EVENING SPEAKER SERIES OFFERS CONTINUING EDUCATION OPPORTUNITY

It seems like everyone is talking about climate change issues, but what can planners really do about it - LOTS!

With the 2007 Nobel Prize going to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), we are hearing more and more about climate change issues. While some cities (Seattle among them) are leaders in this effort, many other cities are just beginning to address this issue. Effective planning for sustainable communities will require a multi-disciplinary response spanning architecture, landscape architecture, biological sciences, engineering, law, and urban planning.

The University of Washington has been a leader in this effort from a scientific standpoint, now we want to get urban planners involved. During Spring Quarter (April to mid-June) the Department of Urban Design and Planning will be sponsoring a new course for graduate and undergraduate students called, "Planning for Sustainable Communities". A unique feature of this course is a speaker's series presenting the hands-on work of local planners as they deal with sustainability issues for their community. With support from APA we are opening that speaker's series to AICP members and offering continuing education credit. This is a new venture for all involved and many of the details are still being worked out. The State Chapter and the Puget Sound Section have each pledged support of this effort at their respective Board meetings.

We will be distributing more information through the listserve. If you are interested, contact Jill Sterrett at jill.sterrett@gmail.com.

UPCOMING PUGET SOUND SECTION OFFICER ELECTION

The Section is recruiting for members to run for the opening positions of Pierce County Representative King County Representative and President Elect. Elections will be held in early May. Representative positions serve a two year term and President Elect serves a total of three years (VP, President, then Past President). Primary duties for President Elect include organizing the holiday party and planning the 2009 Law Conference. If you are interested in learning more about these opportunities, please contact Hiller West.

LETTER FROM THE EDITOR - A NEWSLETTER DEDICATED TO REGIONAL DESIGN

By Talia Henze

The theme of this quarter's newsletter is Regional Design. Last year I had the privilege of interning as lead staff for the Puget Sound Regional Design Team. In the spring of 2006, the Design Team, a volunteer group of urban design and planning professionals, received a grant from the Washington State Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development. The funding allowed the Design Team to provide the Puget Sound Regional Council with design assistance and input as they updated the regional long range plan (from VISION 2020 to the Draft VISION 2040). So far the Design Team's efforts have been successful in contributing design related language and narrative to the Draft VISION 2040, particularly impacting a number of multicounty planning policies.

In addition to assisting PSRC, the Design Team produced a corollary document: A Regional Design Strategy for the Puget Sound. This document embodies the Design Team's first steps at defining and addressing the subject of regional design. With help from PSRC, the Design Team hosted five workshops from July 2006 through July 2007, engaging over 100 design and planning professionals from the Puget Sound region. The cumulative and collaborative products from these working sessions compose the bulk of the Regional Design Strategy. The Design Team was able to deliver a finished product to CTED in the summer of 2007. The executive summary and full document can be viewed at: www.psrc.org/projects/vision/pubs/designstrategy.htm .

However, as a stand-alone document, the Regional Design Strategy is only an initial attempt. The members of the Design Team would like to use the Design Strategy as a means of conducting much broader regional outreach to engage a larger portion of our community in discussions about regional design. Thus, this newsletter is part of kick-starting that discussion.

This quarter, you will read articles from contributors who are reviewing and reacting to the Regional Design Strategy. Not having been heavily involved in the Design Team's efforts last year, these contributors (Adam Weinstein, Ikuno Masterson, and Scot Siegel) offer fresh perspectives on the document, presenting some compelling critiques as well. Two other contributors (John Owen and Ron Turner) were core members of the Design Team, each dedicating many hours each week to the Regional Design Strategy. These authors write about the experience: John Owen reflects on what we've learned from this initial process and what we should include in future discussions of regional design, while Ron Turner explains how working on the Design Strategy shaped his notion of regional form in the Puget Sound.

In addition, this newsletter also presents the perspective of a local planner who volunteered his assistance to flood-damaged areas of southwest Washington this winter; he writes a letter to his grandsons ruminating on the experience. You will also find this winter's APA Brown Bag schedule along with a quick introduction to our new Brown Bag coordinator, Stan May. And of course no newsletter would be complete without "Test Your Knowledge," provided again this month by George Steirer.

I am sincerely grateful to each of this quarter's contributors; thank you for taking on the challenge of Regional Design and producing such a diverse and thoughtful response. I have also greatly appreciated Michelle Whitfield's assistance and the opportunity to guest edit the Puget Sound section of the Washington Chapter APA newsletter.

If you would like to participate with the Regional Design Team in future efforts, please contact me at talia.henze@bhcconsultants.com, and if you have a response to this newsletter's discussions on regional design or would like to contribute an article for a future newsletter, please contact Michelle at mmwhitfield@gmail.com.

Happy New Year to all,

Talia Henze

A recent graduate with a Masters in Urban Planning from the University of Washington, Talia Henze is currently working for BHC Consultants, where she assists with long-range planning projects for small and medium-sized towns and rural counties. Having come from a small town herself (Tonasket, Washington), she is invigorated by the work and enjoys the chance to contrast regional design to highly localized implementation.

A FORT, A PARK, A MODEL: DISCOVERY PARK AS A REPOSITORY OF REGIONAL DESIGN

By Adam Weinstein

Good design always reflects a tension between the local and the universal. Here in Seattle, our new sculpture park showcases modern art by the likes of Alexander Calder and Richard Serra. But is the main attraction the swooping red curves of Calder's Eagle, or the shimmering Puget Sound, with the Olympic Mountains in the distance?

Back in my own neighborhood, is the Ballard Avenue historic district the decrepit Starlight Hotel, Hattie's Hat, and curmudgeonly Norwegian bachelors - or seventy dollar haircuts at Vain, our new and aptly-named designer hair salon? Are the worn red bricks on the street intended to preserve local heritage, or pave the way for new wine bars?

The whole idea of regional design will have to confront these dichotomies. This is an implicit theme of the Regional Design Strategy, which anticipates the preservation and restoration of natural communities while allowing human ones to evolve in tune with market realities. Considering that most of us have to hop in a car to see an old-growth Douglas fir, it's clear that we haven't always done a good job at balancing the two competing objectives of environment and economy.

As planners and citizens, we are instantly drawn to the dazzling, the new, and the innovative - the Rem Koolhaases and Frank Gehrys. In Seattle, the magnetic pull towards cutting edge design is largely a good thing, because it will save us from reverting to the time-worn clichés of our region - the stylized salmon floor tiles and shellacked log cabins. But the rush to the newest, best thing has obscured much of what is sitting in our own midst.

We are fortunate in that our region is full of places where communities have evolved in a sustainable way - even as political and economic realities have changed. These repositories of regional design have succeeded because they have permitted local eccentricities and tensions to coexist with sound planning principles that have universal appeal.

A local and particularly elegant example is Discovery Park, Seattle's largest open space, which is a veritable cookbook of good design. Important wetlands, creeks, and forested areas are protected. There is a range of housing types, including spacious Officers' Quarters listed on the National Register and the bunker-like 1960s-era "Capehart" buildings, currently awaiting demolition. There is a pedestrian emphasis - the best way to see Discovery is to walk it - but you can travel around the park in a variety of ways. And there is a hierarchy of spaces, spanning the historic oval-shaped parade ground in the Fort Lawton district, wind-blown sand dunes, and the playgrounds of Capehart, which will one day revert to forest. Discovery Park wears change on its sleeve, and has a very long historical memory. The unsorted, unstratified sediment on the North and South Bluffs and the elongated north-south ridges in the park are testaments to the retreat of the Vashon glacier 15,000 years ago. Nowhere else in Seattle is the region's geologic history so accessible. Change is still at work, as landslides along the coastline slowly chip away at the glacial till.

Lest you think that Discovery Park is a flawless representation of Puget Sound environmental and social consciousness, let's remind ourselves of some of the less pastoral aspects of the park's history. Discovery wasn't always gracefully aging military housing and meadow restoration projects. In March 1970, Native Americans staged a short-lived occupation of Fort Lawton to protest decades of neglect by local, state, and federal social services agencies. As the remainder of the fort reverts to City ownership in 2009, a fierce debate rages about whether the City's burgeoning homeless population should be accommodated in a new, more naturalistic park.

Fort Lawton always had an air of exclusivity, and this is apparent in today's landscape. The fort was developed with great sensitivity to natural topography - but the best views were reserved for the highest classes. Officers' Row, which has the panoramic views of the Olympic Mountains and Sound, was built to house the commissioned officers. The hospital, with the fort's most vulnerable residents, was screened by poplar trees.

The sometimes-contentious history of Discovery Park has preserved an element of dynamism, as interest groups - ranging from Mayor Nickels to Magnolia residents and the Sierra Club - continually battle over a piece of prized real estate. Some ideas - like a golf course and a Haussmann-esque "grand axis" next to the Indian cultural center - have died their timely deaths. A 1974 report on the park's natural history cautioned that "freedom from development must be jealously guarded," and indeed, with its decaying buildings and aging military landscape, the park today seems oddly vulnerable.

The fight for Discovery has also prevented the park from morphing into a Northwestern cliché - an REI in the Magnolia neighborhood, complete with spandex-clad power walkers and ice axes for doorknobs. The park is a model that we shouldn't overlook as we seek new ways of envisioning truly sustainable regional design.

Adam Weinstein is an Associate at LSA Associates, Inc. (www.lsa-assoc.com). His background is in landscape architecture, urban and regional planning, and environmental journalism. Adam can be e-mailed at adam.weinstein@lsa-assoc.com.

REGIONAL DESIGN VERSUS REGIONAL PLANNING

A Discussion with ESA Adolfson's Ikuno Masterson

Talia Henze: After coming to one of our workshops for the Regional Design Strategy, you asked us, "why exactly is this document about Regional Design when it seems like it's really about Regional Planning?" We grappled a lot with this distinction, and in the document, on page 10, we define Design as referring "to the manipulation of the built environment through a public process that responds to all stakeholder interests, considers a range of scales (human, building, neighborhood, city, region), and addresses the sensory environment (i.e., what the results of an action will look and feel like). Thus design is distinct from planning in the conscientious role it plays in shaping physical environment. Because of its emphasis on linking physical design to social, economic, and ecological objectives, urban design has proven invaluable in coordinating diverse disciplines (such as science, engineering, and planning), facilitating public participation, and mobilizing civic action." And from that, Regional Design is "the extension of urban design practices to the regional level in order to support regional planning objectives."

Ikuno Masterson: At first I thought, "Oh, Regional Design, I don't think you can do that." But after pondering this concept, I think there is a place for design at a regional level. Planning is the broader picture, and design definitely has a place within that context, but all the aspects that are discussed here - manipulation of the built environment through a public process, response to stakeholder interests, consideration of a range of scales - are things you do at a planning level. Using the Thanksgiving table as an analogy, it seems to me that the activity of "planning" is deciding on the shape of the table and how many leaves need to be added, then design is setting the table - choosing the table cloth, the place mats, and adding the decorative centerpiece.

Talia: We went around about this a lot, and as a group of urban designers, they certainly did not want to think of design as decoration on top. Eventually we landed on the idea of design as a thread that binds together different parts of planning, and we agreed that there needs to be some consideration of design from the beginning of the planning process.

Ikuno: (Laughing) Right. As a designer, I agree. I certainly think design and planning need to be integral. So maybe I used "decoration" a little bit too flippantly. From my perspective, what's the use of having a table if you don't have the necessary elements that let you sit and enjoy it? So how the table is set is dependant on how the table itself is shaped, how many guests you are seating, and where the windows, lighting, etc are located, i.e. what context the table is in. So to me, planning and design - the structure of the table and how it's set for Thanksgiving - are integral with one another.

Talia: What do you think is useful about the concept of regional design?

Ikuno: I think a design's ability to evoke character is useful: how do you create a regional identity? And maybe you don't create it, but you enhance what you have. We are definitely distinct from other places: from Eastern Washington and Vancouver and even from Portland, even though we're all in the Northwest. And so we do have separate identities. How do we enhance that? As a four-county region we have two beautiful mountains to the north and south, and we're also surrounded by two mountain ranges east and west and by water. So, "how do we enhance this context?" because that's really part of our character.

And of course that identify evolves over time, doesn't it? Ballard's a prime example of that. It's changed over time, but it's still a part of our regional identity. So how is design different from planning? Before growth management there was Seattle 2000, King County's Comprehensive Plan, and Vision 2020, all of which used public processes to help plan our future. We've incorporated an element of design into the whole concept of urban growth boundaries, urban centers and our corridors. Also, some cities have developed urban design concepts unto themselves: Seattle has tied the height limit to the geography. Views of the city from the water definitely have a design component that was intentional.

Talia: You mean the clustering of tall buildings?

Ikuno: Yes, to mirror the hills; it really was conscientious. So that's a design concept that could be done up regionally.

Talia: We attempted to map critical regional shapes on this map in the Regional Design Strategy (refer to Figure D), but from a design perspective the shapes in our region are complex.

Ikuno: I like this graphic, and I used it in my comment to the PSRC on the Draft VISION 2040. The shapes on the map are very broad, so I look at the outcome as more planning than design. I like the green threads a lot. We can't just call all of this space west of the UGA "urban" and not have green space, otherwise the urban area becomes a continuous mat and people can't identify with it (maybe the kids table in our Thanksgiving analogy).

Talia: One of the Design Strategy principles is about designing at all scales, so that zooming in to one of these designated regional green connections, it would be an integrated mix of green and urban at all scales: individual, neighborhood, city, etc.

Ikuno: I can see why you need to have design at all levels. I do. But, again, it seems to me that the concepts on this map are planning focused. Perhaps we need to highlight regional design's emphasis on the physical and highlight some Kevin "Lynchian" concepts for the region.

For example, looking at this map, we have major water bodies which are pretty critical to all of our goals. If those green threads were even bigger or thicker they would really enhance those major river systems (reminiscent of Chris Alexander's pattern # 3 or 4 - City Country Fingers), and maybe we could expand these by adding steep slopes. The transportation corridors are important, and they show up on this map to scale. They look really small, but in reality they're really big to us because they are such a vital part of our lives. So maybe we can think about ways to accentuate those transportation corridors with transit-oriented density and make connections with the green spaces. Then those complex city shapes you were referring to earlier start to emerge. Now we are starting to have "regional design."

As we are chatting I can see how we're really shaped by the two mountain ranges, the hills, valleys, and waterways: why 1-5 cuts right through our cities, why I-90 is where it is.

Talia: Geologically, this whole region was just scraped by glaciers from north to south. The shape of the GMA is long and skinny and the shapes of the water bodies are long and skinny. And it seems to me, fresh out of school, that this is the antithesis of our ideas for round urban centers. Maybe that's where a lot of conflict is generated. Have you had experience with long linear structures that worked well, that were used to their full potential?

Ikuno: Yes! That's a whole other layer we should be looking at: how do we enhance that bone structure we have? Look at Aurora. It has huge potential. The City of Shoreline is doing great things with it, despite some big challenges. If there were a monorail anywhere, it would really have been great to have a monorail down Aurora, which is already a spine, and then have good connections - walkable, bikeable, and drivable - across Aurora to 1-5 and to 405.

Looking back at this picture, this really is a great map. We need to do more of this kind of conceptualization. But in the end I really thought that the design concepts in this map really come down to basic good planning. But integrated with more design concepts it could be fabulous.

Ikuno Masterson is the director of planning services for the Northwest Region at ESA Adolfson in Seattle, Washington (www.esassoc.com). With a background in landscape architecture and urban planning, Ikuno has worked in planning, energy, and environmental issues in Oregon, eastern and western Washington for both private and public sectors. She notes that her work with the Tri-County Salmon Conservation Coalition was the most rewarding in her 30-year career. Ikuno can be reached at imasterson@esassoc.com.

This map, from page 93 in the Regional Design Strategy, compiles the conceptualized geographic extent of all six strategies detailed in Chapter Four. These strategies were collaboratively generated and sketched onto maps during the September 15th, 2006 Design Team working session. The concepts were then digitized by Dara O'Byrne at MAKERS Architecture.

Figure D

IMPLEMENTING A PUGET SOUND REGIONAL DESIGN STRATEGY: REFLECTIONS ON PORTLAND'S 2040 GROWTH CONCEPT

By Scot Siegel, AICP

1. The PSRC should establish a Regional Design Program and provide outreach and design assistance to local communities; and
2. Transportation funding should be linked to implementation of the design strategy.

Clockwise from upper left: Old Lake Oswego Streetcar (John Smatlak); a plaza in Lake Oswego; Lake Oswego then; Lake Oswego now (City of Lake Oswego)

Figure E

The Portland Streetcar; pictures by John Smatlak

Figure F

Metro 2040 Concept Map: http://www.metro-region.org/files/planning/2040concept_small.pdf

Figure G

LEARNING FROM THE PROCESS OF REGIONAL DESIGN

By John Owen

Efforts leading to the Regional Design Strategy for Puget Sound began with the dual observations that: 1) economic, environmental, transportation, livability and sustainability challenges facing Northwest communities must be addressed at the regional as well as the local level, and 2) while urban design has been an effective tool in local and district planning, it has seldom been effectively applied at the landscape or regional scale. For example, urban design has played a central role in building stronger urban centers, but it has been less frequently used to increase the livability and sustainability of the urbanizing matrix outside those centers. Urban design has not been used to shape regional actions and priorities for resources.

So efforts to write a Regional Design Strategy began as an experiment, asking the questions:

1. Can urban design be useful at the regional and inter-jurisdictional level? Can one apply urban design methodologies to the larger landscape scale?
   
2. What would a regional design strategy look like? What would be its benefits?
   
3. Is regional design a definable discipline or is merely a way of describing good regional planning?
   

Regional design translates interrelated regional objectives into conceptual strategies that guide and support local implementation

Figure H

LOOSELY CONNECTED REGIONAL FORM IN THE PUGET SOUND

by Ronald C. Turner, AIA, AICP, PP
(initially drafted April 21, 2007)

Are traditional perspectives on regionalism still valid in a region dominated and partitioned by natural features and unable to provide public adequate infrastructure? This paper was stimulated by work done with the Puget Sound Regional Design Team on a Regional Design Strategy. The discussions in the Design Strategy regarding regional "identity" and "design" helped me gain more understanding of Western Washington and how planning is administered in the Puget Sound Region. I'm a retired planner from the East Coast and accustomed to a different set of rules, policies, laws and values; I continue to be bewildered and sometimes amused by the contradictions between progressive growth management laws and strong private property values.

Traditional notions of regions generally imagine an area highly connected with rapid transit, either configured on a hub and spoke or in strong vectors or corridors. In addition, many contemporary regions also have significant ring roads. The Puget Sound Region is quite different: the regional highway system has an enormous and deep lake at the center of its service area, where normally the greatest agglomeration of development would occur. The lake, plus the shoreline of Puget Sound and the foothills of the Cascade Range to the East, constrain regional integration on the East-West axis and provide the setting for a narrow, divided North-South settlement pattern. The continuity of North-South development is also interrupted (in a less profound manner) by rivers and estuaries generally flowing East to West which provide natural edges and dividers. In sharp contrast, based on my experience in piedmont and coastal plain geographies, regions on the East Coast expand for extraordinary distances before encountering natural constraints: Philadelphia to New York City; Brooklyn to Montauk Point, etc.

My basic premise is that the Puget Sound region will never be a fully integrated and connected place and should be planned as a "loosely connected region," where cities and suburbs do not depend on connections to other places, but each community is planned as substantially independent in most elements of land use. Because this region clearly lacks investment in and planning for a comprehensive, high-speed transit system and because natural features impede regional integration, it has become clear to me that this metaphor for loosely connected regional development has to be investigated and tested.

Sub-regional units (housing location linked to employment centers) will not function as they do in other regions that have high speed transportation systems to connect them over significant distances. Living in Seattle and working in Bellevue will have reduced utility as population increases produce greater friction within the existing transportation systems. Cities, as they seem to be doing today, will try to balance jobs, housing, and support systems within, or proximate to, their municipal boundaries, and they will plan for public transportation that supports their local land use patterns. Some special centers, such as the Port and SeaTac Airport, will continue to have regional connections, but the notion of connected specialized centers will have reduced validity, while plans for "self-contained cities" and local capacity will gain more support. Major regional transportation connectors will increasingly lack support, competition between urban centers for investment will increase, and support for projects that sustain inter-regional dependencies will decline.

The consequences of an unplanned, market driven, "loosely connected" model, if it occurs, could be significant. A few of the possible implications, negative and positive, are:

• A reduction in this region's ability to compete internationally. Many planners and economists see the regional unit as the source of growth and development rather than the national unit. The lack of connectivity and investment flexibility could severely constrain our region when compared to others.
• A public reluctance to invest in larger infrastructure elements; regional through systems will receive less support. The current discussion on how to manage the viaduct reconstruction is a good demonstration of the conflict between "through" systems and local land use objectives.
• Investment in smaller systems serving local needs will be supported. The Seattle Monorail Project, although defeated, represented a local program that could have strengthened connections within the City of Seattle
• A movement toward smaller integrated urban centers would add momentum to the "greening" of the region. Reduced work-to-residence patterns can reduce long distance movements, facilitating walking or bicycling to work.
• A clear need to solve the lack of housing for "workforce," moderate, and low income households within urban centers. Current market forces and land values push development further away from employment centers. High density proposals do little to mitigate the problem and, in fact, result in less affordable units. Unless this problem is solved, the region will not be able to manage growth, leading to the breakdown of policies and growth boundaries and further dispersal of "affordable" housing to outer rings.
• A possible rejection of state goals for population growth, based on the notion of an unfunded mandate, due to an inability to accommodate the estimates.
• An anti-regional bias and a call for reemphasizing local control and exclusionary policies.
• A reemphasis on the natural systems that form our place - providing open space and natural features between urban centers and reinforcing the connective tissues that define the region.

If I'm even partially correct that a "loosely connected region" is our probable future, I think it appropriate that planners evaluate alternatives in the classic "if this, than that" model. What are the consequences for this region if the future does not include substantial improvements to the capacity and connectivity of high speed transit? I suggest that the following four parameters be used for the "plan"

• Maintain and repair the existing transportation systems with modest improvement to "through" systems; place emphasis on enhancing local, municipal, and sub regional systems.
• Evaluate carrying capacity of urban centers with limited connections to other centers. Manage growth, both in quantity and timing, to be consistent with capacity (Real concurrency!)
• Address our dysfunctional housing system by public assistance and investment to provide a full range of housing choices for "close in" housing opportunities. (Avoid the pitfall of crediting the "market" with infallibility!)
• Reestablish the dominance of the region's natural iconic features in planning and limiting areas of growth. Give the communities the spaces and sinews that create the separated and defined centers and neighborhoods.

There are, of course numerous questions and speculations inherent in this notion of a "possible" future, but I'm concerned that the future will happen before we can prepare to accommodate its impacts. It's time to take a step back and plan for a less connected region.

Ronald C. Turner, AIA, AICP, PP, moved to Seattle in 2003 after spending most of his professional life in Philadelphia where he has worked in Architecture, City Planning and Urban Design for public and private sector clients in the Delaware River Valley and Mid-Atlantic Region. He was an Adjunct Professor at Drexel University and Temple University and lectured at the University of Pennsylvania for 10 years. His public service activities included chairing three planning commissions. In Seattle, Mr. Turner taught an undergraduate course, "Introduction to Urban Planning," at the University of Washington, and has participated in other academic projects. He has presented at APA Brown Bag lunches, is an active member of the Senior Action Committee, and has assisted the Belltown neighborhood in planning for open space, streetscape planning, parks, grant writing and general development concerns. Mr. Turner can be reached at rjctur@msn.com.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF PLANNING LAW

By George Steirer

This month's theme is based on VISION 2020 and Countywide Planning Policies.

QUESTIONS:

1) Who can appeal an adopted county-wide planning policy?
A. The governor
B. A party of record, such an association or interest group who provide comment
C. A county
D. Anyone, even if not a party of record (all of the above)

2) Which of the following is not required to be addressed by county-wide planning-policies:
A. Policies that consider the need for affordable housing
B. Policies for county-wide economic development and employment
C. Policies for protecting the natural environment
D. An analysis of the fiscal impact

3) True or False: Amending the Shoreline Master Program is exempt from the requirement of RCW 36.70A.130, which states comprehensive plans can not be updated more than once a year.

4) State law requires that multicounty planning policies be adopted by two or more counties, each with a population of _______________ or more, with contiguous urban areas and may be adopted by other counties.
A. 300,000
B. 450,000
C. 650,000
D. 800,000

5) The Central Puget Sound Growth Management Hearings Board (CPSGMHB) has found that as a result of adopting county-wide planning policies local jurisdictions are not required to have:
A. a comprehensive plan that is consistent with the CWPP
B. development regulations that are consistent with the adopted county-wide planning policies
C. a fiscal impact analysis
D. transportation element consistent with the CWPP

6) Municipal requirements that licenses and permits be required before conducting certain activities is considered an exercise of?
A. Dillon's Rule
B. Comprehensive Planning
C. Police Power
D. SEPA

Answers to these questions are at the end of the newsletter.

"Test Your Planning Knowledge" is prepared by George Steirer, Senior Planner with the City of Mercer Island Development Services Group.

REPORTING FROM CENTRALIA

A Letter from a Puget Sound Planner to His Grandsons

December 15, 2007

Dear Taihei, Max, and Jesse,

I went to Centralia last week with a group of volunteers to assist the community in assessing the damage caused by the major flood that had inundated the area. The assessment required us to visit every structure in the inundated area and determine whether the structures could be occupied or were too dangerous to be inhabited. The volunteers were architects, engineers and builders from various parts of the State who took time off from work to help the City Community Development Department in their efforts to prevent the residents of the affected areas from being injured or becoming ill.

Centralia, population of about 16,000, is a place that was an industrial, mining and logging town and has suffered from the changes in markets and technology. Unemployment there is about double the rate in the Seattle area, and income levels are considerably lower than the Puget Sound Region. Its downtown looked pleasantly traditional in design and recalled many of the other older towns that dot this and other regions, but I had the sense that it has been severely affected by the changes of the last decade, and the community was trying to find ways of adapting to the new economy.

As we began our inspection, our first impression was the piles of material on the curb next to the sidewalk. Couches, beds, chairs, boxes, books, pictures: all of the "stuff" that supports our lives was stacked in soggy piles of colorful debris. Most of the piles were neat, reflecting care, almost as if the people were opening their doors to their neighbors and visitors. The people we met and interviewed as part of our work were open, direct, stoic, and always referred us to "others" who were in worse shape and had suffered more extensive damage. Many of them had suffered from flooding in 1996 and they were focused with extraordinary energy on getting their buildings repaired and returning to a normal existence. The task is enormous, especially for those buildings where the water had come over the first floor and damaged walls, insulations, floors, electrical systems and other building elements. Things had to be torn out, the structure dried and building parts replaced.

Most of the places where we worked were not in the wealthy part of the town. Some of the buildings were not in good shape, patched together, unpainted and needing work. Sometimes it was hard to distinguish the damage done by the flood and the pre-existing conditions. It was clear that the community has been hurt, not only by floods, but by regional changes in economic activities and employment.. There was the feeling of poverty in the neighborhood: of many people struggling to get along. The families we visited in Centralia had not only been damaged by the flood but had been injured by the friction of our economic system - a double catastrophe for people without resources.

I began to feel uncomfortable with myself about the experience. I realized that once again I had been living in a bubble, sheltered by my life in Seattle, a pleasant middle class existence without too much uncertainty or too many threats. I have had this experience in other places where I have lived - a drift away from the values that once centered my life: notions of fairness and economic justice sensitized by working with stressed communities. I had changed my professional life to City Planning from Architecture to further those values since I found that design, while great fun, had little influence on fundamental social issues.

So the visit to Centralia has been instructive to me, learning from people, getting me back on track and returning me to my fundamental concerns: I hope it sticks.

Love,

"Gubby"

APA AUDIO CONFERENCE, FEBRUARY 13, FEDERAL WAY CITY HALL

Announcement courtesy of Anne Fritzel

The APA audio conference "Mastering Density" will be held at Federal Way City Hall Council Chambers at 33325 8th Avenue South in Federal Way on February 13th from 1:00-2:30.

This event is co-sponsored by CTED's Growth Management Services and the Puget Sound Section of the Washington Chapter of APA.

Density, long a goal of planning, can still be a hard sell in some communities. In this program, presenters demonstrate how to achieve density through design, as well as how to understand the economics of density. Learn how density works with transportation and ultimately affects sustainability. Examine density's effects and benefits. Gain ideas on how to present the concept of density to achieve critical buy-in.

To claim 1.5 AICP Certification Maintenance credits from this free event, participants should sign in at the audio conference, and then claim the credits at
www.planning.org/cm/
.

Please RSVP to Anne Fritzel at annef@cted.wa.gov or 360-725-3064.

APA BROWN BAG COORDINATION IN SAFE HANDS

By Talia Henze and Stan May

After many years of chasing down speakers, reserving rooms all over the Puget Sound region, and setting up fickle technical equipment, Steve Ladd of Bonney Lake is taking a sabbatical from APA Brown Bag coordination, leaving some big shoes to fill. Luckily, a logical successor (with fortuitously big feet!) was not hard to find. Stan May has been assisting Steve for the last year and a half, having taken responsibility for bringing the delicious two-dollar sack lunches to each session. Stan got those feet wet by introducing the Fall '07 Brown Bag series and will be organizing his first full slate of speakers for the Winter '08 series (see the schedule listed below).

We greatly appreciate all the work that Steve has put into initiating and organizing the Brown Bag series. We are fortunate indeed to have Stan to take on the work necessary to keep things running smoothly; we thank him heartily and we wish him the best of luck!

Please come out on at noon on Wednesdays from January 30th through February 27th and help support this important series; remember, by attending these sessions you can also fulfill some of your AICP continuing education requirements.

Stan is a senior planner at BHC Consultants. If you have ideas for a Brown Bag session or if you would like to help by bringing lunches and writing recaps or if you have any questions, Stan can be reached at (206) 505-3400 or emailed at stan.may@bhcconsultants.com.

WINTER '08 BROWN BAG SCHEDULE

APA Brown Bag Winter 2008 Series Schedule

By Stan May

Announcing the Puget Sound Section APA WINTER '08 BROWN BAG SERIES of continuing education

Come to the FREE session you need to do your job better! APA-subsidized lunches, only $3! RSVP to Stan May, stan.may@bhcconsultants.com or (206) 505-3400.

Topic	Time	Place	Speakers!
CTED WACs "Did we hear you right?" - Update of CTED admin code and GMA rules. How might they change? What is driving the changes? Also the Washington Chapter of the APA will be providing input, what is their take? How should you provide your input?	Noon to 1:15, Wed Jan 30	Mercer Island City Council Chambers, 9611 SE 36th St .	Dave Anderson, CTED Reid Shockey, Shockey/Brent
Green Housing Programs and Incentives - Why is green building important for planners? What resources are available locally? Hear about King County 's incentive program, "Green Building & Low Impact Development" and types of incentives available; What is the Seattle 's Office of Housing SeaGreen program for greening affordable housing and how will it transition to the State's Evergreen Sustainable Building Standard in July 2008?	Noon to 1:15, Wed Feb 6	Renton City Hall, 1055 S. Grady, 7 th floor	Peter Dobrovolny, City of Seattle Dan Farrell, King County Joanne Quinn, City of Seattle Vicki Colgan, DOE
The Perfect Staff Report - You may have heard there's no such animal, but is there? What do the people who work with staff reports on a daily basis have to say. What can you do to approach the "ideal". What do hearing examiners want to see? Where are the pitfalls? How do local professionals approach a staff report?	Noon to 1:15, Wed Feb 13	Renton City Hall, 1055 S. Grady, 7 th floor	John Doan, City of Sumner John Galt, Hearing Examiner Steve Causseaux, Mccarthy Causseaux & Hurdelbrink Mike Kattermann, City of Bellevue
Tukwila's New Wireless Communication Facility Chapter - Moving Beyond the CUP process, streamlining the permit process, providing predictability, and encouraging co-location. A panel discussion with City and wireless communication industry representatives".	Noon to 1:15, Wed Feb 20	Tukwila Community Center, 12424 42 nd Ave S., Room B	Brandon Miles, City of Tukwila Chris Bacha, Kenyon Disend
International Planning - Washington Chapter of the American Planning Association engaged in a professional exchange program by sponsoring a true grass root community development project for the town of Ejisu, Ghana, West Africa . The Ejisu "visioning project" was developed in partnership with Planning and Land Economy Department, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana . The simple ideas and tools have tremendous impact on local communities	Noon to 1:15, Wed Feb 27	PSRC, 1011 Western Ave, Suite 500, Seattle	Kojo Fordjour, Washington State Ferries

ANSWERS TO "TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE"

Answers

By George Steirer

1) A. is correct. RCW 36.70A.210(6) permits only a city or the governor to appeal an adopted county-wide planning policy. This was reaffirmed by the CPSGMHB in Case No. 96-3-0001.

2) C. is correct. Policies for protecting the natural environment is not required in county-wide planning policies per RCW 36.70A.210(3). Answers A, B, and D must be addressed.

3) True per RCW 36.70A.130(2)(a)(ii). Comprehensive plans may not be amended more than once a year, with the following exceptions: Shoreline Master Program updates, subarea plans, capital facilities element, and amendments necessary to enact a planned action (all with certain stipulations).

4) B. is correct. 450,000 per RCW 36.70A.210 (7)

5) B. CPSGMHB has stated "those implementing development regulations are not required to be consistent with the adopted county-wide planning policies since CPPs cannot alter the land use powers of cities." (CPSGMHB Case No. 95-3-0011). This was reaffirmed by in the Final Decision and Order for CPSGPHB Case No. 92-3-0004c.

6) C. is correct. RCW 35A.11.020, gives Code and Non - Charter Cities powers which may be exercised in regard to regulation of real property of all kinds.

"Test Your Planning Knowledge" is prepared by George Steirer, Senior Planner with the City of Mercer Island Development Services Group.