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Guest Speakers and Community Outreach at the Board of Director's Meetings

By Joshua Youngblood, Director
May 23, 2007

At the May 21st board meeting, the Board of Directors had the pleasure of hearing city planner, Cherie Bryant, speak about strategic vision and sustainable development. She is part of a series of guest speakers being brought in by the board this year to discuss community issues. Ms. Bryant's presentation, previously given to city and county planning boards, described the challenges facing our area as population grows over the next several decades. She emphasized that new ideas and forward thinking citizens can transform these challenges into opportunities to make Tallahassee a more environmentally conscious, sustainable, and pleasant place to live.

The Tallahassee population will, at minimum, double over the next fifty years, and as we all know, our infrastructure is under strain already. As the city, Leon County, and surrounding counties plan for ever increasing demands on roads, power and water, governments and private citizens must address issues such as the prohibitive expense of widening existing roads and building new ones. With such unfolding realities in mind, it becomes imperative that Tallahassee embrace greener constructs such as city centers, walking areas and green spaces and roads fronted by store windows and sidewalks and stop embracing parking lots and mixed-use development.

Positive change, Ms. Bryant noted, is possible and already evident. Recently, after a project for a new business began on Magnolia, the prospect of billboards and parking lots surrounding the new building upset concerned local residents. Because of their complaints and initiatives, pedestrian walking areas and outside seating were installed instead-a small but no less important victory for mixed usage.

Ms. Bryant provided some uncommonly known but particularly interesting information about our area. For instance, even with the variety of educational institutions in our area, the city's demographics are changing-becoming older, more professional, and more likely to be single. Also, despite twenty years of vigorous growth in northeast Leon County , new development in that area will slow due to an "urban density border" implemented years ago by the city and county. The border has succeeded in redirecting growth to less developed areas, namely the southeast.

The notion of denser development might be off-putting to some. But it does not mean wall-to-wall houses necessarily, or landscapes covered with concrete and brick. Dense development at its best is housing in closer proximity to neighbors-smart, efficient houses and condominiums interspersed with green space and within walking distance of shops. In a successfully implemented plan that encourages dense, mixed-use development, even over an area large enough to accommodate significant population growth, a major urban center such as Tallahassee would be surrounded by "nodes" of communities closely linked by public transit. These nodes of growth, spaced throughout the region, as well as the infill and redevelopment of the urban center, would combine neighborhood comfort and community with urban convenience, allowing people to commute to work if necessary, but also mix with their neighbors and live more environmentally consciously, not to mention, cost effectively.

As Ms. Bryant reminded us, the artery-parking lot model of development was just an experiment-one fueled by new technology (cars), low gas prices, and decades of national affluence after World War II. Economic and environmental change is imperative. She suggested that our area needs a consensus vision shared by private interests, local government and the public at large. Perhaps, she noted optimistically, this is already beginning to take shape. This new vision, tied to available public funds and private investment, should incorporate the existing areas of development while encouraging denser new development and decreasing infrastructure costs. Promoting more foot traffic and more accessible and efficient mass transit are essential to this new vision, in addition to utilizing sustainable energy sources.

For New Leaf Market, issues of strategic and long-term planning through a consensus community vision are paramount. How Tallahassee expands and meets development challenges is not only important as we continue to grow in numbers, but more immediately as we fulfill our role as advocates for progressive, positive change in the community. We would all love to see more housing choices, sustainable energy and greater access to efficient public transportation, and we all hope that Tallahassee can become a more vibrant, attractive, and healthful place to live.

To learn more about long-term development planning in our area, visit www.crtpa.org.