Challenges in Rural & Small Town America: Demographics, Health, Housing, & Energy, Schemes and Mind Maps of Law

Download Challenges in Rural & Small Town America: Demographics, Health, Housing, & Energy and more Schemes and Mind Maps Law in PDF only on Docsity!

What are some of the challenges facing

Rural and Small Town America?

The Changing Face of Rural &Small Town America

• Changing demographics
  • growing Hispanic population
  • aging population
  • outflow of young adults--inflow of older adults, birth rates declining
• Health issues
  • Obesity above national rates for all age groups
  • rural kids less likely to walk to school
  • Populace is very auto-reliant
  • High child poverty rates—for every racial and ethnic group
  • Lack of access to specialized medical care

Growth and Development Challenges in Small

Cities and Rural Areas

• Declining downtowns and incompatible development in historic areas/loss of community character
• Loss of natural areas and open space
• Suburban-style large-lot growth at city edges
• Limited housing choices
• Lack of transportation options
• Limited planning capacity
• Opposition to regulations

How do we define rural and how can smart growth be used to address

challenges in small cities and rural communities?

Rural Smart Growth

Smart Growth: A Response to Small Town

and Rural Challenges

• Choices for where to live and how to get around
• A stronger, more resilient economy
• A healthier place to live
• Opportunities to protect the things people love about the place where they live (e.g., open space, natural beauty, historic character)

Putting Smart Growth to Work in Rural

Communities: Three Key Goals

Source: ICMA, 2011.

1. Support the rural landscape by creating an economic climate that enhances the viability of working lands and conserves natural lands. 2. Help existing places thrive by taking care of assets and investments such as downtowns, Main Streets, existing infrastructure, and places that the community values. 3. Create great new places by building vibrant, enduring neighborhoods and communities that people, especially young people, don’t want to leave.

Help Existing Places Thrive

Strategies:

• Invest public and private funds in existing places
• Encourage private sector investment
• Build on past community investments
• Foster economic development in existing downtowns

Take care of assets and investments such as

downtowns, Main Streets, existing infrastructure,

and places that the community values

Create Great New Places

Strategies:

• Update strategic and policy documents to accommodate new growth through compact and contiguous development
• Reform policies to make it easy for developers to build compact, walkable, mixed-use places
• Recognize and reward developers that build using smart growth and green building approaches

Build vibrant, enduring neighborhoods and

communities that people, especially young

people, don’t want to leave

For Each Tool:

• Discussion of issue/challenge
• Overview of potential responses
• Expected community benefits
• Implementation steps
  • Minor adjustments
  • Major modifications
  • Wholesale changes
• Practice pointers
• Examples and references (plans, codes, etc.)

Example: Right-Size Rural Roads

Challenge:

Conventional roadway design standards fail

to maintain character of rural roads and small town main streets. They can also make extension and maintenance very expensive. Responses:

• Adopt standards to “right-size” rural streets according to their location

Benefits:

• Reduced road construction and maintenance costs
• More mobility choices, especially for pedestrians and bicyclists
• Safer roads

Plan and Encourage

Rural Commercial Development

Challenge: Scattershot rural commercial

development fragments landscape and undermines town business districts Responses:

• Target most commercial to towns
• Adopt commercial design standards

Benefits:

• Avoid sprawl-inducing scattershot

commercial

• Protection of rural character
• Increased town tax base
• Avoid strip commercial outside towns

Plan and Encourage

Rural Commercial Development

Implementation steps

• Adopt plan policies to target most

commercial to towns or in designated nodes

• Prohibit rural commercial in most zone

districts—allow if resource dependent only

• Sign IGA to share commercial tax revenues

Practice pointers

• Joint planning for rural commercial areas

Promote Housing Choices

Implementation steps

• Allow denser MF in selected zone districts,

include downtown with design standards

• Require mix of housing types and units in

new developments

Practice pointers

• Use incentives like density bonuses and

parking reductions

• Keep design standards simple and have

staff administer

Sustainable Code: Housing Choices

Remove Barriers

• Permit accessory dwelling units in

residential zone districts with compatibility standards

• Allow small lot development with

compatibility standards

Create Incentives

• Grant parking reductions for affordable

multi-family projects

Promote Housing Choices