For thousands of years, it was required of human beings to live in harmony with nature. Nature’s laws governed human behavior. If those laws weren’t followed, then human lives were lost. It has only been within the past couple hundred years that the attitudes towards nature’s laws have changed. With scientific discoveries, improving engineering practices, and industrialization human beings have begun exhibiting behavior which suggests they know better. The paradox in this collection of attitudes is that the rules have not changed, but the stakes are now much higher regarding the blatant disobedience to nature’s laws.
Commodity -vs- Community: The Acceptance & Art of Being ‘Disagreeable’
The Convergence of Mormon Community Building and New Urbanism
The opportunity for Salt Lake City to host CNU 21 opened up some extremely unique opportunities to hold discussions combining the topics of faith and community because the city itself served to justify as a back drop for the combination. Introductions have now been made between Salt Lake City, the LDS Church, and new urbanism. The question is now, what will each do with the newly formed relationship? The opportunities for doing good are tremendous only IF each recognizes the benefits that can be shared by their newly found “friend.”
The Zoning Alternative: Form-Based Codes
Albert Einstein once said, “We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.” In order to solve our present challenges with growth, transportation, sustainability, consumer market demands, demographic changes, and how these items affect the design and development of our built environment we have to think and work differently. If we want to solve the problems that we currently face we can’t expect to do so by using the tools that led us to where we are today.
Defending New Urbanism and Form-Based Code
New Urbanism is a movement dedicated to the advancement of specific principles that serve to ensure that we build places which make our society stronger, protect our environment, and make economic sense. As outlined in the Charter of the New Urbanism its goals (in part) are in developing communities with mixed housing types, mixed use, appropriate allocation of density, interconnected streets making the community more walkable, and an identifiable center and edge. New Urbanism wants to put “unity” back into community.
Community Development Code: Pursuing a Better Way
Much of the past seven years has been spent working on an alternative zoning & entitlement tool that I call a “Community Development Code” (CDC). The CDC is a system built for community building – more specifically, the creation of complete neighborhoods and centers that utilize successful practices of historic settlement patterns while simultaneously accounting for both nature and existing/adjacent development.