New urban pioneer criticizes city's codes

By Steve Lackmeyer

Published: November 2, 2007

Jeff Speck admits he doesn't know Oklahoma and his trip Thursday to Oklahoma City was his first visit. But that didn't stop him from telling developers, planners and city officials from across the state "your codes are bad.”

Speck said his judgment, with "99 percent certainty,” is not unique to Oklahoma. He said his opinion of Oklahoma improved with a visit this week to downtown Oklahoma City, and he believes "the bones are very good here.”

"I didn't have the highest expectation from the maps and aerials and photos I've seen compared to the actual experience you get in your downtown,” Speck said. "The only thing you're missing at night are people. And that will come with more housing downtown.”

Speck is considered a pioneer in "new urbanism,” and was director of town planning at Duany Plater-Zyberk & Co, the firm that designed new urbanist communities including Seaside, Fla., and Kentlands, Md. He later served as director of design at the National Endowment for the Arts and co-authored "Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream.”

His conclusion? America is being ruined by big box retailers, neighborhoods where people stay in their homes and where the only neighborhood store is a convenience store at a nearby busy intersection.

"A successful city is one in which people are out walking,” Speck explained. "The best measure of a city's success is if people are out enjoying it.”

Speck's opinion matters to Mayor Mick Cornett, who has approached the planner and author on multiple visits to Washington to get advice on how to deal with blighted areas between the Oklahoma River and the current alignment of the Interstate 40 Crosstown Expressway.

Cornett said he attempted several times to schedule a visit by Speck, whose address Thursday was sponsored by Secretary of Environment Miles Tolbert and the Oklahoma District Council of the Urban Land Institute.

Speck's introduction — "your codes are bad” — drew cheers, laughs and applause.

Speck argued most modern city codes discourage pedestrian traffic and prevent community interaction. He suggested the cities reconsider whether all areas should have minimum parking requirements, and whether fire codes are too stringent. He said standard city requirements are resulting in streets too wide for pedestrians with intersections that are poor successors to designs from 75 years ago.

"The manual for design of rural highways now controls for design for just about every city street in America,” Speck said. "The universal fire code is a recommendation, not the law, but it's cited by fire chiefs every time on design.”

Speck suggested planners and developers consider new "form codes” that cities such as Seaside use. Instead of focusing only on how a property is used, more emphasis should be given to appearance.

New approaches include "hiding” parking instead of placing it in front of buildings. He showed how new urbanist communities are requiring that parking and garages be wrapped by buildings.

He said new street materials, while more expensive, allow roads to soak up water and alleviate burdensome storm drainage designs. He suggested neighborhood streets be narrowed and cited Portland, Ore., as an example of a city that is focusing on "skinny streets.”

Speck said odd, even complicated intersections add to a community's character.

"Traffic engineers are convinced if you make a complicated intersection, people will die. In many cities we look at, you can't stagger streets; you can't have an intersection that is less than 70 degrees.”

Today's traffic engineers, Speck said, would never allow for the sort of intersection where a road dead-ends at St. Philips Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. The common complaint by engineers, he said, is that such designs could result in a drunk driver crashing into a building.

"In 130 years, nobody has ever driven into this church,” Speck said. "Why? Because it feels dangerous. It's the dangerous feeling intersections that are the safest. ...The only safe motorist is a scared motorist.”

Speck cautioned against trying a wholesale overhaul of codes, noting such efforts will usually be fought by people who benefit from old codes. He suggested cities try alternate zoning laws for limited areas to give residents a chance to see how such changes might benefit their community.

"The only way to kick-start this kind of development is to get some great projects started,” Speck said.

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