RCPL 5513

1
RCPL 5513
Evaluation of Site Design, Planning, and
Development
2
Site reviewed from many angles

• Physical attributes
• Site services
• Transportation and access
• Site design principles
• Evaluated corrrectness of approaches and design
• For lack of better term can call this development
  evaluation

3
Standards based evaluations

• Relate to things with known consequences if not
  followed
• e.g. risks to life and property
• traffic congestion
• impacts on valued resources
• Some consequences less well known or quantified
• Risks from small lot frontages

4
Market as standard

• Some decision criteria not based on real standard
• Based on frequency of repeated use
• Based on market popularity
• Justification post-hoc
• Leaves room for a lot of judgment

5
Planning tools

• Have looked at possible physical planning tools
• Infrastructure controls
• Control rate of investment in sewer, water,
  transportation systems
• Limit and direct growth
• Zoning and subdivision
• Control land use type and intensity
• Tendencies for inflexibility

6
More planning tools

• PUD
• More flexible tool
• Not as popular on the market
• Much more judgement and innovation required
• Other innovations
• Overlay zones
• Performance zones

7
See the small picture

• Professionals often tend to focus on fine details
• Does this meet the provisions of paragraph 5,
  sentence 2
• Like your approach to most labs
• Decision-making based on point-of-view
• All developer decisions are bad and not in the
  public interest
• All public planner decisions are good

8
Seeing the big picture

• Regardless of position must take the broader
  viewpoint of public good
• Matter of ethics
• Must try to focus on broader perspective
  regardless of daily business requirements

9
What to evaluate?

• At several geographic scales
• Neighborhood, to city, to region
• Impacts
• On natural systems
• On the built environment
• On different social and economic groups

10
Context of planning

• These comparisons will not yield easy decisions
• Value judgements will often be required
• Someone is always displeased
• Thats planning