Smart Growth with Design Charettes for the Birmingham Metropolitan Area - Publication

Brownfield Regional Redevelopment Task Force

Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham

1731 1^st Ave North

Birmingham, AL 35203

205-251-8139

Robert Wilkerson, Senior Planner and Project Manager, Community Planning

Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham

1731 1^st Ave North

Birmingham, AL 35203

205-264-8428

bwilkerson@rpcgb.org

Robert Wilkerson

State Agency

Funding request is for $18,485 with an expected in-kind of $ 25,335

Our Task Force will produce educational materials directed at elected officials and municipal employees that will increase their understanding of smart growth. We will also produce a detailed publication that outlines the process of this education. The study for the publication is focused on working with the public and providing design charettes for a targeted community. The design charettes will focus the community on their needs and visions. The end result, including the templates for all meetings, ideas, databases, letters, and flyers will be available in print format. This publication will be supplied to all of the Regional Planning Commissions member governments with the intention of duplicating this project throughout the Metro area.

The Brownfields Regional Redevelopment Task Force ("Task Force") is a coalition of members in the Birmingham-Hoover MSA, Alabama. The Task Force formed in 2003 and have grown to 20 core members and 30 auxiliary members and formed our mission statement:

The Brownfield Redevelopment Task Force was established to encourage communities within the seven county Metropolitan Development Board Region to pursue redevelopment of abandoned industrial properties commonly referred to as "Brownfields." In addition to revitalization of the urban core, other objectives of the Task Force include the mitigation of sprawl and reduction of urban blight.

 

The Task Force supports the concept of regional thinking and collaborative cooperation among various stakeholder groups as a methodology for eliminating redundancy and maximizing the knowledge, experiences, and skills necessary for a successful regional redevelopment outcome. Accordingly, the task force incorporates within its mission the discovery of harmonies and economies of scale realized through connecting brownfield redevelopment to existing agendas related to social, economic, ecological, and aesthetic improvement initiatives.

 

Our collaboration involves the following organizations:

Jefferson County Land Development, Black Warrior Riverkeepers, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Center for Urban Affairs, Jefferson County Economic and Industrial Development Association, Metropolitan Development Board, Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham, Cahaba Warrior Coosa Resource Conservation & Development, Alabama Cooperative Extension, City of Tarrant, 4 Site Ice, Huntsville, AL, GIS, USDA-NRCS, Alabama Gas Corporation, City of Birmingham, Applied Research of Central Alabama.

The initiatives that are currently focusing on the Tarrant Community involve members of our Task Force. These initiatives are:

The City of Tarrant has just finished the development of a park on a property that formerly housed a trailer park which would flood a few times a year. Now, the property has been turned into an environmental amenity by providing critical streamside buffers that will serve as a filter for non-point pollution and sediment control.

Continued diversification of commerce, a general decline in industrial activity, and a continued pattern of outward migration from central core of the region has created a time of change and opportunity for the City of Tarrant. While major industries such as ABC Coke and Vulcan Rivets still comprise an important part of the community’s livelihood, Tarrant must look at the whole picture and make sure elements for both residential and a variety of commercial success are fostered and maintained.  This comprehensive plan for the City must address the critical issue of improving the quality of life for residents, while keeping the special character of the community intact.

Maintaining and improving the historical character of Tarrant’s downtown and neighborhoods is a primary focus of the Plan-responded to strongly throughout the process by residents and stakeholders.  This objective can be achieved by protecting and celebrating Tarrant’s distinct architectural and walkable environment while building opportunities for economic development, and further benefit to the City’s residents.

The city is very compact. Tarrant ranks 43^rd out of 494 cities in Alabama with a population of 1,105 people per square mile of land area. Plus, the adjacent neighborhoods are connected with a network of sidewalks which are accented by numerous overhanging mature hardwood trees. Due to this attraction Tarrant has implemented a walkable communities program helping to reduce fuel consumption and vehicular air emissions while improving the health of the community by increased activities.

A right-of-way has been located along an aquaduct through the city that can greatly enhance the walkability of the community. Plans for its development are in progress.

A comprehensive trail locational plan will be created for the Fivemile Creek Corridor.  The plan boundaries include a quarter mile swath along the entire extent of the main stem of the creek, from its eastern origination in the City of Clay 44 miles westward to its confluence with Locust Fork. 

The Fivemile Creek Partnership will advise and provide oversight of the iterative planning process. The process will be community driven and represent the interests of a cross-section of the community; stakeholders, residents, involved government agencies and non-profit institutions and other interested parties. Of special significance will be the integration of separate and related initiatives that are currently or will be underway within the corridor.

The purpose of the GAC is to provide advice and to make recommendations to Sloss regarding the development, management, and implementation of the Fivemile Creek Greenway Master Plan, upon ADEMs approval of the Detailed Work Plan. The GAC will review and comment of the drat Greenway Master Plan.

On December 9, 1996 the U.S. District Court entered into a Consent Decree (CD) between the Jefferson County Commission and the federal government. The CD required Jefferson County to eliminate sewer overflows and meet all Clean Water Act (CWA) requirements by 2007. Furthermore Jefferson County agreed to assume responsibility for a consolidated sewer system serving 21 municipalities countywide. In addition, the CD required that the County set aside $30M for greenspace preservation. The Black Warrior-Cahaba Rivers Land Trust—a 501c (3) non-profit organization—was established to oversee and administer the expenditure of funds for the acquisition of priority stream segments identified by a number of stakeholders including the County and EPA. In August of 1998 a Jefferson County Greenway Master Plan was developed with goals and objectives of the project, a proposed a greenway system including priority stream segments, proposed restoration projects, design criteria, land management guidelines, an implementation plan, etc.

The park site was purchased with FEMA grant funds to provide disaster relief and move people out of harms way.  The proposed use of this property is to construct a multi-use municipal facility. The property will provide an access point to a 588 acre natural area recently acquired by the Black Warrior/Cahaba Land Trust.  The property will contain a beautifully landscaped recreational area with a round walking track and multiple use active and passive areas. 

Municipalities such as Tarrant, Fultondale, and Brookside have already directly used FEMA grants to buyout flood damaged properties along Fivemile Creek. In addition to these federal funds, Jefferson County Land Development has developed a Flood Mitigation Strategy Plan which outlines the County’s methodology for flood mitigation efforts throughout Jefferson County. The County Commission has agreed to appropriate $2M per year into a special County sponsored flood buyout program in which municipalities throughout Jefferson County are allowed to participate as long as they comply with the program requirements (e.g. adopt a floodplain protection ordinance presently being developed). Land Development recently received approximately 2,000 citizen responses to a survey regarding flooding problems. The problem areas and parcels are presently being mapped and assessed with site visits.

Cross walks and lights are being installed by the Dept of Transportation.

In addition to the multiple sustainable development initiatives ongoing in Tarrant, the layout of the City is also appropriate for various smart growth initiatives. The downtown has many historic properties (approximately 62 percent of Tarrant’s structures were built before 1959 and eligible for "historic" distinction). These historic features are commonly being recognized nationally as an economic development tool for communities. One possible revitalization effort proposed would be to use this designation and subsequent incentives as part of the smart design efforts introduced at the charettes.

In January of 2003, RPC staff convened a new multi-stakeholder group called the Bicycle and Pedestrian Advisory Committee to participate and oversee the Transportation Planning process. RPC staff and committee members developed a vision statement, as well as a set of comprehensive goals and supporting strategies for implementation of a new plan, as well as identifying existing and potential corridors for on and off-road non-motorized provisions (e.g. sidewalks, bike lanes, paved shoulders, greenways with multi-use trails, etc.) in the context of a two-county interconnected regional system. These routes have been compiled in a Geographic Information System (GIS) and geocoded for future analysis and development of a base map for public comment. Ongoing work also includes a new Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Program, Walkable Community Workshops, trail and street design workshops, research, field inventories, the development of a website, and a draft content outline for the Plan. The goal is to have a final Plan ready for MPO adoption before year end 2004. Once finalized and officially adopted by the MPO, the Plan will be amended to the 2025 Long Range Transportation Plan.

At this time, we are assisting with an assessment grant for hazardous substances awarded by EPA to the Black Warrior-Cahaba Rivers Land Trust, Jefferson County, AL ("Land Trust") that will focus on six communities located in the watershed of Five Mile Creek. A Greenway Advisory Committee (GAC) was formed to provide guidance to court ordered funding of remediation along a section of Five Mile Creek polluted by Sloss Industries. Sloss contracted with CaWaCo Resource Conservation & Development to provide a management plan and course of action for restoration along the 8 mile section of Five Mile Creek. This developed into a unique partnership involving the governments and NGOs in these municipalities along the waterway. One partner in the GAC was the Land Trust who saw opportunity to apply Brownfields assessment grant funds along this corridor. This grant will pave the way for greenways in these communities providing the resource of open space and recreational opportunities that will enhance these communities and can help secure their economic turn around.

The Greenways brownfields assessment grant process involves public meetings in each community in the corridor. Our Task Force decided that is was an opportunity for our group to provide assistance with the public meetings and have developed a proposal for EPA funding under grant SBGR-04. Our Task Force will build on their public meetings along that corridor and focus on one community, Tarrant, to bring the community closer to realization of redevelopment by carrying the communities through a series of workshops. These design charettes will focus on smart growth principles and the citizens’ visions for their community to build a new future for Tarrant. This begins an investigation of how smart growth policies spur brownfields redevelopments. Our study begins with the public meetings which will involve the discovery of how to approach and encourage community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions, a critical process and proven to be integral to its success. Communities need to be able to express their ideas, commiserate about ideals, determine the solutions, discuss alternatives, talk things out, and come to a generally accepted plan of action – as a group. Whatever the idea is for a community to be improved by will not work without the stakeholders being a part of the decision. It is ownership.

The Brownfields grant for hazardous assessment in the Five Mile Watershed starts with a series of public meetings to encourage input and collaboration. Our Task Force is involved in the process, logistically as well as preparatory and supportive. We will have an active role so that we can begin our preparations to take these groups of people to the next level of participation. We will take their initial public views, comments, discussion, and build on these public meetings with design charettes.

We will take the citizens from this initial public meeting and re-contact them to join us in a series of five public design charettes. The first city chosen to participate in these redevelopment charettes is Tarrant. We are preparing for charettes to be held in the spring of 2005 in a community that has faced economic downturn as industries have moved out. The City of Tarrant has a population of 6, 775 with a median family income of $32,392.

Eighty Two percent of the population commutes alone to work with public transportation or walking to work by only 0.9 % of the working population. The primary occupation is sales and office occupations with secondary occupation being production, transportation and material moving occupation. Poverty level for families is 14.9%, for families with female head of household, 24.2% and for individuals, the poverty level is 16.2%.

The initial Tarrant Public Meeting regarding the Greenway and Brownfield’s Assessment was held on October 21^st at 7:00 PM. At this meeting our Task Force presented the opportunity for brownfields charettes. We informed the citizens that we need to learn more about what can be done from their ideas. We explained that with education regarding options, facilitated discussions and brainstorming that we can help them start putting ideas together. We spent time at the Public Meeting getting to know interested citizenry and asking them about other groups and people that we should be contacting and asking for their support on getting the word out about the design charettes.

This initial core group of citizens that showed interest at the initial public meeting in Tarrant on October 21^st will be contacted by phone or letter and asked about their interest in the design charettes. They will be asked to help us engage the community by providing a direct link to their neighbors, their club and church members, who they believe will be interested in revitalizing their community. This initial core group from the first public meeting will be an important feature throughout the project. These are the citizens that responded first to the possibility of improvements occurring in their home city and will have the vested interest that is necessary to know who else needs to be involved and to help pull in those people to this series of workshops.

In preparation for these public meetings in Birmingham, Brookside, Center Point, Tarrant, Graysville, and Fultondale, the Task Force and the Land Trust invited the mayors of the 6 communities along the Greenway to a presentation on Friday, October 1^st for discussion of the upcoming grant work and the opportunities for their communities. Several cities have just elected new mayors, and we wanted to make sure that they were aware of the work and the possibilities involved. The meeting allowed time for the Land Trust to present a history of the Greenway project and how that brings their organization to the point of assessing properties that are in the watershed. The Task Force was able to encourage community involvement as a step towards redevelopment and promoted the charette process that will engage the community in discovering their goals and needs.

The mayors of these communities were educated on what we are proposing for their communities, and they were very enthusiastic about the process and the possibilities. The design charettes we are discussing for this study are planned with funding provided by the EPA (SGBF-04). As a component of that grant, we are providing a guide on how to do a charette. With funding from this SGBFS-05 grant we can expand our scope and provide for analysis of each step of the process, allowing us to fully explore the value gained from the steps and the smart growth policies covered. This will allow for the guide to become a publication. With this funding we can accomplish a larger task of compiling the whole process, analyzing the work and providing the publication for the charettes as just a piece of this larger study.

This first meeting with the Mayors was very rewarding. We were able to begin a discussion that can continue for the next few years. Our next step is to meet with the Mayor of Tarrant, Loxcil Tuck, and determine her level of understanding regarding smart growth. This interview will allow our Task Force to prepare an individualized lesson plan for Tarrant’s Mayor and elected officials. We will call this presentation a primer on smart growth, tailored to Tarrant, and bring these lessons to the city council meetings in November and December. This is a critical step. The leaders of the city must be knowledgeable about smart growth principles and believe in their effectiveness for this process to work with the citizenry.

Following this critical educational piece we will begin to take the smart growth primer to larger stakeholder group meetings such as the rotary club, neighborhood associations, churches, etc. We would like to take the primer to as many public meetings as possible before we enter into the design process with the charettes. If we are assured of an educated audience, we are likely to have greater success in jump starting the community based projects.

The next step is to do the charettes. These work sessions will provide a continuation of the community involvement initiative through a series of participatory public meetings. Our workshops will be conducted to achieve the following objectives:

· Engage citizens in redevelopment possibilities through direct involvement with the design process: Charettes provide an opportunity to collect ideas, concepts, and additional input for the community redevelopment process.

· Enlighten and apply the concepts of smart growth through the charettes.

· Involve Task Force members, designers, and developers in the charettes, providing a foundation for collaboration between community and redevelopment professionals.

· Produce a final product deliverable in the form of design boards and economic development proposals for each of the focused sites, providing a showcasing tool for property owners, community/regional economic development efforts, and others interested in the redevelopment potential for specific sites.

· Establish a model for exporting the workshop/charette format to other communities across the region. 

The workshops allow citizens to become engaged and provide conceptual input for the eventual redevelopment of sites identified in the Land Trust work program. Citizens will have the opportunity to become enlightened on smart growth redevelopment, and then apply that enlightenment to their vision for physical redevelopment as an enhancement to economic development and sustainability.  

Review of the Land Trust findings, and explanation of the connection between the two work programs.

Define and then focus on a manageable collection of sites.

Reinforce redevelopment potential/opportunities within the community.

Educate relative to redevelopment through smart growth concepts. Applicable components including: transit oriented development, walkable communities, stormwater management BMPs, mixed use development, open space preservation, greenways, green buffers.

Identify and then connect existing smart growth initiatives within the community to the redevelopment study sites, providing potential for a high impact smart growth community.

Conduct a site based SWOT analysis: gathering big picture citizen input for redevelopment concepts based on newfound enlightenment through smart growth.

Summarize the macro concepts and desires of the citizen participants.

Following are action items and processes to be applied as a framework and guide producing successful charette experiences and conceptual products: 

Divide participants into small work groups of three to five each. Assign a task force member to assist each group.

Provide each group with a specific site and supporting materials including: appropriate information gathered during the CRLT work program, site photos, aerial photo, topo, parcel map, and drawing materials.

Assign a design professional to float between two or three groups each, providing technical assistance as requested by the charette group.

Provide examples of sketches/working drawings for each of the four processes outlined within the charette.

Conduct four one hour segments covering standard phases of the design process:

#1- Brainstorming, conceptual sketches, and bubble diagrams. Define a program for the redeveloped site: its function, purpose, and use and economic development potential.

#2- Evaluate the program against a legend of smart growth objectives developed in work session #1, then begin to incorporate ideas and concepts into a pragmatic, site plan: still a rough draft with scribble, sketches, and ideas noted across the composition.

#3-Produce a final site plan, by transferring on trace medium the working drawings to reveal a coherent discernable plan, with annotations as needed.

#4- Presentations: Each group will share their plans and ideas with the entire work session group.

 

 

As an act of community service, design professionals from within the local practicing community, and/or design students at Auburn University, will be recruited to produce a conceptual design board for a selected site: the design to be based upon the conceptual master plan derived from citizen designs produced during workshop.

Citizen ideas synthesized into professional design graphics are presented to the community at workshop #3 including analysis of smart growth components within each design solution and discussion of economic development impacts through the specific redevelopment plan for each site.

Final thoughts and input will be taken from the reviewing public, including evaluation of the workshop’s effectiveness and suggestions for program improvements.

 

Our process will involve the community in the design of their vision, their ideas, their wants and needs for their community. All of the concepts and ideas will be converted into a visual presentation with the work and information displayed in the public buildings, distributed to meetings, and presented in a final public meeting. This will finalize this process, but will begin the real work in this community. Ideas are great, funding is the critical factor.

Our Task Force would like to follow up in this community with further assessment, cleanup and revolving loan fund grants. As we move forward in Tarrant, we would like to start the process of the design charettes in the other communities in Metro Birmingham. Our goal is to capture each step of this multi-partnership approach and dual grant delivery process to provide for a template for redevelopment in any community. We will document each step, provide overview of the process, include evaluations of each step and offer guidance for improvement and details of each success, and failures. Our product will be an easily followed outline for the process including how to find the right venue, what materials you must have, what bumps to expect, agenda templates, flyer templates, suggestions for how to spread the word, how to get a public service announcement published and template examples. The follow up work will be outlined. We will include sample letters and sample phone dialogue. We will include a PPT of all our presentations in each publication and everything will be available on our website.

If funding is awarded, our parent organization, Regional Planning Commission of Greater Birmingham (RPCGB) will benefit directly from this initiative by providing a set of workshops for the Tarrant area and then offering these to other communities. RPCGB Services provided to member governments and the communities through cross-functional teams include the following areas.

Intergovernmental Cooperation
Encourages multi-jurisdictional planning for comprehensive land use, corridor and strategic development encouraging cooperative efforts and project efficiencies.

Transportation and Transit Planning
Provides long range programs and planning include urbanized area plans, corridor plans, greenway plans along with traffic counts, safety studies to impact transportation in the region.

Community Planning
Provides land use planning and analysis for member governments including zoning ordinances, subdivision regulations, mapping and general community plans for a highest and best-use basis for development in the region.

Community and Economic Development
Assists member governments with applications for federal and state grants, provides information and assistance to new and expanding businesses to increase the tax base in the region.

Information Management
Provides GIS data development, analysis and deployment assistance, redistricting and site analysis for member governments.

Human Resource Services
Manages federal and state programs providing employment assistance and placement to senior citizens (age 55+) on a temporary basis with the goal of permanent employment.

TIME TABLE for conducting the study

The Task Force has been conducting forums for their membership’s education and with funding in place we can move forward. Our members are engaged and details are being satisfied to move forward with this project.

Personnel: Three principal members of the Task Force will be involved with the majority of coordination and implementation of the charettes and meetings involved. Their time will be covered indirectly through their parent organizations: RPCGB and UAB. The production time involved in the writing and production of the publications and educational materials will be covered by this grant.

Fringe: Rate used is 46.74%

Travel: Covering round trips for Task Force members and staff.

Equipment: Laptop and LCD supplied by RPCGB.

Supplies: Covered by grant SGBF-04 if funded.

Contractual: Cost of 4,000 bound copies of publication.

Construction: not applicable

Other: covered in SGBF-04 if funded.

Indirect Charges: RPCGB rate is 33.37%