NNECAPA News Stories
Planning Conversations from Coast-to-Coast -- cross country on U.S. 50 by day; blog updates by night
May 14, 2007 Burlington, Vermont
Do planners face the same issues in Maryland as they do in Colorado, in Ohio as in Kansas? That's part of what Wayne Senville, editor of the national Planning Commissioners Journal (and former Burlington, VT Planning Commission Chair) will be finding out during a six-week cross-country trip along U.S. Route 50. Between the Memorial Day weekend and July 10th, Senville will be meeting with planners and planning commissioners in more than two dozen communities in the 12 states (and the District of Columbia) that Route 50 crosses.
Why Route 50? As Senville puts it, "Route 50 goes through an amazingly varied mix of cities and towns. From the beach resort of Ocean City, Maryland through our nation's capital, and then on through small cities in states like Ohio, Indiana, Missouri, Kansas, and Colorado, as well as the major hubs of Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Kansas City, Route 50 offers as good a reflection of the United States as can be found on any one roadway."
Discussions along Route 50 will focus on the most challenging planning and development issues communities are working on, highlighting both obstacles and opportunities. According to Senville: "In conversations I've had with planners in setting up this trip, I know I'll be reporting on many critical issues facing cities and towns, from the revitalization of downtowns and urban riverfronts to dealing with the effects of explosive growth. I'll also be covering a diverse range of concerns: tourism and its impacts; inner-city economics; neighborhood efforts to make it easier for residents to 'age in place;' how to promote citizen involvement in local planning; and much more." And, adds Senville, "of course, I'll also be talking with planners about the challenges they face in dealing with roads and highways." One of most innovative aspects of this trip -- indeed as far as we know the first time it's being done to report on coast-to-coast planning issues -- is that Senville will be posting daily online reports on what he's hearing.
Through a combination of text, photos, video, and audio clips, visitors to the Route 50 blog site: www.Rte50.com will be able to follow Senville as he works his way West. Visitors to the blog are encouraged to leave comments on any of the postings. A note from Ed McMahon, Senior Resident Fellow, Urban Land Institute: "Want to know what works and what doesn’t in the world of planning? The Planning Commissioners Journal has always been one of my top sources of quarterly information. Now Wayne Senville, the PCJ's editor, is going on the road to report from planning’s front line -- the cities and towns the stretch from coast to coast along U.S. Route 50. You can learn a lot from a road trip and I am looking forward to the daily reports on planning issues from Maryland to California."
Now in its 16th year, the Planning Commissioners Journal is the principal national publication for "citizen planners" -- including members of town, city, county, and regional planning boards. With subscribers in all 50 states and across Canada, the quarterly "PCJ" -- based in Burlington, Vermont -- is independently owned and operated. For more on the PCJ: www.plannersweb.com .
Posted: 2007-05-23
Wildlife officials may turn to zoning laws to protect whitetails' winter habitat
By Kevin Miller
Friday, March 23, 2007 - Bangor Daily News
Wildlife officials are considering revamping the state’s forestland zoning laws to ensure that fragile deer populations in Maine’s North Woods do not fall victim to changing land ownership and timber harvesting trends.
With deer population levels reaching nuisance levels in some parts of Maine, it seems unthinkable that white-tailed deer could be struggling to survive among the millions of acres of undeveloped forestlands of the North Woods.
But deer, unlike their long-legged woodland relative, the moose, struggle to move in snow several feet deep. Surviving largely on fat reserves, deer are increasingly vulnerable to malnutrition, disease and predators when the snow starts piling up and the mercury plummets.
Up to 35 percent of a deer herd may perish during severe winters, a fact that helps explain why Maine represents the northern cusp of the white-tailed deer’s natural range.
Ever since the early 1990s, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife has negotiated voluntary agreements with commercial timberland owners to restrict harvesting in areas where deer congregate to escape brutal winter weather.
Known as "deer wintering areas" or "deer yards," these pockets of land typically feature groves of mature fir trees with interlocking canopies that intercept falling snow, keeping depths manageable for deer. The groves, which are often near water and food, also help block the bitter wind.
But biologists are concerned that the state is losing valuable deer yards amid the massive changes in land ownership in northern Maine. Because the agreements are voluntary, new landowners have no legal obligation to abide by cutting restrictions.
"It’s a commitment on the landowner’s part, and it’s a cost to them, and that is what makes us worried," said Gene Dumont, wildlife management supervisor with DIF&W.
Increasingly, the department is eyeing the more heavy-handed option for preserving deer yards: Placing the land in protective zoning through the Land Use Regulation Commission. Zoning carries the weight of law but requires extensive monitoring and regulation.
Mark Stadler, director of DIF&W’s wildlife division, said this week that he is working with LURC staff to update portions of the wildlife protection zoning laws. He declined to go into specifics but said the changes are, in part, aimed at making it easier for the department to carry out its monitoring obligations on zoned land.
"That is definitely one of the tools in our toolbox," Stadler said of zoning. "Our tool of choice is the voluntary agreement. But given the rather dismal state of affairs, we recognize we need to look at other tools also."
A representative for most of Maine’s major landowners questioned whether putting more land into zoning was necessary, however.
Patrick Strauch, executive director of the Maine Forest Products Council, whose members own roughly 9 million acres, wants to see more information on how deer are faring inside the yards protected through both zoning and voluntary agreements.
Strauch dismissed statements that today’s landowners are cutting the land harder to reap short-term profits. The numbers show that Maine’s forestland is being sustainably managed, he said.
Instead, Strauch suggested that the growing number of coyote and bear could be affecting deer populations. The department also needs to improve communications with landowners and base any changes on science, he said.
"I admit there was a loss, but they were voluntary agreements," Strauch said. "If we start changing the rules of the game now [to require zoning], that doesn’t sound like good management to me."
Some field biologists at DIF&W have been calling on the department for years to take a more aggressive stance with landowners.
As one of the agency’s field biologists based in Greenville, Doug Kane is partly responsible for wildlife management on approximately 3 million acres of the North Woods.
Trekking in the woods on snowshoes near Lily Bay State Park one morning in February, Kane pointed out what constitutes a good deer yard. Snow depth in an area under the closed tree canopy was about 15 inches, while several yards away in a more sun-drenched spot it measured 24 inches deep.
Ideally, biologists would like to see three or four generations of trees within a deer yard. The youngest trees provide food and the oldest provide shelter. The ages in between represent the next generation that will provide shelter to future generations of deer, Kane said.
"They have food, water and cover," Kane said. "Even if a predator comes up on them, they have a variety of choices to escape. … The reality is when you have deep snow like this, they’re not going to move unless they have to because of the energy expenditure."
During the past several years, Kane has been at the heart of a behind-the-scenes struggle to persuade the largest landowner in his region — Plum Creek Timber Co. — to limit heavy harvesting in deer yards.
In internal e-mails to DIF&W supervisors, Kane and other biologists accused Plum Creek of blatantly cutting in known deer yards over the department’s objections. Kane and others wrote that the situation with Plum Creek underscored the need for the department to use its regulatory might.
Plum Creek officials said at the time that they stopped cutting in certain areas after hearing the biologists’ concerns and were working with the department.
Those tensions have since lessened considerably.
Earlier this year, DIF&W and Plum Creek officials announced a voluntary agreement covering 32,000 acres of identified deer yards spread throughout the company’s ownership. The agreement goes even further by stipulating that any future owners must abide by the agreement for five years.
Back in his Greenville office, Kane said negotiating new agreements is challenging because the trees that provide quality shelter for deer are often among the most valuable from a harvester’s standpoint.
Unless landowners, legislators and LURC can find another way, protective zoning will be increasingly important, he said.
"In my mind, there is a great sense of urgency in the department that we have to have a mechanism in place to conserve [habitat] in the north country over the next 20 years," Kane said.
Then there is the issue of predation of deer, especially by coyotes.
Gerry Lavigne, DIF&W’s former deer biologist who now heads the Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine’s deer issues task force, said loss of winter habitat is a major concern. But Lavigne and other hunters are convinced that coyotes are the other major factor limiting deer populations.
SAM leaders advocate bringing back coyote snaring, a controversial culling method now on hold because of concerns about endangered Canada lynx and eagles being caught in the snares. The organization also wants to expand coyote hunting.
Lavigne, who worked at DIF&W for around 30 years, said restrictions on deer hunting in northern Maine are already rigid. His answer, in addition to protecting deer yards, is better coyote control.
Overall, Lavigne said he believes the discussion with DIF&W and landowners about each group’s needs has been constructive.
"I’m optimistic that the dialogue at all levels is going to create some workable solutions," he said.
Posted: 2007-04-03
120 affordable units to be built soon in Hanover
By KRISTEN SENZ
Union Leader Correspondent
Saturday, Mar. 31, 2007
HANOVER – They arrived the day after Christmas 1999.
A family of political refugees from Afghanistan -- a mother and her three daughters -- came to Hanover, where members of two churches had promised to find them a better life.
Bob Strauss, a Hanover retiree and member of St. Thomas Episcopal Church, tried to help the young family start over.
"We spent a lot of time on housing, trying to find something they could afford on their meager pension as political refugees," Strauss said.
Finally, the family was able to rent an apartment at Romano Circle, a subsidized housing development in nearby West Lebanon.
"What we did in effect was we dumped three young women who were in need of special instruction on the Lebanon school system, and that didn't sit well with me," Strauss said. "That's when I started the movement to have an affordable housing committee here in Hanover."
Seven years later, developers are about to break ground on a $24 million, 120-unit apartment complex. New Hampshire's biggest ever "affordable housing" residential development will be built on 22 acres off Route 120 in Hanover, just north of Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.
But "affordable housing" in this context isn't the nebulous term people use when complaining about the disproportionate share of quality housing available for couples and young families. The Gile Community, as the Hanover development is called, is designed to remain perpetually affordable to people that inhabit income strata far below Hanover's average.
Without a piece of previously town-owned land, however, the development would not have been possible.
In 2000, Strauss set up three housing seminars in Hanover in an effort to interest other residents in housing issues and spur them to take action.
About 50 people signed on to the cause and began researching various options. They discovered that Dr. Frank Gile had donated a large tract of land north of the hospital to the town, and it remained undeveloped.
In 2001, the group proposed to the Hanover selectmen a plan to build apartments on the land using a complex financing structure that would keep rental rates down and restrict equity gains for owners. The board of selectmen approved the plan Sept. 10, 2001, the day before the terrorist attacks, Strauss said, and they also set up the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission, of which Strauss is chairman. At town meeting 2003, Hanover voters overwhelmingly supported giving up the land for housing.
Meanwhile, the financial arrangements needed to defy the real estate market and create housing units in Hanover with price tags of $150,000 proved dizzying, said Bruce Pacht, executive director of Twin Pines Housing Trust, a nonprofit housing developer in the Upper Valley.
"It couldn't have happened if there hadn't been an indigenous movement," he said.
Twin Pines partnered with Hartland Group, a low-income housing developer based in Burlington, Vt., to create Gile Community Housing LLC. Together with the Upper Valley Housing Coalition, a nonprofit advocate for low-income housing, the group secured pre-development financing from the New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority, Fannie Mae, Partners for the Common Good, the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, the town of Hanover, Twin Pines Housing Trust and the Home Depot Foundation.
The result was a design featuring 12 apartment buildings, each containing between seven and 15 one-floor apartments with one or two bedrooms. Of the 120 units, 61 will be rentals and 59 will be for sale. About 15 percent of both types will rent or sell at market price. The rest will be reserved for people who earn 50 or 60 percent of the median household income, which in Hanover is $62,900.
Pacht estimated that tenants will pay about $600 per month in rent, and owners will pay between $150,000 and $180,000. Strauss and the Hanover Affordable Housing Commission are charged with marketing the development to consumers.
Len Cadwallader is the executive director of Vital Communities, a nonprofit organization based in White River Junction, Vt., that promotes balanced community growth and serves as the fiscal sponsor of the Upper Valley Housing Coalition.
Cadwallader said the Gile development is a step toward forming new ideas about the appropriate make-up of a community.
"We're talking about changing people's attitudes toward the inclusion of homes for people who cash our checks at the bank, the people who care for our parents and grandparents at nursing homes, the people who fix our leaky faucets and coach our little league teams." Construction of the Gile Community is slated to begin in late May, with first occupancy planned for November. Wood from trees logged on the land will be used as siding for the buildings, Pacht said, and the apartments will all have energy efficient appliances. Plans include a shared natural playground and community building.
Cadwallader said the Gile Community helps reinforce a new definition of "affordable housing" that's less about the housing and more about the people who live there.
"The term affordable housing conjures up in people's minds the big failures that HUD (U.S. Housing and Urban Development) built 30 or 40 years ago, and as a society, we learned that bad mistakes were made. But the whole face of housing that is perpetually affordable is completely different than what it was," he said. "I talk about homes that are affordable for working families rather than affordable housing. Housing is anonymous. Homes are where people live."
Posted: 2007-04-03