A short history of a big idea

A Short History of a Big Idea

Smart Growth in Maine2003-2013Evan Richert

Maine’s Connection to TND Founder DuanyIngraham Corner, West Rockport

1989 2010 rev

HISTORIC PRESERVATION PLAYED STARRING ROLE

Smart Growth 2003-2013

The Forerunner: Historic Preservation

• Union Station, 1961, an early trigger in Maine• 1966 National Historic Preservation Act– Response to 2 major programs that destroyed

historic structures and dismantled downtowns• National Interstate System (1956)• Urban Renewal (1960s)

– In Maine, 51 Historic Districts with commercial components placed on the National Register 1970-2013, including 9 since 2003.

Historic Preservation Tax Credits: a Financial Underpinning of Smart Growth

• 1976 – Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit • 1999 – First Maine tax credit for re-use of

historic buildings• 2007 – Special state tax credit for rehab of

Hathaway Mill in Waterville• 2008 – State tax credit expanded to

statewide, w sunset date of 2013, later extended to 2023

No. of State Historic Tax Credit Projects Maine, 1999 - 2013

199920002001200220032004200520062007200820092010201120122013

0 2 4 6 8 10 12

00

10

333

04

13

59

1010

GrowSmart ME est.

State Historic Tax Credit expanded

Through the Great Recession: $$ Spent Rehab of Historic Buildings

2007 2008 2009 2010 2011$0.0

$5.0

$10.0

$15.0

$20.0

$25.0

$30.0

$35.0

$40.0

$45.0

$6.9

$31.6

$19.1

$36.9$40.3

State Historic Tax Credit expanded

Source: Planning Decisions and Maine Preservation, April 2011

Mill

ions

Signatures of Smart Growth…

• Former mills, schools, churches and commercial blocks

Pepperell Mill, Biddeford

Gilman St. School, Waterville

…Signatures of Smart Growth…• In the heart of downtowns, historic

waterfronts, established neighborhoods• On transportation lines

Bates Mill #3

Downtown Lewiston

…Signatures of Smart Growth

• Meeting variety of housing, commercial and industrial needs

• And innovating with energy and environment

LEED certified former Baxter LibraryPortland Press Herald and LiveWork Portland Blog photos

ENTERED A DEMOGRAPHIC GOLDEN AGE FOR SMART GROWTH


Demography Catches Up with Smart Growth

>65 yrsBaby Boom

Gen XGen Y

0-9 yrs

0 100000 200000 300000 400000

382,000

301,000

State of Maine, 2010 Census

• Baby Boom (1946 – 1964)• Echo of the Boom – GenY (~1982 – ~2001)

The Impact of Two GenerationsBaby Boom fueled sprawl of 1970s – 2000sBUT :– Now entering retirement with different needs– And had the decency to give birth to Gen Y, which

experiences the world differently

Age in 2003 Age in 2013 Age in 2023

Baby Boomers 39 - 57 49 - 67 59 - 77

Gen Y 2 - 21 12 - 31 22 - 41

Urban (Downtown, In-Town Neigh-borhood, Small City)

Suburban

Rural

0% 20% 40% 60%

49%

38%

14%

“They are willing to pay for the ability to walk. They don’t want to be in a cookie-cutter type of development. The suburbs will need to evolve to be attractive to Gen Y.”

-- Melina Duggal, RCLCO Real Estate Advisors, 2011 NAHB

Where 1st Wave of GenY Homeowners Lives

Fewer and Shorter Vehicle Trips

Population 18-34

Vehicle trips Vehicle miles-25.0%

-20.0%

-15.0%

-10.0%

-5.0%

0.0%

-4.2%

-16.6%

-21.5%

Change in Vehicle Trips and Miles Per Person 18-34 yrs old, 2001-2009

Source: National Household Travel Survey, US Dept of Transportation

We Had an Inkling in 1999First Market Study to document demand for traditional neighborhood development in Maine

Predicted market share of ~37% of home buyers

Included the “Young Turks” – young, educated Maine natives, the leading edge of the “connected” generation

Prefer to be close to services & amenities Young

Turks 12%

Number of 2003-2013 Developments Fit with Changing Demographics

• Brick Hill (collaborative private-public project to redevelop Youth Training Center)

• Dunstan Crossing (first Maine TND-style project)• Eastern Village in Scarborough• Bayside projects in Portland (starting with Unity

Village in 2000)• The mills – e.g. Pepperell, Hathaway, Bates, Goodall • Bangor EcoHomes• Brunswick Landing• In-town retirement communities• Co-housing developments in Brunswick (1998)

Belfast and Buxton

DOWNTOWNS TURNED A CORNERSmart Growth 2003-2013

1970-2000: Figuring Out How to Adapt

• Battered by 40+ years of highway strip development

• With loss of department stores, grocers & hardware, most forced down the hierarchy of retail centers

• Vacancies, loss of population, aged buildings, hard to re-use C o n v e n i e n c e

Neighborhood

Community

Regional

Super-Regional

Learned from Those that Adapted…• Old Port Exchange, Rockland, Bath, others; and• Those with built-in strengths, like Bar Harbor, Bethel,

others

…And a Lot of Bootstrapping• Property owners reinvesting• Small businesses taking risks -- shopkeepers,

restaurateurs, innkeepers & professional offices• Renys!

Maine Downtown CenterHelping Downtown organize and reinvent themselvesGrew from 4 to 10 Main Street Communities, with• $169.7 million in downtown improvements, 2002-

12• 269 net new businesses

Assisted by Key Public Programs

• Historic Preservation Tax Credits• EPA Brownfields Program ($51.5 million, 1994-2013)• Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (points for smart

growth – 2007)• Clean-up of Harbors and Rivers along which many

Downtowns were built• Community Development Block Grants• Downtown Tax Increment Financing Districts

Recipe for Downtown Success Remained the Same:

• Establish at least two primary activities – “go-to” activities for residents of the trade area – that Downtown can perform better than any other location

• Add two or three complementary activities

But a New Menu of Activities to Replace What Was Lost

• Financial Institutions• Government• Arts, Culture, Education• Entertainment• Food! Restaurants, Farmers’ Markets, Natural Foods and Other Specialty Foods• Other Specialty Retail & Shops of Artisans• Residential• Business Services• Professional Offices incl. new formats like Co-Work

Revived Waterfronts Helped Build Critical Mass

• Arts, entertainment, recreation venues• Working waterfronts

Bangor’s revived waterfront:

• American Folk Festival

• Waterfront Concert Pavilion

• Walk & Bikeway

THE PUBLIC POLICY FRAMEWORK: HOW IT SAVED MAINE’S FIRST TND PROJECT AND HELPED SET THE COURSE


The 1989 Comprehensive Planning and Land Use Act (aka Growth Management Program)

• MEREDA, MMA, NRCM jointly supported• Enacted in 1989, gutted in 1991, partially

restored in 1993

• No teeth…but a tooth: “…any portion of a municipality's … rate of growth, zoning or impact fee ordinance must be consistent with a comprehensive plan adopted in accordance with the procedures, goals and guidelines established in this (act). The portion of a rate of growth, zoning or impact fee ordinance that is not consistent with a comprehensive plan is no longer in effect.”

How It Saved Dunstan CrossingOnce upon a time, at the turn of the

century, Elliott and John Chamberlain decided to build the Great American Neighborhood.

After 2 years of charrettes and negotiation, they won a contract zone. The Comprehensive Plan said there should be a new village at Dunstan Corner in Scarborough. And the Chamberlain’s wanted to build it: • 445 units of mixed housing• Neighborhood stores• Public space• Conserved open space• TND design

It was very different from the development every one was used to.

See How Different?

S-P-R-A-W-L

People were VERY worried and scared. They held a referendum in 2003. They killed Dunstan Crossing.

But wait! The Chamberlains sued based on the Growth Management Act!

Grow

th Mgt

Act

And the Good and Wise Court said the repeal was INCONSISTENT with the Town’s own Comprehensive Plan and was NO LONGER IN EFFECT!

The moral to the story: As long as you have a tooth and good gums, you can prevail!

NOT YET the End…

Everyone in Scarborough still liked each other, and in 2006 the Town and John & Elliott agreed to a smaller, lower density version but still faithful to the TND design.

Because Scarborough Didn’t Stopped There It overhauled zoning in the Route 1 Corridor:• In 2004 adopted TND Option Overlay District• In 2007 re-zoned corridor based on Town and

Village Centers

TVC Districts

TND District

Growing Number of Supportive Zoning Plans in Last Decade

A Sampling:• Portland’s Bayside Vision (2000) and rezoning to enable its

implementation• South Portland’s Village Commercial and Knightville Design

District and infill housing zoning• Standish’s form-based system• Development fee transfer systems in Gorham, Scarborough,

Topsham• Other experiments with Transfer of Development Rights• Many types of clustered development provisions, from

incentive-based to mandatory

Infill on <5000 sf Lots, So. Portland

Photos: Kristel Sheesley

TRANSPORTATION EMERGED AS A PARTNER


Transportation Policy Turns “Sensible”

• 1991 Sensible Transportation Policy Act– Required capacity-expanding transportation

improvements to consider the alternatives• But 2003 was a threshold year: Required

MaineDOT to adopt a rule in coordination with Growth Management Act and to link transportation and land use processes

Another Step in 2007-08The Rule added incentives to adopt local and regional transportation plans that use land use strategies to reduce pressures on state transportation corridors

First Two Attempts to Link Transportation and Land Use in Major Corridors

• Gateway 1: Route 1, Brunswick to Stockton Springs

• Gorham East-West Corridor: Portland to Standish, guided by PACTS Land Use Policy in Destination Tomorrow

• Neither has materialized yet, but…

…Best modeling available demonstrated the benefits across nearly every metric

Meanwhile…Local Initiatives Grew

• Complete Street policies have been adopted – including Portland (2012) and Auburn (2013 – 500th city in the nation)

• Franklin Arterial Street Study, using Context Sensitive Solutions model

• Advent of Transit Oriented Development (TOD) Tax Increment Finance Districts to fund transit operations – So. Portland & Orono

Alternative Modes Gained Steam• Maine as high as No. 2 in

U.S. for bike friendliness (League of American Bicyclists 2010)

• New sidewalks and trails, extension of Eastern Trail

• Bus ridership grew across the State as gas prices increased – and Island Explorer, started in 1999, greeted 3 millionth passenger in 2009

The Downeaster Proved Itself…and Expanded

2003 2004 2005 2006 2005 2006 2009 2010 2011 20120

100,000

200,000

300,000

400,000

500,000

600,000

262,691

528,292

Brunswick Station, Opened 2012

Pass

enge

rs

The Housing + Commute Equation Shifted

Portland

Gorham

Gray

Standish

Windham

Av suburb

s$0

$5,000

$10,000

$15,000

$20,000

$25,000

Est. Annual Housing + Commuting Costs(work in Portland)

Commuting CostHousing Cost

Source: E. Richert, calculated from U.S. Census and U.S. Consumer Expenditure Survey, 2010

THE FLIP SIDE OF THE COIN: CONSERVING PRODUCTIVE NATURAL PLACES


3 More LMF Bond Issues Passed, 2003-2013

• Totaled $37 million• Bringing LMF bonds to $134 million since

inception in 1987LMF PROJECTS, 1987-2012Type Number

Conservation & Recreation 187Farmland 36Working Waterfront 19Water Access 52Source: Land for Maine’s Future Program FY 2011-2012 Biennial Report

Partners Statewide and Locally

• Since 2000, each LMF dollar leveraged $3 of private funds

• MCHT - $100 million Campaign for the Coast

• Maine Farmland Trust – protected 35 farms through buy/sell, 108 through easements

Partners Statewide and Locally

• The Nature Conservancy of Maine – including landscape-level projects in the St. John River Valley and Moosehead Lake Region

• The Forest Society of Maine – focused on Maine’s North Woods

• Trust for Public Lands – including “parks for people”

• 98 Land Trusts in Maine Land Trust Network

Lake Concept Planning in Unorganized Territory

• 3 new plans 2004 – 2009• Plum Creek’s Moosehead

Lake Region Plan– Green-lined growth areas

of 16,000 acres– Permanent conservation

of 392,500 acres– TNC, Forest Society of

Maine, Appalachian Mountain Club

– Connects network of >2 million acres from St. John River to Baxter State Park

INVESTED IN INNOVATION – AND THEREFORE IN DOWNTOWNS AND SERVICE CENTERS


Innovation as Part of the Smart Growth Ecosystem

Metro/Micro Areas

Non-Metro0%

10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80%90%

100%87%

13%

Patents, 2000-2011

71 Service Centers

Rest of Org. Towns (418)

0%10%20%30%40%50%60%70%80% 72%

28%

Shares of Enrollment in Col-leges & Universities

On 27 campuses

On 6 campuses

Incremental Progress 2003-2013

• Maine Technology Institute funded 500th company in 2005

• In 2012-13, funded 253 projects with $10.5 million, leveraging $33.7 million in match

• Maine performing relatively well on the entrepreneurial index (2013 = 0.36; goal is 0.50)

• 2011 - Blackstone Accelerates Growth grant for entrepreneurship

But a Red Flag from Measures of Growth

From Measures of Growth, 2013

Urban Scaling: Innovation Rates Increase with Agglomerations of People

Investment in Innovation = Investment in Service Centers and Downtowns

Some Milestones 2003-2013

• 2004 - First GrowSmart Maine Summit• 2006 – Charting Maine’s Future released• 2007 – Model Town Community project initiated in Standish• 2008 – Successfully advocated for Historic Preservation Tax Credit

and Uniform Building and Energy Code• 2009 – Successfully advocated for Communities for Maine’s Future

bond• 2010 -- Reinventing Maine Government published• 2011 – Project Canopy project with Maine Forest Service• 2012 – Charting Maine’s Future: Making Headway published• 2013 - Reinventing the Commercial Strip project completed

A short history of a big idea

Business

Transcript of A short history of a big idea