{an aerial fly-through of Masdar City}

National Public Radio aired a piece on Masdar in Abu Dhabi, advertised as the world's first carbon-neutral city. Click here for the NPR story. There are a lot of pretty renderings and videos to watch (to be expected), but the interesting item from the show was the developer speaking about the design principles used in the city plan. While several proposals were considered, the plan is thousands of years old. Traditional "city planning" will produce narrow streets and walkways to provide shade throughout the day and the city itself will be oriented to the northeast to avoid the most intense direct sunlight on building facades. Cars will not be allowed and a Personal Rapid Transit (PRT) system is being designed.

Of course this is currently just a series of renderings and animated videos, but the project is fascinating. Like the ancient cities of the Middle East, many of our historic homes here in the US were built to better take advantage of the natural environment; breezes for cooling, sunlight to illuminate the home, etc. This changed with advanced building materials, the emerging need to accommodate vehicles of all sorts and the market imperative to most efficiently use land and vertical space. With any luck, Masdar and other projects can serve to explore a return to a more natural and neutral development paradigm.

{focus area of Mission: St. Louis grant application}

So $5M may be coming the FPSE and McRee Town from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program. I don't have a clue what the organization's chances are of being awarded the grant, but Mission: St. Louis is asking for comments. Of course they're obligated to do this as part of the application process, but what do you think?

This may not be sexy and controversial like other issues in St. Louis that seem to elicit a multitude of passionate comments, but it's a lot of money going to a very small non-profit which could have a significant impact on a quickly revitalizing part of our city. So what do you have to say?

Is 25 percent of new homes for tenants below 50 percent of the Area Median Income too much, too little? What impact will this have on a quickly changing neighborhood where the median income remains very low? Should FPSE south of Manchester and McRee Town focus on subsidized housing?

I hope to hear from a lot of you on this one.

Straight from the Mission: St. Louis website:

Mission: St. Louis is submitting a grant application for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program that came out of the stimulus bill, otherwise known as the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. The information below is part of our Public Notice.

Mission: St. Louis is a community development organization and 501 ( c ) 3 serving the FPSE and McRee Town neighborhoods. Through a partnership with Lamb’s Bride Church and Justine Petersen Housing and Reinvestment Corporation, Mission: St. Louis is submitting a grant application for $5 million dollars to the US Department of Housing and Urban Development.

If awarded the Neighborhood Stabilization Program 2 Grant, the funds will be used to rehabilitate and construct new homes and residential properties, provide homeowner and tenant counseling, down payment assistance, rental assistance, and financial counseling services. The properties will be built or rehabilitated to the US Green Building Council’s LEED Certified standard or qualify for the National Association of Home Builders Green Building standards. At least twenty-five percent of the homes will be rented to income qualifying tenants below 50 percent of the Area Median Income. The remaining units will be available to a mix of income levels some of which will be subsidized housing.

Please send your comments to:
This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
or
Mission: St. Louis ATTN: NSP2 Grant
4900 Reber Place
St. Louis, MO 63139

Every cause needs a diverse coalition to achieve its goals. For example: the efforts of environmentalists are increasingly being augmented by an emerging religious consciousness of pollution and our environment. The Vatican has labeled pollution a sin and Evangelical Christians are making environmental stewardship a central cause. So what does that have to do with urbanism? Well, the American Academy of Pediatrics now says that our built environment is helping to create fat kids. It seems that we are just starting to gain a larger consciousness about how our built environment affects taxes, national security, the environment and now our children.

Opportunities for recreational physical activity arise with parks and green spaces. “Utilitarian” physical activity, such as walking or bicycling to school and to other activities, is an equally important part of a child’s daily life. Environments that promote more active lifestyles among children and adolescents will be important to enable them to achieve recommended levels of physical activity. . . Planning and zoning efforts to ensure that children’s ability to walk, play, and get to school safely are a top priority. . . (We should) create and maintain playgrounds, parks, and green spaces within communities as well as the means to access them safely.

Our Built Environment is Bad for Children - American Academy of Pediatrics

{an image of Lehigh Acres}

Just east of Fort Myers, FL is Lehigh Acres. From 1950-2000 15,216 homes were built here. From 2004-2006 13,183 homes were built. The median home price in the Fort Myers area dropped from a high of $322,300 in December 2005 to $106,900 in December 2008. A typical home in Lehigh Acres is selling for $45,000 or almost 1/3 of what it cost to build. So what will the impact be on real estate development in the Fort Myers area?

A new city, Babcock Ranch, 17,000 acres, 19,500 new homes is planned for northeast of Fort Myers. Why does this make sense? It seems the developer is counting on solar power to make the development a success. A 75-megawatt solar generator will produce more power than the town needs. Excess power will be pushed onto the grid during the day and power will be taken back out at night when the solar generator will produce no power.


{Babcock City and Preserve shown in red, Lehigh Acres is outlined in blue}


{an image from the Babcock City website}

Hey, solar power is good right? "It's the right thing to do for the long-term solutions in this country,'' the developer says. He's confident that the "green" aspects of the development will entice buyers to avoid developments now in foreclosure.

Is this really how we're going to approach a "green" future? Building entire new cities of 19,500 homes and calling that "green" because they use solar power? What about the impact of construction? What about all the miles residents will drive to get to Fort Myers and other places? What about the waste as literally thousands of homes sit and rot a few miles away?

This is not the sort of development that leads us to a sustainable future.