Density And Sustainability Are Linked For A Bright Future

Memphis is # 345 on a list of world cities with the most people.

Memphis is # 70 on a list of world cities with the largest land areas.

Memphis is tied at # 638 on a list of world cities with the highest densities.

A study of sprawl factors concludes that the Memphis region is consuming land two times faster than its population is growing.

In another index of the 50 largest cities in the U.S., Memphis ranked #43 in being prepared for a sustainable future.

All in all, the numbers paint the picture of a community that’s failing to address problems that are much more fundamental than the county’s debt crisis (although one definitely follows the other).

It should be no surprise that unchecked sprawl here is producing more commuting and over greater distances, which creates more unsustainability, particularly when 80 percent of commuters drive to work alone and public transportation is virtually useless if you’re not a domestic worker.

As SustainLane.com said in their survey: “Memphis prides itself on being a regional transportation hub. But the average citizen who needs to get from point A to point B usually does so in a car. Commuters rely almost exclusively on the automobile—over 81% drive alone to work (and) another 12% carpool, leaving a smattering of public transportation riders and walkers.

“As for public transportation, the city has invested in retooling its original trolley system in the downtown area and along the riverfront. This has been good for tourism and downtown business development but has had little impact on the transportation habits of the average resident.”

While commuting patterns here were once just the stimulus for editorials about carpooling, they now connect directly to our economic competitiveness, because how well a city is prepared for the deepening oil crisis may decide how successfully it weathers the oil crisis and its continuing sticker shock.

Denver and Destin

Our elected leaders would do well to study the example of Denver where a new commitment to multi-modal public transit is its response to these challenges. Seen as a way to decrease oil dependency, increase real estate values and create a more vital city, the $5 billion plan includes 119 miles of new light rail, commuter rail and bus rapid transit lines. In leading the passage of the new tax to pay for the system, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper extolled the organic relationship and lifeline that exists between the urban core and the suburbs. In the end, all 31 mayors in the region backed the plan, and it passed with 73 percent of the vote.

Meanwhile, at the urging of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, developers in Los Angeles are increasing densities with mid-rise, mixed-use buildings in keeping with the architecture of the courtyard apartments for which L.A. was once known.

Even Destin is addressing sprawl, becoming the first city in Florida to apply for a new program aimed at luring people out of their cars and onto their feet and into public transportation. It calls for sidewalks, crosswalks, trolley routes, bike routes and subsidized apartments, and the alternative, planners say, is more time spent in vehicles covering longer and longer commutes.

Here, we soldier on the current course that begats McMansions; big-box stores that seem to migrate down major thoroughfares like giant insects, leaving desiccated shells in their wake; strip development whose name should more accurately refer to the way it strips away the sense of community; parkways that are too aptly named because of the idling lines of cars backed up there; expanding gas bills and waistlines; and the decline of downtown and the urban center.

Smarter and Cheaper

There’s a smarter way. Public services are less expensive when they are serving high-density areas, and capital costs are almost 50 percent cheaper than low-density sprawl. That’s why the strongest champions for high-density should be our local elected officials. They need to use their bully pulpits to correct public misperceptions that higher density means lower property values; to persuade financial institutions not yet comfortable with funding their construction; and to reinvent the local development standards that often discourage higher densities.

The benefits of this high-density development, according to the Urban Land Institute, are that:

• Density reduces automobile trips, encourages exercise through biking and walking and supports public transit.

• Density adds support for local retail and reduces the need for car-driven errands.

• Density fosters a sense of community the old-fashioned, it-takes-a-village way, because residents are more likely to get to know their neighbors and shop in the area.

• Density fosters greater safety, because it creates walking and biking that are a deterrent to crime.

• Density leaves more open space for parks, trails and other pedestrian-friendly options.

• Density provides greater opportunity for mixed-income housing affordable to households at more income levels.

Forms-based Zoning

One solution to what ails us is forms-based zoning, and fortunately, that’s exactly what’s being written right now for Memphis and Shelby County by nationally recognized consultants hired by the Office of Planning and Development. As the proposed Unified Development Code moves closer and closer to enactment, look for more and more energy invested by developers and builders to block it.

The beauty of forms-based codes is that the public is assured of the general compatibility of the project, because the discussion is focused on form, not density. The code, as proposed, includes a number of incentives to increase density, walkable communities and better design, and in reading it, it’s impossible to keep from thinking how different Memphis and Shelby County would look if it had been in place 15 years ago.

If you are wondering what’s the most important thing that we can be doing that fundamentally affects the place where we live, the amount of taxes that we pay and the kind of health that we have, it’s in getting this proposed Unified Development Code passed by city and county governments.