Last November, Albany's planning department applied (pdf file) to the American Institute of Architects' Sustainable Design Assessment Team program.
The AIA describes the mission of the program like this: "The collaborative SDAT program brings together architects and other professionals assembled from across the country to provide a roadmap for communities seeking to improve their sustainability - as defined by a communities (sic) ability to meet the environmental, economic, and social equity needs of today without reducing the ability of future generations to meet their needs."
The program consists of three major steps. First, there's an initial visit with an AIA staffer and a nationally recognized expert. They tour the city and meet with a bunch of folks to get an idea of what kind of expertise the city could use. (For example, do they need a hydrologist or a transit planner or . . .)
A couple months later the assembled team makes their own visit, which mostly centers around a charette for the public to attend and generate solutions with the help of the experts. The team then delivers a final report and some follow up consultation based on the charette. Nothing binding comes out of it, but the idea is that it allows the city to draw upon some ideas from elsewhere and have some help figuring out to apply them here. Albany, like many small cities, can be astoundingly parochial when it comes to learning from the successes (or failures) of others, so this is a Good Thing.
Of course if it were just that, it wouldn't be very likely to create much change. But when it's used in conjunction with/as a kick-off for a comprehensive planning process, as Albany intends, the potential to carry that momentum forward into implementation gets much higher. Two of our western Massachusetts neighbors did this recently.
Not surprisingly, skepticism of outside experts coming in an giving their opinion has already been expressed. "I'm interested, yet skeptical, will need to push for more grassroots and community involvement, not just corporate and political leadership. But sounds hopeful either way," wrote Jessica Oppenheimer of Youth Organics! in an e-mail message responding to the announcement of the grant.
Alan Mallach, research director of the National Housing Institute, made the SDAT preliminary assessment for Albany on April 11. (Disclosure: NHI is a client and former employer of mine.) He emphasizes that they use the charette format, which is basically an intense working meeting in which participants generate ideas and engage in back and forth discussion, rather than just listening and commenting, to ensure that the results come from the community and the experts together, rather than being imposed from outside. If they follow through with that promise, it could perhaps be a model for the comprehensive planning process.
They expect the charette to be some time this summer. I will post the details as soon as I know them.
Comments