Communication

What is the most important part of planning? I believe that with each day of work that I go through that being able to relate and communicate with the public is of the utmost importance. Misunderstandings can arise if a planners is not able to Cleary communicate with people. Beyond simple misunderstanding I believe that planners need to be able to deliver information that is sometime negative to landowners in a way that is understand, professional, and humanized. I all to often see planners who get into a regulatory frame of mind in every facet of there job. This mindset negatively effects communication.
The reason I am even talking about this is that these days most of my so called planning job is consumed in dealing with people. Worrying with making people happy or explaining the fall out when things are not in there favor. Some people are gracious while others are inherently difficult. It is usually easy to deliver good news , but a good planner is skilled at working with people when the news is not so good. I am talking about the citizen who has built with the set backs and must rectify the situation or the client who does get the wetlands impact permits they need.

Greenways and the environment

I have recently become fascinated with how the greenway movement interacts with the environment and vice versa. The greenway movement is near 20 years of age and is reaching its peak, not only are progressive urban communities constructing extensive greenways, but so are conservative rural small towns. I worked on the planning for a large portion of the Yadkin river greenway in Boone with a transportation engineer with NCDOT. When I think of greenways I think of green space, buffering and stream and providing permanent protection. When I got involved with this project I was shocked to find that the plan’s called for the removal of buffers or neatness and view consideration.
After further research I realized that in principle greenways are good, but there is a large body of literature that refutes there environmental benefits. Things like raising the path elevation to keep flood maintenance costs down and impervious surface lend themselves to huge environmental problems. I often argue that greenways have a free ticket to develop in the floodplain that no other type of development would be approved. Granted, greenways are probably the lesser of two evils. I think this all goes back to a childish romance with anything that sounds, smells, or tastes eco-friendly so it must be good.

Greenways and the environment

I have recently become fascinated with how the greenway movement interacts with the environment and vice versa. The greenway movement is near 20 years of age and is reaching its peak, not only are progressive urban communities constructing extensive greenways, but so are conservative rural small towns. I worked on the planning for a large portion of the Yadkin river greenway in Boone with a transportation engineer with NCDOT. When I think of greenways I think of green space, buffering and stream and providing permanent protection. When I got involved with this project I was shocked to find that the plan’s called for the removal of buffers or neatness and view consideration.
After further research I realized that in principle greenways are good, but there is a large body of literature that refutes there environmental benefits. Things like raising the path elevation to keep flood maintenance costs down and impervious surface lend themselves to huge environmental problems. I often argue that greenways have a free ticket to develop in the floodplain that no other type of development would be approved. Granted, greenways are probably the lesser of two evils. I think this all goes back to a childish romance with anything that sounds, smells, or tastes eco-friendly so it must be good.

Greenways and the environment

I have recently become fascinated with how the greenway movement interacts with the environment and vice versa. The greenway movement is near 20 years of age and is reaching its peak, not only are progressive urban communities constructing extensive greenways, but so are conservative rural small towns. I worked on the planning for a large portion of the Yadkin river greenway in Boone with a transportation engineer with NCDOT. When I think of greenways I think of green space, buffering and stream and providing permanent protection. When I got involved with this project I was shocked to find that the plan’s called for the removal of buffers or neatness and view consideration.
After further research I realized that in principle greenways are good, but there is a large body of literature that refutes there environmental benefits. Things like raising the path elevation to keep flood maintenance costs down and impervious surface lend themselves to huge environmental problems. I often argue that greenways have a free ticket to develop in the floodplain that no other type of development would be approved. Granted, greenways are probably the lesser of two evils. I think this all goes back to a childish romance with anything that sounds, smells, or tastes eco-friendly so it must be good.

jack of all trades

It is more and more evident that being a jack of all trades is what planning is about. Today. I met with a regulator, changed a stream design on site, managed an employee working on site, collaborate with property owners, and ordered materials for the job site. Think about all the great people in there business. They seem to be able to juggle a number of different hats successfully, while claiming to be a master on none. I by no means claim to be a master of any subject or a great planner, but I believe great planners can balance multiple projects with different expectations and outcomes.
With the idea of multi-disciplinary planning I wonder why our undergrad program or graduate program does not allow for some more courses in biology, geology, and technology. One overwhelming need I see that our planners need from ASU is CAD experience. With the GIS and CAD experience the graduates would be a hot ticket hire. I do believe our program does a great job, and maybe there is little flexibility in the course requirements? I will save these final thoughts for another blog but just think of what could be done if you could use CAD and GIs interchangeably.

Riparian is the way to go

I have gone ahead in the reading and started to read about streams and streamside vegetation zones called riparian buffers. I am more convinced with each passing year of intensive field experience and site visits to literally hundreds of locations that stream side buffers may be the single most important element in streams functionally and ecological integrity.

Riparian zones serve a number of functions such as protection from harmful thermal pollution; they filter sediment, sequester nutrients, diffuse flood flows and provide a unique and rich corridor for wildlife. When I visit a lot of sites the 1st thing I notice is the lack of a riparian buffer residents cut down all the trees so they can have a view of the river or stream. As soon as they cut this vegetation erosion accelerates and they begin losing the property that is so precious to them. Many folks realize they are losing property and opt for stream bank hardening to solve there problems. Stream hardening is ultra expensive and often unsightly. In many case simple riparian vegetation establishment would do just as well. On Wednesday we will get an opportunity to see this 1st hand.

GIS

GIS has made planning better. It is as simple as that. Most planning offices have some type of gis capability. From offices that just use gis readers as quicker more efficient access to reference maps to offices that run the hold suite of ESRI products and employee analysts to crunch data and perform modeling and suitability studies. The use of the orthopohotography and roads and parcel overlays has given the planner a wider view of the landscape a geographic prospective that some planners may have not had.
One of my gripes about GIS in local planning jurisdictions is that the technicians are usually not housed in a planning office, but rather in a separate department, a tax office, or as an information systems office. Because I think the nature of GIS is Geographic at its core believe that each gis technician should have some fundamental training in geography and be placed in all the above mentioned offices. I also believe that using a county’s lone GIS tech as a cadastral mapper is a waste of the software and talent. Cadastral mapping is needed and important, but gis was not created for that.

septic systems

Talking about soils makes me think about suitability for septic systems and the importance of appropriate soils. For most people who live in the city, they never use a traditional chambered septic tank and drain line system that is common throughout much of the rural United States. If a proper site and system is not designed on a site it can leach into wells and be a public health risk for yours to come. This is especially important in mountain and coastal communities where many of the soils are marginal and the ecosystem are often more fragile and affected by the addition of excess nutrients.
Here in Watauga County the selection of a site is getting more and more difficult because a good portion of the suitable land has been built upon. Coupled with this fact is that the regulations and standards have been tightened. Today, if anyone purchases a vacant piece of property an automatic contingency should be the testing of soil for proper septic system percolation. The process takes about 1 month and is extremely slow and can be a nightmare if you have a real steep site or a site that has been disturbed. As a consultant I get several calls a year asking me to help with the septic evaluations. I gladly oblige, but I explain that how North Carolina handles the septic permitting is completely different. In NC only the health department’s employee can design a system. In most other states licensed soil scientist and sanitary engineers can do the work for the private sector.

SOILS

Soils and the soil surveys are a great tool for planning, but I always caution there use as a primary source of data because of what the soil mappers call inclusions. Inclusions are areas that may be small or large pockets within a mapped type of soil that are different than mapped. These inclusions, from my experience or numerous. It would be almost impossible for any of the soil mappers to walk and sample every 10 feet in an area to determine the soil types. This is why it is better to use the survey as an overview planning tool.
Another potential pitfall is the availability of soils information varies widely from county to county. As the text mentions the USDA –NRCS produces the soil survey in cooperation with the local governments. Just in western, NC you have a wide variety of availability. For example. Ashe County has a set of paper copies that is out of print, but Arc-Map shape file and attribute tables for all the soils that can be downloaded from the soil data mart at nrcs.gov. In Watauga County a published survey is not available. Only draft field sheets are available in hard copy from the local nrcs office. These field sheets include older symbolization that requires a cheat sheet to identify soil types on the soil data mart website.

Regional or watershed planning is in theory a great idea. In North Carolina I have been intimately involved with the state’s watershed planning as mandated by the Clean Water Act. Ion North Carolina the watersheds are broken into the 13 NC major river basins. For each basin the North Carolina Department of Water quality completes a process much like Randolph describes in the text. The process usually takes 2 years and has opportunities for stakeholder input and technical analysis.
Some potential pitfalls to the way North Carolina goes about the mandated watershed planning is the protocol it uses for the technical work. Specifically stream sampled and tested are only sampled and tested once during the 2 year process. This protocol does not allow for a mean that would account for fluctuations based on climatic or other factors. The results are then published, but cannot be heavily relied upon for accurate assessments of streams. These same protocols are used to determine 303d impaired status. In Watauga County the only 303d stream is????????????? Not kraut creek, not Winkler’s creek, or some urban stream….., but Beaver dam Creek in The bethel Community. I was present at the technical survey and questioned the monitoring staff about the findings once the 303d list was announced. I discovered that beaver dam creek was considered impaired for the lack of trout that turned up in one survey in August.

The storm water problem has never been more evident to me than it was today during the coal communities disaster video. There is a concerted fairly new effort to abate and retain storm water for infiltration and treatment. The addition of large amounts of impervious surface and the removal and vegetation and humic soils that aid in absorption has literally put thousands of people behind the 8-ball.
The movement in our cities to control storm water is well documented, but I would like to see more effort placed on forestry and steep slope agricultural practices to retain control storm water creation and treatment. In North Carolina timber operations an there policies strictly relate to surface water and do not adequately address storm water volume or quality considerations. We should not be quick to jump to a set of comprehensive regulations that would just result in the establishment of lots of impoundments that are poorly maintained and lack adequate design.

breaking point?

Sometimes I forget just how beautiful of place we live in. Last week I was involved in a really large wetlands delineation of one of the most special pieces of property that remains in private hands in this area. Will it still be special with all the little boxes dotting the mountain side? Will our water still be clean and pristine!. Where do we draw the line? I grew up a farmer and in a rural landowning family who always believed in private property rights, but treated the land with respect and conserved the natural resources. It seems to me that as a community we are at the breaking point. The next 5 years will be critical in the quality of life in our communities.
Adding fuel to this internal debate that I have been washing around is that consumer digest just named Boone and top 10 retirement bargain. This is nice publicity and the kiss of death all rolled up in one. The area may be affordable to the retirees, but not tro many of the blue collar workers and hospitality workers. Many of these people have to find homes outside of Watauga County and drive 30 miles each day into Boone. This type of setup is hardly sustainable.

Planners and Technology

In recent years planners and especially environmental planners have at there disposal a wide variety of technology and tools to perform there jobs. Great programs graduate students who are proficient in quantitative methods and geographic information science almost every spring. So if we have all of this technology available to us, then why do our local planning offices still lag behind in the technology curve? It is not because the consumer does not want it, or the planner does not know how to use it. Maybe it is the funding?
I think that the red tape is slow to catch up to the technology. When a legally binding map such as a floodway map is determined to be faulty beyond a reasonable doubt because of a change to superior technology I believe that the system should be set up to easily amend the map. We now have programs such as hec ras and survey grade GPS that can accurately measure and delineate 100 year flood plains and watershed boundaries with relative ease. Let s use the technology!

The class discussion of Lake Tahoe today reminded me of some of my very favorite trout waters here in the Appalachians. I prefer to fish for small brook trout that like to reside in the small cold and pristine headw3aters of the mountains. The brook is the only native trout in North Carolina. Stocked trout are much more aggressive and have driven the brook out in lower water stream. This stock regime coupled with the increased sedimentation and thermal pollution the brook trout habitat is rapidly declining.
Two weeks ago I decided I needed to go fishing and as I set out to climb through the rhodendren and mountain laurel thickets on my hands and knees in search of m y favorite stream. Once o got there things were different. The stream bed was full of sediment and the once moss covered rocks were covered with a slimy film. I was furious! I then remembered about the proposed development that is located upslope. Had it been that long ago that I had been to this stream. I walked a few hundred yards upstream and found more of the same sedimentation and nutrient loading. Usually trout dart from ever pool and riffle in this stream, but today they were no existent. I decided to look at some bugs in the stream to get a better idea of the damage. As I kicked over and few rock I discovered that all I could find were bivalves and other species that were consistent with poor water quality. What a disgrace.

shhhhh! Zoning SHHHH!

Zoning is the quickest way I know, at least in this county to instantly polarize yourself! I think that people just got caught up in the negative attitudes that were infused during the early part of this decade when zoning was a hot topic. I think for the most part people want some kind of zoning, but just do not tell them what they can and cannot do with there property. Zoning became a extremely hot topic in the community of meat camp. I remember specifically working with citizens in the community who would ask you your political stance on zoning before they would trust you.
I have wondered since the political leadership in the county has changed in recent years, how far away are we from seeing proposals for county wide zoning. It is long overdue. I suspect that it is just on the horizon now. Many of my friends and colleagues are farmers and some of the very ones who opposed zoning. The powers that be who expect zoning to succeed should take great care in educated these rural landowner and farmers about specifically how zoning would benefit them, if they want it to succeed.
Enacting zoning in the county would be a full employment act for me! My business was increase. I mentioned in class that now, I am hired to evaluate a piece of property for potential uses with the codes and zoning, the only problem is there is not much zoning out there.

No matter how much you know about water and soil and how they work and how to stop erosion. No matter how much planning you do, sometimes it just does not work! I have a client who illegally cleared 17 acres in Wilkes County. It turns out that the slope he cleared is adjacent to high quality waters and is some of the most erodible soil in Wilkes County. With this many strikes against him he hired my firm to get him out of a major regulatory morass. My client is nearly a genius he tried all the traditional methods of erosion control he spent thousands on seeding and stone diversions. He studied it like it was his job. What happened you ask? It did not rain for a month and grass did not grow. The powered soil whistled around in the wind and was bone dry. Almost reminiscent of how the dust bowl folks might have felt. Then it came a huge 2.5 inch thunderstorm rain that washed 18” of soil into the aforementioned high quality waters. Here come the regulators. My client successfully played the agricultural exemption card for one division of denr, but he could not escape the division of water quality, so he called me! It is just a simple case of clearing land and having everything go wrong that could go wrong! No rain, too much rain, poor soil and poor timing! So what am I going to do? We are going to do the same thing that the landowner did! Except I hope it rains on time and not too much.

Conservation/preservation easements are a interesting animal. I am particularly intrigued by there often dual purposes. I have talked about easements on agricultural lands in class, but i would like to reflect here on conservation easements in subdivision open space. Specifically the Ginn Corporation who is developing Laurelmor had a number of purposes in placing a large amount of property into conservation easements. Ginn received some much needed good press from the donation. It appeared on the front page of the WSJ and many other local papers. Without discounting the environmental benefits, the land was some of the most ecologically sensitive, which by other regulations precluded it from being developed anyway. Things like trout buffers and high water quality watersheds made the land worthless for development. The biggest advantage that I think Ginn received from the donated conservation easement was the mitigation credit they received from the corps. This saved them thousands of dollars. While some may view this multi-purpose approach as a problem I think it is a necessity to preserving open space.

social capital

Yesterday afternoon I traveled to Charlotte to complete a delineation of a wetland for a good client of mine. I usually do not go to charlotte, but this client was in a fix for time and needed this done ASAP. Every time a make a change in scenery to the big city I am shocked at the amount of development that is going on in north Mecklenburg County. The particular site I was on was a proposed future cookie cutter development to serve the young professional crowd. On the way home last night I found my self debating the merits of clustered high density development versus lower density larger lots.
I suppose environmental aspects could be argued both ways. With higher density and more cluster development like in this particular proposed development larger green areas can be left and developed into trails and common areas. Where as lower density development concentrates less im pervious surfaces and abates the effects of concentrated flow causing erosion and sedimentation into the water. There is a side to this argument that I have not debated in my mind. This is the idea of social capital. It was obvious after our class discussion that social capital is much higher in clustered dense developments that it would be in more spread out subdivisions.

Ranting

I am frustrated beyond all measures with environmental zealots. AS I have stated in the past I own a small environmental consulting company who specializes in stream bank enhancement and rehabilitation. I have a client in a prominent location in Banner Elk that contracted with our company to complete a project from design to permitting to construction. It is a small project t that only took one day to complete and 10 days to design and 30 days to permit. By all accounts I have a good handle on all the permits necessary and have completed over 300 Army Corps nationwide authorizations. In addition I have coordinated with every imaginable division of DENR. My frustration lies at the set of complicated conflicted requirements. In North Carolina as a requirement of the clean water act which is administer both by denr and the Corps you have to go through a permitting process. If the project is less than 150 linear feet in the stream then the corps will only issue and permit and dent deems it authorized automatically. Our project was under 150 feet and had a corps permit and was deemed authorized by denr. They know that the stream has to get muddy to do the work to prevent long term erosion and sedimentation, but today dent decided that want to enforce a turbidity standard that is violated with has little as a half inch of rain. To me these statues are conflicting and are what is wrong with the environmental statues. They all conflict! It only matters when regulators who become environmental zealots decide to enforce them arbitrarily. So what happens next? Who knows……. Certainly the agencies do not.

P.S. I never intended to rant about business issues and while I am ranting I normally have a very productive relationship and respect for most regulators.

getting caught up.........

In class today Dr, Carp said something that I have been thinking about for a long time. She mentioned that everyone gets a warm fuzzy feeling that stream restoration is mentioned. To take that notion further I believe that all types of things involved with the environmental movement invoke romanticism. From Global warming to stream restoration people can get caught up in the movement. This is not always a good thing. The romantic and idealistic views often get in the way of basic scientific principles. This is where the planner can be useful in obtaining a balance.
I specifically have a lot of experience in the field of stream restoration. When I am called in to evaluate the feasibility of a restoration project 9 out of 10 times folks have unrealistic or idealistic ideas. I start by explaining that while in principle restoration is great it is impossible to accomplish. In stream channel work the best we can hope for is rehabilitation and enhancement. The problem with restoration of streams and other natural processes is that it is hard to be certain what the previous conditions were. In addition humans have altered the landscape and streams to a level that restoration would involve the elimination of infrastructure and residences nationwide. To be successful in think that planners must harden there senses to romanticism and focus on the facts.

I think one of the toughest tasks that a planner often gets stuck doing is regulating something. None of us went to school to try an enforce regulations. It has put planners in a bad light in many small towns such as Boone. Planners here are inevitably tied to zoning and rules and codes. It is almost as if people suspect a conspiracy. What citizens must realize is that while planners have there own set of values, the politics drives the decisions. The planner answers to the politicians and citizen planners.

I am sure we will discuss zoning and codes in class, but I always get a kick out of people who say that they do not like zoning. It all falls back to the not in my back yard complex! Contrary to popular belief there is some zoning in Watauga County. Consider the historic ordinances in Valle Crucis and Foscoe and the polluting industries and watershed ordinances. I once had a 20 minute argument that zoning already exist in some form or fashion. To add to the mystery many citizens have no trouble answering to the private governments of poa’s which by most accounts are much more stringent than public zoning.

where to start?????

What is the most precious natural resource? I think we could all say that they are all precious. I have been thinking about how daunting of a task that it is to try to protect our natural resources. Where do we do as planners directed the funds or recommended that they be directed? We have talked extensively about energy consumption and the carbon footprint in class. It is my experience that the public, at large is not as in tune to carbon problem as they are to issues such as water quality and solid waste. Maybe it is because they have been on the forefront so long that they have a stronger following.

The infrastructure to protect water quality is grand. Take for example all the grant and organizations that have sprung up to protect water quality. Here in North Carolina there are no less than 100 different non-profits and government agencies that are set up to protect water quality. I venture to guess that there are only a handful of agencies that deal particularly with carbon. I think it is probably going to catch up in the next 10 years. Back to my original question, where does the environmental planner start, do we start with what the citizens are interested in? Do we start with our interests? It is a difficult question to answer.

Random Planning Thoughts

The term environmental planner has a certain catchy quality. It is a hot job title that ,many graduates seek, but become disappointed to find out that there are very few of these types of jobs available. I argue that all planners practice some type of environmental planning. Planning is a holistic and multidisciplinary tak that must consider not only the environment, but also the social and cultural aspects of man interaction with land.
Maybe this is why I like planning. Planners can be a “jack of all trades” if you will a practioner of various disciplines, but not a master. I believe the secret to good environmental planning is not to be an expert at every facet of the physical landscape, but to know where to find the experts. That poses another problem that we have been dealing with in class. What are the experts Values? Are the cornucopian’s and environmentalists? How should our reliance on “experts” be tempered based on hidden agendas. For example maybe a planner requires an environmental assessment for a proposed subdivision. At this point the developer hires a consultant who is paid by the developer. The assessment finds that the impact is negligible. How reliable is this information if the consultant must rely on the developer to pay his salary. I think maybe the system should procure the assessment and then charge the costs to the developer as part of the permit fees.

This class is going to be a real jumping off point if you will. A starting point to ground myself in some of the philosophical underpinnings of environmental policy. As I read through the chapters today I can not help but think about how complex the laws are. People hire me to interpret the laws and to make sense of them in relation to there project. What is applicable here in Watauga County may not be applicable in Ashe County. In this first rambling I am concerned with the way environmental policy is interpreted and adopted across political jurisdictions. For example, In NC I can get a sediment and erosion control permit in Watauga County fairly simply, but in the Town of Boone it is much more difficult. The ordinances are almost identical, but it seems as if they are administered differently. If I go to Ashe County to get a permit for erosion control then I must submit my plans to the state office in Winston Salem. This type of variation breeds widespread confusion and just a general distaste in regulation from developers and land owners. I know this is not a new thought or idea, but more uniformity would aid in the public perception of regulations.
I make a living and a good living at that, managing and help human’s interact with the natural landscape. This interaction is why I love the multi-disciplinary nature of planning and geography! When asked what a geographer or a planner studies, I answer we study how man interacts with the land. I began my career working with farmers on conservation practices. Farmers so often get a bad rap, sometimes justifiably so, but more often than not farmers just need to know what they should do. When I think of man and land interaction I think of farmers first. Farmers are the ones to understand the topsoil and fertility, understand the importance of clean water for livestock. For the most part I believe that a disconnect to food and fiber production has caused a divide in American society away from the land. Without the daily interaction with land that farmers of both small scale and large scale have it is easy to have a lack of understanding about mans interaction with the human landscape.