Reflections on Teaching Our Children About September 11

The Town of Windermere's 9-11 Memorial. The idea for using steel from one of the fallen Twin Towers to commemorate those who lost their lives came from Boy Scout Jeff Cox.

The anguish of September 11, 2001 flooded back as the Town of Windermere yesterday dedicated Florida's first memorial--a chunk of steel from one of the Twin Towers.

I brought two of my children, Melissa, 5, and Max, 6, to start learning. My lesson: some people want to hurt the United States because it stands for freedom and democracy. But many protect us.  The photographs of a firefighter with a mustache, placed on the memorial by family members who loved him, transfixed my children. The concept of selfless sacrifice is a profound one. Bravery is easier to understand at their age.

As I told WKMG-TV Channel 6, we want our children to grow into citizens who love America and what it represents. WKMG's camera captured Melissa asking me questions.

"Daddy, were you even alive when this happened?"

"Yes, I was."

"Were you a baby?"

"No, I was not a baby.  I was all grown up."

"Did you get to see it?"

"Yes, I was watching it on TV."

While we bear witness for our children, we must teach beyond the difficult images they will one day encounter on the internet. Windermere placed the Memorial midway between the library and Town Hall--institutions representing learning and democracy.  The Memorial's simplicity and beautiful small town America setting make it ideal for the teaching to begin and to continue.

Church Street Stumble

Eliminating Half of Sidewalk At Odds with City Code

A crowd of pedestrians on the part of a sidewalk slated for elimination for a right-turn lane.  The orange cone marks the traffic signal pole's planned new location.

Mayor Dyer's administration normally is friendly and "gets it" when it comes to implementing walkable urbanism in the City of Orlando.  Perhaps that's why many find the City's plans to eliminate on-street parking and half of Church Street's sidewalk at Orange Avenue so maddening. 

This intersection, at downtown's heart, may have some of Central Florida's heaviest pedestrian traffic.  SunRail, the new Arena, and 55 West will combine to increase the number of pedestrians exponentially. 

Queues on Church Street rarely amount to more than several vehicles, and Church Street closes to vehicles in the evenings when Arena events will occur.  Traffic load can further disperse by making Pine Street two-way, as City Commissioner Daisy Lynum proposes. 

The City is attempting to solve a non-existent problem, and in so doing, will make the public realm more dangerous and less business-friendly.  Cafe Ritazza depends on the on-street parking for part of its customer base.

The City of Orlando's Code (§ 61.253) classifies Church Street at Orange Avenue as a "primary pedestrian street."  The Code defines "primary pedestrian street" as follows:

Primary Pedestrian Street. These streets, although they sometimes play an important vehicular traffic role, are the ones which have been designated to receive strong pedestrian emphasis, either because they carry heavy pedestrian flows or because they play an important visual role or because they link important activities or open spaces. Emphasis on the pedestrian requires wide sidewalks, frequently-spaced street trees, and other amenities to make walking a pleasant experience.

Eliminating half of the sidewalk is at odds with Orlando's Growth Management Plan's Downtown Element and ordinances, whose goals and policies are intended "to create Florida's Premiere Downtown by...enhancing the street-level pedestrian environment...."  This is no enhancement. 

One Orlando City Commissioner informed me he had no idea of the City's plans until he read about them in the Orlando Sentinel.  I would like to see the City reconsider, and, going foward, would ask Mayor Dyer to consider establishing a more thorough means of review for street-widening plans Downtown and in other areas intended for pedestrians.

As a "primary pedestrian street," pedestrian traffic should have priority at Church Street and Orange Avenue.

(UPDATE -- March 1, 2010 -- I received word that, in view of concerns expressed by land planners, transportation engineers, and members of the Orlando City Commission, the City has placed the sidewalk narrowing on hold pending a full evaluation.) 

SunRail and High Speed Rail Need to Connect

This map submitted to the United States Department of Transportation for high speed rail funding omits an intermodal connection to SunRail commuter trains.  The legislature approved SunRail after the submission.

Florida's application for High Speed Rail--submitted before the legislature approved SunRail--proposed two intermodal stations in the Orlando area for connections to other transporatation--one at Orlando International Airport and the other at the Orange County Convention Center.  The application, however, left open the possibility of an intermodal connection with SunRail.  Final plans should include it. 

United States Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood wrote on his blog about the various high speed rail grants:

We know that people already want to travel between these cities; we're here to begin making that downtown-to-downtown travel significantly easier, faster, and more productive.

The Florida Department of Transportation's representative stated to the Florida High Speed Rail Commission, "[T]he SunRail project ties well with the overall objective of high speed rail where you do need to have interconnectivity with the local systems in order for both systems to be productive and beneficial to the communities."

Orlando Sentinel columnist Mike Thomas lampooned the notion of people driving to the Orlando International Airport and paying exorbidant parking fees to take the train to Tampa.  A connection between SunRail and High Speed Rail would eliminate the need for many to park at the airport. 

The possibility of Lynx bus service between SunRail and the Convention Center and Airport seems wasteful.  The point of rail systems is to eliminate sitting in traffic, not to needlessly create more traffic, especially when the systems will cross each other. 

The other proposal for Airport/SunRail/Convention Center transit--a light rail system running parallel to the High Speed Rail line--seems redundant and wasteful.

A connection between SunRail and High Speed Rail would enable downtown Orlando workers and many Central Florida residents to travel by rail to Disney, the Convention Center, the Airport, and downtown Tampa, bypassing our traffic-choked highways.  Likewise, residents from Tampa and Lakeland should have an ability to travel exclusively by rail to downtown Orlando, Winter Park, and beyond. 

The significant ridership and revenue that both systems can generate to each other overwhelms the criticism that adding a SunRail intermodal stop will slow High Speed Rail's travel time.  High Speed Rail trains won't travel anywhere near 160 mph between the Airport and Convention Center, with or without a SunRail stop.  Tourist taking High Speed Rail from the airport may endure an extra two or three minutes for a SunRail stop--a pittance compared to the time they will spend in line at Disney World.  The officials who will make the final decisions on intermodal connectivity should ensure that these two very expensive transportation investments provide maximum service and benefit to the people who live and work in Central Florida.   

Planning for Congestion in the Tourist Corridor

International Drive and Sand Lake Road--Tourist-oriented development based on the auto-dependent sprawl model.  The outcome: poor aesthetics, severe traffic congestion, and a place locals would rather avoid.

Orange County has long-planned tourist corridor development on a segregated use, auto-dependent sprawl model.  Hotels, timeshares, and retail are generally spread-out from each other.  One finds vertical mixed use limited mainly to major hotel interiors.  The tourist corridor incorporates comparatively little housing for workers, though an apartment complex for Universal workers is back on track.  Sign control is inadequate on the Orange County section of International Drive north of Sand Lake Road (pictured above), contributing to poor aesthetics.  Little is pleasant for a pedestrian. 

Transit

Mass transit in the tourist corridor is limited.  Most bus stops lack shelter from rain and summer sun.  Lynx bus service to Disney requires a transfer from most parts of International Drive, though few know where the buses go.  The bus stops I've observed do not have maps showing the routes--a simple step that could increase Lynx's ridership.  Lynx could learn from the International Drive trolley:

The I-Drive trolley provides no service to Disney or Universal.  No fixed rail or dedicated transit lanes exist yet, though Disney is now offering 50 acres for a high speed rail station.  I suspect Disney has learned much--and benefitted economically--from its experience with EuroRail, which connects Disneyland Paris to major cities throughout Europe.   

Road Construction and Traffic Trip Entitlements

Since the 1990's, Orange County's planned tourist corridor expansion has centered mainly on extending International Drive southward into Osceola County and constructing the Palm Parkway.  The latter road, which runs parallel to I-4, acts as an extension of Turkey Lake Road into Lake Buena Vista.  To help fund the Palm Parkway's construction, the County freely awarded traffic trip entitlements and impact fee credits.  Vested average daily trips among the properties fronting the future intersection of the Palm Parkway and the future Wildwood Boulevard connector stand at over 91,000, as demonstrated by the following chart:

Properties within a short drive of the future Palm Parkway/Wildwood intersection also contribute traffic to the area, including a WalMart SuperCenter, Dr. Phillips Hospital, and Westgate Resorts.  Future development of more than 1,500 residences on the Kerina property to the north and west will also contribute traffic.  Even when one excludes all of these contributing traffic trips, the number of vested trips at Palm Parkway/Wildwood will far exceed the average daily trips for some of the County's most congested intersections, including Sand Lake and Turkey Lake Roads, Colonial Drive and Semoran Blvd, and Colonial Drive near the Florida Turkpike, as the following chart demonstrates:

 

To get an idea of the scope of development at Palm Parkway and Wildwood, click HERE to view a video of the first two of seven timeshare towers built by Hilton on the Marbella PD.

Carter/Hannah Smith Property

Last December, the present owner of Smith Tract 1, Maury Carter and Associates, appeared before the Orange County Planning and Zoning Board to request a land use change allowing replacement of over 600 planned apartment units, including workforce housing, with additional lodging units.  The existing future land uses are Low Medium Density Residential (LMDR), which allows up to 10 residential units per acre, and Activity Center Residential (ACR), allowing 20,000 square feet of neighborhood commercial and workforce housing.  The proposed land use, Activity Center Mixed Use (ACMU), is an intense tourist commercial designation used predominantly in the International Drive Activity Center. 

A prior owner, Hannah Smith, made a similar land use change request in 1999, which the Board of County Commissioners rejected unanimously. 

The following map shows existing future land use:   

The heavy dotted line denotes the Smith/Carter property, about midway between I-4 and Apopka-Vineland Road.  Wildwood is the middle connector road between Palm Parkway and Apopka-Vineland.  Low density single family homes (LDR) and the Dr. Phillips Community Park (PR-OS) border the property to the north, low-medium density residential (LMDR) to the west, and tourist commercial uses (ACMU and vested ACR) to the south and east.  The International Drive Activity Center encompasses the ACMU land use. 

To entice the County to allow the land use change, Maury Carter and Associates offered 175 feet of buffering from single family homes in Dr. Phillips, more stringent height limitations than required by the Buena Vista North overlay ordinance, as well as tree preservation and plantings.  (The offer was similar to a deal I had tried to make with Ms. Smith on behalf of the Dr. Phillips neighborhoods in 1999.)  The applicant argued that lodging use would decrease vehicle trips northbound on Apopka-Vineland Road compared to the number of trips residents living in apartments would take and, further, would have no impact on school attendance.  The applicant made good arguments and I wrestled with how I would vote.

I ultimately determined the application was inconsistent with Orange County's comprehensive land use plan.  The comp plan contemplates a residential transition from the core of the International Drive Activity Center.  The Evaluation and Appraisal Report approved by Orange County last June, states on page 59:

Transition areas should be an intervening area between the intensity of the core and the less intense surroundings and contain more residential uses than the core.

In addition, "[T]he County is seeking...integration of higher residential densities around employment centers and commercial districts to achieve a greater balance of land uses" as well as "[o]pportunities for affordable housing." (p. 229).

The present ACR parcel "facilitates residential development in proximity to employment areas to minimize travel distances between uses" and is "[i]ntended to promote workforce housing for tourist-oriented employment."  (p. 34).  Workforce housing on the Carter/Smith property would attract families whose children would attend the excellent schools in Dr. Phillips, and would buffer low density residential development in Dr. Phillips (long a concern of the Southern Dr. Phillips Coalition leadership, who were opposing the application).  Given the large number of vested vehicle trips, Palm Parkway/Wildwood would benefit from workers living within walking distance of their employment (especially if residences are interconnected with the adjacent, future hotel, timeshare, and retail development).  I urged the Commissioners to view our land-use decisions with a twenty-year, long-term time horizon, instead of a real estate investor's shorter time-horizon (whose goal is to increase entitlements and sell for a profit).  I did not view eliminating all residential uses as wise or as "smart growth." 

My motion to deny the requested land use change as inconsistent failed on a 3-3 vote (technically no action).  Another Commissioner's motion to approve of the land use change to ACMU also failed.  The request now heads to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration without a recommendation from the Planning and Zoning Board. 

Given the very large number of traffic trip entitlements conferred on Palm Parkway/Wildwood corridor landowners--and the probability of traffic concurrency ending--Orange County has little choice but to utilize mixed use strategies (including residential) to internally capture traffic trips, establish interconnectivity between uses off arterial roads, and pursue meaningful mass transit options.  The alternative may be some of the County's worst congestion yet.

(JAN. 26, 2010 UPDATE--Maury Carter and Associates withdrew the application before the Board of County Commissioners could act on it.)

Text of Email to Neighbors of Windermere Community Church

I wanted to thank all of you for emailing me about the Windermere Community Church application [to add independent and assisted senior living], which the Orange County Planning and Zoning Board heard last Thursday.

I considered all testimony and evidence carefully and made a motion to deny the application's transmittal for lack of consistency with the County's comprehensive plan and compatibility with the adjacent neighborhoods. My motion carried 6-1. The Planning and Zoning Board's recommendation will go to the Board of County Commissioners for consideration in the next month or so.
The ballfields, a condition in the development plan approved by Orange County in 2000, fulfilled the Church's 5% open space/civic requirement under the Horizon West Code. (Our revised Code increased the requirement to 7.5%). As I pointed out, the County's Future Land Use Element made the civic space contribution "permanent." In any event, I can't imagine a school on the church property without ballfields.

I presented information from the County's demographic study. Over the next two decades the need for senior housing to accommodate our aging population will become acute. The Lakeside Village Special Area Plan and the County's Comprehensive Plan require a mixing of uses and housing choices for all age groups.

My sense, at the end of the hearing, was that no one felt good about the discord in our community. Perhaps no one felt more pain than Pastor Matheson, who had no intention to upset the Church's neighbors.
I am hopeful that, before the Board of County Commissioners considers the application, representatives of the Church and the surrounding neighborhoods can come together and reach a consensus that: (1) preserves the ballfields and establishes a time-frame for their establishment; (2) preserves and extends a pine tree buffer between the Church property and the neighborhoods; (3) allows a reasonable amount of senior housing in a pleasing, aesthetic form that enhances our community.

I would ask those neighbors who walked door-to-door, conducted research, organized the email campaign, and otherwise took the lead, to form a committee to meet with Pastor Matheson and other Church representatives. I am asking for everyone's reasonableness and good faith.

My role with this application is officially done, but please let me know if I can assist you in any way.  I am truly appreciative for the community's very passionate interest and involvement--and wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Rick Geller

(Jan. 26, 2010 UPDATE: Windermere Community Church withdrew the application before the County Commission could act on it.  The Church indicated an intent to submit a revised application.)

Florida Senate Vote Removes Last Barrier to Rail Transit

Click to enlarge

The Florida Senate's lopsided 27-10 vote yesterday removed the last barrier to rail transit in Central Florida.

If the links in the right-hand column under "Rail Transit Ridership Surging" hold true, SunRail's ridership will exceed expectations.  Estimates place ridership at about 7,500 daily passengers after completion of Phase I. One lane of I-4 during rush hour accommodates about 2,500 vehicles.

SunRail's capital cost to State and Local government--$600 million--is roughly the cost of building a freeway cloverleaf interchange. I don't recall comparable debate over constructing the 429/Florida Turnpike interchange a few years ago or any similar highway infrastructure.  We accept spending tax dollars on roads without serious question.  (UPDATE 9/21/10--The Orlando Sentinel is reporting the cost of connecting the Wekiva Parkway to I-4 is $450 million.) 

The debate over SunRail, Tri-Rail, and rail transit in general revealed a fundamental misunderstanding about transportation subsidies.  Opponents describe highway and road spending as an "investment" while describing mass transit spending as a "subsidy" for "losses." The reality is that taxpayers highly subsidize all forms of transportation. According to a research arm of the Pew Charitable Trust, at least 50% of federal highway spending is subsidized (not counting gas taxes, classified as user fees). We "lose" quite a bit on roads, even locally. A few years ago, Orange County was spending $350 million annually on road construction and maintenance. That figure was down to around $155 million the last time I checked, but still represents a large sum, and does not include the roadway spending of all Central Florida muncipalities. The cost of drive-only sprawl is not cheap.

Fiscally-conservative members of the Central Florida legislative delegation--Andy Gardiner, Eric Eisnaugle, Lee Constantine, Steve Precourt, and, last year, Dan Webster--have all supported SunRail.  SunRail is cost effective compared to acquiring right-of-way, building, and maintaining 60 miles of interstate highway lane. 

We don't have the resources to build enough roads to support demand as the decades unfold.  Between 1980-2000, vehicle miles traveled increased 76%, while highway lanes increased 1.5%.  Our drive-only sprawl patterns have resulted in the congestion that wastes more than a week of our time every year, imposes enormous hidden costs on the economy, and takes us away from our families.  Either we pursue the vision in the map above, or it gets much worse.

50 mph sign mocking drivers at a standstill on I-4.

The cost of reducing hours of delay in Orlando this decade has included the addition of lanes on the interior median of I-4, construction of the 429 and 419 beltways, re-construction of the John Young Parkway interchange, partial reconstruction of the 408/I-4 interchange, and two economic recessions.  We still spend more than a week of our lives every year sitting in congestion. 

Enormous highway capacity building projects in Central Florida cannot keep pace with demand. 

Construction of the 429 and 417 beltways have taken vehicles off Central Florida's arterial roads, helping to hold vehicle miles traveled fairly steady on arterials this decade, but at a cost to drivers in expressway tolls.  The Orlando/Orange County Expressway authority collected about $205 million in tolls for its entire system in the fiscal year ending June, 2009. 

The hidden cost of traffic congestion is over $800 million annually for the Orlando area, according to the Texas Transportation Institute's assumptions.  

Click HERE for the data underlying these charts.   

Click HERE for a MetroPlan transit vision map. 

Nehrling Society Purchases Historic Gotha Homestead

Congratulations to Angela Withers, Theresa Myers, and the rest of the Henry Nehrling Society on achieving an elusive goal--purchasing the Henry Nehrling homestead.  This decade-long effort demonstrated perseverence and triumph. 

Only six acres remain of the original forty--the rest lost to development.  The property and historic home's restoration becomes the Society's next goal. 

                                The Henry Nehrling Home
                               
Click HERE to link to the Nehrling Society's webpage and click on "Play Video" to learn about the Nehrling property's historic significance.

Change Zoning Laws for Safer Roads

The Orlando Sentinel published the following op-ed:


(Click to enlarge)


Sidewalks three feet from travel lanes with cars whizzing by at highway speeds--about a half-mile from Windermere Preparatory School.

C.R. 535 in front of Windermere Preparatory School.  Posted speed: 40 mph.  Actual typical speeds: 40 - 50 mph.  No crossing walk across C.R. 535.  No wonder we don't let our kids walk to school anymore.



Our zoning laws require, or encourage development in the sprawl pattern, represented by the bottom of the diagram. All travel must go to, and concentrates on the collector or arterial road. Form-based codes can facilitate development in a more traditional, walkable form, represented by the top of the diagram.


The Orlando Sentinel published a very kind and supportive letter-to-the-editor from Marilyn Marks, on November 22, 2009:

Three cheers for Ideas that favor pedestrians

Rick Geller's down-to-earth My Word column, "Change laws for safer roads," on Tuesday was superb.

I never realized why I shudder while driving on West Colonial Drive's long, endless blocks of parking-lot fronts. It is maddening and just plain ugly.

You can forget parking at one place and attempting to walk to another store across the street. Why not consider the Miami plan, which creates better environments for the pedestrian? We should not continue to duplicate these Neanderthal-like massive concrete blocks of parking-lot frontages.

After all, this is Orlando, the City Beautiful, right?

         Copyright © 2009, Orlando Sentinel

Metro Orlando Most Dangerous for Pedestrians in the Nation

Typical road sprawl on Colonial Drive--Economically failing and unsuitable for pedestrians


Colonial Drive--An Alternative Vision (Courtesy: Canin Associates)


The report released this week by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership ranks Metro Orlando #1 in the nation for pedestrian danger. The report states 50% of pedestrian deaths are occurring on road sprawl. Instead of balancing the needs of motorists and pedestrians, we're engineering roads with the dimensions and encouraging the speeds of interstate highways. Click HERE to link to the report.

In its lead editorial this morning ("Walk the Walk, Nov. 13) the Orlando Sentinel correctly identifies poor planning as a culprit and suggests more vertical mixed-use development, like in Chicago and Portland, instead of sprawl development patterns.

However, our zoning laws make that illegal in many instances.

Central Florida's local governments should look to the example set by Miami last September--a comprehensive new zoning code that integrates road planning with creating attractive, pedestrian-oriented environments. Click HERE to link to Miami's new zoning code website.

Rick

Mike Thomas slams Horizon West

Horizon West Neighborhood Center Walgreen's--Cross a highway with 55 mph traffic for a tube of toothpaste? A pedestrian's daunting view.


Baldin Park CVS--A drugstore in a true New Urbanist community to which people can walk or drive. In addition to on-street parking, a parking lot is behind the building.


The Winter Garden Historic Downtown District. Unlike Horizon West so far, Downtown Winter Garden contributes a real mixed-use, New Urbanist business district in West Orange County, within safe walking distance from numerous homes. The West Orange bike trail connects Downtown Winter Garden to nearby Oakland Park, the County's first certified green residential development.


Home in Oakland Park with no garage in front. The garage is loaded from an alley, which improves the aesthetics.


Typical front-loaded garage home in Providence, Horizon West, with a very wide driveway. Providence lacks the alleys found in New Urbanist communities.


Mike Thomas's column in yesterday's Orlando Sentinel describes accurately how Horizon West strays from the principles of New Urbanism. In my view, Horizon West's problems stem from drive-only suburbanism, not walkable New Urbanism. New Urbanism's guiding principle is to establish environments for the pedestrian--not six lane arterial highways with strip shopping centers. In a comment published afterward on www.OrlandoSentinel.com, Mr. Thomas clarifies, "It is the bastardization of the original intent of New Urbanism that I'm condemning."

I'm grateful that a strong consensus has developed in Orange County Government to improve Horizon West. My fellow Planning and Zoning Board commissioners and County staff (chief of urban design Jim Ward, assistant county attorney Vivien Monaco, among others) indulged me with dozens of hours as we re-worked the ordinance to eliminate loopholes, upgrade design standards, and provide incentives for mixed-use development off the arterial roads. The County Commission unanimously approved our revised Village Code last June on a motion by Commissioner Boyd, seconded by Commissioner Fernandez.

The Planning and Zoning Board backed me unanimously, and Commissioner Boyd and his fellow commissioners followed suit, when we refused to accept Seidel Road as another typical multi-lane arterial highway, cutting off the ability of people to walk between where they live, shop, dine, and go to school.

Here's Mr. Thomas's column:

Nothing 'new' here--It's the same old sprawl
Mike Thomas COMMENTARY

October 29, 2009


Developers have unlimited imagination when it comes to concocting real-estate scams.

Here at Horizon West, we see the latest one.

It is called "new urbanism."

Horizon West is a sprawling, fledgling 59-square-mile development in the boondocks of southwest Orange County. It should not be here.

Until a few short years ago, there was nothing here but swamps and dead citrus trees.

But the landowners got together to decide how best to get it paved. And they sold glassy-eyed county officials on ... new urbanism!

They would build self-contained, densely packed villages where residents would talk on quaint front porches, enter the garage through the back alley, and walk or bike to village centers and town centers to work and shop. No expansive yards to maintain, no ugly driveways emptying into the street.

Green paving!

And there was a precedent.

Only a few years earlier, the County Commission approved Avalon Park out in the hinterlands of east Orange County.

Only in Florida could you have new urbanism without the urban.

"I think this is extraordinarily good planning," said then-County Mayor Linda Chapin about Horizon West.

"In 20 years of experience, this is the most sophisticated planning I've seen," state planner Charlie Gauthier said at the time.

"Horizon West ... is a perfect example of how government can encourage development without encouraging urban sprawl," said our editorial board.

They were about to put 60,000 people in the middle of nowhere, all without encouraging urban sprawl.

New urbanism has become a virus that spread the illness it was supposed to cure.

This is not to say Horizon West, or at least the part of it that has been built, is hideous. It is what it is: a network of sprawling commuter subdivisions far from any urban center.

There is little mixing of homes, condos and apartments, as you see at Baldwin Park. There is no coherent whole created from a tapestry of different parts.

Residents don't walk to stores, don't walk to schools and don't walk to parks. When they go to work, they get in their cars and take their place in the long rush-hour lines.

"It has not developed into the vision we all wanted," says Rick Geller, a county Zoning Board member appointed by Commissioner Scott Boyd. "People were expecting Horizon West to look like Baldwin Park or Celebration. But instead it looks like suburban sprawl."

Like Avalon Park to the east, the homes went in at Horizon West, but the job centers did not. And so people drive to work, often long distances on the expressway. To ease the traffic jams, rural two-lane roads such as County Road 535 are being expanded into four-lane thoroughfares.

They slice the development into pieces-parts.

County ordinances require walls for developments situated on these roads.

What you have are people who live across the street from a Walgreens getting in their cars, driving to their development entrance, then driving across the street to get toothpaste.

A guiding principle of new urbanism is that you put the stores in village centers, creating easy access for residents living around them. This was done at Baldwin Park.

But the chain stores wanted to be on thoroughfares in Horizon West, and the county naturally caved in. The result is strip shopping centers and parking lots — prettier than most, but strip centers and parking lots nonetheless.

On a tour of the place, I saw a total of two people on sidewalks.

In some developments, they even left out the back alleys — a big no-no in new urbanism. Instead of quaint homes and front porches facing the street, there are lines of garage doors and wide driveways. The reason for this, of course, is that alleys take up land that developers don't want to give up.

As Geller explains, Baldwin Park was built by one developer with one plan. Horizon West has dozens of landowners, developers and builders, each looking to maximize return on investment.

Baldwin Park also has the advantage of being in the urban core, with the roads and infrastructure in place. There are no thoroughfares cutting through it.

Geller led a charge to scale back plans to widen one road. He wants curbside parking to lower speeds and make it more pedestrian-friendly. Boyd wants to move a proposed high school closer to residential areas.

It seems too little, too late. But Geller says most of the development remains to be built — including the main town center — and can be improved upon.

"If we're going to have sprawl," he says, "I'd like it to be new-urbanist sprawl."