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South Florida and Treasure Coast regional groups hold first joint meeting
On Tuesday, March 30, 2004, South Florida and Treasure Coast CNU members hosted their first regional meeting at CityPlace in West Palm Beach. Far exceeding the expectation of meeting’s organizers, some 100 participants came from all parts of the region and from all disciplines (including public officials, planners, developers, urban designers, planners, redevelopers, and academics). The program for the day centered on an insider look into CityPlace and the redevelopment of West Palm Beach.
The day began with opening comments from Victor Dover , Chair of the CNU Florida Chapter Organizing Committee. Dover recalled how CNU has evolved since the first Congress in Alexandria , Virginia over ten years ago. The creation of chapters is the next exciting step in CNU’s evolution. “Chapters,” Dover noted, “will bring CNU close to home, close to the communities where we do our work, and that builds on the unique roots New Urbanism has had from the beginning. New Urbanists are into colleague-to-colleague information sharing. Through chapters we can share techniques, encourage each other, discuss what works and doesn’t work, catch each other when we fall, and recognize each other when something is successful.”
CNU Board member and a Florida Chapter Founder Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk also stressed the importance of chapters. “Chapters will enable members to collaboratively address the issues that are of regional or local concern. This is important to practitioners, and can lead to a more powerful New Urbanism. Chapters also will enable the CNU to raise awareness among a broader range of people, providing an additional level of peer–to-peer information exchange about policies, resources, and best practices for their region.”
The creation of the Florida Chapter of CNU began in the fall of 2003 with the formation of the Chapter Organizing Committee Florida , the first step in becoming a chapter of CNU. The Florida chapter, participants were informed, is CNU’s first chapter. Florida also has more CNU members and more New Urbanist developments than any other state. Approval as a Full Chapter is anticipated to occur at CNU XII in June. To celebrate, the Florida Chapter will host a Salon at CNU. The first annual statewide meeting will be held in January 2005, in Winter Park .
The balance of the meeting turned to a focus on CityPlace and the redevelopment of West Palm Beach . Plater-Zyberk kicked off the presentations with a short history of the West Palm Beach Downtown Master Plan designed by Duany, Plater-Zyberk and Company. The discussion focused on what could have been done differently in the planning process and how the plan had responded to changes in conditions over the years. In addition to the history of the downtown master plan, Anthea Gianniotes, the City Urban Designer for the City of West Palm Beach, reviewed the plan’s policies and predictability.
Following the downtown plan discussion, Rick Gonzalez of REG Architects and Howard Elkus, of Elkus/Manfredi Architects reviewed the history of CityPlace. “Because of the vision, guts, and drive of former Mayor Nancy Graham,” Elkus observed, “we had an opportunity to do the right thing….We also had the precedent of Mizner to build on. Plus, Mayor Graham and DPZ already had established some values for the downtown. If you can get the armature right, the big vision, you can handle the next developments as they come.”
To wrap up the discussion, meeting participants had the opportunity to discuss the future policies, politics and redevelopment of West Palm Beach with a panel moderated by Plater-Zyberk. Panel members included Dan Cary, Urban Planner and former Director of Planning, City of West Palm Beach; Hector Valverde, Bermello Ajamil and Associates; Lynda Harris, Carlton Fields; and Roxanne Manning, Planning Director, City of West Palm Beach.
The panel highlighted the importance of the following general principles:
- The comprehensive plan is the underpinning for good development. (Plater-Zyberk)
- Eternal vigilance is the price of having a wonderful city. In addition, define what is important, pick your battles, decide on the essential elements that make a difference in your city, and then fight for them. (Roxanne Manning)
- One of the best ways to improve a planning process is to create more predictability. More time in the planning approval process takes away from time in creativity on the product. Everyone wants a good product. (Hector Valverde)
- Creating the public places is an important part of civic-building. You need to decide on a public building location and design in the context of the total plan.…. As Roxanne said, even though you start with a clear vision, be vigilant in all future decisions so they are consistent with the plan….Insist on quality and insist on seeing things before they are approved. (Dan Cary)
- The planning arm of cities should conduct annual assessments and ask the following questions: Did we accomplish what we said we would? What do we need to more of? What do we need to do less of? We need to reaffirm, say yes to, what we are doing right, and understand what did not work (and why) and be ready to change….If we don’t do this, it’s like living the unexamined life. We need to regularly re-look and see if we are still going where we want to go.” (Lynda Harris)
The day ended with a recap of lessons learned by Marie York, Associate Director of the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions at Florida Atlantic University . We heard today, York noted, the importance of the following ingredients:
- Political leadership is essential.
- Partnership among the developers, lawyers, planners, designers, etc., is key.
- Staff needs to be willing to challenge the status quo and move plans forward.
- Seek to create emotional connections to the site (e.g., the way CityPlace used the Himmel Theater as its centerpiece).
- Predictability lessens the risk for the developer. It also requires that plans be adopted within the comprehensive plan and codes so that they are political proof and not subject to election cycles.
- Do not give away your bargaining chips.
- Remember that small businesses are an important part of the mix.
“ Today was an exceptional experience….It was exciting to hear from those who took the risk and made the big commitment. This was an opportunity for intelligent debate among those who aspire to build livable places in our region – an example of the benefit of CNU chapters that can host events near to the places we live and practice.”
At the end of the meeting, participants were given the opportunity to tour CityPlace and downtown West Palm Beach .
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