Options and Opportunities

The Capital Region’s economic health and quality of life are influenced by our transportation systems. Not only does the transportation system provide for the mobility of people and goods, it also influences patterns of growth and economic activity by providing access to land. As we consider how we want our community to develop over the next twenty to thirty years, we should ask ourselves which growth patterns best suit the present and future needs of our community. The following section details transportation and land use options that provide the opportunity to reshape our communities to meet the challenges of the future.

Our Opportunity

During this long range planning process, we can promote interconnectivity within and between places and areas that will increase local accessibility. Neighborhoods should be built so that most daily trips can be made without a car, as is the case for neighborhoods built in the first half of the 20th Century. For example, in this Tallahassee neighborhood, schools and shopping are all within easy walking distance and are connected by sidewalks. Transit carries residents to downtown or other job centers.  
During this long range planning process, we can promote interconnectivity within and between places and areas that will increase local accessibility. Neighborhoods should be built so that most daily trips can be made without a car, as is the case for neighborhoods built in the first half of the 20th Century. For example, in this Tallahassee neighborhood, schools and shopping are all within easy walking distance and are connected by sidewalks. Transit carries residents to downtown or other job centers.

Residents of the Capital Region have the opportunity to work together to create a more interconnected community and a more sustainable urban environment. Through the implementation of innovative transportation and land use initiatives, we can create mobility options for making most of our daily trips. Unchanged, current transportation strategies focusing almost exclusively on moving automobiles will likely lead to increased local roadway congestion and undermine other efforts to achieve a more sustainable future for local residents. As the Capital Region is expected to add over 100,000 more residents to the local population by 2035, we now have the chance to decide what we want our community to be, and develop a transportation system that moves people, not just cars.

Our Options

 View of the Chain of Parks in Downtown Tallahassee, with bright green grass and trees draped in moss.

Urban Design

Urban design shapes the form, function, and character of the built environment. Through the process of arranging buildings, transportation facilities and infrastructure, urban landscape, and other public spaces, urban design helps to create functional and attractive neighborhoods and communities. It also combines architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning to build a framework that orders these elements into a network of streets, squares, and blocks. Through the establishment of design standards and guidelines, we can shape our surroundings and influence the built environment around us.

On a local level, urban design can help residents of the Capital Region preserve what we love about our communities and local environment. Alternatively, urban design can also help us redevelop existing areas to become “user-friendly” or create new, unique places within our community.

Within Tallahassee, urban design for the Gaines Street Design Review Districts is all about mixed and shared uses, permeability, and compact, walkable dimensions. While encouraging variety and allowing for flexibility in building design, the following principles of good urban design guide the design and review processes to ensure good site design and appropriate architecture enhance the urban environment. You can also visit the Design Library to view more examples.

Pedestrians stroll through a mixed-use area surrounded by shops, trees lining the roads, and shopkeepers putting out flowers.

Evoke a Sense of Place


Urban design standards and guidelines help shape the character of the built environment, creating a “sense of place.” In cities, a sense of place may derive in part from the natural environment, but more often it’s made up of streets and buildings, the way they’re built and look, and the way they’ve been used over time. Especially in cities, a place includes the people who occupy it.

Enrich the Public Realm


The public realm includes all publicly owned streets, sidewalks, rights-of ways, parks and other publicly accessible open spaces and infrastructure. As an attractive and functional area, the public realm should draw people off the streets and out of their cars to experience the area. The public realm is enriched by design standards that encourage mixed-use developments and promote walking.

Pedestrians stroll through Downtown Tallahassee on a sunny afternoon.

Elderly women are stuck in the middle of a road waiting to cross the street.

Put Pedestrians First


Urban design standards should enhance the pedestrian environment by promoting walkability. “Walkability” is the value of how well the built environment accommodates people living, visiting, working, shopping, and enjoying time spent in a place, without cars and walking to their destinations.

Build to Human Scale


Human scale is the proportional relationship of design elements to human dimensions, presence, and movement. Buildings and the urban environment should welcome people and encourage them enjoy the area. Lower levels and building facades should employ architectural elements and design details that pedestrians can appreciate.

People sit on larger steps which as furniture for teh urban environment.

Buildings in a variety of uses but reflecting a consistent building design and style line Newberry Street in Boston.

Fit the Neighborhood


Neighborhoods have recognizable physical, functional, or lifestyle characteristics that set them apart from other places in the city. Urban design standards should enhance what is best and most unique about an area, and preserve the character of the neighborhood for the enjoyment of all.

Frame the Street


Buildings are the primary elements providing the frame of a street. The degree of enclosure formed by the distance between buildings across the street, their height, the presence and openness of setbacks from the street, and the width of setbacks between buildings all shape our view of the street.

Trees and new developments including the Cloisters frame All Saints Street on a sunny day in Tallahassee.

New developments frame the view on All Saints Street in Tallahassee.

Building facades in Amsterdam add rhythm to the streetscape.

Add Rhythm and Pattern


Rhythm refers to a regular or harmonious repetition of elements, from windows on a facade to whole buildings on a street. Successive facades with similar proportions and shared patterns of openings—not necessarily identical—set up a rhythm on the street. At the scale of the city, a pattern is a set of relationships between the spacing and orientation of buildings; between buildings and the streets; between buildings and open space; and between buildings and the way people inhabit them.

Entertain the Eye


The urban environment should be an attractive, interesting place that draws in residents by providing a visually interesting and stimulating area or neighborhood.

Two elderly women stop and window shop at a storefront that has grabbed their attention.

How are these principles being applied locally?
Good urban design in the public realm is the basis for design standards and guidelines that have been adopted for design review districts in the Gaines Street Study Area and other parts of Downtown Tallahassee. Compliance with the regulations is part of the permitting process. Along with the Growth Management Department, the Urban Design Commission reviews projects to ensure that they contribute to what is envisioned for their location.

Other Resources for Information about Urban Design:
Urban Design.org


Sustainability

Communities within the Capital Region are committed to protecting our local resources for future generations. As we consider how we want our community to develop over the next twenty to thirty years, our long range planning objectives should consider incorporating strategies for sustainable development and smart growth initiatives.

The definition of sustainable is to meet the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (Brundtland Commission). For the Capital Region, this will mean making more intentional choices about where new growth will occur and ensuring we plan for, or at least do not inhibit, options for connecting places via bus, rail, bicycle, and trail as well as via the automobile. Our future transportation network should be a more expansive, interconnected, and multimodal one, enabling people to choose among various travel modes for their trips. This future transportation network may reduce traffic congestion in some places and in other places it may not, but it will nevertheless provide alternatives to sitting in that congestion. 

Take for example the new 80x express line offered by Star Metro. This is a very popular route in the morning and evenings that allows people to read, use the internet with the onboard Wifi, or just relax while they travel through some of Tallahassee’s most congested streets. And best of all, all those people are not sitting in traffic with their individual cars emitting pollutants. This is just one example of how transportation options can contribute to cleaner air and a healthier urban environment.

In fact, by moving more people with fewer vehicles, public transportation can reduce greenhouse emissions Each person’s transportation choices can make an impact on climate change because one-third of US greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation, mostly from personal vehicles driven every day. According to the American Public Transportation Association, current public transportation usage reduces U.S. gasoline by approximately 4.2 billion gallons each year. 

Riders sit and stand inside a City of Tallahassee StarMetro bus.

Also, a mix of land uses and more compact building reduces the need for travel and the resulting congestion by allowing people to meet basic needs without leaving their neighborhood.  By building smaller homes on smaller lots, more land can be preserved for rural and agriculture use. 

For Capital Region residents, Smart Growth is one “option” for achieving more sustainable local development. Smart growth involves planning for better communities through more sustainable transportation and land-use strategies.

The Ten Principles of Smart Growth1  
In practice, smart growth implementation is shaped by 10 principles:


1. Provide a Variety of Transportation Choices
2. Mix Land Uses
3. Create a Range of Housing Opportunities and Choices
4. Create Walkable Neighborhoods
5. Encourage Community and Stakeholder Collaboration
6. Foster Distinctive, Attractive Communities with a Strong Sense of Place
7. Make Development Decisions Predictable, Fair and Cost Effective
8. Preserve Open Space, Farmland, Natural Beauty and Critical Environmental Areas
9. Strengthen and Direct Development Towards Existing Communities
10. Take Advantage of Compact Building Design and Efficient Infrastructure Design

How are these principles being applied locally?

As a certified Green City, the City of Tallahassee has implemented a number of programs and policies that promote sustainability and preserve our community's natural resources.  In 2008, Sustainable Florida recognized the City of Tallahassee government as the Best Practices Award Winner for its Green Initiatives program, Go Green Tallahassee.

Other Resources for Information about Sustainability and Smart Growth:

What is Smart Growth?
Visit this site to learn more about Smart Growth!

Smart Growth Illustrated
Visit this site to view photos and read descriptions of Smart Growth development and redevelopment projects from around the United States, including examples from Florida and Georgia.

Smart Growth - Natural Resources Defense Council
The Natural Resources Defense Council works to protect wildlife and wild places and to ensure a healthy environment for all life on earth. Learn more about Smart Growth initiatives and check out other sustainability initiatives and programs.

Interconnectivity

During this long range planning process, we have the opportunity to create a more connected community which allows people to easily & safely walk or bicycle from their homes and jobs to shopping, parks, churches, schools or anywhere else they want to go. This increased accessibility is economically advantageous for local merchants, and also supports sustainable transportation.  In fact, interconnectivity is a cornerstone for the TLC Multimodal District which seeks to make walking, cycling and transit the primary modes of transportation.

Neotraditional versus Conventional Suburban Style Development 

 

Alternative Neighbohood designs depict a typical single-outlet suburban development in the top pf the image, while the bottom half of the image depicts a traditional grid neighborhood design.

 A traditional, interconnected neighborhood design.

Example of Proper Pattern of Streets to Promote Pedestrian, Bicycle and Transit Mobility

As seen in the graphics above, building a neighborhood with streets leading up to commercial and activity centers versus all neighborhood roads feeding onto a single, large road removes the necessity of driving.  Neighborhood shops and restaurants are more accessible to local residents, and children can walk to parks and playgrounds as opposed to needing parents to drive.  This also means that the major road won’t need to be widened as soon – and that leaves more tax dollars for better schools, parks, and other public needs.

Increased interconnectivity can be facilitated both through the incorporation of pedestrian-oriented design standards and also through emphasis on building sidewalks, bikeways, and transit facilities. The City of Tallahassee and Leon County recently adopted a 20-year infrastructure plan for the TLC Multimodal District.

During the Regional Mobility Planning process, the Capital Region has the chance to lay the groundwork for building an interconnected network of neighborhood and employment centers containing a mix of residential options and densities, job opportunities, retail, and open space. The Regional Mobility Plan can then show how these places can be connected by multiple modes of travel, giving residents greater accessibility to the surrounding economy and environment.

Mixed Uses

Traditionally, residential areas have been segregated from other types of land uses, particularly retail shops and employment centers. Combined with low levels of interconnectivity, this land use pattern has facilitated reliance on the automobile to travel between these locations. Mixed-use developments and areas can create a more transportation-efficient land use pattern that encourages walking, bicycling and use of transit systems. Containing a variety of compatible uses and services, mixed-use development strategies can reduce the need for travel outside of the area to satisfy basic needs.                                                                                                          

Mixed-use can come in several forms.  Single buildings can contain a mix of uses under one roof. Typically, these developments house retail stores, restaurants, or offices on the ground level, and residential housing on the upper levels. Within our communities, mixed-use buildings and developments have traditionally been concentrated in downtown areas and town centers.

 On a larger scale, mixed-use centers concentrate population and employment and can provide a mix of diverse and compatible activities. Combined with urban design guidelines and good transit service, mixed-use areas help create more pedestrian-friendly communities.

 Boardwalk Villages is a mixed-use student housing complex that has a Subway and coffee shop on the ground level, and residences on the upper levels.

Boardwalk Villages is a mixed-use student housing complex in Tallahassee.

What Mixed-Use Development is Not2

1. Not anti-automotive - it’s about having transportation options – to drive, walk, bike or take public transit.
2. Not anti-suburb - it’s about building better places to live. It’s about protecting existing investments and livability in areas where people and communities have already made a commitment.
3. Not about big government - it’s about improving market efficiency, encouraging construction on, and improvements upon the existing infrastructure. In this way we will get more value from the tax dollars we spend on roads, sewers, and other taxpayer investments.

Other Resources for Information about Mixed-Use Development:
Mixed-Use Development in Eugene, Oregon

 

 

 

1Excerpt from The Smart Growth Toolkit

2Excerpt from Mixed-Use Development in Eugene: Frequently Asked Questions