Good design builds better communities

There's a scene from an old movie I remember, set during the Civil War, with Red Skelton parading on horseback between two cheering mobs, confederates on one side and union troops on the other. His secret? His banner had the stars and stripes on one side and the confederate flag on the other. Then the wind changed and the enraged mobs chased him over the horizon as the credits rolled.

As an environmentalist who makes his living as a land-use planner, I've been thinking of that movie a lot over the last couple of weeks. I've built my planning career around the premise that the gulf between the environment and the development community can be bridged by good design, and that the impacts of the growth that appears inevitable (the General Plan anticipates Nevada County growing by close to 50 percent, to 150,000 people by the year 2020) can be ameliorated by good design.

I know that some people in the community have disagreed with some of the public positions I have taken on behalf of the Rural Quality Coalition or NH2020 (my apologies to all of you who hoped to never see the NH-word in print again.) And I understand others in the community are concerned over some of the larger projects I am involved in, particularly the Kenny Ranch development. I expect projects in which I am involved will be closely scrutinized, and I appreciate the honest Š and often blunt Š criticism I get when my design efforts fall short of expectations. This has made me a better designer, and, I think, a better and more effective advocate for the environment.

But this scrutiny also makes it tremendously painful when a good project has a problem Š the case in point being the 300-foot unpermitted spur road in the 17-unit, 80 acre project I'm involved with on Rattlesnake Road. My good friend and associate Bob Goar said in his letter to the editor that he didn't think the developers of the project "asked their landscape architect for advice on road construction."

That is not the case. My clients have asked for my advice on virtually every aspect of this project. My advice is not always followed, but regardless, my responsibility to my clients, to the county, and to the neighborhood does not stop at the drawing board. I know I could, and should, have done more to ensure that the work was done properly, and to remedy problems when they came to my attention. Trust, once lost, is not easily regained. I know that I will pay much closer attention, throughout the construction process, to the next project that bears my name.

The uproar over the road issue has obscured one very important fact - Phil Lester and Steve Elder, the developers of the Rattlesnake Ridge Estate project, have built a fine project that is an asset to the entire neighborhood. They could have built 27 lots - they only built 17. They could have developed across the entire 80-acre site - instead, they clustered the development into just 18 acres with the remaining 62 acres permanently protected as open space. They could have dug wells - but now NID water has been extended, at great cost, to the entire site. They could have put 'no-trespassing' signs around the property - instead public trails are provided throughout the site, maintaining a network of trails that extends from Rattlesnake Road through Empire Mine State Park. It takes more than a good design to create a good project - it takes clients who value good design, and are willing to do what it takes to make it happen.

Phil Lester's development company is called 'Enlibra' - in balance - and my role with the company has been to use my experience as both a planner and an environmentalist to try to design projects that work - projects that balance the interests of the community, the environment and the project proponents. Although there are probably as many definitions of "smart growth" as there are letter-writers to The Union, I believe smart growth is simply about lowering densities and protecting resources in rural areas and building quality communities in urban areas.

The projects Enlibra has brought forward in rural areas have all featured densities less than that allowed by zoning, with smaller, clustered lots and commonly-owned open spaces with trails. Projects within urban areas have featured a mixture of commercial and residential uses, a range of housing types, with narrower streets and broader porches and public spaces to encourage interactions between neighbors, and have been located in neighborhoods with the infrastructure to support them.

I've felt privileged to have Enlibra clients who have shared that vision and who have been willing to put their time and money behind that vision. I believe we have built a fine project at Rattlesnake Ridge. And I believe we have designed a fine project in the soon-to-be-built Village at South Auburn, a mixed-use infill development in the city of Grass Valley which combines commercial and residential uses, and provides much-needed affordable housing as well as additional access to Empire Mine State Park. And I am particularly proud of the Master Plan Enlibra has created for the Kenny Ranch project, which incorporates the principals of 'Smart Growth' into a very neighborhood-friendly development.

I've often said that as a land-use planner and an environmentalist, it sometimes feels like I have a foot in each of two canoes - my career is built on the fervent hope that those two canoes are getting closer, not farther apart. I'm still hoping to stay out of the water.

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Brian Bisnett is a landscape architect and land-use planner who lives at Higgins Corner.