Tim Chapin

Sports Facilities as Urban Redevelopment Catalysts: Baltimore's Camden Yards and Cleveland's Gateway

Abstract Proponents of sports facilities have justified public expenditures on these projects with the claim that they catalyze redevelopment in downtown areas. To date, little research has assessed this rationale. This article investigates the impacts from two well known sports projects, draws conclusions from the experiences of these cities, and assesses the ability of sports facilities to catalyze redevelopment at the district level. Evidence indicates that sports facilities offer opportunities to catalyze redevelopment, defined as the development of vacant land, the reuse of underutilized buildings, and the establishment of a new district image, but that district redevelopment is by no means guaranteed by these investments.

Beyond the Entrepreneurial City: Municipal Capitalism in San Diego

Over the last several decades the public sector has become much more innovative and entrepreneurial when pursuing downtown redevelopment, embracing characteristics previously restricted to the private sector. This article investigates this approach by reviewing a major redevelopment project in San Diego. In the course of this project the public sector acted in ways that exemplify the entrepreneurial approach to downtown redevelopment. However, rather than simply taking on an entrepreneurial role, the city’s efforts are better described by the term municipal capitalism. No longer content to simply stand by after providing some resources at the outset, the public sector is now the lead player throughout the entirety of the redevelopment process, an actor as focused upon the return on investment from the project as the private sector. This article concludes with a discussion of the emerging role of the public sector as a capitalistic actor, and explores the consequences of this emergence.

Introduction: From Growth Controls, to Comprehensive Planning, to Smart Growth: Planning's Emerging Fourth Wave

Problem: Local, regional, and state growth management policy in the United States has been evolving since the 1950s, generally becoming much more comprehensive in how it addresses growth over time. Purpose: In this article, I describe the three historic phases of local, regional, and state approaches to managing growth in the United States since the 1950s. I then sketch the characteristics of the emerging fourth wave, one that must respond to challenges relating to economic development, climate change, and changing energy demands and supplies. Methods: Using a review of the literature and an assessment of the major trends shaping local, regional, and state land planning efforts, the article traces the evolution of growth management policy. Results and conclusions: Of the many changes land planning policy has experienced over time, the most telling is the shift in attitudes toward growth and development. For many decades growth management policy viewed development as a problem to be limited or managed, but in the last two decades planners have embraced new development as an opportunity for fixing past errors and addressing problems linked with growth. Takeaway for practice: Although smart growth remains an anchor for land planning policies and programs, approaches to managing growth will and must evolve in the coming years. Despite the many economic and political challenges faced by land planners and growth management advocates, there is much to be optimistic about as a new fourth wave of growth management emerges.Local, regional, and state growth management policy in the United States has been evolving since the 1950s, generally becoming much more comprehensive in how it addresses growth over time. In this article, the author describe the three historic phases of local, regional, and state approaches to managing growth in the United States since the 1950s. He then sketches the characteristics of the emerging fourth wave, one that must respond to challenges relating to economic development, climate change, and changing energy demands and supplies. Using a review of the literature and an assessment of the major trends shaping local, regional, and state land planning efforts, the article traces the evolution of growth management policy. Of the many changes land planning policy has experienced over time, the most telling is the shift in attitudes toward growth and development. For many decades growth management policy viewed development as a problem to be limited or managed, but in the last two decades planners have embraced new development as an opportunity for fixing past errors and addressing problems linked with growth. Although smart growth remains an anchor for land planning policies and programs, approaches to managing growth will and must evolve in the coming years. Despite the many economic and political challenges faced by land planners and growth management advocates, there is much to be optimistic about as a new fourth wave of growth management emerges.

A parcel-based GIS method for evaluating conformance of local land-use planning with a state mandate to reduce exposure to hurricane flooding

This article illustrates how a parcel-based geographic information system can be used to identify and quantify land-use changes within subareas of individual planning jurisdictions as the basis for evaluating the implementation of local land-use policies. We describe a method for using property-parcel polygons and property-appraiser tax-roll data to analyze the effects of changes in land use on the exposure of people and property to hurricane flooding in coastal communities in Florida. This method allows us to test the conformity of local government growth-management practices to a state mandate which calls for the limiting of development in hurricane hazard zones. We apply this method to analyze hurricane hazard exposure in Okaloosa County, which is a coastal county located in the Panhandle of Florida.

Using geographical information system to model the effects of green space accessibility on mortality in Florida

The loss of green space in an increasingly developed landscape may not only have negative environmental impacts but may also be detrimental to human health. The relationship between green space and health is dependent on not only the presence but also access to green space. This cross-sectional ecological study uses a geographical information system to examine the relationships between the presence and accessibility of green space and county-level mortality in the state of Florida. After controlling for some of the leading influences of mortality – including the levels of obesity, smoking, old age, and education – we found that the amount of green space within defined distances of census tracts in each county was associated with both all cause and cardiovascular mortality. Neither the gross amount of green space in a county nor the average distance to green space from census tracts in a county were significantly associated with our mortality measures.

The Proof of the Planning Is in the Platting: An Evaluation of Florida's Hurricane Exposure Mitigation Planning Mandate

Problem: Floridas 1985 Growth Management Act required the states coastal communities to include policies for two types of hurricane hazard zones in their comprehensive plans: to direct populations away from coastal high hazard areas (CHHAs) and to maintain evacuation times within larger hurricane vulnerability zones (HVZs). State law requires local governments to initiate measures to implement these policies within one year of state approval of the local plan. Have communities complied with these state mandates? Purpose: This research aims to determine the extent to which post-plan residential development intensities within hurricane hazard zones conform to the states policy mandate and the degree to which success in this regard can be explained by the quality of local plan maps and policies. Methods: We conducted graphical analysis of development trends, and undertook quasi-experimental analysis of pre- and post-plan residential development inside and outside CHHAs, as well as analyzing correlations between plan quality and post-plan residential development intensity. We also conducted interviews for case studies. Results and conclusions: We found residential exposure to hurricane flood hazards to have increased substantially in the majority of 74 municipalities and 15 coastal counties in Florida after the state approved local comprehensive plans. Residential development inside CHHAs did not slow after plans were adopted by most of these coastal communities. We found better maps and stronger policies to be correlated with lower post-plan development intensity, but the policy quality effect, though not the map quality effect, disappeared after controlling for pre-plan development intensities. These results may be due in part to vesting of development approved prior to adopting the plans, pre-existing zoning entitlements, and Floridas 1995 property rights law. Takeaway for practice: State planning mandates aimed at managing development in critical areas are likely to have only marginal effects because of prior entitlements and the legal and political inertia of existing local plan policies and land development regulations. Research support: Research support was received from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations Office of Sea Grant, the Florida Department of Community Affairs, and Florida State Universitys DeVoe Moore Center.

Toward an Integrated GIScience and Energy Research Agenda

The growing evidence indicating that climate change is real and accelerating, coupled with a host of interrelated energy sustainability questions, has fostered increased interdisciplinary research on improving energy efficiency and reducing per capita energy consumption, as well as better understanding the sources of pollution emissions and possible policy options for limiting permanent environmental damage. Increasingly, geographic information systems, remote sensing, and other spatial technologies are being leveraged by researchers when analyzing these problems. There is, however, limited discourse regarding the possible synergies that could result from sustained engagement between those interested in geographic information science (GIScience) and researchers tackling energy issues. In this article, we outline an integrated research agenda for GIScience and energy studies that focuses on the prospects for making new contributions to the growing literature on energy sustainability. We identify three critical issues that offer substantial opportunities for new synergistic research at the nexus of GIScience and energy sustainability, including (1) the problem of carbon estimation and inventory, (2) questions of new energy infrastructure placement and transition, and (3) household energy conservation and efficiency. We lay out substantive energy considerations within each problem area and discuss possible new contributions involving GIScience. Our analysis suggests that issues of scale, representation, complexity, and several other core GIScience themes underpin these energy research needs. This article is intended to foster new dialogue between GIScience and energy studies.

Local Governments as Policy Entrepreneurs Evaluating Florida’s “Concurrency Experiment”

One centerpiece of Florida’s landmark 1985 growth management legislation was the concept of concurrency, a requirement that new development not proceed unless specific services are in place to service the development. Whereas many analysts have critiqued Florida’s concurrency mandate, these studies have usually focused on concurrency as a concept and not concurrency as actually implemented and practiced by local governments. For this article, we investigated the concurrency practices of 66 local governments in Florida, finding substantial variation in concurrency practices. Beyond this review of local government concurrency practices, the author also draws on the policy implementation literature to learn from Florida’s concurrency experiment.

Revolutionizing the Core: GIS in the Planning Curriculum

Geographic information systems (GIS) have emerged over the past decade to become the most powerful and important computer application to hit the profession of planning. Although GIS is now used by most public sector planning agencies and private planning firms, planning schools have been slow to adapt their core curricula to ensure that all students gain some exposure to this technology before entering the job market. A review of the core curricula of accredited programs in North America revealed GIS to be a rare element of the core. This paper outlines potential reasons that GIS has been slow to emerge as an element in the planning core and offers some guidance on how to remedy this situation with a minimum of disruption to existing programs.

Voluntary Collaboration for Adaptive Governance The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact

The Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact (SFRCCC) has been highlighted as a regional climate change governance exemplar for land use planning. After six years, we find the compact has given momentum to local climate change planning through the Regional Climate Action Plan and provides a foundation for adaptive governance for climate change adaptation. We also find aspects of the compact lacking in terms of representation, decision making, learning, and problem responsiveness. Efforts are now needed to scale down implementation and scale up governance and planning more systematically to address climate change adaptation needs at multiple levels.