in a way that essentially costs them nothing. They don’t easy pool of available capital. They don’t know which bank to go to,
have to invest in this, but rather just get out of the way. and when they encounter planning and building regulations, they
The residents, the people who live in these communities, often find that they have to fulfill the same requirements as the
like it because we’re offering them a way to get involved in this large-scale projects.
economic development, in the revitalization of their communities, as In the Lean Urbanism, we talk about identifying thresholds
participants, not bystanders. Many people feel that previous efforts underneath which small-scale development might not have to meet
to create economic development have been exclusively top-down certain requirements. There are workarounds, which meet the
and haven’t taken their desires and needs into account. requirements without necessarily having to go jump through every
Finally, the business community, whether it’s entrepreneurs or hoop on the process and meet the spirit, if not the letter of the
developers, are now excited about the idea of being able to make requirement and hacks, which are things that people have figured
projects work and pencil out, ones that previously couldn’t because out during the process that you don’t know if you haven’t already
the cost of compliance was too high or it was too difficult to find been through it once or twice.
financing in their area. FALK: The need for Lean Urbanism originated from the complaint
that it had become too difficult to make these projects happen. Even
One of the significant points on the Lean Urbanism website the experts were having difficulties. So we began to identify groups
is that it says the current system is unfair. Can you talk a of non-experts who might be having even greater trouble.
little bit about why that is? The first group includes young people, who unlike their older
DITTMAR: Often the level of expertise, the resources and time counterparts have to master this accretion of requirements and
availability that is assumed about development, it allows for someone impediments all at once, rather than gradually over a lifetime.

34 GREEN BUILDER November/December 2017 www.greenbuildermedia.com

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