The Transportation Best Practices Tour took place on March 18 & 19. The Mendocino Council of Governments, Mendocino’s regional transportation planning agency, sponsored travel costs for city, county and MCOG staff. The California Endowment, a foundation established to promote community health, sponsored the travel costs for elected and public health officials. A little disclosure of the photos: not every picture in these slides are from the March 2010 trip. Some are from the internet – such as the photos above of the European micro bus and the concrete bike and ped trail – and in some cases other photos were taken by myself or sent to me during the last four years. In any event the photos represent the ideas presented during our Best Practices Tour.

Many people – probably the majority – like the idea of living in the countryside. But what does that really mean? Is every country home a farm? Hardly. Most homes in the countryside are just suburban housing …spread out across a multitude of long county roads.

With a growing world population, we need an all-hands-on-deck approach to cutting back our annual greenhouse gas emissions. In California, transportation accounts for the single largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. Cleaner fuels and power sources are a part of the solution, but they alone can't reach the targets set by scientists. The State of California's Climate Action Plan anticipates the largest reduction to come from changing the location of housing -- building housing closer to jobs, services and retail. Passenger vehicles are the largest single source of greenhouse gas emissions in California, accounting for 30 percent of the total.

You may have already seen these charts. They are pretty alarming. So many causes for this: everything from America's food industry -- with it's corn syrup-laced and highly-processed foods that our bodies have not evolved to accept -- to the fact that our housing is so spread out that most Americans now think nothing of getting into an automobile and driving several miles just to pick up groceries ...or some fast food. Just three generations back, the vast majority of Americans would have walked to pick up groceries ...at the neighborhood grocery store. In fact, everything was within walking distance of home -- for most Americans. In 1985, Obesity rate in California was less than 10%. In 2008, it exceeded 20%. State Public Health Officials believe that more Californians now suffer serious health problems related to obesity, than suffer serious health problems related to tobacco.

If we can get everyone on the same page – the city councils, the county supervisors, and joint-power boards that allocate state & federal grants – we can do all of these things. With the same resources we have now, we could protect our resource lands from subdivision, protect our agricultural lands, reduce the number of miles traveled per household (reducing greenhouse gas emissions per household), improve the physical health of our residents through additional active transportation, build world-class public spaces that encourage walking and biking, and renew the local economy and cultural life here in Mendocino County. We can do it all, if we make better decisions.

t took us 70 years of cheap fuel and households with multiple automobiles for us to build housing away from our downtowns. Will this turnaround overnight? No, but if we do a better job of planning our downtowns for housing, jobs and services -- and if we invest state and federal funds in our communities -- we can invite investment and people back into the centers of our towns ...not just in Mendocino's four incorporated cities, but also in the small towns of the county.

OK. These are a bunch of government documents that can make for pretty boring reading. But this is how we set priorities.

Starting this year, the Mendocino Council of Governments will work with the four cities and the County of Mendocino to create a Regional Blueprint plan. Using software from UC Davis, the Regional Blueprint planning process allows residents to see how Mendocino County will look if past development patterns continue -- in other words, more land gobbled up, with people driving farther for their daily needs.With this visual information, residents, city council members and county supervisors will -- hopefully! -- agree to alter the way we develop our communities and our county's countryside. The Regional Blueprint is not an enforceable plan, but a means for reaching consensus. If this occurs, then city councils and county supervisors will need to follow-up the Regional Blueprint by amending city and county General Plans and land use codes.Already, 95% of all Californians live in a county with an adopted Regional Blueprint. Mendocino County is expected to have a completed and adopted Regional Blueprint in 2011 or 2012. Photo credit: Fort Bragg Council Member Dan Gjerde, speaking with a proud homeowner in the Hercules Waterfront District, was photographed by Dan Hood.

This is a tool created by the innovative people in the Bay Area. When the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) accepts a neighborhood as a PDA, the PDA neighborhood receives planning grants and then infrastructure grants. We need this in Mendocino County. Mendocino County's version of the MTC is the Mendocino Council of Governments, a primary sponsor of the March 18 & 19 East Bay Tour. A little about the photos: The great street on the left is the Cours Mirabeau in Provence, France -- where cars must drive slowly in what is considered the city’s premiere commercial street. This exceptional downtown street creates plenty of what architect Jan Gehl calls "life between buildings.“ The photo to the right is much closer to home. It's the new waterfront plaza in downtown Napa, on the banks of the Napa River.These are examples of the high-quality public spaces that need to be created when people live together in compact towns and cities.

Again, this is a tool created by the brilliant folks at the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments. Because these Priority Conservation Areas are part of an integrated plan, they receive priority for state and federal conservation and park grants.

Most Mendocino County residents may not want to see an exact replica of the Gaia Building built to scale in Willits, Fort Bragg or Ukiah. But it is nonetheless an example of good density and good architecture. Our downtowns would be much more economically viable and lively if they had several Gaia Buildings – or even several scaled-down versions of the Gaia. Cara House, a LEED-certified planner, gave us a great tour of this building, which was planned and built by Panoramic Interests. In fact, PI's offices are located off of the ninth-floor rooftop deck of the Gaia. Way cool.

The picture of hydraulic parking lift is fun, but it's not the primary reason for this building's success. It was only possible to construct the Gaia Building with 91 apartments -- or at a density equal to 267 units per acre -- because the City of Berkeley accepted the idea of a downtown building with less than one parking space for every two apartments. And it has no parking spaces required for the commercial spaces in the building. The hydraulic parking lifts were necessary in order to accommodate a theater, a cafe and art gallery, which occupy the vast majority of the first floor space.With less first-floor space dedicated to retail uses, scaled-down versions of the Gaia Building could be constructed in Willits, Fort Bragg and Ukiah without the hydraulic lifts -- as long as fewer than half of the apartments are required to rent a parking space.

Like the Gaia Building, Panoramic Interests constructed the Bachenheimer Building. I wanted our tour to walk past the Bachenheimer because at 5 stories it is much more in scale with the three-story buildings constructed in Mendocino County's downtowns during turn of the 20th Century. That said, the Bachenheimer Building could not be built anywhere in Mendocino County. In all of our cities, in all of our zoning districts it exceeds our height limits, it exceeds our maximum number of units per acre and it exceeds our maximum Floor Area Ratio, which is the ratio of floor area to the size of the building lot. Fort Bragg has only one zoning district – its Central Business District – which allows more than 24 units per acre and reduced parking requirements: at 40 units per acre and 1 parking space for each one bedroom unit. With Fort Bragg’s inclusionary housing requirement, coupled with its developer incentives tied to the State Density Bonus law, a building in the CBD could have the equivalent of 54 units per acre and the Floor Area Ratio could be increased from 2.0 to as much as needed to accommodate the units, up to 54 units per acre. Even with the bonuses given through the inclusionary housing ordinance, the largest building on a parcel the size of the Bachenheimer’s could not exceed 50 percent it’s massing. Instead of a 5.5 story building with side-yard passages, the largest building in the CBD might be 2.5 stories with side-yard passages. Parking for first-floor commercial could be provided off-site, assuming the developer paid the in-lieu fee for the city to create a consolidated parking lot somewhere else in the Central Business District. Payment of the in-lieu fee is typical in the CBD, and a real benefit for developers and the pedestrian environment withing the CBD.

With the miracle of PhotoShop, I eliminated one of the four floors of apartments, dropping the building from five stories (plus the tower) to four stories (plus the tower). Assuming it is like the Gaia Building, I believe the tower is a common room for the renters, and I'm certain the roof-top has a common deck. While suburban apartments should have private decks or balconies, multiple outdoor spaces not practical in a downtown building. Gardens, water catchment and solar can easily be accommodated on the common roof-top deck.Both Bachenheimer and Gaia have a City Car Share vehicle inside their parking garages. In fact, Panoramic Interests just won approval to construct a new four-story apartment building with just bicycle parking ...and one City Car Share vehicle. The equivalent of City Car Share could be supplied within an apartment building here in Mendocino County.

Maybe I've spent too much time listening to Jack Benny radio shows. But I couldn't resist calling this four-fifths scale version of the Bachenheimer ...the Bachenshorter.This slide illustrates the number of households that could live in a four-fifths version of the real Bachenheimer Building. To allow buildings like this, however, our cities would need to revise our zoning codes for downtown properties, to allow more residential units per acre and to reduce parking requirements for downtown apartments.While we do not have BART or frequent bus pick-ups each hour, we know this: not everyone who chooses to live downtown will own a car. If given the opportunity to live in a downtown apartment like this, plenty of county residents would gladly opt to live in them -- even if doing so would require some to give up owning a car. The last set of figures show the same scale building if constructed on two typical parcels in Fort Bragg’s Central Business District. The Bachenheimer was constructed on an odd size parcel, at 12,400 square feet, and typically a double parcel in Fort Bragg would be 15,000 square feet, so these figures represent a building constructed on a more typically-sized double parcel.

Starting in the 1990s, the City of Hercules decided to go in a new direction: Back to the Future. This was done at the request of the community. The Hercules Waterfront District was largely planned by the community. The community was not satisfied with the sprawling subdivisions built through the early 1990s, with their high-speed roads and failure to produce neighborhoods in scale of pedestrians. Inspired by New Urbanist projects like Celebration, the people of Hercules also insisted on a number of street design elements: alleys to accommodate garages and driveways, landscaping between the street and sidewalk, six-foot clear zones on the sidewalks and narrow streets to calm traffic. The people of Hercules also selected three architectural styles: Craftsman, Victorian stick, and Italianate.

See how this is wonderfully designed for walking? The landscaping separates you from the cars and the sidewalk is embraced by the steps to the nearby front porches. The front yards have leafy, draught-tolerant plants, and the lawn is where everyone can see it -- in the common area. The front porches are spacious, with plenty of room for outdoor seating and living; this provides eyes on the street and a deterrent to crime.

This is a high-density street, with large houses (by Mendocino County standards) on small parcels. But it works, very well. Again, the steps to the front porches reach directly to the sidewalk, and so the front porches are just above the sidewalk. This low-volume residential street is properly designed for its role: narrow, with some deflection to ensure no speeding. This is a street designed for people. It's quiet and it's even slightly park-like, given the volume mass of buildings here.

Ah, the wonderful, all-too-often-forgotten alley. The unsung hero of friendly sidewalks and attractive neighborhoods. Not only does this alley serve to improve the adjoining streets, but the City of Hercules pulled out all the stops to ensure the alley itself was attractive. They designed it with grass and trees -- and even two valley gutters to convey the rainwater.My only thought: rainwater catchment? Do roofs and backyards have means of catpuring rainwater?

The bike is a wonder. It is the most efficient form of transportation. And like walking, you always physically and mentally feel better when you arrive at your destination than when you begin your departure.

Elements from these next seven slides were taken from a much more extensive presentation by Heather Wooten, of the non-profit group Public Health Law & Policy. The PHLP web site has a number of booklets and podcasts: http://www.phlpnet.org/healthy-planning

Evidence seems to mount by the week that the built environment impacts community health. In response, PHLP believe a growing number of cities (and counties) will adopt general plan policies that are explicitly based on the rationale that the policies are intended to improve community health.

Heather Wooten (Public Health Law & Policy): The important thing to note here is that we have adopted land use policies that support “sprawl” and “fast food,” but that land use policies can help improve community health as well. The other important thing to think about is that when we create community environments that promote health in one “disease silo,” you actually impact multiple health outcomes. Example: Walkability Obesity Air quality Traffic crashes Social capital/mental health

This chart is a draft. It shows Willits has 5.2 fast food or convenience stores for every grocery store or farmers market; Hopland has 5.0 fast food or convenience stores for every grocery store or farmers market; and Ukiah has 4.2 fast food or convenience stores for every grocery store or farmers market. According to this draft, Mendocino County has just 2 fast food or convenience stores for every grocery store or farmers market. (Fort Bragg has 2.1 to one grocery or farmers market.)This chart does not take into account sit-down restaurants. PHLP says it is too difficult to classify the health of sit-down restaurants because they all have unique menus and recipes, though quite a few sit-down restaurants serve salty, high-fat foods.

Community gardens offer an excellent opportunity to introduce healthy food into household diets. Over on the Mendocino Coast, a local non-profit called the Noyo Food Forest has developed at least four different community gardens. NFF has community gardens at three Fort Bragg schools and on a portion of Thanksgiving Coffee's property overlooking the Noyo River.

Heather Wooten from PHLP explained that owners of many small convenience stores don't buy in volumes that enable them to purchase fresh produce, so local governments can help them to participate in a larger distribution channel with multiple convenience stores. Also, they noted, the Food Stamp program requires a store to offer a minimum stock of healthy foods. Just getting a store to meet these minimum standards can often improve its stock of groceries -- for the benefit of all of their customers.

Heather Wooten (Public Health Law & Policy): Last – perhaps one of the hottest topics (at least in CA right now): using planning and zoning policies to restrict fast food and convenience/junk food. Zoning has been used to restrict fast food and chain (“formula”) retail in communities across the U.S. – mostly for non-health reasons, such as aesthetic concerns, wanting to support local business and local entrepreneurs, and a little from traffic and safety concerns. As with other regulatory uses of zoning, fast food can be banned or restricted via mechanisms like quotas or density and distance requirements. However, South Los Angeles recently made news for passing a temporary moratorium on fast food for explicit health reasons. Even though the moratorium is temporary, this was the first time a low-income neighborhood was using a food retail environment argument to support the restrictions. It’s notable that at the same time, the LA City Council put together a package of existing economic development incentives into a bundle that they could use to outreach and attract grocery stores and sit-down restaurants. They’ve seen three new grocery stores enter the entitlement process since this was created.

Again, these tools give us opportunities to set priorities -- to rebuild our communities, as we want them.Here's are examples of new priorities for Mendocino County, from MCOG's draft Regional Transportation Plan: "This RTP emphasizes a strategy of investing transportation funds to bring greater mobility for all residents -- including pedestrians, bicyclists, transit passengers of all ages and abilities, as well as trucks, buses and automobiles. This strategy will reduce greenhouse emissions (GHG) and household expenses by reducing vehicle miles traveled (VMT)."

Here is our group. We kept our carbon footprint as small as we could and traveled in a Mendocino Transit Authority bus. While in the East Bay, we even traveled twice by BART. For many agency staff, with finances running tight, this was the only workshop they were allowed to attend all year. Even though the tour lasted just 34 hours, I was thrilled to hear people say that of all the mobile workshops they had joined this was one of the best.

I can't say enough to compliment our presenters and hosts. They all had infectious enthusiasm for their work, and rolled out the proverbial red carpet for our group from Mendocino County.Christy Riviere at the Association of Bay Area Governments shared some lessons learned from how her nine-county region (with its 101 cities) created a consensus for less car-dependent development. Doug Johnson described how planning & infrastructure grants are flowing to Priority Development Areas and how park & conservation funds will soon flow to Priority Conservation Areas -- and then helped us see how this could be scaled to Mendocino County.Lena Velasco, Nancy Baer and Heather Wooten showed us something new: How cities and counties have a legal right and responsibility to plan communities for the health of their residents, as a fundamental role of the general plan and land use code.Cara Houser, a LEED-certified planner with Panoramic Interests, showed us the amazing Gaia Building, and how PI is creating fun downtown housing where a majority of the renters can viably choose to live without the burden of car ownership.And of course I was once again amazed by the folks at the City of Hercules. Long-time council member Ed Balico is rightfully proud of what they are doing in Hercules.

Transportation Best Practices Mendocino Council of Governments East Bay Tour Report by Dan Gjerde, MCOG Chair • April 5, 2010

Why change? Resources lost countryside, lost sustainability

Why change? Greenhouse gas too many cars, too many miles

Obesity Epidemic big problem, big costs Why change?

Mendocino County Are we ready for: Retaining resource & ag lands? Minimizing GHGs & miles traveled? Improving community health? World-class public spaces? Economic & cultural renewal?

Hope Just 70 years ago, two in three Mendocino residents lived within walking distance of a downtown. We can, again.

Mendocino’s toolbox Regional Blueprint Regional Transportation Plan Priority Development Areas • Priority Conservation Areas General Plans • Land Use Codes Strategic Investment of Grants

Blueprint Planning Local and regional comprehensive planning Efficient use of land Conservation of water, energy and natural resources Walking, biking and transit to meet congestion & health goals

Priority Development Areas Cities and County nominate PDAs PDAs are neighborhoods with commitment to: 1) Increase housing near jobs, retail and services 2) Create “complete communities” for residents to live in pedestrian-friendly environment

Priority Conservation Areas Lands of regional significance Agricultural or natural resource Historical or cultural Recreational or scenic

Gaia ► “Good density” ► Six-story façade, plus 2-3 stories set back ► Common areas in lieu of private balconies ► 12,000 sf commercial space ► 91 apartments

Secret of Gaia ► .46 parking spaces per apartment; no parking for retail ► Hydraulic lifts ► 267 units / acre

Bachenheimer ► Five-story façade, plus tower ► 155 units / acre 12,400 sf lot ► 3,000 sf retail; no parking ► 44 apartments; 30 spaces; 0.68 Fort Bragg’s densest district ► Four-story façade ► 54 units / acre¹ 12,400 sf lot ► 2,800 sf retail; 7 spaces² ► 15 apartments; 15 spaces; 1.0 ¹ In CBD, w/density bonus ² Pay for off-site spaces

5 stories, plus tower 4 stories, plus tower

Bachenshorter Units/acre: 75% Bachenheimer; 43% Gaia ► Four-story façade, plus tower ► 116 units / acre¹ 12,400 sf lot ► 2,800 sf retail; 7 spaces² ► 33 apartments; 15 spaces; 0.46 Built on two typical lots: 15,000 sf ► Four-story façade, plus tower ► 116 units / acre¹ 15,000 sf lot ► 2,000 sf retail; 5 spaces² ► 39 apartments; 18 spaces; 0.46 ¹ Hypothetical CBD, w/density bonus ² Pay for off-site spaces

Back to the Future City of Hercules, Waterfront District

Front porch neighborhood ► Pedestrian scale ► Steps tie sidewalk to spacious porch ► Conversation range to neighbors on sidewalk ► Eyes on street, enhance safety ► Attractive & compact

World-class street Porches embrace sidewalk • Trees between curb & 6’ sidewalk Street only 24’ wide & curved to calm traffic • Quiet & park-like

Magnificent alley Hides driveways & garages, for superior architecture & narrow lots Hides trash bins and utilities from streets, sidewalks & front porches

Beauty of the Bike The bike needs a tiny fraction of the land required by the motor vehicle Portland is building bike facilities to divert 25% of all auto trips Amsterdam and Copenhagen already exceed 30%

Land use health tools Policies from CA general plans Some policies health explicit Other policies health implicit Booklet from Public Health Law & Policy

General plan policies: health explicit/implicit

Supermarket proximity is associated with a better diet Limited access to fast food for schoolchildren is associated with better diet Evaluate the health of your town, food in the neighborhoods Healthy Eating Research Brief 2008; Davis & Carpenter 2009; Active Living Research Brief 2007

Retail Food Landscape Ratio of unhealthy outlets to healthy outlets Acceptable – countywide Unacceptable – Willits, Hopland, Ukiah

Set standards and priorities for improving food access in underserved neighborhoods Prioritize development, incentives, and resources to neighborhoods with the greatest health disparities

Outreach to small markets Offer incentives and assistance: façade improvements, infrastructure, business planning, distribution channels, WIC/Food Stamp participation

Create a balanced food environment Zoning standards for fast food outlets Standards: Quotas, Density, Distance

Mendocino’s toolbox Regional Blueprint Regional Transportation Plan Priority Development Areas • Priority Conservation Areas General Plans • Land Use Codes Strategic Investment of Grants

Transportation Best Practices MCOG East Bay Tour Participants, sponsored by California Endowment March 18 & 19, 2010 Mari Rodin & Mary Anne Landis (Ukiah) Doug Hammerstrom & Dan Gjerde (Fort Bragg) Lauren Sinnott & Joe Riboli (Point Arena) Kendall Smith & Linda Helland (Mendocino County) Participants, sponsored by MCOG Chris Carterette & Katryna Baker (Fort Bragg); Alan Falleri (Willits) Jessica Stull-Otto & Dusty Duley (Mendocino County); Ben Kageyama (Ukiah) Loretta Ellard, Janet Orth & Nephele Barrett (MCOG); Dan Baxter (MTA)

March 18 & 19, 2010 Special thanks to our gracious hosts & presenters Doug Johnson (MTC) & Christy Riviere (ABAG); Cara Houser (Panoramic Interests) Lena Velasco (Richmond) & Nancy Baer (CCHS); Heather Wooten (Public Health Law & Policy) Ed Balico, Dennis Tagashira, Erwin Blancaflor, Robert Reber & Lisa Hammon (Hercules) Other participants Lisa Davey-Bates (Lake APC); George Reinhardt (NHUDG) John Miki (Opticos); Jeffery Tumlin (Nelson-Nygaard) Transportation Best Practices MCOG East Bay Tour