1. REPORT NO.		2. GOVERNMENT ACCESSION NO.		3. RECIPIENT'S CATALOG NO.

4. TITLE AND SUBTITLE				5. REPORT DATE
HOW DO YOU IMPLEMENT LESS AUTO DEPENDENT				May 1997
URBAN FORM?				6. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION CODE

7. AUTHOR(S)				8. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION REPORT NO.
Gary Pivo
9. PERFORMING ORGANIZATION NAME AND ADDRESS				10. WORK UNIT NO.
Washington State Transportation Center (TRAC)
University of Washington, Box 354802				11. CONTRACT OR GRANT NO.
University District Building; 1107 NE 45th Street, Suite 535
Seattle, Washington 98105-4631
12. SPONSORING AGENCY NAME AND ADDRESS				13. TYPE OF REPORT AND PERIOD COVERED
Washington State Department of Transportation Transportation Building, MS 7370				Final research report
Olympia, Washington 98504-7370				14. SPONSORING AGENCY CODE

15. SUPPLEMENTARY NOTES
This study was conducted in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Transportation, Federal Highway Administration.
16. ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to help planners and policy makers implement less auto dependent urban form in suburban communities. This was accomplished by developing a general theory about the production of less auto dependent urban form and a set of planning principles based on the theory. The theory is derived by synthesizing established concepts of urban change, the principles follow from the theory, and both are tested and illustrated in a case study of Kirkland, Washington which has made significant progress toward less auto dependent land use patterns since 1970. Both the theory and case study suggest that urban development patterns are created by the actions of and interactions between the public and private sector. These sectors respond to feedback given by consumers and citizens as well as to goals and values, available resources, and development rules. Certain conditions in this process will result in greater density and mix in suburban communities. Paramount among these are increased access and amenities in order to attract development and avoid an anti-development public backlash. Certain planning principles can help produce these conditions. The case of Kirkland, Washington shows that these principles can work in a real world setting to produce progress toward less auto dependent urban form.
17. KEY WORDS			18. DISTRIBUTION STATEMENT
Land use and transportation; suburbs; urban development; urban form; Kirkland.			No restrictions. This document is available to the public through the National Technical Information Service, Springfield, VA 22616
19. SECURITY CLASSIF. (of this report)	20. SECURITY CLASSIF. (of this page)			21. NO. OF PAGES	22. PRICE
None	None

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Section Page

DISCLAIMER.................................................................................................................................................................... i

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY................................................................................................................................................ 3

INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................................ 1

STUDY APPROACH.................................................................................................................................................... 10

APPROACH TO THEORY............................................................................................................................................ 10

THE CASE STUDY APPROACH................................................................................................................................. 13

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................................................ 15

GENERAL THEORY....................................................................................................................................................... 15

PLANNING PRINCIPLES.............................................................................................................................................. 17

Value and Visualize “Places Where People Want To Be”.................................................................................. 17

Adopt Public Plans................................................................................................................................................... 20

Hire and Support Strong Professional Managers................................................................................................ 21

Have a Collaborative City Council that will Defend the Vision.......................................................................... 23

Make Public Investments to Make the Place Desirable...................................................................................... 24

Regulate growth to balance conservation and development............................................................................. 29

Help Developers Have The Resources They Need............................................................................................. 40

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION.............................................................................................................................. 42

REFERENCES................................................................................................................................................................ 43

LIST OF FIGURES

Figures and Tables Page

The 10 Most Compact and Complete Places in Washington................. 5

Wallace Smith’s Theory of Urban Management................................... 11

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PURPOSE AND METHOD

The purpose of this study was to help planners and policy makers implement less auto dependent urban form in suburban communities. This was accomplished by developing a general theory about the production of less auto dependent urban form and a set of planning principles for leaders to follow based on the theory. The theory is derived by synthesizing established theories of urban change, the principles follow from the theory and both are tested and illustrated in a case study of Kirkland, Washington which has made significant progress toward less auto dependent land use patterns since 1970.

FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Both the theory and case study suggest that urban development patterns are created by the actions of and interactions between the public and private sector. These sectors respond to feedback given by consumers and citizens as well as to goals and values, available resources, and development rules. Certain conditions in this process will result in greater density and mix in suburban communities. Paramount among these are increased access and amenities in order to attract development and avoid an anti-development public backlash. Certain planning principles can help produce these conditions. They include the following:

· Value and visualize “places where people want to be.” Values and vision drive both public policy and market behavior. People want to be where there are amenities like waterfront parks and human-scaled and pedestrian-oriented shopping districts. By having a clear vision of what it wants and by placing high value upon the vision, a community can motivate itself to accomplish changes that will both attract new development and retain public support for change as it occurs.

· Adopt public plans. Long range city, district, and neighborhood plans show how both vision and values can be put into action. They inform and educate, and provide guidance to both shape and strengthen the resolve of leaders as individual development and investment decisions are made.

· Hire and support strong professional managers. Highly capable city managers and department heads provide the stable, professional expertise needed to achieve change in suburban communities. In particular, skills in working with elected officials, financing public investments, and negotiating successful development are essential.

· Have a collaborative city council that will defend the vision. The city council should have the capacity to see an issue from all sides and protect every neighborhood in the city. It must also have a commitment to its plans and defend them in the face of criticism. Plan implementation requires stability and consistency which will not occur unless adopted plans are defended.

· Make public investments to make the place desirable. Public spending on parks and other amenities create the desirability that will attract private investment. In addition, it maintains public support for community growth policies.

· Regulate growth to balance conservation and development. Land use controls should be fair and predictable to encourage quality, innovative development. They should also be tough when it comes to protecting quality of life in the community. A balance must and can be struck between facilitating growth and insisting that it be well done. This includes channeling growth away from “sacred spaces” in the community such as stable single family neighborhoods and prizes areas such as waterfronts and main street.

· Help developers have the resources they need to develop. An adequate land supply and access to efficient permitting are essential if the development process is to successfully build more compact and complete communities. Cities can adopt regulations that ensure these are available.

The case of Kirkland, Washington shows that these principles can work in a real world setting to produce progress toward less auto dependent urban form.

INTRODUCTION

In response to legal requirements, grass-roots movements and the work of transportation and environmental agencies, efforts are underway throughout Washington and the U.S. to reduce traffic and air pollution. Local and regional governments are responding with transportation and land use plans aimed at reducing auto use. An increasingly common feature of these plans are policies to create less auto-dependent and more transit-oriented urban development patterns.

This study aims at improving the capacity of public agencies to implement these plans. It presents general strategies that communities can use to make their physical form less auto dependent. The principles come from urban development theory and are illustrated by a case study of Kirkland, Washington.

A growing body of literature suggests that a variety of changes in urban form could reduce the number, length and proportion of trips made by single occupant vehicles (SOVs) (Ewing 1994, Ewing 1997, Cervero and Seskin 1995, and Parsons Brinkerhoff Quade & Douglas, Inc., 1996). The changes would include higher densities, more land use mixing, greater jobs-housing balance, lower SOV parking supplies and road capacities, improved facilities for alternatives to SOVs, better connected street and pedestrian facilities, and street, site, and architectural designs that increase the ease and safety of non-SOV alternatives.

The City of Everett illustrates the response being made by local government agencies. In 1994 it adopted the Everett Growth Management Comprehensive Plan and included within it a number of policies intended to create less auto-dependent urban form such as the following:

· promote increased densities...in all residential neighborhoods;

· consider allowing..small scale, compatible neighborhood retail uses within walking distance of all homes in neighborhoods;

· improve the pedestrian system and public transportation system serving each neighborhood;

· promote high density residential use in well designed, mixed commercial developments and activity centers...where a mix of uses will promote...support of transportation facilities;

· require new commercial development to be pedestrian friendly and compatible with public transportation service;

· (create) land use designations in proximity to high capacity transit stations (that)...provide for a variety of uses which support the needs of commuters and area residents...;

· in designated activity centers and corridors...manage the supply and location of off-street parking to support a balance of travel modes...and

· develop a network of pedestrian pathways and bicycle trails...with connections to adjacent neighborhoods.

The adoption of these kinds of policies by a growing number of local governments is a victory of sorts for proponents of multi-modal travel, but it will be a hollow one if they do not change how development actually occurs. While many plans do shape growth, American city planning is notorious for its implementation failures as well.

There is a sizable literature on how cities must be shaped if they are to become less auto-dependent. However, very little is available on what we must do to bring these changes about. Aside from manuals that list the kinds of regulations or funding tools that a community might adopt to implement their policies, almost no empirical research is available on what separates communities that have successfully implemented less auto-dependent development from those who have not. Planners are left with the educated guesses of well meaning individuals who recommend unproven strategies that may or may not work.

What we do know about implementation comes from studies of other policy agendas. The lessons there suggest it takes more than the adoption of land use controls, like new zoning and subdivision standards, to successfully implement public policies. Non-technical considerations like leadership, governmental capacity, and commitment also can be critical. These kinds of issues are not yet addressed in the implementation strategies of planners seeking to implement less auto-dependent urban form. They simply rely on lists of capita projects or new regulations they hope to adopt.

The City of Everett Growth Management Comprehensive Plan again provides an illustration. It includes implementation ideas with each of its plan elements. However, these are limited to a description of changes they would make to design guidelines, development regulations and capital improvement programs. The implementation strategy does not address the range of regulatory, administrative, political and other factors that will likely affect the city’s ability to change its urban form.

Implementing policies to reshape urban form could easily fail in Washington as they have already failed elsewhere. They are a break from past development trends and there are market, political, and bureaucratic forces that will push for the status quo. Failure would create a very real problem at many levels of society. The success of aspects of local planning, private development, state and local capital investment and even federal law depend on the policies being carried out.

On a more immediate level, local planners, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and regional transportation planning organizations (RTPOs) are responsible under the Growth Management Act (GMA) for recommending what actions are necessary to implement planning policies. They presently have few sources to turn to for what they should recommend.

Luckily, there are places to look at that could provide some answers. Many communities have made strides toward less auto-dependent urban form. Over the past decade or more, communities in Washington and elsewhere in North America have successfully limited parking supplies, increased density, mixed land uses, and created other aspects of a new urban form. A few better known examples include Portland’s downtown parking cap, downtown Bellevue’s center development, and the dense residential development in Seattle’s Denny Regrade. Many lesser known examples can also be found.

A previous project by the author to study trends in transit oriented development discovered several cities of various scales and locations in Washington that exhibit development patterns being pursued in plans seeking less auto dependent urban form (Pivo et al 1995). The following chart gives the 10 most compact and complete communities in metropolitan areas along the I-5 corridor as measured by employment density, housing density, jobs-housing balance and retail-housing balance. They range in size from Bothell at only 12,000 residents in 1990 to Seattle with over 500,000. A related project by the author found other examples of cities that exhibit transit oriented form in Oregon and British Columbia (Pivo 1996).

Table 1: 1990 Characteristics of the Ten Most Compact and Complete Communities Along I-5 in Washington

(densities given in jobs or units per square km; standardized scores given below each item in parentheses)

Place	Job Density	Housing Density	Adjusted Jobs-Housing Balance	Adjusted Retail-Housing Balance	Total Population
1. Seattle (93)	2022 (25)	1146 (25)	1.39 (19)	1.11 (24)	516259
2. Kirkland (73)	838 (10)	651 (14)	1.01 (25)	1.16 (23)	40052
3. Tacoma (71)	822 (10)	604 (13)	1.07 (24)	1.11 (24)	176664
4. Vancouver (69)	956 (12)	574 (13)	1.31 (21)	1.08 (24)	46380
5. Edmonds (67)	621 (8)	684 (15)	0.71 (21)	0.88 (24)	30744
6. Richmond Highlands (66)	511 (6)	807 (18)	0.50 (18)	0.88 (24)	26037
7. Des Moines (65)	576 (7)	845 (18)	0.54 (18)	0.62 (21)	17283
8. Burien (65)	525 (6)	687 (15)	0.60 (19)	1.05 (25)	25089
9. Federal Way (63)	491 (6)	551 (12)	0.70 (21)	1.03 (25)	67554
10. Bothell (60)	601 (7)	374 (8)	1.27 (21)	1.16 (24)	12345

Real world examples can provide both positive and negative lessons to others who are committed to the same direction. They may also be the successful models some are looking for before they will make a commitment to change. This project was devoted to searching out factors that can help communities implement less auto-dependent urban form policies by exemplifying one place that has already moved in that direction--Kirkland, Washington. It used a case study approach to look for the economic, political, regulatory and social factors that most helped Kirkland go in a new direction. It examined the early struggles Kirkland had implementing its plans and presents recommendations on what communities can do to increase the likelihood that their plans for less auto dependent urban form will be implemented.

This project is a logical extension of previous research by the author and furthers A Strategic Plan for Researching Urban Form Impacts on Travel Behavior (Pivo and Moudon 1992). That plan was prepared at the request of WSDOT’s planning office and recommended a systematic approach to work in three areas, based on literature reviews and interviews with experts and policy makers in the field. The first area included studies on how urban form affects travel behavior. Relationships Between Land Use and Travel Behavior in the Puget Sound Region (Frank and Pivo 1994) was a first effort under that heading and is being supplemented by additional work currently underway. The second set of projects recommended in A Strategic Plan fell under the heading of market studies and were aimed at examining how less auto-depended urban form fits into market trends. Trends and Patterns in Transit-Oriented Development (Pivo et al 1995) was a WSDOT research project that tracked changes in urban form that affect auto dependence. The project presented in this report falls within the third part of A Strategic Plan which generally deals with how public policy can help implement urban forms that reduce driving alone. With the completion of this project WSDOT has become fully engaged in a comprehensive and strategic approach to research on urban form and travel behavior.

One of the results of Trends and Patterns in Transit-Oriented Development was the discovery of communities in Washington State that have experienced land use changes between 1970 and 1990 that can reduce auto use. They were good candidates for case studies in this project. For example, higher population density is known to be associated with shorter auto trips and higher transit mode splits. Trends and Patterns uncovered several places in Washington that became denser during the study period. For example, between 1970 and 1990 the cities of Kirkland and Des Moines, both in King County, experienced population density increases of 473 and 248 dwelling units per square Km, respectively. They now rank among the 25 densest places in Washington State. Other results from that study concerning employment density, jobs-housing balance and land use mixing uncovered a number of communities that were good candidates for the case study in this report.

As was briefly mentioned already, a literature review done for this study found almost no empirical work on the factors that influence the implementation of less auto-dependent urban form. One exception was a recent pair of case studies on two neighborhoods in Vancouver, B.C. that were built in the 60s and 70s based on principles that are now referred to as neo-traditional design. The studies focus on the role that an interactive consultative process had in the successful development of False Creek and Champlain Heights (Hardwick 1994). Another is a theoretical article on redesigning suburbs for transit and walking that concludes that successful implementation depends on supportive metro-scale land use and transportation plans (Atash 1993). There also are a few studies on implementing specific land uses that are known to be less auto-dependent. For example, the author’s article on suburban office clusters in Toronto is one example that focused on creating empirically grounded guidelines for the implementation of regional plans for suburban centers (Pivo 1993).

While little work has directly addressed the study problem, a good deal of related work does exist which can be divided into six categories. The first category includes guidelines on how to implement less auto-dependent urban forms (Pivo, Moudon and Loewenherz 1992). While most of these documents focus on what the form should be, some attention is paid to regulatory devices (such as minimum density standards) and implementation strategies (such as public-private partnerships). They do not provide empirical evidence of which actions are most important, however. A second category of related work includes studies on implementing urban development that has some similarities to less auto-dependent development. Downtown, Inc. (Frieden and Sagalyn 1989) is one example of this kind of work. It offers case studies of how central cities revitalized retail activity with festival marketplaces and other actions. A third category includes more general works on implementation and urban development in urban planning. For example, Dalton (1990) studied the value of incentives versus regulations. Other examples include Successful Communities, a report by Mantell, Harper and Probst (19??) on implementing growth management and the study by Pivo and Abbott (1991) on factors that affect the use and effectiveness of growth management plan implementation tools. A fourth category of related studies are those that address the implementation of public policies in general. This is a very large body of work found in the political science and public policy literature that is covered in a number of journals and text books devoted to the subject. It provides clues about both impediments and catalysts for change, many of which are probably relevant to urban form and transportation policy. A fifth category of work looks at the creation of planned change from a more theoretical and political-economic point of view. This is found in the planning literature and emphasizes issues like the importance of social movements in creating change. A sixth category of useful material would be journalistic accounts and case reports of specific projects and plans that have elements of less auto-dependent urban form. They can be found in professional magazines like Urban Land and Planning and newsletters like those of the Conservation Foundation’s Successful Communities and the Urban Land Institute’s Project Reference Files.

STUDY APPROACH

The goal of this work was to help planners improve their capacity to reshape cities into less auto dependent places. In practice, planners benefit from having both general principles to guide their work and specific cases to look to as real world examples. Therefore, an effort was made to produce both theoretical principles and specific examples.

APPROACH TO THEORY

Three theoretical frameworks provided the basis for the principles contained in the findings below. The first is referred to as “urban management” and seeks to present a set of concepts that explain how change occurs in urban development. The second is referred to as “urban conflict theory” and seeks to understand the competition that occurs between the users and developers of places over who will control the direction of urban change. The third framework is the market model of urban development which explains what type of development goes where. The first theory is used here to explain how change occurs while the second and third are used to explain what direction it will take.

Urban Management Theory

The urban management model employed here is taken from Wallace Smith’s book entitled Urban Development (19xx). His original model is presented in Figure 2. It shows the major elements that influence the development of urban areas and how they interact. Briefly, it points out that the kind of development that occurs (referred to in Smith’s model as Land, Buildings and Infrastructure), which in this case would be less auto dependent urban form, depends on production decisions made by the public and private sectors. Both sectors, Smith reminds us, take decisions on what to build based on feedback received from either the market place or the community which react according to their response to what is being developed. In addition, they require resources and are shaped by institutions. Finally, the private sector is influenced by “rules of the game”, such as zoning standards, set by the public sector.

Figure 1. Urban Management Concepts (Smith 1975)

Urban Conflict Theory

Smith’s model does not describe the specific conditions that will produce less auto dependent urban form only the processes that these conditions will affect. To understand the conditions that are likely to produce less auto dependent urban form we need to supplement Smith’s model with the notions of use value and exchange value from urban conflict theory. Use values refers to the qualities sought in urban environments by residents, such as livability, accessibility, and security. Exchange value refers to enhanced property values sought by land investors and developers. Urban conflict theory says that there is a continuous struggle in cities between interests promoting these two values. Some want to plan land uses in order to protect the qualities of life that they prefer while others want to plan in a way that makes money for land owners and investors.

Unless there is a balance between the production of use and exchange value in a community, less auto dependent form cannot be produced. If development occurs solely to make money, then, going back to Smith’s model, community feedback will push the public sector to set rules of the game that stop development. If on the other hand nothing is done to enable development to profitably occur, then the market will not support private sector investments in higher density or mixed use development. Thus, only by balancing use and exhange values will a community be able to sustain the production of less auto dependent urban form by producing higher densities and greater mixing of land uses that are not blocked by negative community reaction.

The management of this balance is the responsibility of the public sector in most cases although a privately developed master planned community, for example, certainly could be managed according to similar principles. The motivation to choose this balanced approach comes from believing in both the need for this balance and the goal of building less auto dependent form, both s