ecocites ch 10

I read chapter 10 of Ecocities which is on “Tools to fit the task.” What the author was trying to do was to illustrate several ways in which to make a city more ecologically friendly. He began with first introducing the idea of ecocity zoning. This is the process through which a city is mapped out and particular attention is paid to green areas. Zoning is described as “simply a means of letting people know what they can build and where and what sorts of activities are allowed there.”(248) In other words, it’s a way of setting a basis for the control of development so that buildings and communities are built in the most supportive way possible. Poor zoning can be corrected in six ways: planning around making everything walkable and within walking distance, creating pleasant places for pedestrians to walk and congregate, 3-D thinking allowing buildings to go up rather than out, looking at the whole system instead of the singular building, long term results, and last but not least creating agricultural open spaces. These all point to shifting a community from a car dependent and covered landscape to a more useful one such as agriculture.

There are several ways to make a community more ecological. Most cities are just built up around a main street where people drive their cars to get to and take little account of the land they are building on. To a developer, as long as they won’t get sued for building on that land, it’s ok by them. They pay no particular attention to natural aspects such as streams or old trees and couldn’t care less if these sites were destroyed. To properly develop a city, however, these sites need to be observed and emphasized and will allow more spaces for people to wander around in and relax at and will bring more people into a place where they could spend money.

Along this same idea of preserving nature is the idea of “transfer of development rights.” This is basically a land trust and allows a property holder to sell off the land, but still keep the right to build on it even after it’s sold. This allows for a piece of land to be sold without fearing that this land will be developed on, not only creating more green areas but also promoting more dense buildings as the other structures will need to make up for this lost space. There is also the idea of using TDR as a credit system allowing a developer to allocate certain pieces of land in return for more lenient building restrictions such as building a few stories higher. I think this is a very good way of getting companies to realize the advantages of preserving natural space. It also provides a way of getting this land without actually having to fight for it because if providing this open space allows for denser construction, then the developer would opt to provide green space in return for a higher return on his construction.

All these ideas center around policy changes. The rational behind enacting policy changes is that they should be able to enforce productive and sustainable development without having to sacrifice much or anything. They not only provide increased business but also can create a more lively atmosphere and improve the lifestyles of the community’s residents. It would be great if developers would do this on their own, but the trend is to build in the least difficult way possible and often there is a sacrifice in quality for profit. Policy makes it unlawful to violate the building code and forces developers to build ecologically and the result should be a more vibrant city.