In the News

from the The Courier-Journal, Louisville, KY 8.13.03

Expert: Clark still can control growth 
She suggests studies for traffic, imposing fees for anticipated projects

By HAROLD J. ADAMS
[email protected]
The Courier-Journal

While sprawling development in Clark County threatens to outstrip the community's ability to support it with infrastructure, it's not too late to get control of the situation.

That was the assessment of Harriet Tregoning, a national planning expert who took a trip through the county yesterday — at the behest of Main Street Jeffersonville Inc. — to see the growth up close.

Riding along the narrow path of Hansberry Road near Henryville, County Commission President David Lewis pointed out land where developers plan to build the 729-unit Grand Oaks subdivision.

Tregoning, executive director of the Smart Growth Leadership Institute in Washington, D.C., was shocked.

"On this road?!" she asked. "Do you do traffic studies?"
"No," replied Lewis, who went on to explain that Clark County's subdivision ordinance does not require traffic studies or sewers. Lewis is spearheading the effort to strengthen the ordinance.

Tregoning was equally incredulous riding along Salem Noble Road, where a combined 700 units are planned in the Whispering Oaks subdivision, on one side, and Skyline Acres on the other.

"These are roads without any shoulders," she said. "An accident on these roads would tie them up for a long time. They just don't have the capacity" for the volume of traffic the developments will bring, she said.

Tregoning, who coordinated the state of Maryland's Smart Growth program as a cabinet secretary in the administration of former Gov. Parris Glendening, said developers are not to blame for such mismatches between projects and supporting infrastructure.

Speaking after her tour to a luncheon audience at Kye's, Tregoning said, "The development playing field is tilted toward this `exurban' development."

It's time to "change the rules of the game" to encourage growth in existing population centers, she said, as well as development of suburban projects that are dense enough to justify investment in additional infrastructure.

About 130 people gathered to hear Tregoning speak in a program sponsored by the Smart Growth Outreach Project of Main Street Jeffersonville, a downtown revitalization booster group.
"Quality of life is not an automatic byproduct of the free market," Tregoning said. "You don't just get it. You have to plan for it. You have to care for it."

Maryland put together an incentive-based development-control plan built around Priority Funding Areas. Places where the state wanted to see development were designated as such.

The state provided tax breaks and infrastructure support for projects built within the designated areas and no assistance for projects outside the preferred areas. That is the kind of tool that could go into the new subdivision-control ordinance being developed for Clark County, Tregoning said.

She suggested to Lewis during her tour that requiring traffic studies and imposing fees for the anticipated impact that projects will have on surrounding infrastructure "would definitely be a step in the right direction."

But she warned that a single county imposing such rules without coordinating with its neighbors could simply chase developers into those jurisdictions.

Her luncheon audience posed questions about how to win over people who demand curbs on sprawl while also resisting projects that bring density, and how to entice developers to build "in-fill" projects within existing communities.

Education is the key to changing the "Not in My Backyard" attitude toward dense developments, she said. Establishing rules that encourage and make such projects profitable are key to coaxing developers to do in-fill work, she said.

Despite the lack of strong planning rules in Clark County, Tregoning said growth is "definitely not out of control at all."

But with the impending construction of two new Ohio River bridges, "this is a good time to be talking about this," she said.

Clark County has the opportunity, she added, to get out in front of the anticipated increase in growth and guide it to where the community wants it.

Glendening had been scheduled to make the trip yesterday, but was unable to because of illness.