There is a story about a boy who looked up at the sky and asked, 'Daddy, what is the moon supposed to advertise?' In this allegory the message is about what has happened to the relationship between man and nature in the era of rules by committee. On the one hand, nature has been stripped of all intrinsic value or meaning. On the other, man has been stripped of all aims except self-preservation.
CH Forward holistic intent is to restore the natural design of our city so we may also improve our relationship with nature. This paradigm shift requires we approach growth from a new perspective on the way of a Gestalt. Only then can our city emerge with a renewed 'sense of place' within nature, rather than granting nature a place within our city.
The Transect - understanding the natural flow of a city
Today, it may seem quite normal for people to pack their cars, drive to a trailhead at the edge of the city, park along hundred of other cars, and go for a hike in nature. This behavior is a result of how we have structured our relationship with nature, with a hard line that says; "we are here" and "nature is there". This concept is not only a very new arrangement in human history - it is also unsustainable.
It is unmistakeable how human perception about nature changed in the early 20th century. In fact, we can pinpoint this moment to a 1922 Supreme Court decision that involved a dispute between a developer and the Village of Euclid, Ohio. The court ruled that a city could restrict development based on solely on how a land owner intended to use the land. Today we call this type of land use policy Euclidean Zoning. The result can be described as cities being designed by committee; private interests come together and compromise on how best to slice up the land into zones based on their use, and boom! We the people find ourselves having to drive farther and farther to get to the places we want to be.
The following narrative and explanations of the Transect is derived in large part form the "Original Green". More than 40 years of hard work by Steve and Wanda Mouzon who intend to restore the idea that nature, rather than technology, offers the best path towards a sustainable future.
The story of the Transect begins with in the 1990's when brothers Douglas and Andres Duany took a walk from South Beach, Florida to the ocean, somewhere along the way the wondered if the transect of the land they were walking through could offer a better guide to manage land use than the committees used through Eucledian Zoning - the goal would be for city policies to mimick how animals of all kinds find natural refuge (a home) within the diverse settings that nature provides. With this idea in mind, the concept of Form-Based Code was born.
"A town is saved, not more by the righteous men in it than by the woods and swamps that surround it."
— Henry David Thoreau
As we take this mental trip across our city, we ought to easily recognize how the shape of the land reveals iteself as part of a transect. And, within each of these transects a different form of habitat naturaly emerges revealing the optimal manner by which all these individual places may contribute to our great city. It is through the power of emergence, the natural relationship among all these transect zones, that the city as a whole has the capacity to grow into a more reslilient, healthy, diverse, and safe ecosystem. This process is applicable at any scale, large cities and small cities like ours can thrive and provide a refuge (a home) for a large and diverse number of individuals we call a community.
These Transect Zones are as follows:
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The Natural Zone: this zone includes all lands that have been permanently protected from development. Here, in the wilderness, nature trumps mankind every time. This is actually a place that is just a bit dangerous to humans because something could bite you or even eat you. In Cottonwood Heights, the Wasatch Mountains and the Canyons that frame our city are such a place.
- The Rural Zone: This zone includes lands that are not currently slated for development, but that have not been permanently protected, either. This zone isn’t quite as dangerous, but "keep out" signs delineating private property begin to appear. Sparce development may exist but it is far and wide, typically using natural or rustic materials, The foothills of our mountainous city are places with such character.
- The Sub-Urban Zone: This isn’t exactly the ‘burbs. It’s close, to be sure, but it doesn’t include some things like the big box retail that you might instead find in a highway business district. This zone delineates the outskirts of town where the town grid begins to give way to nature. Sidewalks are sparce, public services like public lighting begins to appear. Lots are usually larger and streets begin to curve with the contour of the land. This is the least tax productive area for a city treasury, but a necessary area to delineate the margins of a city.
- The General Urban Zone: This zone is where strongly identifiable neighborhoods (or, suburbs), each with their own center that you can walk to in five minutes or less, exist. This is the place where you can sit on your porch and talk to your neighbor leaning over your fence with the latest news and kids can safely walk down tree-lined sidewalks to the ice cream store down on the corner, and return home before they finish the cone.
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The Urban Center Zone: This is Main Street America. There was always a robust selection of apartments over the street itself, and over the square. Young couples, local merchants, and old folks who don't want to saddle up to get to all the necessities find this an ideal place. Big box stores and "anchor" tenants do not fit in this environment, this is a local place with local tastes and character. Instead this is still a place where we can still hear parents calling their kids to come in and do their homework long after the old folks out in front of the general store had folded up their checkerboard and laptops, and gone home for the day.
- The Urban Core Zone: This is the brightest, noisiest, most exciting part of the city, where you will find the city’s tallest buildings, busiest streets, and most variety. It’s the place where you should find one-of-a-kind functions like City Hall, but it’s also the place with all the grand parks, galleries and the biggest selection of restaurants exist. The Urban Core is the place where mankind trumps nature; where the river running through town is contained in grand stone embankments lined with commercial estblishments.
To better understand the concept of a Transect this genetic map can assist you to view howa city like Cottonwood Heights naturally flows. Perhaps, if you apply yourself a bit more, it may also help you realize how Euclidean Zoning interrupts that flow.
Currently, Cottonwood Heights' Land Use map is determined through Euclidean Zoning. These policies do not only fail to recognize the "flow of the land" like the streams that flow from the canyons, in fact, fights against it. creating an unsustainable condition of arrested growth.
The concept of a 'town center' and its charateristics as currently presented by the city further violates the natural flow. Not only is this project fiscally unfeasable, it is geographically missplaced. The level of commercial activity and grand park type of amenities would be better situated within the Urban Core Zone of Cottonwood Heights. This location is exactly where our city's administration was originally located.
Further, we cannot understate the fact that a particular "frankenstein" transect is grossly overrepresented in the city's ecosystem. the light-tan color showin in the city's map (see the adjacent map) is a mix of Sub-Urban and General Urban transects. Such a mix is characteristic of all suburban sprawl. These are places where kids cannot easily walk to a corner store, buy ice cream, and return home before it melts, but also demands the same level of public services (sewer, stormwater, roads, lighting, etc.) that is usually only allocated to a place where kids can do that. It is the over-reliance on these type of ecosystem that causes our city to bleed most of its General Fund; causing it to become insolvent. Insolvency drives a city towards bankrupcy and the threat of bankrupcy makes it seem necessary for a city to either, bond, tax, or do both until residents are gentrified.
Voting NO, on the bond is an essential first step to stop the gentrification of our city.
Reforming our city's land use policies is the obvious second and most critical step, so this won't repeat itself.
Join our effort and help your neighbors move CHForward!
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