Agenda - Planning Commission - 09/01/1998

Home

ensuring that buildings are rebuilt and vital public services restored as quickly as possible. A more long-term perspective would allow planners and elected officials to perceive ways in which economic activity could not only be restored to predisaster levels but be enhanced through changes in the design of a business district. For this purpose, overlay districts with some new design considerations applied to post-disaster redevelopment may allow the city to fashion a new and more attractive image, or a pattern of development that is somehow more efficient as well as more resistant to future disasters. Energy efficiency has been a central concern in a new movement for sustainable post-disaster recovery. In pilot projects applying sustainable redevelopment principles, communities have In classic planning theory, the wholesale elimination of nonconforming uses in a badly damaged neighborhood may seem like a silver lining in the cloud of post-disaster recovery. sought to maximize a combination of economic and environmental gains through innovative design principles (see "The Case for Sustainable Redevelopment," Environment & Development, November 1994). For example, both Valmeyer, Illinois, and Pattonsburg, Missouri, which were relocated to higher ground after the 1993' Midwest floods, have incorporated a number of renewable energy and energy conservation features into their building and zoning regulations. To advance. discussion and action on such initiatives, FEMA and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) cosponsored a conference last January at the Wingspread Center in Racine, Wisconsin, inviting rFpresentatives of local government, trade groups, and a number of federal agencies involved in funding disaster recovery, such as the Economic Development Administration. Information on this subject is available online at a DOE web site, www.sustainable.doe.gov/ freshstart. Permitting for the rebuilding of damaged nonconforming uses also demands attention after a natural disaster. Decisions affecting such uses will need to be made quickly. In the absence of a clear policy guiding redevelopment in such circumstances, planners may be forced to create policy ad hoc. In classic planning theory, the wholesale elimination of nonconforming uses in a badly damaged neighborhood may seem like a silver lining in the cloud 0fpost- disaster recovery, but, in reality, the pressures for some type of rapid rebuilding of the area will be great. Again, the alternative is to confront this problem prior to the disaster. The PAS Report includes procedures for addressing this problem in the form of a model post-disaster recoi, ery ordinance drafted by California planning consultant Kenneth C. Topping. Primarily, the model offers a compromise solution in which nonconforming uses may be rebuilt if they adhere strictly to the current building code, conform to National Flood Insurance Program requirements, are not expanded, and meet certain other requirements aimed at ensuring or enhancing public safety. Floating Zones and Shifting Sands Nags Head, North Carolina, shares a serious problem with dozeus of other barrier island communities along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is built on sand that moves over time, shifting with the winds and tides and the impacts of violent coastal storms. Barrier islands, by definition, provide protection to the mainland by suffering the brunt of nature's attack during hurricanes, northeasters, and other storms. Under the right conditions, waves can slice smaller islands in half by scouring the vulnerable terrain badly enough to allow the ocean's waters to carve a path to the sound between the island and the mainland. Incipient inlets, areas where coastal erosion already is carving out such a water pathway, signal nature's intentions and are thus dangerous, potentially even disastrous, places for locating homes and other buildings. In the case of Nags Head, according to town planner Bruce Bortz, erosion rates for the island vary from two to 10 feet per year, with "constant damage from erosion from northeastern storms in winter and spring." Nonetheless, in many such communities, a good deal of current construction already lies in harm's way. The hurricane mitigation plan for Nags Head states that the town will look closely at new development or rebuilding near incipient inlets after a storm before deciding on permits. A severe coastal storm or hurricane can often split an island by vastly accelerating that intrusion. At a statewide level, North Carolina's Coastal Area Management Act (CAMA) addresses the problem of inlet hazard zones by allo~ving structures of no more than 5,000 square feet at a density of generally no more than one unit per 15,000 square feet of developable land. North Carolina also limits coastal developments through the use of setbacks. For instance, small developments must locate where the distance landward of the first line of vegetation is at least 30 times further back than the annual erosion rate. For multifamily structures and those exceeding 5,000 square feet, this distance doubles to 60 times the annual erosion rate. Likewise, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, has adopted a setback at the 50-year line. Where storms have pushed that line backward, the location of allowable future development obviously moves further inland with it. Another way to accomplish this is to define the conditions' following a storm that constitute visible danger for rebuilding or future construction and then to restrict building in those areas. The technique for doing this is a floating zone, although this device is not legal in every state. The zone "floats" because it has no predefined geographic boundaries but is mapped after the event to coincide with the boundaries of an area that meets the criteria for me zone s esraousnmenc The rules that define development within the floating zone are then applied to permit applications. The South Florida Regional Planning Council's model plans for post-disaster redevelopment (Post Disaster Redevelopment Planning: Model Plans for Three Florida Scenarios, Tampa: South Florida RPC, 1990) suggest the use of floating zones as one element of such a plan in which the community could decide in advance to activate predetermined density reductions according to the extent of overall property damage occurring in particular locations. The Overlay Approach One day it's there, the next day it's not. On March l, 1997, Arkadelphia, Arkansas, a city of 13,000, found both much of its southwestern residential district and its downtown business district devastated by a tornado. The storm was part of a larger system that simultaneously struck other parts of the state, including Little Rock's College Station neighborhood. Arkadelphia was especially hard hit, with 153 housing units destroyed and 86 suffering major damage, as well as 45 commercial and 16 public buildings either destroyed or severely damaged, and one nursing home badly damaged.