Author: Chuck Wolfe

Charles R. (Chuck) Wolfe, M.R.P., J.D. provides a unique perspective about cities as both a long time writer about urbanism worldwide and an attorney in Seattle, where he focuses on land use and environmental law and permitting. In particular, his work involves the use of sustainable development techniques and innovative land use regulatory tools on behalf of both the private and public sectors. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor in the College of Built Environments at the University of Washington, where he teaches land use law at the graduate level. He contributes regularly to several publications including Planetizen, CityLab/The Atlantic Cities, The Atlantic, The Huffington Post, Grist, seattlepi.com, and Crosscut.com. He blogs at myurbanist.com.

help with learning more about TOD, part 2

On By Chuck WolfeIn compact development, infill development, politics, sustainability, transit oriented development, urban administration2 Comments

The initial myurbanist post on transit oriented development (TOD), highlighted two recently released reports. Here is an additional resource, a Powerpoint summary presented in Olympia about a month ago, which outlines findings after investigation of top barriers to vibrant urban centers and TOD in the University of Washington/Quality Growth Alliance “From Barriers to Solutions and Best Practices” report.

As also noted in the post, the recently released Futurewise/GGLO “Transit Oriented Communities: A Blueprint for Washington State”, provides an applied analysis of what makes for successful development around transit stations and general guidance for future legislation.

from 1911, the Bogue plan of Seattle speaks

On By Chuck WolfeIn politics, sustainability, urban administration6 Comments
    Bogue Somehow my father–an urban planning professor–once obtained the copy of the the 1911 Bogue Plan of Seattle owned by J.W. Maxwell, who served on the Municipal Plans Commission representing the Seattle Clearing House Association as a member of the Plan’s “Location, Width and Girth of Arterial Highways Committee”.

    For many years, I have used the Plan as a coffee table provocateur. But after seeing the sidewalks in Greenwood last night after the votes came in, I took a new look–and saw some messages from history.

    The Plan is a classic “City Beautiful” document of the era, emphasizing the grand boulevards of a Civic Center never achieved, new, numbered highways and rapid transit, parks and port facilities, premised on “the development of the Civic Idea, old as the human race”–building to accomodate future population.

    After all, Virgil Bogue was an engineer of some repute and veteran of railroad and port design and construction. For him, the Civic Idea was building, constructing and rehaping–beginning with the “testimonies of the dim ages” which brought us “earth mounds of America and the lithic structures of Stonehenge”.

    Nearly 100 years later, we struggle with the legacy of such plans, and how to achieve their unrealized grandeur while remaking their Robert Moses outcomes. Bogue did not mention walkable neighborhoods, compact development or much green outside of large parks. Many would call the vision bold, yet hardly sustainable.

    Still, he left a message–facing the Plan’s title page and reproduced below–reminding Seattle always to dream.

    Bogue 1

museum quality urbanist

On By Chuck WolfeIn urban views3 Comments

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In a cloister turned museum in a foreign land….

photos from june visit to the eco-prince’s domain

On By Chuck WolfeIn infill development, urban administration, urban viewsLeave a comment

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The constrained spaces of Monte Carlo, which occasioned now abandoned plans for over-water buildout

My May 31 seattlepi.com piece described a pending trip to the demain of eco-sensitive modern royalty, in order to see what Prince Albert II once had in mind for managing growth in Monaco–the second smallest country in the world–as it runs out of livable space. This “republication” shows photos from the the following week in early June.

Until the world economy intervened last Fall, the world’s longest ruling dynasty had in mind an emirate-scale answer to compact urban growth–a new urban, mixed-use district built on stilts–designed to model urban expansion in an environmentally sustainable fashion as “a showcase of the world’s best eco-technology.”

The multi-billion Euro idea was gargantuan–and subject to multiple, world-class architectural proposals before the slowdown. Envision a super-South Lake Union or post-viaduct planning area with a 10-year planned build-out, with thematic overwater, eco-sensitive panache.

Planning historians have always extolled the principle that the best planning proceeds when a single governmental or private entity has control of a development area.

Yet even if Monaco’s project had proceeded on the planned schedule, this grand vision had already evoked classic and ironic debate–the environmentally sensitive Prince Albert II (avoiding landfill with stilts and known for imposition of traffic demand management and electric car ownership) versus Nice and Toulon, France-based advocacy groups fearful for impacts upon Mediterranean coral and other sea life and decrying technology-based environmental solutions.

As the Prince explained late last year, “The international crisis has forced us to seek better financial guarantees, more security. I would in any case want to reassure myself that effects on the environment would be as limited as possible.”

DSC_1489This could only be Prince Albert II drowning his sorrows in front of the Grand Casino in Monte Carlo over his cancelled development plans