Land conservation: Recession brings opportunity

“Every golf shot makes somebody happy.”

Dave Cable, executive director of the Catawba Lands Conservancy, noted Wednesday that this recession that’s whipsawing real estate development has a small bright side. The so-called highest and best use of a lot of land around here has gone from residential development to speculative land holding. And no one knows when the market is coming back. So some developers decide they need to sell the land, fast.

“We literally have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for land conservation,” he said.

Cable’s remarks came at a Wednesday breakfast for corporate, foundation and government partners. The nonprofit, nonadvocacy land preservation group has preserved more than 8,000 acres from development in the Charlotte region.
“I get calls all the time from developers now,” he said after the meeting. Potential conservation sites are being eyed in Union, Gaston and Mecklenburg County, he said. Not all offers are, or should be, accepted, of course. But the group has some 1,600 acres in the pipeline for possible conservation in 2009.

S.C: What NOT to do with stimulus $$

Want to know what not to do with your state’s stimulus money request?

Friends of the Earth, with data from the Transportation for America Coalition has analyzed the requests from 19 states. While praising Georgia, Massachusetts and California, the report rips South Carolina:

“South Carolina’s DOT wish list is a perfect example of how not to spend stimulus money. The state has requested $3.24 billion from the stimulus package, with 99 percent designated for roads, 80 percent of which is allotted for new road construction. This despite the fact that South Carolina has an abnormally high percentage of bridges that are structurally deficient: 14 percent. And, although eight percent of South Carolinians use public transportation, which is relatively high, less than one percent of the state’s stimulus ask is designated for public transportation.”

North Carolina doesn’t come in for specific praise or criticism. But look at the last page, and compare its request to Massachusetts’. In Massachusetts, 47 percent of the request would go to public transportation. Its request for bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, 2.9 percent, was highest of all public DOT requests. Only 29.7 percent of Massachusetts’ request is designated to roads and of that, 100 percent is for repair and maintenance (12 percent of bridges in the state are structurally deficient).

North Carolina, by contrast, would put 83 percent of its request into roads, only 34 percent of that for repairs. Only 10 percent of its request would go to transit and an embarrassingly small 0.4 percent for bike/pedestrian transportation.

In terms of greenhouse gas emissions, the report notes, “building 10 miles of four-lane highway is like putting 46,700 Hummers on the road.”

Another interesting fact: By eliminating one car and taking public transportation instead of driving, a typical two-adult, two-car household can reduce its global warming emissions by 30 percent. That comes from the American Public Transportation Association’s testimony to Congress.

Charlotte’s pavement worsens

Among the topics at its retreat on Thursday and Friday, the City Council is expected to hear a report about the condition of the city’s pavement.

If you’ve driven on city streets you’ll probably not be aghast to read that the pavement’s getting worse. And the cost of repairs is rising. The City Council, in its wisdom and its zeal never ever to raise taxes for anything, including police officers, for years has skimped on street repair money, and it’s coming back to haunt the city as the maintenance backlog just gets higher.

Further, as people drove less due to higher gasoline prices, the state’s gas tax revenues went down and thus, the state money given to the city for its care of state-owned roads (e.g. Providence Road) went down.

The link above is to a PowerPoint presentation, so it’s a bit terse in its descriptions. But note the slide about the cost of annexation versus the revenue from annexations. Worth pondering.
I think the city’s been wise to continue annexing, because cities that can’t annex become financially and geographically strangled. But the revenue figures do set you to thinking about the degree to which sprawling conventional subdivisions simply don’t pay their full weight in property tax revenue — especially when so many of the new subdivisions in the past decade were low-end starter-homes.
Let me just note that higher-density and mixed use developments bring in higher tax revenues than the 3-per-acre autopilot subdivision growth which the city essentially waved into existence for decades.
The bottom line is that if you want to develop land, you can automatically do precisely the stuff that doesn’t bring the city enough revenue to pay for itself — single-family conventional subdivisions. But if you want to do something that might bring in more tax revenue, you gotta jump through a bunch of hoops.

2 agencies in the gun sights of one commissioner

More from the Mecklenburg County commissioners’ retreat:

In a discussion on the county’s funding of outside agencies – sometimes a topic with lots of undercurrents – commissioner Vilma Leake, who spent years on the school board, made clear her displeasure with two school-related nonprofits that get county money:
– Communities in Schools, a dropout prevention service, which gets $815,000 county money this year.
– Partners in Out-of-School Time, which offers services to middle school-age students, and gets $200,000.
That’s too much money for two agencies, Leake said. And she questioned why the county is funding services that, in her words, compete with services offered by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools.
No action was taken – this is just a discussion meeting – but commissioners talked about the need to beef up county analysis of how all outside groups getting county money are performing.

Better access to local foods

Here at the Mecklenburg County commissioners’ retreat – at the Lodge at the Ballantyne resort – the commissioners are spending most of the afternoon giving 10-minute talks on issues they’d like the board to take up later.   Meaty, but not exactly earth-shaking news.

For instance, they discussed homelessness and concluded, in effect, that it’s definitely a problem, and they will look at what they might want to do about it in addition to what they’re already doing.
But here’s an interesting one: Dan Murrey made a pitch for the county to do more about helping people have access to locally grown, healthful foods.  “Our diet is based on foods being shipped from around the world,” he noted, and he also pointed to the growing problem of childhood obesity. “There are some neighborhoods where there are no grocery stores,” he said, or where the stores don’t have good (or any) produce.
He suggested getting the Park and Recreation department to offer community gardens. (In fact, P&R already does that, but could do a lot more, as their program now is quite low-profile.) 
Long-term, he said, the county should look at the feasibility of a permanent farmer’s market that’s accessible by transit. He didn’t say this, but much as I love the state-run Charlotte Regional Farmers Market on Yorkmont Road, whoever decided to locate it there was nuts. It isn’t centrally located, isn’t in any densely developed area, and isn’t accessible by transit. 
Some other, seasonal markets have sprung up but they aren’t in permanent sites or open year round, or well-distributed around the county.

Job losses at REBIC

I ran into Andy Munn from the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition at Monday’s City Council meeting, and he confirmed that due to the recession, which has hit real estate and development particularly hard, the REBIC lobbying organization has laid off staff, including Mary Thomsen, the former executive director, and staffer Tim Morgan. Developer and consultant Karla Knotts is acting executive director.

REBIC is funded by dues and donations from member companies and groups, such as the Charlotte Regional Realtor Association, Home Builders Association of Charlotte.

The REBIC home page also notes that City Council on Feb. 9 will make appointments to the Airport Advisory Committee (for a west Charlotte resident), the Keep Charlotte Beautiful committee and the Tree Advisory Commission. The link posted didn’t work. Sorry. Check charmeck.org. (I’m at Mecklenburg County commissioners’ retreat and they’re going through the dismal projections for next year’s budget and need to pay attention.)

Death of an ancient tree

Tom Low of Duany Plater-Zyberk Architects sent around this photo of a tree being removed at Queens Road and Granville Road in the heart of old Myers Park.

I saw it yesterday and mourned its passing. Because the tree was in the city’s right of way, I asked City Arborist Don McSween what had happened. Here’s what he wrote:

“The Willow Oak (approx. 125 years old) had root rot, and the crown of the tree was dying. There is no technology available to stop root rot. We had pruned the tree a year ago and more of the top had died since then. After a detailed examination, I decided it would only continue to deteriorate and needed to be removed. This was one of our largest Willow Oaks. It was a sad day for me.”

And for us all. At 125 years, the oak would have pre-dated the development of the Myers Park subdivision. But as McSween says, with root rot there’s no cure. And as someone who drives past that corner almost daily, I understand that for safety’s sake, it had to go. Rest in peace.

What to do with a big-a– Big Box

Here’s why big box stores, while popular for a time with consumers, are bad for urban neighborhoods in the long term. The new Metropolitan development in Midtown, just over the creek from Uptown, is losing a whopper of a retailer. The Home Depot Expo is closing.

I don’t know yet (though I’m doing some research soon as I file another blog item and write an editorial) who the official property owner is — whether it’s Home Depot, developer Peter A. Pappas or other development partners — but I know there is probably going to be a very big, very empty floorplate at Kings Drive and Charlottetowne Avenue.

That’s one of many reasons big boxes aren’t good for the urban environment — although here I tip my hat to the fact that yes, Big Boxes do bring in Big Sales Tax Revenues (until they close) and, for a time, Big Property Tax Revenues. But all it takes is one big retailer going bankrupt (Circuit City anyone?) or closing stores, and there’s now a giant retail vacancy in a not-very-adaptable building.

Smaller buildings with smaller businesses also see vacancies and businesses failing. But one store closing shop doesn’t affect a space as vast as that Home Depot EXPO Design Center.

A more traditional building can evolve relatively easily into something else. A Big Box needs a Big Tenant. Plus the buildings are usually so shoddily built they look like junk within a decade. Compare the aging boxes on Freedom Drive, Albemarle Road or Independence and Wilkinson boulevards to the aging old stores on North Davidson Street or along Central Avenue near the Plaza.

For now, whaddaya do with the space? Here are my ideas:
Break it into apartments for the homeless?
Cubicles for the job-seekers?
Break it into 1,000 very small offices for bloggers and other entrepreneurs in need of very small spaces at very small rents?
Workshop space for artists? (Not much natural light, unfortunately).
Rehearsal space for local theater, opera and performing groups?
A gigantic indoor farmers and food market, like the one in Florence with cheeses and sausages and plenty of food stands in addition to fruits, vegetables, fish, bakeries, etc. ?

The Obama effect on educational achievement?

In my non-blogging, editorial board job, I write an op-ed column that runs Saturdays. This past Saturday’s (link here) was about Obama’s penmanship (sort of) and speculating whether having an African American in the White House who is unashamed to act intelligent might have a positive, peer-pressure kind of effect, especially but not exclusively, on African American youths.

Guess what? Here’s a link to an NY Times piece on a study that found something very similar.

‘Public hearing’ and private lobbying

During an e-mail exchange that included background data on some proposed changes from the Charlotte-Mecklenburg planning staff to the transit-oriented development requirements, I came across this. It’s from an official with REBIC, the Real Estate and Building Industry Coalition, which no one should be surprised to learn is opposing some of the changes and trying to get the staff to dial back on them.

I’m not passing judgment here on whether the proposals are good or bad. (Among the changes at issue are some involving parking requirements, and with transit-oriented development parking is a key issue, as you’re dealing with conflicting needs: Trying to encourage people not to drive and trying to encourage walkable environments, yet also trying to help development projects offer enough parking so as not to lose potential tenants and customers.)

But the note sheds light on why some staff proposals seem to start out like icebergs and end up as a half-cup of lukewarm water, before the nondeveloper public gets much of a shot at them. The public hearing isn’t until next week, and the developers’ lobby has been working on this for weeks. One developer even pointed out: “Our best chance to influence is before the public hearing.”

Here’s what REBIC said:

“The public hearing is January 26th.

“The best way to affect [effect] a change is to get staff to see the ‘error of their ways’ prior to the public hearing. The staff responsible for this TA is John Howard and Laura Harmon.

“I will assemble a variety of comments & handle with John & Laura but it will be most effective if you could send your comments to them directly (changes of a few sentences of course). I always like to see how they respond to the various constituencies – to figure out what they are really trying to accomplish & what they are willing to bend the most on.”

Now we live in a democracy, and all interest groups are welcome to weigh in to the process. Charlotte’s development community is skilled at that, and some of nondeveloper groups are also skilled — although they tend to have full-time jobs doing other things. The planning staff is diligent in trying to get public input for most of its proposed changes.

But too many things go on behind the curtain. That isn’t good for public discourse.

And if public hearings are really just for show, can’t they at least offer some popcorn and Cokes to the audience?