Key players in development process find common ground

When Bob Pugh was elected Columbia’s mayor in 1975, one of his first acts was an overture toward his chief adversary, Clyde Wilson, who was representing the Sixth Ward on the City Council at the time and was elected mayor four years later.

As Don Stamper recounted the story, Pugh invited Wilson to lunch and acknowledged that they had “real philosophical differences.” Then Pugh, who has a more conservative view on the role of government, said to Wilson that they could either spend the next three years fighting or they could work together constructively. They agreed to the latter.

Stamper, director of the Central Missouri Development Council, then made an overture of his own during a CBT Power Lunch forum that included key players in the development process – some of whom have major differences in opinion on development issues. One of his chief adversaries sat two chairs away during the forum – Council member Barbara Hoppe, who represents the Sixth Ward and is co-founder of the Boone County Smart Growth Coalition.

“I love a good disagreement as much as anyone else, probably more than I should sometimes,” Stamper said, “but I also like being able to set aside our differences and agree on what we are going to disagree on and move the issue forward.” What everyone seemed to agree on during the forum was that Columbia’s growth is inevitable, and that the current system isn’t working.

The City Council this month will direct the Planning and Zoning Commission to start developing a new Comprehensive Plan that includes policies for growth management and land use. The Council also will establish a task force to advise and assist the P&Z Commission.

Planning and Development Director Tim Teddy pointed out during his presentation that the city has approved 90 subdivisions in the past five years that are now in various stages of development, so even though building has slowed, the infrastructure needs will continue to grow.

Boone County’s population is expected to continue increasing about 2 percent a year, according to a new report by the University of Missouri Extension’s Community Policy Analysis Center. By 2015, Boone County’s population is projected to be approximately 178,988, an increase of more than 32,500 people, or 22 percent, from the population in 2005.

The demand for housing in Boone County in 2015 is projected to be 70,422 units, an increase of 12,944 housing units from 2005, according to the report, which will be issued later this month.

Teddy said the new Comprehensive Plan will replace the Metro 2020 planning guide and he believes it should provide a wider vision for the city’s future – how it should be built, how the physical elements such as roads and trails should function and what the guidelines for decision making and the program of action should be.

Teddy then outlined what he perceives to be the areas of common agreement among stakeholders and their representatives. The city needs to:

• spend more time on long-range planning and less on project reviews “so we’re not debating what’s right or wrong based on a single parcel of land,”
• strengthen zoning so property owners have a clear understanding of what they can do with their land,
• develop more “shovel-ready sites” with infrastructure in place so industries can quickly locate operations on land that has its proper useclearly decided,
• be more accommodating to innovative forms of development, (he said Bear Creek Prairie and the Village of Cherry Hill are examples of innovative developments that had to go through a lengthy process of obtaining variances to city regulations),
• have better data on growth and have clearly defined roles for players in the development process, including council members, planning and zoning commissioners, property owners, business groups and neighborhood organizations.

Teddy then went over the areas of disagreement, including:

• The definition of “smart growth and the ambiguities with management planning.”
• The merits of higher densities and urban sprawl. (Teddy jokingly recounted, “The mayor said recently that there are only two things that citizens don’t want, and that’s higher density and urban sprawl.)
• Design review guidelines. (“The proposed downtown sign ordinance and the North Central experience taught me that those are fighting words,” Teddy said.)
• Who should pay for infrastructure costs.

Council member Jerry Wade agreed that the issue of allocating a fair share of the cost of building and maintaining roads and water and sewer systems to taxpayers and developers is one of the central questions the community hasn’t answered. “What is the community’s responsibility,” Wade asked, “and what is the responsibility of those creating the growth?”

The tension between the development community and the City Council has been building since the council gained a majority of members who believe developers should be paying a higher share of the cost and be more closely regulated. The so-called Smart Growth majority was maintained by Hoppe’s election in April.

During the forum, Hoppe handed out a pamphlet outlining the coalition’s goals and principles and a program from a national Smart Growth convention attended by representatives of the national realtors and home builders associations.

“Smart growth is not no-growth,” she said. “It’s not a fringe. It’s a mainstream concept for well-developed communities. … We can’t stay the same. We do want to grow, and we want to grow in positive ways.” “I don’t think anyone in the development community is against those (Smart Growth) principles,” said Rob Wolverton, president of R. Anthony Development. “What’s missing is a clear definition. …Smart growth is what I consider a false divide. Fighting isn’t getting us anywhere.”

Wolverton said the ambiguities of ordinances and zoning and some inconsistencies in city government decisions are frustrating developers. He said what is needed are flexible regulations so developers can react to changing economic conditions, such as the spike in gas prices to $4 a gallon that “changed the real estate market in Boone County dramatically.” “The worst thing for everybody is to have a bunch of failed projects out there,” he said.

Stamper said the number of commonly held beliefs is “a significant list. The issue I have is how we’re doing it, how we’re implementing policies.”

After there is general agreement that density is preferable to urban sprawl, and a developer asks the P&Z Commission to approve an in-fill development, the hearing gets “righteous – it’s hot,” Stamper said when he illustrated what he called “disconnects.” “We can talk about policy changes, we can talk about things at the table, but when it comes to implementation we don’t always have the tools in place to make those things work.”

All cities face tensions when they wrangle with big decisions about managing growth like Columbia is doing now, Stamper said. “Their ability to succeed is directly related to their ability to embrace the tension. I submit to you that we don’t do that well.”

Annie Pope, director of the Columbia Home Builders Association, said that everyone in the room has constituencies that they sometimes try to “keep happy” rather than make unpopular decisions that are in the entire city’s best interest. “We’ve got to stop posturing.”

As work on the comprehensive plan gets under way, P&Z Commissioner Helen Anthony said the city leadership must make one of its first critical decisions this month: the selection of the advisory task force members.

“We need to have the proper people at the table,” she said. “The process is going to be critical.”

Power Lunch Participants

PRESENTERS:

Barbara Hoppe, 6th Ward Representative, City Council
Don Stamper, Executive Director, Central Missouri Development Council
Tim Teddy, Director, Columbia Planning and Development Department

PARTICIPANTS:

Helen Anthony, Member, Planning and Zoning Commission
Tom Atkins, Owner, Atkins Investments
Jeff Barrow, Chairman, Planning and Zoning Commission
Ben Londeree, Co-founder, BC Smart Growth Coalition
Laura Nauser, 5th Ward Representative, City Council
John Ott, Downtown Property Owner and Developer
Ann Peters, Member, Planning and Zoning Commission
Annie Pope, Executive Director, Home Builders Association
Karl Skala, 3rd Ward Representative, City Council
Jason Thornhill, 2nd Ward Representative, City Council
Brian Treece, Chairman, Historic Preservation Commission
Carol Van Gorp, Executive Director, Board of Realtors
Jerry Wade, 4th Ward Representative, City Council
Rob Wolverton, Owner, R. Anthony Development