Balanced Development Patterns (2001)
Frequently Asked Questions
- How is Balanced Development Patterns (BDP) different from Great Neighborhoods?
- How was the BDP work be funded?
- Who was the consultant and why do we need a consultant?
- What are the project and grant objectives?
- How is Balanced Development Patterns different from traditional buildable lands approach?
- What are the benefits of the BDP approach?
The Answers
1. How is Balanced Development Patterns (BDP) different from Great Neighborhoods?
The Great Neighborhoods project resulted in Development Code amendments that included neighborhood street designs and building orientation to better address compatibility and pedestrian access. With BDP, we "zoomed out" and looked at the entire city and zoning map for a larger perspective on growth and future land uses and relationships and where future needs should go; hence, the land use "development pattern."
In phase two of BDP, the Albany City Council picked the East I-5 area to test out the proposed village center development pattern.
2. How was the BDP work be funded?
Growth management projects are eligible for grant funding from the state Transportation and Growth Management (TGM) Program, a joint program of the Department of Transportation and the Department of Land Conservation and Development. This program supports projects that integrate land use and transportation planning. The goal of the program is to enhance livability by encouraging development that results in compact, pedestrian-, bicycle-, and transit-friendly communities. Grant funds for the TGM Program were authorized by the U.S. Congress through the Transportation Equity Act for the 21 st Century (TEA-21 Program), the same program that is funding improvements to the Albany train station.
The TGM Program awarded a $127,000 grant for the Balanced Development Patterns project. The grant paid for land use and transportation planning services by a consultant team, which included a copy of the transportation modeling software and training.
3. Who was the consultant and why do we need a consultant?
The project calls for combined expertise in group facilitation, community outreach, urban design, market analysis, transportation planning, and computer modeling. The consultant team was led by Fregonese Calthorpe Associates. This consultant team has done this kind of work before and their reputation as skilled practitioners is known throughout Oregon and now into other parts of the country. The scope of this portion of periodic review can't be done by staff alone and still meet our project and funding deadlines. And lastly, the consultant will leave many "tools", models and ideas behind for Albany to continue to use for years.
4. What are the project and grant objectives?
In our grant application to the TGM Program, we listed these objectives for the Balanced Development Patterns project:
- Select a balanced urban development style that provides efficient land use and transportation systems.
- Look at expanded transportation choices and limit the need to expand the transportation system.
- Ensure that development occurs at the densities and mix needed to meet the City's housing requirements in ways that limit impacts on transportation and other systems and meet community preferences.
- Evaluate current Transportation System Plan policies, provide more detailed analysis of localized impacts for incorporation into the TSP modeling, and develop recommendations for changes to the TSP.
- Continue the successful Great Neighborhoods effort to actively engage citizens in the analysis and decision-making process.
- Establish parameters for preferred development patterns in three urbanizable sub-areas (East I-5, Oak Creek, and North Albany), then apply the preferred development pattern to one sub-area.
5. How is Balanced Development Patterns different from traditional buildable lands approach?
If we follow the traditional approach, we would estimate the amount of land needed for additional homes and jobs, then look at a map to decide where they should go. In the end, we would make adjustments to the zoning map to make sure enough land is zoned for these needs in the right locations. That is referred to as the buildable lands approach.
This time, we need to do more because the urban growth boundary is getting tighter and there are problems with current development patterns. The traditional buildable lands approach does not work very well to solve problems in developed areas, nor does it help us understand how changes in one part of town affect other areas of the community. This project will take a balancing approach. We begin with the same analysis of needed land for jobs and housing, but then we decide how we want to distribute those uses throughout the city of 2020, and we will do more analysis to ensure that the overall system is balanced. This means we look at improving existing neighborhoods as well as planning for undeveloped areas. Once we have selected a development pattern that balances the overall system, we will "test drive" the preferred pattern in one area of town to see how well it works. The preferred pattern could then be applied to opportunity areas in and around town.
6. What are the benefits of the BDP approach?
- First of all, we will rely on participation by people who live and work in the community, just like the Great Neighborhoods discussions about livability.
- We will combine land use and transportation planning in the same project .
- We will make extensive use of computer modeling based on the City's GIS system (Geographic Information System, a computerized mapping and database system).
- Computer modeling will create a virtual Albany using the preferred development pattern.
- This approach gave us a framework for future decisions about land use for years to come.
