New urbanism to shape the growth of Bozeman- What is "Hiving"??

Judy Wantulok, owner of Joe’s Parkway on College Street, remembers a time decades ago when the community was dotted with small neighborhood grocers like her own.

But those days are gone.

By WALT WILLIAMS Chronicle Staff Writer

http://bozemandailychronicle.com/articles/2004/03/14/news/shoppingbzbigs.txt

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Please also see: ‘Hiving’ new community buzzword – Residents tired of ‘cocoons’ seek interaction, connection http://www.matr.net/article-10255.html – Russ

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"There used to be a bunch of neighborhood stores around," she said, recalling stores on Curtis Street, Story Street and Black Avenue.

Now Joe’s Parkway is something of a relic, a 5,000-square-foot grocery store dating from 1969 and still in business in a time of Wal-Mart-size discount stores.

Yet it’s also a vision of the future for city planners, who see those small stores once again dotting the city landscape. Their ideas are laid out in the Bozeman 2020 Community Plan, adopted in 2001, which will guide city planning over the next 16 years.

The whole plan is an experiment in the philosophy of New Urbanism.

Put simply, New Urbanism is a rebellion against the automobile and strip-mall commercialism. Its goal is to create neighborhoods where residents have a range of employment and shopping choices within walking or bicycle distance.

One of its aims is the establishment of neighborhood commercial centers, such as the one where Joe’s Parkway is located. Shoppers there can dine out, have a coffee, get a haircut, all within a few city blocks.

The 2020 Plan anticipates such centers, about a dozen in all, throughout the city, most in places where little development now exists, but is coming as the city spreads out.

There is one already up and running at the corner of Kagy Boulevard and South Third Avenue, where Kagy Corner and a Rocky Mountain Roasting outlet are located.

Others would be at the corner of West Lincoln Street and South 11th Avenue; at the intersection of West Babcock Street and Cottonwood Road; and further down Kagy Boulevard.

"They were spaced around the community in a kind of a satellite configuration, so as the community grows and develops, these neighborhood centers will be within walking distance," City Planning Director Andy Epple said.

Critics of New Urbanism — which has been around since the 1980s — charge the philosophy is out of touch with reality, since many people are willing to drive to get a variety of shopping choices.

But Epple said that Bozeman’s plan isn’t meant to get everybody off the streets and out of their cars.

"It’s to provide choice," he said. "It’s to provide an alternative when maybe you only need an armload of groceries and you feel you need the exercise, you can walk to a neighborhood store instead of having to get in your car and drive across town."

Three-tier commercialism

Neighborhood centers represent the first of a three-tier system spelled out in 2020 Plan for the future commercial development of the city.

Neighborhood centers are just big enough to serve their surrounding communities. They’re not really meant as destination spots for motorists.

Community commercial centers make up the second tier. They’ll provide for a larger range of employment and shopping opportunities than neighborhood centers. There are four community commercial centers planned around the city, all within a short drive of the surrounding neighborhoods.

An example of a community center is the Gallatin Valley Mall and surrounding businesses. While the mall itself is something more typical of strip development, the surrounding lands have been designated for small-scale commercial uses.

The other centers are located at the intersection of Baxter and Davis Lanes; the corner of South 11th Avenue and Stucky Road; and along Highland Boulevard in the fields across from Bozeman Deaconess Hospital.

Regional commercial centers make up the third and largest tier. These are places for big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and other big retail stores, hotels and chain restaurants. They are located along North 19th and Seventh Avenues, the main entryways into the city.

While the whole idea behind New Urbanism is to curb strip development, such as what’s occurring on the city’s north end, Epple said city officials couldn’t ignore Bozeman’s historical role as a shopping center for southwest Montana.

"Rather than try to ban that kind of development in our community, we’ve embrace it to a certain extent and provide for its growth and development," Epple said.

High living, high cost

The idea of small, easy-to-reach coffee shops and corner grocers is certainly appealing to most people. But can they afford it?

By making the communities more desirable, city planners may also be inadvertently driving up the price of homes.

The average price for a single-family home in Bozeman now hovers around $210,000, but in model New Urbanist communities — such as Kentlands, Md. — that can rise to $300,000 to $400,000.

However, Mike Basile, a broker at Bridger Reality of Bozeman, doubted that providing neighborhood stores will make any difference.

"It sure makes it convenient for the consumer, but I don’t know it has an effect on property values," he said.

New Urbanism supporters acknowledge the problem and argue that mixing housing types will alleviate it. Their ideal communities would mix single-family homes, townhouses and apartments with neighbors from a wide range of incomes.

"It’s the notion that you get a rich diversity in a neighborhood, and that is counter to the trends that have dominated (urban planning) for the last 50 years," said Commissioner Steve Kirchhoff, a believer in New Urbanism who helped draft the 2020 Plan.

Still, supporters make the assumption people from different income levels want to mix, that somehow doctors wouldn’t mind burger flippers as neighbors.

Also, to ensure neighborhood stores have a steady customer base, Bozeman must set high density requirements for new housing. City staff are now striving for a minimum of six living units per acre in developments.

New Urbanism, it turns out, isn’t a philosophy for people who like big yards or privacy.

But Kirchhoff said many people around the world already reap its benefits — diminishing distances between work, shopping and home — and love it.

"New Urbanism says, ‘Let’s put these activities in close,’" he said. "To me, it makes a tremendous amount of sense."