Smart Growth community in Northwest Atlanta

Brad Nix at Atlanta 575 Real Estate makes a pitch for smart growth development:

If Cherokee County must grow, and projections have the county gaining 200,000 more people by 2030 (more than double the current population of 141,903), then we better start growing smart.

Nix brings acurrent smart growth project to attention and asks his readers to support it.

A smart-growth deficit in Washington, D.C.

Sprawl and its many symptoms are well-documented issues in the area surrounding our nation’s capital. Ryan Avent has a lengthy take on regional congestion and development solutions in The DCist, as well as a companion post on his own web site. He notes that while there are smart growth initiatives, the prevailing trend remains “sprawl that shows no signs of abating.” A major problem is competition between jurisdictions over money and control.

Are restrictive land-use regulations contributing to declining homeownership among young in Great Britain?

Wendell Cox at From the Heartland writes that restrictions on land-use and development have created housing markets that are out of whack with the overall economy:

England’s Department for Communities and Local Government reports that a strong downward trend in home ownership by younger households. In its Survey of English Housing Provisional Results: 2005/2006, the Department found that in only five years, there was a 15 percent drop in households under 30 years of age buying homes (from 40 percent to 34 percent). Given the importance of home ownership to middle-income wealth creation, this is an ominous development.

A group in Clearbrook, Virginia, has formed under the name “Citizens for Smart Growth,” with the express purpose of blocking the construction of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in their town. The group may address similar issues in the future, but for the present, their attention is on the fate of the site on U.S. 220, just south of Roanoke’s city limits.

The 203,000-204,000 square-foot Supercenter was approved in late October, with plans to break ground in early 2007 and to open its doors to the public in 2008. Almost immediately, contention rose amidst the community. Those with dislike for Wal-mart’s reputation were quickly swept aside by Hollins District Supervisor Richard Flora, who announced that “if you’re just up here because you don’t like Wal-Mart, you’ve lost me. It’s not our job to tell them whether they can have a Wal-Mart or a shoe store or Home Depot.” Flora additionally deemed the special-use permit operating on the land was appropriate for the store.

But that is precisely the assessment that “Citizens for Smart Growth” hopes to challenge. The more substantial arguments waged against the looming Wal-Mart are its effects on local traffic, and whether or not a big box retailer is truly appropriate for a special-use zone that encourages “smaller commercial enterprises preserving a ‘village’ character.”

Vinton District Supervisor Michael Alitzer and Windsor Hills Supervisor Joe McNamara defended the Wal-Mart’s construction in the face of 6-year old zoning regulations which encourage a commercial footprint of no more than 50,000 square-feet—roughly a quarter of the proposed Supercenter. Wal-Mart’s acceptance of restrictions on height, color, lighting and landscaping is apparently enough to assuage this violation. “The back of this Wal-Mart looks as good as the front of many strip malls we have in Roanoke County today. It all boils down to, is it appropriate for this commercial area. I think it fits the overlay district,” opined McNamara. Alitzer agreed: “To me, the overlay has worked,” he said.

Catawba District Supervisor Butch Church was the lone vote against allowing Wal-Mart to fall under the special-use permit. He criticized of the potential increase in traffic, citing the placement of Clearbrook Elementary School only yards away. “We’ve got a dangerous situation out there on 220, it’s been dangerous for many years, and all this can do is make it worse.” Alitzer countered that “nowhere have I seen from VDOT [Virginia Department of Transportation] … that have they said, ‘you better not do this or you’re going to kill people or have terrible accidents.’ ”

The decision was made, despite the the concerns immediately raised. “Why do we have to screw up the entire area of Clearbrook to get a Wal-Mart?” asked one man, while another woman from the community reasoned, “Shouldn’t safety issues be addressed before it’s passed?” David Willis, who owns the Rockdale Quarries near the approved Wal-Mart site, declared, “It’s totally irresponsible to vote [on the project] until improvements on 220 are made.”

And “Citizens for Smart Growth” now hopes to stall further development by claiming that the decision made by the board on October 24th was based upon insufficient information regarding the traffic patterns. “There was an obligation to have all that information, to know that there will not be an adverse impact” on Clearbrook’s community, explained organizer Pam Berberich. Ideally, if the decision-making process were called into question, it might buy the group enough time to rally the entire community into opposition.

The group, which was formed a week an half ago, had until yesterday to come up with $10,000, the estimated funds required to launch a lawsuit against the Roanoke County Board of Supervisors. An additional $40,000 will be needed to carry out the plans. No further information could be found as to whether or not they succeeded, though I did happen across a petition proposing several measures to protect Clearbrook’s environment.

Thanks to bloggingstocks.com, whose original article, “Virginia citizen group tries to block Wal-Mart store,” pointed this story out.