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Practical
lessons and thoughts for Urban Practitioners. The "How to",
"How was it done", and the technical mechanics for Urban
Professionals. The Urban World is a giant laboratory in which we
can learn from the experiences of other cities.
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Measuring compliance |
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DEVELOPMENT CONTROL: Daily Progress (Virginia, USA): Developers might not have played the game the way Charlottesville wanted, and their plan for a new four-story building might be all wrong for the location. But for their part, city planning commissioners operated from some disingenuous assumptions in turning down a proposed building for Fifeville. Read more... Comment: This reinforces the importance of having one's planning terms defined to avoid confusion and legal challenges. Definitions may reduce flexibility, but they do provide a good basis for negotiating from a position of strength. |
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Tokyo Metropolitan Government Begins New Era in City Planning with Unique GIS Implementation |
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PLANNING
TECHNOLOGY: Directions:
ESRI Press Release: The Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG),
a longtime user of ESRI's geographic information system (GIS)
software, has implemented a Web based system that promises broad new
capabilities and greatly expanded use throughout the government.
TMG's new GIS product configuration includes ESRI's ArcGIS Server,
ArcSDE, ArcIMS, ArcInfo, ArcView, Spatial Analyst, 3D Analyst, and
Network Analyst. Read
more...
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City now must tell of changes to approved projects |
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PLANNING
CONTROLS: Charlotte
Observer: The Charlotte City Council closed a loophole in its
zoning regulations Monday, adopting requirements that nearby
landowners be notified when the city alters already-approved
development plans. Until Monday, the city's zoning ordinance allowed
city planners to make minor adjustments to developers' site plans
after the city approved them -- so-called "administrative
approval" -- without letting neighbors know. Read
more...
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How to engage with your local community over planning |
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PUBLIC CONSULTATION: Source: NZ Herald: "Here's the challenge for local body communications staff. How do you best communicate with and engage your regional community (or city or district depending on which arm of local government you work for) over the council's 10-year plan? Read more…
Comment: Community or Public Consultation processes are becoming more difficult over time. Some citizens are cynical about such processes, as they see little changing. Some feel over-consulted, and just wish the people they elected would just get on with the job. Others don’t care either way until they are directly affected by something and react, no matter how much consultation took place. Some say that such consultation, now a major industry, makes an elected member’s job too easy and that it promotes “populist politics”, rather than informed governance. Nonetheless, Consultation is evolving as both citizens and elected members become more sophisticated in its uses and applications.
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New Book Breaks the Code (That's the Zoning Code) |
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MANAGING DEVELOPMENT: Source: New York Times: ""The (old) multivolume Zoning Resolution is like hieroglyphics, known only to the priests of zoning," said Prof. Ross Sandler, director of the Center for New York City Law at the New York Law School in Manhattan. "Opening the (new) Zoning Handbook is like discovering the Rosetta Stone."" READ MORE… NYC City Planning Dept Zoning Handbook Page Table of Contents & Excerpts
Comment: This Zoning Handbook is not available in downloadable form. A definite oversite! The excerpts look clear and concise, and are easy for Joe Citizen to follow. Lessons for many other administration to learn from here. This approach seems rather similar to the 1995 Australian publication AMCORD Urban (Australian Model Code on Residential Development) although did not deal with higher density developments. Well done New York City.
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- URBANE NEWS - 
