Measuring the value of city development

How should we measure the return that the city (or the county) gets from different kinds of development? An Asheville developer/planner is turning the answer to that question on its ear, by looking at the numbers per-acre, instead of per-project.

He’ll be in Charlotte on Tuesday (Nov. 13) giving a presentation that’s open to the public. (For details, see below.)

Joe Minicozzi has been written about in TheAtlanticCities.com (The Simple Math That Can Save Cities From Bankruptcy), Planning Magazine (log-in required) (Sarasota’s Smart Growth Dividend), and Planetizen.com, among other venues. American Planning Association president Mitchell Silver is so keen on Minicozzi’s approach that he’s having staff at the Raleigh Planning Department, which Silver directs, work up Raleigh-based numbers.

I’ve blogged about him, too. (To read more: click here, and here.)

He’s giving a presentation at Civic By Design, at 5:30 p.m. at the Levine Museum of the New South. Come hear how one mixed-use building in your downtown can be a much sounder investment for your municipal coffers, if you look at return on investment with a standardized measure, than even a luxury shopping mall on the edge of town.

Minicozzi (left, photo courtesy of Planetizen.com) is a founding member of the Asheville Design Center, a nonprofit community design center dedicated to creating livable communities across all of Western North Carolina. He received his Bachelor of Architecture from University of Miami and a Master’s in Architecture and Urban Design from Harvard University. He is a principal of Urban3, LLC, and formerly the new projects director for Public Interest Projects, Inc. (PIP). He is a member of the American Institute of Architects, the International Association of Assessing Officials and the American Institute of Certified Planners. For more examples of his studies, please visit www.urban-three.com.