Transect Based Planning - Another Option

I'm going to jump right in, so follow along.

Fighting to maintain status quo planning regulations, for fear of losing one's personal property rights, often results in the rights of others being suppressed. When one group clamors to maintain the current planning regulations, they essentially reduce everyone's choices for housing, employment, transportation, and sustainable living. With the proposed EAR amendments, Walton County has found itself at a crossroads; it has the opportunity to explore other ways of doing things, or stay the path for fear of the unknown. The Planning Commission is open to and needs community suggestions. The Planning Department is doing the best they can with the tools they have available to them, and the NIMBY's and 's abound. Now, there's a new acronym to chew on.

So what does all this mean? What it means is that the current Comprehensive Development Plan and Land Use Development Code are written in favor of planning elements that encourage people to spread out across the land, removed from essential services with very little rhyme or reason. What's wrong with that? What's wrong with that is that not everyone favors this type of living arrangement and it greatly reduces the opportunity for other living arrangements. This type of regulation was fine when very few people actually lived here, though with higher population and more need for employment and services, spreading everyone across the land like peanut butter eats up valuable resources for all.

This isn't to say that suburban neighborhoods aren't valid places, they most certainly are, though by encouraging and allowing neighborhoods to develop by means of a transect based plan -- something that is currently not an option -- different living arrangements and economic opportunities will be allowed flourish. A transect based plan mimics the transition between natural ecosystems by following a progression from preserved natural areas, to rural, to suburban, to urban areas with special districts assigned to places like hospitals.

The transect based plan is nothing new, it's the way cities or towns organically grew before planning was driven (heh) by the car. There is a lively thread on SoWal on transect based planning that has several links with great information. One of the greatest misconceptions of proposing this type of planning is the idea that everyone will be forced to live in urban areas that resemble something like Seaside. This is indeed not the case and in fact is far from the truth. Transect based planning doesn't dictate architectural style, but provides the foundation for good design and diverse architectural style. As mentioned before, it also provides people with many different living arrangements, from rural to urban, or in the case of Walton County -- rural to hamlet. Transect based planning also provides for the car, though walkability and public transportation are aspects that bear equal weight. Property rights and values are actually better protected because the mystery of what is allowed adjacent to each property is eliminated. This type of planning can also be applied to existing built environments in many different capacities because the built environment is not static.

Finally, I would like to ask some of the naysayers, what is so horrible about creating places like Seaside? The last time I checked, Seaside and Seaside-esque development put Walton County on the map, helped to exponentially increase bed tax dollars, serve as communities for those of us in South Walton that lack sense of community that a town center would normally achieve, and in general, many people just plain love these places as evidenced by the crowds. Oh, and for the record, I travel to Seaside from Pt. Washington several times a week and never once have I needed to leave because I couldn't find a parking place. So, I'm not buying the lack of parking argument.

How will Walton County choose to grow? It's up to us.