POLICY & ZONING RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CITIES

 

            The methods by which community greens could be developed across the country vary, from changing specific zoning ordinances to creating new financial and other incentives that will ease the development of these communal spaces. Because of the uniqueness of each city’s regulations and zoning ordinances, actual changes must vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, taking into account existing laws and regulations.

 

The following summary will provide guidelines and policy recommendations for the community greens activist. These recommendations will help lay the groundwork and reduce the amount of time spent recreating what should be relatively “standard” policies, codes, and incentives for the development of community greens across the country.

 

  1. Financial Incentives

Financial incentives will play a large role in encouraging community greens development. Cities and states could provide any number of the following incentives:

·        Reductions in real property tax rates or water/sewer rates for homes that are part of a community green.

·        The freezing of any real property taxes or water/sewer taxes for a specific amount of time (say 10 years), with limited incremental increases (say 2% per annum) after that point in time, for up to an additional 20 years.

·        Tax credits equal to the amount of money spent developing the green, which could be taken in one lump sum or spread out over up to five years.

·        Provide for lower, or no, developer impact fees.

·        Provide funding for pilot projects or implementation of numerous community greens via:

o       Matching grants - city funds could match the amount of cash donations, donated materials and supplies, or volunteer labor supplied by the applicant and be made available for neighborhood physical improvements and neighborhood-building events.

o       Block grants - the city could use community development block grant funds toward implementation of community green

o       Loans - low-interest, fixed-rate, long-term loans could be made available by the city for green space implementation and/or conservation.

o       Create special taxing districts such as Community Improvement Districts or Tax Increment Financing Districts

* Community Improvement Districts are special districts in which property owners pay a self-imposed tax for improvements.

* Tax Increment Finance districts are special districts wherein it is anticipated that economic growth will produce revenue that covers the costs of the public investment. The area must be blighted or distressed. Typically, property valuation in the areas is frozen for a specified period of time.

 

2. Other Incentives

Other incentives are not financial in nature, but may make developing a community green easier --  which, along with saving time and reducing risks and uncertainties --  will certainly encourage community greens development.

 

·        Provide expedited building permit approval process, construction inspections, and final certifications for those who want to develop a community green. 

·        Create “boiler plate” arrangements with telephone companies and other utilities so that telephone and other utility lines can be buried thereby making green space more livable and open.

·        Create standard process whereby city fire, sanitation, and police have access to the community green (via a key) and have known contact person “in charge” of the green.

 

3.  Address the issue of non-participants or holdouts

·        When undertaking an alley conversion, voters should be those owners who respond to notices from the city to be involved in a vote regarding the alley closing.

·        Votes could be one for one or could be apportioned by the relative amount of land value each would be contributing to the common space.

 

  1. Alter zoning laws/Create special zoning districts

·        Overlay districts: These districts are created by the local legislature by identifying a special resource or development area and adopting new provisions that apply in that area in addition to the provisions of the zoning ordinance.

 * The purpose of an overlay zone is to conserve natural resources or realize development objectives without unduly disturbing the expectations created by the existing zoning ordinance.

* The district is overlaid on the existing land use regulations.

* The overlay district supplements existing regulations.

* Advantages are that they can address all of the block’s concerns

regarding any proposed land use change inside the district; can easily be implemented by passing a law appending it to the existing land use regulations; and can be modified in the future.

·        Floating zones: These zoning districts define a use that the jurisdiction wants to encourage. The floating zone would be affixed to a parcel of land only when all the criteria and standards are met for the use (e.g.: a community green) that the jurisdiction wants to encourage. It would then become a small zoning district in its own right.

* The purpose of adding a floating zone to a community’s zoning ordinance is to add flexibility to that ordinance, enabling it to accommodate new land uses. It provides a clear procedure for developers or community groups to create community greens.

* Floating zones are also used to anticipate certain types of uses for

which locations will not be designated on the zoning map until community sponsors or developers apply for zoning and have met certain criteria and standards.     

·        Consent Zoning should also be enacted, whereby the zoning restrictions to an individual’s property may be waived upon consent of a supermajority.

·        Incentive zoning could allow, for example, a 100% density bonus for developers who follow the guidelines laid out in a community green zoning provision.

·        Create rear yard exceptions for lots that border a community green.

·        Enact laws that make it easier to gate or close an alley by requiring less than 100% approval of property owners and/or less than 100% of responding property owners.

 

5. Use eminent domain/condemnation authority

In certain circumstances, and especially in blighted neighborhoods, CDCs and other civic-minded groups could be granted the power of eminent domain within a limited geographic area by a local jurisdiction on behalf of greening efforts. They would have to do that by statute. The judicious use of condemnation authority would increase the rate of redevelopment. The Dudley Street Initiative in Boston is a CDC that has acquired such power.

* The only two constitutional limitations on the exercise of eminent domain are that the use of condemned property must be a public use and that just compensation must be paid to the owner of the acquired property.

* Urban redevelopment has broadened the scope of the public use requirement.

* In the urban redevelopment case of Berman v. Parker the United States Supreme Court gave public use its broadest definition.

--The Berman Court held that even property not subject to urban

blight could be taken in order to achieve integrated plans for redevelopment and slum prevention.

--The Court extended the definition of public use to include uses

that provided aesthetic benefits to the community.

 

  1. Implement programs to allow for pilot projects that are currently not allowed under the code.

City councils should allow for pilot projects in order to demonstrate the value of community greens to residents.

 

* An Example: In November of 1998, the Seattle City Council passed a new ordinance to increase the supply of housing in Seattle. Called, “Demonstration Program for Innovative Housing Design,” this ordinance allows neighborhoods to “test” a limited number of projects, housing types and processes not allowed in the current land use code. These pilot projects allow the city to evaluate the new concepts before a general code amendment that could be applied more broadly is considered. The legislation stipulates that four types of projects may be considered:

 

Before being selected, the projects must go through a design review and be approved by the neighborhood Design Review process (Pacific Northwest Title, 1998).  This innovative legislation allows innovative projects to go forward that would normally not be possible in the existing development context.  It could certainly benefit developers wishing to create community greens, and in fact, cottage housing, which encompasses shared green space, is one of the permitted projects in this legislation.