In case you have not noticed by now, I am truly an advocate of infill development. I think my fascination with this particular development was highlighted in this interview by CNN with Richard Florida. In the video he highlights how America bounced back after the Great Depression. The recovery was due in part to the flight from inner cities to the suburbs. That flight was a gift and a curse in that it took our best and brightest, along with their wealth, to the emerging suburbs. We effectively built our way out the Depression. Fast forward 75 years, here we are again at a crossroads where everyone from the President to economists are trying to figure out how we recover.

“[We] must get back into the game…[we'll] be condemned to high unemployment and sluggish growth, if the 35% of the economy real estate represents is not engaged.” Patrick Doherty, Washington Monthly

What do I propose? I’m so glad you asked.

America can recover by rebuilding our cities.  The Urban Land Institute noted that there is a demand for attached housing to the tune of 25 million units by 2025; that translates into 3 million acres of infill sites scattered throughout America prime for redevelopment and new uses. If history is any indicator, we will recover-the question is how we will recover. Over the last decade we’ve seen a migration back to the city and the trend is continuing for a number of reasons. Some would argue because my generation, the Echo Boomers or Millennials, want to be near “life” and that tends be in urban centers. The game has changed. We no longer solely prefer the housing options our parents and grandparents had.

Progress has been made to raise awareness about the need to curb carbon emissions by changing the way buildings are built. I applaud the USGBC, Southface and others who are championing high performance building. I propose we shift gears. Now that we understand “green building” as means to curb emissions, we need to understand infill development as alternative to suburban sprawl. Many local governments don’t have policies in place that encourage infill development whereby developers opt for the lesser expensive suburban model.

“There’s a frequent obstacle: neighbors’ opposition to infill development and the extra density it adds. But neighborhood doubts can often be satisfied by collaborative planning and prospects of quality redevelopment near transit stops, as well as attractive makeovers of obsolete shopping centers and low-grade strip commercial corridors. Plus, downtowns, universities and medical centers are new magnets for quality redevelopment.”

From “Compact Real Estate: The Stimulus We Need” Citiwire.net

Construction jobs were halved in Florida, Nevada and Arizona. What if we took the charge to build more sustainable cities? What if we built out half of the 3 million acres with walkable, transit oriented developments? Millions would be put back to work. Instead of putting lipstick on a pig, yes, I’m talking about GM, let’s redirect those funds to help cities incorporate policies that incentivize developers to pursue infill developments.

There is a stimulus package for you.

What is Infill Development?

Infill development is the process of developing vacant or under-used parcels within existing urban areas that are already largely developed.  Most communities have significant vacant land within city limits, which, for various reasons, has been passed over in the normal course of urbanization. A successful infill development program focuses on the completion of the existing community fabric.  It should focus on filling gaps in the neighborhood. Following are 5 reasons why this form of development is needed now.

1. Infill development contributes to a more compact form of development which is less consumptive of land and resources

Many developers are bypassing vacant urban area land for less expensive land beyond our cities edges.  Our current patterns of sprawling, low-density development at the urban fringe are consuming land (including farmlands, wetlands, and other resource lands)  at a much faster rate than population growth.

2. Infill development offers increased mobility for those who can’t or prefer not to drive. It is also an important part of the equation for minimizing traffic congestion.

In-city living offers other transportation choices in addition to the automobile.  Filling in the gaps creates higher average densities, which in turn support more frequent transit service.  Residents who live near where they work, shop, or pursue other activities often can choose to walk, and carpools may be easier to arrange.  Such choice is particularly important for those who can’t drive including elderly, youth, or low income residents who lack a car.  Communities are learning that they cannot build their way out of traffic congestion.  New highways or lane additions typically fill up as fast as they are built as a result of the extended commutes and more frequent vehicle trips required by spread-out development.

3. Fully utilizing existing facilities and services before considering costly service extensions to outlying areas offers savings for local government budgets.

Building expensive new facilities while existing facilities have existing capacity is wasteful duplication in an era of belt tightening. Many local jurisdictions traditionally have averaged the costs of services across all users rather than charging the full cost of serving more distant development.  This has made outlying development relatively less expensive for the developer, while straining local government budgets. In addition, we are racing to construct expensive, new schools in outlying areas at the same time that we agonize over closing and finding new uses for inner city schools.  Growth at the cities’ edges has come at the expense of central cities.  Older buildings in core areas have been abandoned, existing utilities are underutilized and, in general,  new investment has been redirected to the outlying areas.  Infill development also bolsters local government budgets by putting under- utilized vacant land back on the tax roles.

4. Renewed infill and investment in our central cities is crucial to the overall economic health of the surrounding region

Infill development brings increased numbers of residents to support in-city city commercial centers.  A more efficient business climate can result from employment centers located in close proximity  rather than in scattered sites.  The health of central city downtowns is intertwined with that of the region as a whole.  For a region to be well-positioned to compete in a global economy, it must have at its vortex a thriving central city which can provide the vitality and draw to fuel the region’s economy.

5. Infill development can bring new opportunity and improved qualify of life for in-city residents

The migration of higher-income residents, together with the best jobs, educational opportunities and services from many central cities, has left low-income residents isolated.  It can be very difficult for them to learn about and travel to distant jobs, especially if dependent on transit that requires multiple bus transfers, or carpooling to scattered job sites.  Reduced population and average income in cities also produces fewer tax dollars to support public services, and local businesses.  Fewer opportunities and positive role models, can contribute to loss of hope, increased anti-social behavior and crime.  These trends further fuel middle-class migration from cities.  In contrast, in-city neighborhoods offer living opportunities in neighborhoods with distinctive character and more opportunity for social interaction than sprawl development typically provides.  Infill development can return jobs, purchasing power and new amenities to an urban neighborhood.

From Next American City | American Poor Spread to Suburbia, but We’re not Ready

Let’s face it: American public policy has yet to respond to or even grasp the profound change in settlement patterns that has been gradually making its mark on the nation’s landscape over the past few decades.

Cities from Detroit to Des Moines have been pushing the gentrification of their downtowns, with generally positive results, and the results are well documented.

But more consequential to a far larger group is the mass out-migration of impoverished people from center cities into the suburbs, often in the same metropolitan areas. According to a recent Brookings Institute Study, the process is accelerating. Between 2000 and 2008, the percent of poor people living in the suburbs increased by 25%, compared to by 5.6% in central cities and 15.4% for the nation as a whole. More of the poor now live in the suburbs than in central cities: 12.5 million versus 11 million.

The out-migration of the lower-middle class has been just as notable.

From a transportation perspective, this change in the lifestyles of the poor will have a significant effect. Public transit works best when it’s in dense urban centers because it can provide efficiencies of scale by offering service to many people at the same time. This allows it to be cheap enough to satisfy most of the transportation needs of the poor—but only if they live in communities that can be adequately served by buses and trains.

When urban poverty was concentrated in the inner city, at least those who lived there were able to have relatively quick and convenient access via train or bus to the jobs in the downtown office core.

Unfortunately, the increasing presence of poor people in the suburbs means a growing share of the population that lives in sprawling neighborhoods where the provision of mass transit is limited at best—and cannot be expanded at a reasonable cost.

It’s worth looking at one particularly affected region—the Washington, D.C. metro area—to understand what’s going on. According to the Brookings report, the number of poor people in the region’s core cities, including Washington, Arlington, and Alexandria, decreased by 15,000 between 2000 and 2008, to 121,000. In the suburbs, on the other hand, the number of poor exploded by 40,000 to 251,000. Though the poverty rate in the central cities remains higher, the sheer number of poor people in the suburbs is much greater. And it means that the people living in transportation-rich inner-cities are becoming relatively wealthier.

An Urban Land Institute/Center of Housing Policy report from last year clarified both the causes and the effects of those changes. The primary explanation of the migration is the availability of low-cost housing on the suburban fringe in Maryland and Virginia; though lodging is still relatively cheap in many of the eastern parts of the District, suburban homes are both cheap and new. Even more attractive is the fact that suburbs promote the image of a crime-free, pastoral environment, a perception that unfortunately tends to fade away once too many poor people make the leap out of the inner-city core.

The high rate of foreclosures in Washington’s eastern and southern suburbs is indicative of the degree to which the lower-middle class has chosen to leave the inner city. The primary consequence of this move away from the dense core is an increase in transportation costs, primarily because of a corresponding increase in the use of private automobiles: the Urban Land Institute report documents an almost inverse relationship between housing prices and transportation costs. Suburban dwellers—rich or poor—find themselves in a situation where their only choice is driving relatively expensive cars.

When a family simply can’t afford to own and operate an automobile, the result is a massive reduction in mobility.

In this context, Celia Dugger’s recent article in The New York Times about Johannesburg, South Africa’s new bus rapid transit system seems particularly relevant. Her discussion of the difficulties of commuting for a nanny living far from the wealthy enclave in which she works is framed in terms of the long-term effects of apartheid, but her situation described could also be interpreted as yet another example of the class-based segregation that disrupts the lives of the working poor in many major cities.

Do U.S. cities provide adequate transportation for people in poor, suburban communities? Surely not in every case, since Americans of all income classes face increasingly long commutes that often don’t seem much different than that of the South African woman profiled in the Times article. Many metropolitan regions have developed in a way that requires a large percentage of the population to take hours-long journeys to get from home to work. This is not a problem confined to the southern hemisphere.

Are the American poor seriously limited by their place in the urban landscape? Can we build housing in a denser manner throughout metro regions, in both inner cities and suburbs, to ensure that we can provide adequate transit everywhere? Can we find ways to encourage the poor to stay in the cities, where they have greater mobility?

I don’t have easy answers to any of these questions, but current federal and local policy does not address the commuting needs of the suburban poor. Too many federal dollars are spent in an effort to attract people to cheap home loans and onto new highways—incentives that ultimately inspire people to move out of the inner-cities, where transportation is cheaper. Meanwhile, neither the federal government nor states have shown leadership in promoting a new way of thinking about and developing the suburbs, whose form remains stuck in the 1950s model, one that may be appealing but which is ultimately difficult to promote for people at the bottom of the income bracket.

Full | The American Poor Spread to Suburbia, but We’re not Ready

US Army Forces Command & US Army Reserve Forces Command HQ - Under Construction

At first glance, you would think Fayetteville, NC was the mecca of affordable living. The city was voted one of America’s most military-friendly cities and has received quite a bit of national press over the past several months; primarily, for having one of the best performing real estate markets in the country. While  most markets are experiencing double-digit declines, Fayetteville’s growth has been consistent and the city has experienced double-digit appreciation year-over-year.

Rank: 5

Metro: Fayetteville (N.C.)
Share of homes with increasing values: 53.23%
Median value: $119,800
Annual change: 13.12%
Quarterly change: 2.22%

Source: BusinessWeek “The 30 Strongest Housing Markets In the US, August, 2009

If you’ve ever driven Interstate 95 through North Carolina, chances are you’ve driven through or refueled in Fayetteville. Fayetteville, NC has been the news a lot recently; not because it’s Julianne Moore’s hometown (and mine) but because of what’s going on there. The city is in the middle of a rather significant transformation and the country has been watching. Fayetteville is a part of the Sandhills Region and is located within Cumberland County, NC, which is home to Fort Bragg. Fort Bragg is on track to be one of the largest Army installations in the world. As a result of a 2005 BRAC commission recommendation, Fort MacPherson (GA) is scheduled to close. The US Army Forces Command and US Army Reserve Forces Command will be moved to Fort Bragg by March, 2011 and some 40,000 new residents will be added to the area. That’s huge for a city with a population just over 115,000. There is a gold rush underway all to accommodate the incoming troops and their dependents. How will the city manage this growth?

FORSCOM has a $30 billion annual obligation authority for defense and other contracts and provides unmatched opportunities for enterprising businesses who want to compete for these dollars. As a result, many defense-related companies have made the move or are in the planning stage to relocate to the Fort Bragg region. ~ BRAC Regional Task Force

The Disconnect

The Wall Street Journal reported on a Zillow finding that Fayetteville was experiencing double-digit appreciation. Is it good? Maybe for the developers. See, the city of Fayetteville has been largely reactive instead proactive as it relates to this new growth. Infrastructure improvements once delayed have become priority, and a zoning ordinance that hadn’t been revised since 1974 is being revamped. There is evidence of this lack of vision all throughout my hometown. Sidewalks are almost nonexistent in the most populated areas and the public transportation is like many smaller cities, inefficient. It’s safe to assume that the variables used in measuring the increases were partial.

Not only is Fayetteville the sixth largest city in North Carolina, it is also the flattest. Development continues to go out instead of up. I have spent several months researching infill opportunities there and sought to compare and contrast other projects that had been completed. I found one. A sole project downtown that everyone points to when asked about infill development in the city. It’s a well-designed building at the corner of Hay Street and Ray Avenue. Hay Street is the Main Street for the city and an attempt is underway to revitalize the entire downtown area. I understand the project sold out before construction was complete. It wasn’t large enough to create critical mass, but it was large enough to serve as a prototype for what can be accomplished in the city.

I’m not certain I follow the logic in repeating the history and development model that’s proven to be unsustainable but, as far as the city is concerned, there is no other model to follow. Largely, the prevailing housing options in Fayetteville and surrounding communities are single-family detached homes on cul-de-sacs. This model works here because land prices are still relatively cheap and construction prices have remained level compared to other parts of the country. Developers haven’t been challenged to do anything differently or engage in more sustainable development.

The Challenge

My search for sites was and continues to be pretty challenging. I have looked at three. One was in immediate vicinity to Fayetteville State University, and the other two are near Cape Fear Valley Hospital. I thought that if any area had potential for redevelopment, it was these two; the sites were located near the city’s largest employers. Well I was wrong. Growth doesn’t occur within the city limits but on the outskirts, where there is plenty of land. I was rather disappointed in my hometown because I’d assumed they’d reached a phase where they were ready to shed the image of Fayettenam and embark on a new direction; one that would retain some of the knowledge capital being produced locally and shipped out.

I met with the leadership of BRAC Regional Task Force (BRAC RTF) and if any organization locally “gets it,” they do. A quick Google search or glance through the phone book will reveal find few (if any) planners in this city that are not employed by the city (try it). I found one. BRAC RTF brought a much-needed element to the planning process. Engineers do all of the site planning and programming there, and it’s evident in the no-creativity-at-all sprawl throughout the city. It’s actually rather depressing. I left Fayetteville in 1997 and returned for a short while in 2008/9. Other than a few retailers and more vinyl-sided homes, much hasn’t changed in the All American City…the race is on to get it right.

The Opportunity

Ground has broken on Military Business Park, a planned one and half million square feet project located along the All American Defense Corridor. Some predict this  Southeastern North Carolina corridor could be the equivalent of Research Triangle Park, located about an hour and a half away. Smaller cities around the country have an incredible opportunity to position themselves as economic development generators once the real estate markets recover. Local leadership will have to make in-town development a priority and provide incentives for developers to do so.

If Fayetteville really leverages this national exposure, they can serve as a model for what other cities of its size can accomplish with vision and proper execution. The hunt is still on for the right opportunity in my hometown, and we’ll see how things progress over the next few months. Do you know of good examples of small towns that have made efforts to create car-free cities?

Southview Preliminary

by Yahya E. B. Henry

What makes the perfect site? In real estate, the old adage of “Location, Location, Location,” is still true but the locations are changing. You were considered golden if you secured a large undeveloped tract of land with proper zoning that could be developed relatively easily. The story is changing a bit.

Southview is a community I co-developed in 2007.  I located the 62-acre site and, with the team, entitled the property for 143 lots with 3 dedicated out parcels for future commercial use. The entire property was zoned for a low-density residential use that would, after improvements, allow for 2-3 lots per acre. My partners in the project recently made an attempt to rezone the out parcels from their current residential designation to a commercial use. We did not anticipate any resistance from the city as the Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan) designated this area as a gateway and our property for commercial use. The opposite was true – the city council was resistant to our proposal for rezoning so we resubmitted under a by-right scenario for another 22 residential lots. Southview is now a solely residential subdivision with 165 lots.

Southview is located in Franklin, VA and is part of the Hampton Roads region of Southeastern Virginia. We were convinced, at the time, there was a market for moderately-priced new homes in this market. Primary work centers were 30-45 minutes away and you really could not navigate anywhere without a car; public transportation was not an option. The neighboring city of Suffolk had several high profile projects under construction and the average home was being delivered in the $300-400,000s. Our product would be half that. Did they come? Did anybody come? No.

Ten years ago this project would have been considered the goose’s golden egg: zoning in place, utilities on site, and a seller who wanted to sell. It seemed as if the stars were aligned, but actually a storm was brewing. My former employer’s business model identified land that could be developed, solve the problems (entitlements) and secure development plan approval. Once the approvals were in place, we’d then sell the property to a regional or national builder. 2008 rolls around and the bottom falls out.

We initially began marketing the property in the three million dollar range. It was not a huge a project but potentially a profitable one if all went well; but things did not all go well. Our primary builder had entitled 209 lots immediately across the street and had another 360-home community under construction in the northern part of the city. Main customer – out. The next client we introduced the property to pulled back. This cycle looped continuously for the next 2 years. I spoke about that outcome here in an earlier post. As of today, we are still marketing this property – for a million less – at two million dollars. You can bet this negatively impacts my level of  interest as well.

Site Location

Southview’s Location, Location, Location did not equate to the ‘opportunity’ we thought it once presented. I’m not saying this model doesn’t work - it’s economically beneficial  for developers of conventional subdivisions. It’s been proven that homebuyers are willing to pay more for a walkable environment close to services, their employer, and venues of entertainment. Southview did not allow that. It was simply more of the same and we’re paying for it. What do you think, is this part of the reason suburbia isn’t sustainable?

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“For too long, federal policy has actually encouraged sprawl and congestion and pollution, rather than quality public transportation and smart sustainable development.” President Obama

Obama Administration Urban Policy

From Washington Post | President Pitches Plan to Revive America’s Cities

President Obama, the first urban president since John F. Kennedy, is putting a new federal emphasis on revitalizing America’s cities with a coordinated effort that involves infusions of stimulus funding and getting multiple agencies to work together to improve schools, housing and neighborhoods.

The approach is winning applause from local officials and urban thinkers, who credit the administration for quietly beginning to put in place the most ambitious new policy for the nation’s urban areas since the Great Society programs of the 1960s. But the plan involves fundamental changes in the way federal agencies dole out assistance to urban areas, making its ultimate success uncertain.

“This is way more than an ocean liner trying to change direction,” said Angela Glover Blackwell, founder of PolicyLink, an advocacy organization that has consulted closely with the Obama administration. “This is glacial.”

Peniel E. Joseph, a Tufts University historian, said it appears that Obama is trying to reverse a trend in which urban issues slipped down the national agenda. Obama’s stimulus plan included at least $20 billion in funding for urban programs, outside of education.

“The stimulus certainly put billions into urban areas, but we are still going to have to see over the course of his administration what this adds up to,” Joseph said. “Right now we just don’t know.”

Obama has lamented the historic failures of federal efforts to rejuvenate urban areas, noting in July at a White House urban policy roundtable, “For too long, federal policy has actually encouraged sprawl and congestion and pollution, rather than quality public transportation and smart sustainable development.”

In the same way that federal highway spending encouraged sprawl, the Obama administration says more concentrated development can lead to more job opportunities for residents and neighborhoods that are both environmentally friendly and economically viable.

To coordinate his initiatives, Obama created the position of urban “czar” and in March named Adolfo Carrion Jr., the former Bronx borough president, to direct his new White House Office of Urban Affairs.

“This is not your father’s White House,” Carrion said in an interview. “This is a new way of looking at the new city-metro reality.”

Over the past two months, Carrion and other top administration officials — from agencies as diverse as the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Transportation Department and the Environmental Protection Agency– have visited cities to observe innovative development schemes that fit the model.

In Kansas City, federal stimulus funds have galvanized a project called the Green Impact Zone, led by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II (D-Mo.), the city’s former mayor. About $200 million in mostly federal money will be invested in the project, which aims to transform an economically depressed 150-square-block area of the city known as “East of Troost Avenue.” With vacant homes, high crime and unemployment rates approaching 50 percent, about half of its residents live in deep poverty.

The project involves a coordinated rush of federal money. Stimulus funds will be used to weatherize the 2,500 homes in the community. Block grants from the Department of Energy will be used to hire area residents and train them to do energy audits. Meanwhile, the local power company will build a “smart grid” in the area, using $25 million in stimulus money and $25 million of their own. More than $30 million, mostly from the Department of Transportation, will be used to build a 13-mile rapid transit line through the community to downtown that will feature solar-powered stations and buses that run on bio-diesel fuel. There also will be job training in environmental clean up and community policing funded by various agencies.

Full | President Obama Pitches Plan to Revive America’s Cities

From Planetzien | Creating Neighborhood Capital from Strip Malls

Strip malls probably don’t fit into the definition of progressive urbanism for most people, but maybe they should. Well, perhaps after a little organizational tweaking.

The small retail centers are ubiquitous in American cities, with their generic shops selling doughnuts or beer, offering dry cleaning or key-cutting. They’re a part of many neighborhoods, but not necessarily an essential part. They bring goods and services to the area, but are ultimately of the greatest benefit to their owners – off somewhere cashing monthly rent checks from the moms and pops running the little businesses within. That model can change, according to Ava Bromberg. She’s a PhD student in UCLA’s School of Public Affairs and she is developing a new vision for small retail centers that would transform them into engines of social and economic capital at the neighborhood level.

“It’s part mall, part business incubator, part cultural hub,” says Bromberg. The idea is to overlay a distributed ownership model on the typical strip mall that enables the value created by this commercial real estate to cycle back and benefit the neighborhood it serves. Consumers are also business owners, property shareholders, and decision-makers. In this model, the building goes from being a cash cow for one owner to being a bank for the community, into which investments can be made and from which public benefits can be funded.

But it’s also about activating disused retail space for more than retail. Bromberg wants the spaces to partner with local institutions like hospitals and universities to create learning environments and job training opportunities on-site. The idea is to retool the existing neighborhood infrastructure to serve unmet needs within the community.

Full | Creating Neighborhood Capital from Strip Malls

“The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew.”

I lived in Norfolk, Virginia approximately 10 years. It’s apart of the Hampton Roads (HR) region that comprises 16 different cities and counties with almost 1,700,000 residents. You’d think a region with a population that large would have strong growth prospects, producing thought leaders at a rapid pace and is a place where young professionals could grow and develop – quite the opposite is true. HR is home to several institutions of higher education and has a relatively recession proof economy given the presence of the largest naval base in the world. More recently the industry has become diverse away from government services as investments pour into the newly built ports in Portsmouth. What’s really interesting about this area is that not many have ever heard of “Hampton Roads, America’s First Region“, have you? Therein lies the problem.

Tunnels and Bridges to Nowhere

The region has a plethora of natural assets with water almost everywhere you look; on the contrary they too have their drawbacks and one of them – their separation. Locals call it the HRBT but some commuters call it hell and if you’ve ever visited HR during inclimate weather, an accident or rush hour, you’ve probably experienced the back ups at the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel. You won’t hear much about the transportation woes from this side of the world. Though the region’s issues are very real, they often pale in comparison to their northern neighbor, Washington, DC who ranked forth in a recent Intrix report for having the worst congestion in the country. Hampton Roads was ranked 33rd. I noticed in the report that HR’s ranking didn’t change and represents the overall climate of region.

Hampton Roads is divided into two sections – South Hampton Roads (SHR) and the Peninsula. If you were a transplant, as I was, you’d think they were two foreign countries they way the were regarded in conversation. I lived in Norfolk (SHR) and commuted to Yorktown (Peninsula) for two years. When I told people that the expression on their faces suggested I’d told them I’d seen the Lochness Monster. I was a resident of Downtown Norfolk for several years and fell into the group-think trap that many do. I felt Downtown was “mine and not theirs” instead of a place to be shared among it’s city and region. Some 22,000 people worked downtown but only 15% or so, actually lived there. So you have a large group of people commuting into the city from neighboring cities.

Bridges and tunnels throughout Hampton Roads allow for better connectivity between the cities or at least in theory. Residents of the Peninsula rarely went to the SHR and residents of SHR only went through the Peninsula heading to Richmond, VA or DC. It’s almost as if there is a brood of snakes in the middle of these two areas that prevent them from intelligent dialogue about the region’s challenges. “We have different issues than the Peninsula” and vice versa. Serving on the Executive Committee of the ULI Hampton Roads, I saw the lack of motivation to engage leadership from the Peninsula as it was almost entirely South Hampton Roads businesses.

Competing Disinterest

Not only does the Peninsula and South Hampton Roads compete, you have very real competition among individual cities. Norfolk vs. Virginia Beach; Virginia Beach vs. Chesapeake; Newport News vs. Hampton; Williamsburg vs. Yorktown and on and on. It’s a bit ridiculous in my opinion. On a visit to Boston, from Charlestown, I looked over the Charles River and saw beautiful Downtown Boston. If you’re Downtown Norfolk and look across the Elizabeth River, you’re looking at Portsmouth, VA with a completely different government and conflicting visions. To compete with Downtown Norfolk, developers built Virginia Beach Town Center in the middle of suburbia to create a “downtown Virginia Beach”. At last count there are at least 5 “convention centers” with each city trying to attract their own clientele. What sense does that make if you can fit all of those convention centers into one like the Fort Worth Convention Center.

Comparison of Smart-Growth Versus Sprawl: Development for Virginia Beach, Virginia

Sprawl Costs Us All, Sierra Club

I’ve often became frustrated when I asked people what direction Hampton Roads was going in? I was met with the “Things won’t change until somebody dies” – interesting thought. Between Virginia Beach’s ‘No Cursing’ sign and Portsmouth’s Mayor woes, I feel the region’s leadership has missed the point somehow. Many efforts have been made to bring awareness to the issue of Regionalism but some are simply not interested in anything interrupting the status quo. Plagued by a flight of young professionals, stagnant job growth and a lack of diversity in housing has not helped the region break from it’s “slow” title. Norfolk ranked in the bottom ten on Richard Florida’s Creative Index even though Norfolk is seen as the ‘urban’ core of the region and has a downtown that’s revived over the last decade. The region (and state) has been unsuccessful at attracting a professional sports franchise. Before you had the Washington Nationals, they considered at Hampton Roads and before you had the New Orleans Hornets, again, they considered Hampton Roads. Even when it comes to professional sports, there is a lack of vision. Will the leadership wait to build a facility to accommodate a franchise or wait for another opportunity to bid on a team without the property facilities and infrastructure already in place?

Norfolk has the first 7 miles of light rail under construction now. Notice I said Norfolk, not Hampton Roads – I guess it’s a start. Because Virginia Beach can’t be out done, they are now meeting to discuss bringing light rail to their city. This is truly a moment to sigh. Do you think a stronger argument could have been made to build a light rail from to Norfolk to the Virginia Beach oceanfront versus a line to Virginia Beach’s city boundary? Before the line was under construction, I said that I could retire in HR if I could get from Williamsburg to Virginia Beach without getting in a car. At this rate, 7 miles every few years or so, I may be able to make that goal by 62, we’ll see.

Organizations like the Hampton Roads Partnership are doing an incredible job at promoting regionalism and feel they truly understand the issues. The city of Denver serves as a good model to follow. With a regional population of approximately 2,500,000, Denver has been consistently ranked as one of America’s most livable cities. The region’s mayors made a goal of being the America’s most healthy “community”. Not until regions stop the infighting, little progress will made. I’m convinced that the true competition is not our city next door or another region in our part of country (Atlanta, Charlotte etc). Our competition  is in China, India and other developing economies. Why is that so hard to grasp for many people? Tom Friedman speaks to that in his book The World is Flat. I’m cautiously optimistic.

by Yahya E. B. Henry

Ready

My passion for sustainability has been a gradual expansion of many ideas that I initially accepted then questioned. Albert Einstein said that questions were the beginning of genius. The more I learned about our energy dependence, peak oil, climate change, gentrification, urban development and land use, the more I explored how each were interrelated. My journey lead me to resign from a very promising career in land brokerage and development where aside from making a great living; I begin to notice I was, in fact, a part of a problem. After coming to understand that low-density suburban development was unsustainable, I knew a shift was forthcoming. I was a part of an organization that developed conventional subdivision; yes, those monsters that inevitably aid in sprawl, cause traffic congestion, deforestation and consume massive amounts of land. Evidence suggests that the building sector accounted for nearly 30% of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and I knew there had to be a better model to follow. My attempts to interest my then partners in infill development largely fell on deaf ears. A part of my goal was to hopefully influence a decision that would allow for more infill development – development near existing infrastructure, work centers, services, and public transportation. The entrepreneurial bug bit me and I left. This is where things really got interesting

Not too long after my resignation the market took a nose dive. For a new development services company the landscape was not pretty. In what seemed to be the blink of an eye, certainties like liquidating building lot inventory and anticipated revenue dried up. People I knew personally were experiencing unbelievable financial hardships. Without heed or warning, times became challenging very fast. Birthed out of those challenges was a determination to rebuild better, stronger, more wisely and of greatest importance, sustainably. I decided not to sell out to a business model that had been dying for a half century. I opted for the road less traveled and the status quo was forever interrupted.

Fire

Out the gate my very first development proposal was to redevelop eight city blocks in Norfolk, VA. Truthfully, I really didn’t know what I was doing. All I knew, for certain, was that I had to come up with a development plan that would profoundly impact the lives of many. What I didn’t learn until much later was that the life that would forever be changed was my own. Along the way, I learned a lot about failure and the need to persevere. Once my 600,000 square foot proposal died, I, again, had to reassess. It was a gradual process of refinement.

The team I had assembled decided to pursue one of the most well located sites in the area, a one and half acre parcel. We prepared site plans for a five-story, 120,000 square foot hybrid building that combined office, retail and residential uses into one building; a development that had never been done in the region. It didn’t take long for experience to teach me that people don’t respond well to change; anything new had to be tested and proven. My philosophy at the time was, “Create the market where there is none.” When you’re a bootstrap entrepreneur looking to build a 30 million dollar building, you have better had plenty of testing behind you – I had none.

With limited resources I flew to Miami to meet with a prominent developer who I felt would be an ideal partner. The pro forma we created showed the building to be cash flow positive with great returns on investment. I was confident and prepared. Another lesson learned: confidence and preparation have nothing to do with opportunity. The developer I met with has a national pipeline with projects in some of our largest cities. In short, he is a giant in real estate development. I learned that his “proprietary” projects are 100 million dollars and greater. Well, I was about 70 million bucks shy. Knowing that my greatest proposal was not worth his time/energy left me feeling inadequate and unprepared; where did I go wrong? I had been assured by trusted friends that HE was the guy. HE was going to catapult me and Ariba to the next level. As of yet, it hasn’t happened.

Aiming

You see, after losing a considerable amount of money and expending an incredible amount of time and energy in what I thought was going to be the next big idea that wasn’t; I lost confidence in myself. In short, I gave up. However, after about a year of being out of the spotlight; I had time to cry, heal, and then regroup. This new direction for me and Aribra represents the rebirth and I want you to be a part of it. I decided to invite you in and close out failure as an option. There ARE no excuses now. I read a lot and discovered that there are numerous stories about men and women who made a small fortune, lost it all (marriages, finances, businesses, etc.), and found themselves rebuilding. Well friends, this is my second time around. I NEVER thought this would be my story, but it is and I am going to embrace it fully and completely. I am finally at a point where I can share openly; without shame, the highs and lows that I will face on this journey. I welcome you to walk with me and perhaps we can build something together.