Tuesdays at APA D.C. - The Missing Metric with Peter Katz

The Missing Metric


March 4, 2014


With the multiple crises of municipal insolvency, climate change
and citizen pushback against government regulation at all levels,
it makes sense to consider a new "balance-sheet" approach to
granting development approvals. Such an approach would screen for
more compact, high-value development that would pay back
government's up-front infrastructure investments on a more rapid
basis.


On first blush, the regulatory strategy would not seem compatible
with Smart Growth and New Urbanism, both of which are strongly
driven by urban design and physical form. Such models, which have
gained wide acceptance among planners as preferred models for
more sustainable community development, have proved difficult to
implement within the regulatory structures that prevail in the
United States and Canada.


By incorporating the "missing metric" into development review,
municipalities may be able to reduce and even eliminate many
cumbersome and highly subjective development regulations, and at
the same time make it easier to achieve more amenable,
resource-efficient and economically stable communities. For a
recent article by speaker Peter Katz on the approach, visit
www.gfoa.org/downloads/GFOAGFRAug13MissingMetric.pdf