International Real Etate

Chapter One: International Real Estate

1.1 Introduction

The term international real estate is a relatively new phenomenon, which implies a
post-Globalization real estate, or property sector. The term encompasses real
property development and sales/leasing transactions between nations; and the
enormous amount of legal, design, urban planning, engineering, financing, and
construction work that follows from developmental transactions. International real
estate is, by definition, influenced by fluctuating market value in various sectors
between counties, as can be evidenced by the 2008 global credit crisis.
International real estate is best subdivided into two categories: commercial and
residential.

International commercial real estate has been a natural consequence of business'
evolution toward multi-national business operations. Often, International
commercial real estate transactions require the formation of corporations used to
purchase or lease real estate, when freehold ownership is not permitted.

International real estate, as it involves the purchase and sale of international
residential real estate, is often limited to the "luxury" sector of the real estate
market, usually defined as the top 10% of sales prices in a given market. This is
because international home purchases are usually buyers' second homes, although
market share exists in "affordable luxury" holiday homes. Within the international
residential real estate sector, great emphasis is placed on property marketing.

International real estate may have been aided by modern media such as internet or
international media, as it catalysed globalization and aided in the communications
necessary for transactions to take place. It is not true that international real estate

did not exist before the World Wide Web, but it is certainly true that it was not as
effective and accessible as it is nowadays.

International real estate is one of the most dynamic branches of real estate
encompassing experts from many different fields, including law, civil engineering
and construction planning. Its main aims include infrastructural development and
augmentation of the tourist industry.

The recent construction of international real estate directories and forums in which
the interested parties can communicate and exchange information has been a major
breakthrough resulting in major development in the field.

1.2 Avimor

Avimor is an 840-acre (3.4 km2) master-planned residential community located in
the Foothills west of Boise, Idaho and five miles (8 km) directly north of Eagle,
Idaho along Hwy. 55. The project is being developed by SunCor Development
Company, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Pinnacle West Capital Corporation, a
publicly-traded company (NYSE: PNW) which is also the parent company of
Arizona Public Service, the state's largest utility company. Construction began in
2006 and is ongoing.

Village One, the first portion of the 23,000-acre (93 km2) Spring Valley Ranch
property to be developed, includes 650 homes and a planned village center of
shops, offices, dining options, a daycare and recreational amenities. A second
village is still in the planning stages. Nearly 20,000 acres (81 km2) of the
surrounding land is designated as open space.

1.3 History

Spring Valley Ranch was once a 38,000-acre (150 km2) sheep ranch, then
transitioned to cattle and horses. SunCor chose Avimor as the community name
based on the heritage of the McLeod family, Spring Valley Ranch owners since the
early 1900s. The family is originally from the Highlands area of Scotland and
Aviemore is an active-lifestyle resort town in the region. The spelling was
changed, hence the current name.

1.4 Conservation

1.4.1 Water Conservation

Water consumption in this high desert region has been an important issue for the
development team and the surrounding communities. Design, management and
educational initiatives are in place to meet the goal of reducing typical residential
indoor and outdoor water consumption by 30%.

Minimizing use begins by establishing water rates that encourage conservation,
metering all treated-water usage and providing educational materials for residents.

All homes are built with low-flow plumbing fixtures, recirculation pumps for hot
water delivery and low-water-use appliances. Treated effluent from the on-site
state-of-the-art wastewater treatment plant reduces the use of potable water for
land irrigation. Landscaping is done with xeric plants through covenants, deed
restrictions and permitted plant lists that also limit the use of turf in private yard
landscaping. The community uses drip irrigation for all shrubs and trees and a
centralized, time-controlled irrigation system linked to a weather station for
watering common areas.

1.4.2 Energy Conservation

By gaining Energy Star certification for all homes, this signifies up to 30% greater
efficiency than homes built to code. Educational materials have been developed to
help Avimor residents make further energy-conscious choices. Additionally,
community design and amenities are in place to help reduce the need for car travel.

Where possible, buildings are oriented along an east-west axis to maximize passive
solar heating and are sited to allow for low angle winter sun. The use of overhangs,
porches and other appropriate features shade south-facing walls in summer.
Landscaping tactics shade buildings in the summer and allow solar heating in
winter.

1.4.3 Plant and Wildlife Conservation

Years of ranching, along with a keen interest in preserving the natural state
foothills lands, has set into motion a comprehensive land conservation plan. Nearly
60% of the 840 acres (3.4 km2) in Village One is retained as preserved open space.
Large tracts of adjacent land will be preserved and restored to pre-ranchland state
for the benefit of residents, wildlife and the general public.

A neighborhood conservation director has taken a "No Net Loss" approach to
wildlife mitigation.. Rather than work from a wildlife-down approach - which
usually accounts for a smaller set of species such as big game - this strategy begins
with the soils and vegetation. By restoring these base natural components first,
more plant, animal and insect species will benefit in a given area. This plan was
developed with assistance from the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, Ada
County Development Services, Bureau of Land Management, Ada County Parks
and Recreation, and private interest groups.

Plant and wildlife conservation projects includes the establishment of a
conservation easement, enhancing wildlife habitats, properly managing foothills
recreation access, planting native plant species, controlling invasive and noxious
weeds, and conducting regular big game surveys.

1.5 Better Homes

History

Better Homes was founded in 1986 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates by Linda
Mahoney as a residential leasing company. It is one of the oldest real estate
companies in the Middle East.

Since 1986, the company has grown from a one woman enterprise and launched
over 10 divisions and 30 property boutiques and offices with a 700+ workforce all
over the Middle East, Europe and Asia. Better Homes is also a founding member
of the Dubai Property Group.

1.6 Services

The company uses a proprietary IT system to give clients features, such as the most
up-to-the-minute properties available and interactive online maps.

Some of the services the company offers include:

• Residential Sales and Leasing
• Commercial Sales and Leasing
• Property Management
• Short-term Rentals
• Project Sales and Marketing

• International Sales
• Concierge service

The Commercial division was launched in 1996.

Launched in 2007, Better Plus, one of the company’s newest divisions, is a
concierge service that connects Better Homes’ clients with services such as
insurance, mortgages, currency exchange, and home furnishing.

Aside from property, Better Homes also entered the hospitality sector with the
Short-term Rentals division and offers a range of self-catering apartments and
serviced hotel apartments in Dubai. The company also launched its very own
Emerald Hotel Apartments in Bur Dubai.

Billy Rautenbach, Better Homes’ Chief Operational Officer, was named amongst
the 5 most high profile women in Dubai’s real estate market by Arabian Property
magazine.

1.7 Creative Branding

Better Homes’ marketing has always been in the limelight for its fun and funky
style. The company re-branded in 2006 unveiling a new corporate identity. It
recently launched its new website (www.bhomes.com) to offer users a
comprehensive online property search with interactive maps, 360° property tours,
floor plans, colour printable brochures, and image galleries. Since its launch, the
site regularly receives over five thousand unique visitors per day.

1.8 Publications

Better Homes has dedicated publications, Better Homes Magazine and
Commercial Review, which provide readers with guides on living in Dubai and
choosing the most suitable property.

1.9 Going Global

Better Homes International offers properties in both emerging and mature markets
throughout the world. Catering to property markets as diverse as Turkey, Fiji,
Cyprus, Spain, India, Greece, Morocco, and the Caribbean.

1.10 Blockbusting

Blockbusting was a business practice of U.S. real estate agents and building
developers meant to encourage white property owners to sell their houses at a loss,
by fraudulently implying that racial, ethnic, or religious minorities — blacks,
Hispanics, Jews et al. — were moving into their previously racially segregated
neighborhood, and so depress real estate property values.[1] Blockbusting became
possible after the legislative dismantling of legally-protected racially-segregated
real estate practices after World War II, but by the 1980s it disappeared as a
business practice after changes in law and the real estate market.

1.11 Background

Beginning around 1900, with the Great Migration (1915–30) of black Americans
from the rural Southern United States to work in the cities and towns of the
northern U.S., many white people feared that black people were a social and
economic threat, and countered their presence with local zoning laws that requiring
them to live and reside in geographically defined areas of the town or city,
preventing them from moving to areas inhabited by white people.

In 1917, in the case of Buchanan v. Warley (1917), the Supreme Court of the
United States voided the racial residency statutes forbidding blacks from living in
white neighborhoods, as violating the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment to the United States Constitution.[3] In turn, whites used racially
restrictive covenants in deeds, and real estate businesses informally applied them
to prevent the selling of houses to black Americans in white neighborhoods. To
thwart the Supreme Court’s Buchanan v. Warley prohibition of such legal business
racism, state courts interpreted the covenants as a contract between private persons,
outside the scope of the Fourteenth Amendment; however, in the Shelley v.
Kraemer (1948) case, the Supreme Court ruled that the Amendment’s Equal
Protection Clause outlawed the states’ legal enforcement of racially restrictive
covenants in state courts.[4] In the event, decades of racist laws requiring black
Americans to live in over-crowded and over-priced ghettos created economic
pressures to avail black people of housing in racially-segregated neighborhoods.
Freed by the Supreme Court from the legal restrictions against selling white
housing to blacks, real estate companies sold houses to those who could buy — if
they could find a willing white seller.

Generally, “blockbusting” denotes the real estate and building development
business practices yielding double profits from U.S. anti-black racism;
aggravating, by subterfuge, the white home owners’ fears of mixed-race
communities to encourage them to quickly sell their houses at a loss, at below-
market prices, and then selling that property to black Americans at higher-than-
market prices. Given the federally-legislated racial discrimination in mortgage-
lending, black people usually did not qualify for mortgages from banks and savings
and loan associations, instead, they recurred to land installment contracts at
usurious interest rates to buy a house — a racist economic strategy eventually

leading to foreclosure.[2] With blockbusting, real estate companies legally profited
from the arbitrage (the difference between the discounted price paid to frightened
white sellers and the artificially high price paid by black buyers), and from the
commissions resulting from increased real estate sales, and from their usurious
financing of said house sales to black Americans.[2] The documentary film
Revolution '67 (2007) examines the blockbusting practiced in Newark, New Jersey
in the 1960s.

1.12 Methods of Blockbusting

The term “blockbusting” might have originated in Chicago, Illinois, where, in
order to accelerate the emigration of economically successful racial, ethnic, and
religious minority residents to better neighborhoods beyond the ghettos, real estate
companies and building developers used agents provocateurs — non-white people
hired to deceive the white residents of a legally-restricted neighborhood into
believing that black people were moving into the neighborhood, thereby
encouraging them to quickly sell (at a loss) and emigrate to racially-restricted
suburbs.

The tactics included hiring black women to be seen pushing baby carriages in
white neighborhoods, so encouraging white fear of devalued property; selling a
house to a black family in a white neighborhood to provoke white flight, before the
community’s properties became worthless; selling white neighborhood houses to
black families, and afterwards placing real estate agent business cards in the
neighbors’ mailboxes; and saturating the neighborhood area with fliers offering
quick-cash for houses. Like-wise, building developers bought houses and dwelling
buildings, and left them unoccupied to make the neighborhood appear abandoned
— like a ghetto or a slum — psychologic coercion that usually forced the

remaining white folk to sell at a loss. Blockbusting was a very common and very
profitable form of racist exploitation, for example, by 1962, when blockbusting
had been practiced for some fifteen years, the city of Chicago had more than 100
real estate companies that had been, on average, “changing” between two to three
blocks a week for years.

1.13 Reactions to Blockbusting

In 1962, “blockbusting” real estate profiteering was nationally exposed by the The
Saturday Evening Post with the article "Confessions of a Block-Buster", wherein
the author detailed the practices, emphasizing the surplus profit gained from
frightening white people to sell at a loss, in order to quickly resettle in racially-
segregated "better neighborhoods".[2] In response to political pressure from the
cheated sellers and buyers, states and cities legally restricted door-to-door real
estate solicitation, the posting of "FOR SALE" signs, and authorized government
licensing agencies to investigate the blockbusting complaints of buyers and sellers,
and to revoke the real estate sales licenses of blockbusters.[2] Like-wise, other
states' legislation allowed lawsuits against real estate companies and brokers who
cheated buyers and sellers with fraudulent representations of declining property
values, changing racial and ethnic neighborhood populations, local crime, and the
"worsening" of schools, because of race mixing.

The Fair Housing Act of 1968 established federal causes of action against
blockbusting, including illegal real estate broker claims that blacks, Jews,
Hispanics, et al. had or were going to move into a neighborhood, and so devalue
the properties. In the case of Jones v. Alfred H. Mayer Co. (1968), the U.S.
Supreme Court ruled that the Thirteenth Amendment authorized the federal
government's prohibiting racial discrimination in private housing markets,[5] thus

allowing black American legal claims to rescind the usurious land contracts
(featuring over-priced houses and higher-than-market mortgage interest rates), as a
racist real estate business practice illegal under the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which
greatly reduced the profitability of blockbusting. Nevertheless, said regulatory and
statutory remedies against blockbusting were challenged in court; thus, towns
cannot prohibit an owner's placing a "FOR SALE" sign before his house, in order
to reduce blockbusting. In the case of Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Willingboro
(1977), the Supreme Court ruled that such prohibitions infringe freedom of
expression. Moreover, by the 1980s, as evidence of blockbusting practices
disappeared, states and cities began rescinding statutes restricting blockbusting.

1.14 U.S. Cultural References

The serio-comic television series All in the Family (1971–79), featured "The
Blockbuster", a 1971 episode about said practice, illustrating some real estate
blockbusting techniques.

In the Knight Rider (1982–86) adventure television series, episode 11 of the fourth
season features the eponymous hero, Michael Knight, trying to stop a blockbusting
operation in a Chicago ghetto

1.15 Buyer Listing Service

A Buyer Listing Service ("BLS") is a system designed to gather relevant
information, via data entries by a prospective home buyer, her real estate 'Buyer
Agent', or both, concerning the Buyer's financial qualifications regarding a home
purchase and the Buyer's needs and wants for the sought for home (number of
bedrooms, location, square footage, etc.). Working in much the same way as the
well-known Multiple Listing Service ("MLS") operates to market homes-for-sale, a

BLS system provides corresponding data from the Buyer's perspective. BLS
systems may be integrated with MLS systems operated by the local Association of
Realtors, 'free-standing'and available directly to Buyer and Seller consumers, or
operated through in-house systems of privately owned real estate brokerages.

National BLS is the first national Buyer Listing Service of pre-approved residential
real estate buyers. The service allows buyers to anonymously broadcast their home
buying requirements to the web, stating specific or general location, property type,
property use, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, their mortgage details (purchase
terms, down payment, contingencies, etc.) and a host of other important property
attributes (deck/patio, fireplace, central air, etc.) Buyers on NationalBLS are
searchable by real estate agents and home sellers, who can then make reverse
offers to the buyers. The system gives real estate agents a tool for qualifying their
buyer leads and protecting their buying clients. Real estate agents also use the
buyer listing service on behalf of eager home sellers who are keen to start
negotiating. Further, mortgage brokers and loan officers use the service to manage
their buyers and promote their buyers' best interests. NationalBLS can be found at
www.nationalbls.com

1.16 CRTS Certified Relocation and Transition Specialists

CRTS Certified Relocation and Transition Specialists are third party certified
providers who assist older adults and their families through often stressful
transitions, such as moving to a senior living community or modifying a home to
age in place.

The CRTS designation is awarded to Senior Transition Specialists who meet
experience, eligibility and exam requirements.

Oversight for the CRTS designation is the responsibility of the Senior Transition
Society, a North American professional society.
All CRTS graduates become part of the CRTS Professional Registry which is
available for families through national websites.
CRTS professionals include Realtors, local and long distance movers, appraisers,
estate sale specialists, home care professionals, professional organizers and more.
CRTS professionals focus on alleviating client and family stress associated with
relocation. CRTS professionals are a qualified resource for families and are trained
to understand how home transitions are often complicated by factors such as
health, personal asset management, dementia and complex family dynamics.
CRTS Certified professionals are required to pass criminal background checks and
meet ongoing insurance and continuing education requirements.

1.17 Coldwell Banker

Coldwell Banker is a large real estate franchise owned by Realogy, which also
owns Century 21 Real Estate and ERA Real Estate. The company was founded in
1906 in San Francisco.

Coldwell Banker has an international presence, with offices on six continents, 46
countries and territories. There are more than 600 Coldwell Banker offices outside
of the United States.

1.18 Company History

Early years

The company was launched in 1906. After the devastating 1906 San Francisco
earthquake and fires, real estate agent Colbert Coldwell formed a new real estate
company.

Coldwell disapproved of the then-common practice of real estate agents acquiring
properties for themselves, often from uninformed sellers at ridiculously low prices,
and then reselling them for huge profits. He and two partners formed the company
of Tucker, Lynch and Coldwell on August 27, 1906.

In 1913, Benjamin Arthur Banker joined the firm as a salesman and became a
partner in 1914. He and Coldwell remained active in the company throughout their
lives.

In the early years of growth, Coldwell Banker offices were devoted primarily to
commercial real estate brokerage firms. In 1925 the first residential real estate
office opened in San Francisco, and a full fledged residential real estate department
was formed by 1937.

1.19 Expansion

The company's geographic expansion began in the 1920s with the opening of
offices in Southern California. The company opened its first office outside
California (in Phoenix, AZ) in 1952. This was followed by an office in Seattle in
1969.

In the 1970s, Coldwell Banker acquired residential real estate firms in Atlanta,
Chicago, and Washington, DC, expanding its geographic footprint. [2]

By 1980, Coldwell Banker had also acquired a national referral service (now
Coldwell Banker Referral Network), and Previews Inc., an international luxury real
estate marketing organization (which has evolved into the present-day Coldwell
Banker Previews International). In 1981, Coldwell Banker was acquired by Sears,
Roebuck and Co., joining Dean Witter Financial Services Group and Allstate
Insurance group as a member of the Sears Financial Network.

Another landmark in 1981 was the launch of Coldwell Banker Residential
Affiliates, Inc. for the franchising of residential brokerage companies. Further
acquisition of companies in major metropolitan areas across the United States
occurred in the 1980s..

1990s

• By 1990, Coldwell Banker had locations in all fifty states, and had begun
international expansion with offices in Canada and Puerto Rico. The
company's focus on residential real estate was strengthened with the sale of
Coldwell Banker Commercial Group (now known as CB Commercial).
• Coldwell Banker was purchased from Sears by the Fremont Group in 1993.
Another milestone in 1993 was the substantial increase of Coldwell Banker
presence in Canada. Coldwell Banker Affiliates of Canada, a joint venture of
Coldwell Banker and Canada Trust, is one of Canada's largest real estate
operations with more than 200 offices and thousands of sales representatives
coast to coast.
• Coldwell Banker in 1995 became one of the first national and first-service
real estate brands to have a presence online with the launch of
www.coldwellbanker.com.

• In May 1996, Coldwell Banker was acquired by HFS Incorporated, then the
world's largest franchisor of hotels and residential real estate brokerage
offices.
• 1997 saw parent company HFS merge with CUC International, forming the
new Cendant Corporation.

2000 - Present

• In 2005, Coldwell Banker became the first full-service national real estate
brand to launch a stand-alone Web site for upscale properties with
www.coldwellbankerpreviews.com.
• Later that year, it was announced that Cendant would spin off its four
divisions – real estate, hotel, car rental and hospitality services. Coldwell
Banker would now be part of a stand-alone real estate company named
Realogy in late 2006. Realogy’s brands – Coldwell Banker, Coldwell
Banker Commercial, Century 21, ERA and Sothebys International Realty
(Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate was added in 2007) - combine to
participate in one of every four residential real estate transactions in the
United States.
• At the start of 2006, Coldwell Banker began celebrating its 100th
anniversary. Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive officer of Coldwell
Banker Real Estate Corporation, led a Coldwell Banker contingent in
ringing the closing bell at the New York Stock Exchange on August 21,
2006 to commemorate the brand’s 100th anniversary.

1.20 Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is attractiveness of the exterior of a residential or commercial
property. The term was extensively used in the United States during the housing
boom and continues to be used as an indicator of the initial appeal of a property to
prospective buyers.

Methods for Increasing Curb Appeal

Curb appeal can be accomplished by any number of methods including the
installation of exterior decorations, re-painting, extensive attention to the
landscaping. Several television programs (such as Designed to Sell, House Doctor,
Flip This House) have been created to explore ways for homeowners and building
contractors to increase the curb appeal of their properties for a more profitable sale.

1.21 First Time Home Buyer Grant

A first time home buyer grant is a grant specifically for/targeted at those buying
their first home perhaps a starter home. Like other grants, the first time buyer does
not hold an obligation to repay the grant. In this respect, it differs from a loan and
does not incur any debt or interest. Grants can be given out by foundations and
governments. Grants to individuals can be either scholarships or donations.

First time home buyer grants are typically awarded based on a few criteria,
primarily financial need and income qualifications.

Many states have initiated grant programs to help lower income residents with the
purchase of their first home. The United States Department of Housing and Urban
Development (HUD) also provides grants to first time home buyers.

Funding for various state first time home buyer grants is nearly always available.
In fiscal year 2006, only two states exhausted their budgets for first time home
buyer grants.

A similar program was introduced in Australia from the 1 July 2000, where first
time home buyers can receive a $7,000 once off payment to offset the cost of GST.
While the program is offered nationwide, the scheme is funded by the states and
territories and subject to respective legislation.

1.22 Problems with First Time Home Buyer grants

Because a first time home buyer grant usually pushes up the amount that such a
buyer can borrow from a financial institution by more than the value of the grant,
in competitive housing markets where a majority of competing buyers will also
have access to the grant, the end result is that lower-end houses increase in price
also by more than the value of the grant, and first home buyers tend to accumulate
more debt than if the grant had not been available.

1.23 Fixer-Upper

A fixer-upper is a real-estate property that will require maintenance work
(redecoration, reconstruction or redesign) though it usually can be lived in as it is.

They are popular with buyers who wish to raise the property's potential value to get
a return on investment, a practice known as flipping, or as a starter home for
buyers on a budget. Home-improvement television shows touting do-it-yourself
renovation techniques have made fixer-uppers more popular, but during a real-
estate downturn, with newer homes available at depressed prices, there is often
reduced interest. Inexperienced buyers frequently underestimate the amount and

cost of repairs necessary to make a home livable or saleable.[1] Structural and
service issues such as a home's foundation or plumbing, which may not be visible
at first, can require expensive, professional contracting work.[1]

According to Jack C. Richards in his book Interchange (Third Edition) Volume
Three, the expression 'Fixer-Upper' describes a place for sale at a lower price
because it needs a lot of repairs.

1.24 Film and Television

Many comedy films have used fixer-upper renovations as a central part of the plot,
among them:

• Are We Done Yet? (2007)
• The Money Pit (1986)
• Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948)
• George Washington Slept Here (1942)

Flipping of rundown houses has also been the subject of various reality television
shows, including:

• Flip That House
• Flip This House
• The Real Estate Pros

1.25 Long & Foster

Long & Foster (founded 1968) is the largest privately-owned real estate company
in the United States with over 15,000 agents in nearly 230 sales offices in the Mid-
Atlantic region.

P. Wesley Foster, the chief executive officer and one of the founders, began his
real estate career in 1963 as a sales manager at Michew Corporation, a home
building company. In 1966, he moved to Nelson Realty as vice-president of sales.
In 1968, he founded Long & Foster Companies with Henry Long. Long & Foster
began with Foster handling the residential real estate arm of the business and Long
handling the commercial side. Foster became the sole owner in July 1979, eleven
years after establishing Long & Foster.

Long & Foster has offices and associates in Virginia, Maryland, Washington, D.C.,
Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Delaware, and North Carolina. It
provides services including the sale and purchase of homes, land, and commercial
properties; mortgage, title, and insurance assistance; insurance offerings; and
relocation and settlement services.

1.26 Mixed-Use Development

Mixed-use development is the practice of allowing more than one type of use in a
building or set of buildings. In planning zone terms, this can mean some
combination of residential, commercial, industrial, office, institutional, or other
land uses.

1.27 History

Mixed-use development in New York City. Note the residential space above the
retail space in the same building.

Throughout most of human history, the majority of human settlements developed
as mixed-use environments. Walking was the primary way that people and goods

were moved about, sometimes assisted by animals such as horses or cattle. Most
people dwelt in buildings that were places of work as well as domestic life, and
made things or sold things from their own homes. Most buildings were not divided
into discrete functions on a room by room basis, and most neighborhoods
contained a diversity of uses, even if some districts developed a predominance of
certain uses, such as metalworkers, or textiles or footwear due to the socio-
economic benefits of propinquity. People lived at very high densities because the
amount of space required for daily living and movement between different
activities was determined by walkability and the scale of the human body. This
was particularly true in cities, and the ground floor of buildings was often devoted
to some sort of commercial or productive use, with living space upstairs.

This historical mixed-used pattern of development declined during industrialisation
in favor of large-scale separation of manufacturing and residences in single-
function buildings. This period saw massive migrations of people from rural areas
to cities drawn by work in factories and the associated businesses and
bureaucracies that grew up around them. These influxes of new workers needed to
be accommodated and many new urban districts arose at this time with domestic
housing being their primary function. Thus began a separating out of land uses that
previously had occurred in the same spaces. Furthermore, many factories produced
substantial pollution of various kinds. Distance was required to minimize adverse
impacts from noise, dirt, noxious fumes and dangerous substances. Even so, at this
time, most industrialized cities were of a size that allowed people to walk between
the different areas of the city.

These factors were important in the push for Euclidian zoning premised on the
compartmentalization of land uses into like functions and their spatial separation.
In Europe, advocates of the Garden City Movement were attempting to think

through these issues and propose improved ways to plan cities based on zoning
areas of land so that conflicts between land uses would be minimized. Modernist
architects such as Le Corbusier advocated radical rethinking of the way cities were
designed based on similar ideas, proposing plans for Paris such as the Plan Voisin,
Ville Contemporaine and Ville Radieuse that involved demolishing the entire
center of the city and replacing it with towers in a park-like setting, with industry
carefully sited away from other uses.

In the United States, another impetus for Euclidian zoning was the birth of the
skyscraper. Fear of buildings blocking out the sun led many to call for zoning
regulations, particularly in New York City. Zoning regulations, first put into place
in 1916, not only called for limits on building heights, but eventually called for
separations of uses. This was largely meant to keep people from living next to
polluted industrial areas. This separation, however, was extended to commercial
uses as well, setting the stage for the suburban style of life that is common in
America today. This type of zoning was widely adopted by municipal zoning
codes.

With the advent of mass transit systems, but especially the private automobile and
cheap oil, the ability to create dispersed, low-density cities where people could live
very long distances from their workplaces, shopping centres and entertainment
districts began in earnest. However, it has been the post-second World War
dominance of the automobile and the decline in all other modes of urban
transportation that has seen the extremes of these trends come to pass.

1.28 Benefits

Throughout the late 20th century, it began to become apparent to many urban
planners and other professionals that mixed-use development had many benefits
and should be promoted again. As American, British, Canadian and Australian
cities deindustrialized, the need to separate residences from hazardous factories
became less important. Completely separate zoning created isolated "islands" of
each type of development. In most cases, the automobile had become a
requirement for transportation between vast fields of residentially zoned housing
and the separate commercial and office strips, creating issues of Automobile
dependency. In 1961, Jane Jacobs' influential The Death and Life of Great
American Cities argued that a mixture of uses is vital and necessary for a healthy
urban area.

Zoning laws have been revised accordingly and increasingly attempt to address
these problems by using mixed-use zoning. A mixed use district will most
commonly be the "downtown" of a local community, ideally associated with public
transit nodes in accordance with principles of Transit-oriented development (TOD)
and New urbanism. Mixed use guidelines often result in residential buildings with
streetfront commercial space. Retailers have the assurance that they will always
have customers living right above and around them, while residents have the
benefit of being able to walk a short distance to get groceries and household items,
or see a movie.

1.29 Drawbacks

Mixed use development is seen as too risky by many developers and lending
institutions because economic success requires that the many different uses all

remain in business. Most development throughout the mid to late 20th century was
single-use, so many development and finance professionals see this as the safer and
more acceptable means to provide construction and earn a profit. Christopher B.
Leinberger notes that there are 19 standard real estate product types that can obtain
easy financing through real estate investment trusts. Each type, such as the office
park and the strip mall, is designed for low density, single use zoning. Another
issue is that short term discounted cash flow has become the standard way to
measure the success of income-producing development, resulting in "disposable"
suburban designs that make money in the short run but are not as successful in the
mid to long term as walkable, mixed use environments.

Mixed use commercial space is often seen as being best suited for retail and small
office uses. This precludes its widespread adoption as the trend to ever-larger
corporate and government employment accelerates.

Mixed use residential buildings and neighbourhoods seldom offer single-family
homes, thus are best suited to residents who prefer public amenities to private
space. The lack of backyards or other private outdoor space for children and pets is
anathema to some, particularly in some North American and Australian cultures.
Street hierarchy and other traffic calming measures intended to serve such
residental users may impede commercial traffic.

Construction costs for mixed-use development currently exceed those for similar
sized, single-use buildings. Challenges include fire separations, sound attenuation,
ventilation, and egress. Leinberger explains,

“ Good urban architecture costs upward of 50 percent more than typical ”
suburban buildings. In urban areas, residents and businesses demand a

higher quality of building, since you are walking past them, not driving by
at 45 miles an hour with the buildings set back 150 feet.

Additional costs arise from meeting the design needs: In some designs, the large,
high-ceilinged, columnless lower floor for commercial uses may not be entirely
compatible with the smaller scale of walled residential space above. Due to usually
higher densities in mixed-use developments and due to the commercial and/or
office component, parking space requirements are likely to exceed those of
residential development. Thus, mixed use projects that are not sited close to public
transit are likely to require a large number of parking spaces that may be difficult
to finance. (Note that this is equally true for any other higher-density development
remote from public transport; however, compared to residential zones this may be
a drawback due to higher initial investment required that only amortizes over the
medium and long-term.) It should be noted however that in mixed-use
developments in some denser areas, owning an automobile might be considered a
luxury rather than a necessity, especially if the area is well connected to public
transport. Therefore, others argue that mixed-use neighborhoods need less parking
space and are more efficient - however only if zoning regulations reflect this
condition and allow to provide for less parking (see Donald C. Shoup, The High
Cost of Free Parking). A notable example in the United States is Manhattan,
though this is an atypical case.

Others maintain that modern consumers prefer big box retailers, arguing that most
grocery shoppers today would prefer the convenience of weekly shopping, as
opposed to picking up each day's food items from a number of local shops. It is
however not clear whether this phenomena is the cause of attractive retailers or of
zoning regulations that do not permit mixed-use development so that small shops

are remote and, thus, inconvenient (see Jane Jacobs, The Death and Life of Great
American Cities). Moreover, it may be argued that people prefer to shop with
retailers because, due to single-use zoning, the local availability of goods through
convenience commercial is limited.

Chapter Two: New Urbanism

2.1 Introduction

New Urbanism is an urban design movement, which promotes walkable
neighborhoods that contain a range of housing and job types. It arose in the United
States in the early 1980s and continues to reform many aspects of real estate
development and urban planning.

New Urbanism is strongly influenced by urban design standards prominent before
the rise of the automobile and encompasses principles such as traditional
neighborhood design (TND) and transit-oriented development (TOD).[1] It is also
closely related to Regionalism and Environmentalism.

Market Street, Downtown Celebration, Florida

The organizing body for New Urbanism is the Congress for the New Urbanism,
founded in 1993. Its foundational text is the Charter of the New Urbanism, which
says:

We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to
support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and
population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well
as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally
accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be
framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate,
ecology, and building practice.

New urbanists support regional planning for open space, context-appropriate
architecture and planning, and the balanced development of jobs and housing.
They believe their strategies can reduce traffic congestion, increase the supply of
affordable housing, and rein in urban sprawl. The Charter of the New Urbanism
also covers issues such as historic preservation, safe streets, green building, and the
redevelopment of brownfield land.

2.2 Background

New Urbanism draws from the design of older urban neighborhoods, like this one
in Venice, California.

Until the mid 20th century, cities were generally organized into and developed
around mixed-use walkable neighborhoods. For most of human history this meant
a city that was entirely walkable, although with the development of mass transit the
reach of the city extended outward along transit lines, allowing for the growth of
new pedestrian communities such as streetcar suburbs. But with the advent of
cheap automobiles and favorable government policies, attention began to shift
away from cities and towards ways of growth more focused on the needs of the
car.

This new system of development, with its rigorous separation of uses, became
known as "conventional suburban development" or pejoratively as urban sprawl,
arose after World War II. The majority of U.S. citizens now live in suburban
communities built in the last fifty years. Suburban development consumes large
areas of countryside, and automobile use per capita has soared.

Although New Urbanism as an organized movement would only arise later, a
number of activists and thinkers soon began to criticize the modernist planning

techniques being put into practice. Social philosopher and historian Lewis
Mumford criticized the "anti-urban" development of post-war America. The Death
and Life of Great American Cities, written by Jane Jacobs in the early 1960s,
called for planners to reconsider the single-use housing projects, large car-
dependent thoroughfares, and segregated commercial centers that had become the
"norm."

Rooted in these early dissenters, New Urbanism emerged in the 1970s and 80s
with the urban visions and theoretical models for the reconstruction of the
"European" city proposed by architect Leon Krier, and the "pattern language"
theories of Christopher Alexander.

In 1991, the Local Government Commission, a private nonprofit group in
Sacramento, California, invited architects Peter Calthorpe, Michael Corbett,
Andrés Duany, Elizabeth Moule, Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, Stefanos Polyzoides,
and Daniel Solomon to develop a set of community principles for land use
planning. Named the Ahwahnee Principles (after Yosemite National Park's
Ahwahnee Hotel), the commission presented the principles to about one hundred
government officials in the fall of 1991, at its first Yosemite Conference for Local
Elected Officials.

Calthorpe, Duany, Moule, Plater-Zyberk, Polyzoides, and Solomon founded the
Chicago-based Congress for the New Urbanism in 1993. The CNU has grown to
more than 3,000 members, and is the leading international organization promoting
new urbanist design principles. It holds annual Congresses in various U.S. cities.

New Urbanism is a broad movement that spans a number of different disciplines
and geographic scales. And while the conventional approach to growth remains

dominant, New Urbanist principles have become increasingly influential in the
fields of planning, architecture, and public policy.

2.3 Defining Elements

Prospect New Town in Longmont, Colorado, showing a mix of aggregate housing
and traditional detached homes

The husband-wife team of town planners Andrés Duany and Elizabeth Plater-
Zyberk, two of the founders of the Congress for the New Urbanism, met at
Princeton University. Their beliefs coalesced while at the Yale School of
Architecture in New Haven. While living in one of New Haven's Victorian
neighborhoods, they observed mixed-use streetscapes with corner shops, front
porches, and a diversity of well-crafted housing. According to Duany and Plater-
Zyberk, the heart of New Urbanism is in the design of neighborhoods, which can
be defined by thirteen elements:

1. The neighborhood has a discernible center. This is often a square or a green and
sometimes a busy or memorable street corner. A transit stop would be located at
this center.
2. Most of the dwellings are within a five-minute walk of the center, an average of
roughly 1/4 mile or 1,320 feet (0.4 km).
3. There are a variety of dwelling types — usually houses, rowhouses, and
apartments — so that younger and older people, singles, and families, the poor,
and the wealthy may find places to live.
4. At the edge of the neighborhood, there are shops and offices of sufficiently
varied types to supply the weekly needs of a household.

5. A small ancillary building or garage apartment is permitted within the backyard
of each house. It may be used as a rental unit or place to work (for example, an
office or craft workshop).
6. An elementary school is close enough so that most children can walk from their
home.
7. There are small playgrounds accessible to every dwelling — not more than a
tenth of a mile away.
8. Streets within the neighborhood form a connected network, which disperses
traffic by providing a variety of pedestrian and vehicular routes to any
destination.
9. The streets are relatively narrow and shaded by rows of trees. This slows traffic,
creating an environment suitable for pedestrians and bicycles.
10.Buildings in the neighborhood center are placed close to the street, creating a
well-defined outdoor room.
11.Parking lots and garage doors rarely front the street. Parking is relegated to the
rear of buildings, usually accessed by alleys.
12.Certain prominent sites at the termination of street vistas or in the neighborhood
center are reserved for civic buildings. These provide sites for community
meetings, education, and religious or cultural activities.
13.The neighborhood is organized to be self-governing. A formal association
debates and decides matters of maintenance, security, and physical change.
Taxation is the responsibility of the larger community.

2.3 Examples

United States

Grande Market Square in Burnsville, Minnesota. Small scale redevelopment in
suburban communities are often done in new urbanist style.

New urbanism is having a growing influence on how and where metropolitan
regions choose to grow. At least fourteen large-scale planning initiatives are based
on the principles of linking transportation and land-use policies, and using the
neighborhood as the fundamental building block of a region.[citation needed]

More than six hundred new towns, villages, and neighborhoods in the U.S.
following new urbanism principles are planned or under construction. Hundreds of
new, small-scale, urban and suburban infill projects are under way to reestablish
walkable streets and blocks. In Maryland and several other states, new urbanist
principles are an integral part of "smart growth" legislation.

In the mid-1990s, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
(HUD) adopted the principles of the new urbanism in its multi-billion dollar
program to rebuild public housing projects nationwide. New urbanists have
planned and developed hundreds of projects in infill locations. Most were driven
by the private sector, but many, including HUD projects, used public money.

Seaside

Seaside, Florida, the first fully new urbanist town, began development in 1981 on
eighty acres (324,000 m²) of Florida Panhandle coastline. It was featured on the
cover of the Atlantic Monthly in 1988, when only a few streets were completed,
and has become internationally famous for its architecture, and the quality of its
streets and public spaces.

Seaside is now a tourist destination and appeared in the movie The Truman Show.
Lots sold for $15,000 in the early 1980s, and slightly over a decade later, the price
had escalated to about $200,000. Today, most lots sell for more than a million
dollars, and some houses top $5 million.

Stapleton

The site of the former Stapleton International Airport in Denver, Colorado, closed
in 1995, is now being redeveloped by Forest City Enterprises is one of the largest
new urbanist project in the United States. Construction began in 2001. The new
community is zoned for residential and commercial development, including office
parks and "big box" shopping centers. Stapleton is by far the largest neighborhood
in the city of Denver and an eastern portion of the redevelopment site lies in the
neighboring city of Aurora.

The design emphasizes a pedestrian orientation rather than the automobile-oriented
designs found in many other planned developments. Nearly a third of the airport
site was set aside for public parks and open space.

Stapleton is the site of the Denver School for Science and Technology, a 451-
student public high school (grades 9-12) that is a charter school.[5]

By the end of 2006, about 2,500 houses and more than 300 apartments had been
built on the Stapleton site.[6] When complete in about 15 years, it is expected to
provide 8,000 houses, 4,000 apartments, 4 schools and 2 million square feet
(180,000 m²) of retail space. Up to 30,000 people could live there.[7] Northfield
Stapleton, one of the development's major retail centers, recently opened.

All of Stapleton's airport infrastructure has been removed except for the control
tower and a parking structure which remain standing as a reminder of the site's
former days.

Mesa del Sol

Mesa del Sol, in Albuquerque, New Mexico (Massive Masterplanned Community)
a 12,900-acre mixed-use is currently being developed by Forest City Enterprises as
the largest new urbanist project in the United States. Mesa del Sol has currently
3,000 jobs and will have approximately 40,000 jobs created over 35-50 buildout
and 18 million square feet of office, industrial and retail space.Mesa del Sol will
offer a variety of home-types including town homes, condominiums, apartments,
single-family houses and semi-custom homes as well are planning for community
centers, schools, family parks and access to jobs.Mesa del Sol will be build on 20
square miles of land and will have 37,500 homes for 100,000 residents build over
master plan of 35 to 50 years and will set aside 3,200 acres for parks and open
space. The first homes at Mesa del Sol are scheduled for touring late in 2009, with
homebuyers moving in as early as 2010, Home prices will reflect a wide range,
from approximately $125,000 to $300,000 dollars.Mesa del Sol first town center
that will be build in the first phaseselected world-renowned architect Antoine
Predock, AIA, of Albuquerque to design a 78,000-square-foot mixed-use town
center building. The town center, which began construction in 2008, this will be
first the hub for Mesa del Sol and will house a visitor center, business office space
and retail businesses. The town center will have The features a curved glass facade
and Video clips will be produced by Sony, a Mesa del Sol tenant, as well as aerial
images of the town will be projected onto a 60-foot-tall by 280-foot-wide double-
walled screen that arcs in a 360-foot radius. This curved silicon glass element is the
curtain wall. It mitigates solar gain through a combination of low-e coatings,

interior solar shades, and a customized silk-screen ceramic frit pattern derived
from a bone’s internal lattice structure.The Architect of will have features a curtain
wall whose ceramic frit controls daylight transmission, during the day, and serves
as a film project screen at night.The first town center will be a L-shaped structure
that has ground-level shops and restaurants with and a two-story covered open-air
public zone for meetings and gatherings, in addition four large villiges center and a
urban center are all plan for local shopping.Mesa del Sol also has 14 schools
planned including 3 combine middle through high schools plans plus charter,
private schools, colleges, unversity branch.

Quay Valley Ranch

Quay Valley Ranch- is proposed $25 billion dollars planned community consisting
of about 13,172 acres acres or 20 square mile for 150,000 residents with 45,000
jobs and 50,000 homes thatt would be built in Five phases over 25 years in
unincorporated Kings County, California, located approximately halfway between
or 2.5 hours to Los Angeles and 2.5 hours to San Francisco,It will be a model town
for the 21st Century — a self-sustaining community that seamlessly melds the best
qualities of "New Urbanism" with the traditions of the San Joaquin Valley's small
rural towns, while carefully preserving the natural surroundings of the area. It
propoThe community would include a water park, resort hotels and a convention
center. There would be a university research campus, a trucking hub, a driving
school for novices and race car drivers, manmade rivers and canals, restored
wetlands, set aside land permanently for organic agriculture,Amusement and theme
park,a 50,000 seat racetrack, an auto mall,Regional retail centers,town center with
river walk, 30,000,000 feet of commerical, industrial land, farms, houses, schools
and a medical centers.The planned community is being organized by over 250

Planning Team Members by Kings County Ventures, LLC, a limited liability
company incorporated and registered in California that has put project on hold.

Here the video of town to be:http://www.quayvalley.com/entertainmentvideo.html

Haile Plantation

Haile Plantation, Florida, is a 2,600 household (1,700 acre) development of
regional impact southwest of the City of Gainesville, within Alachua County. Haile
Village Center is a traditional neighborhood center within the development. It was
originally started in 1978 and completed in 2007. In addition to the 2,600 homes
the neighborhood consists of two merchant centers (one a New England narrow
street village and the other a chain grocery strip mall). There are also two public
elementary schools and an 18-hole golf course.

Disney's Celebration, Florida

In June 1996, the Walt Disney Company unveiled its 5,000 acre (20 km²) town of
Celebration, near Orlando, Florida. Celebration opened its downtown in October,
1996, while Seaside's downtown was still mostly unbuilt. It has since eclipsed
Seaside as the best-known new urbanist community, but Disney shuns the label,
calling Celebration simply a "town." Disney has been criticized for insipid
nostalgia, and heavy-handed rules and management.[

Other countries

View of Poundbury, Dorset, UK

New Urbanism is closely related to the Urban village movement in Europe. They
both occurred at similar times and share many of the same principles although

urban villages has an emphasis on traditional city planning. In Europe many
brown-field sites have been redeveloped since the 1980s following the models of
the traditional city neighbourhoods rather than Modernist models. One well-
publicized example is Poundbury in England, a suburban extension to the town of
Dorchester, which was built on land owned by the Duchy of Cornwall under the
overview of Prince Charles. The original masterplan was designed by Leon Krier.
A report carried out after the first phase of construction found a high degree of
satisfaction by residents, although the aspirations to reduce car dependency had not
been successful. Rising house prices and a perceived premium have made the open
market housing unaffordable for many local people.[8]

The Council for European Urbanism (C.E.U.), formed in 2003, shares many of the
same aims as the US New Urbanists. C.E.U.'s Charter is a development of the
Congress for the New Urbanism Charter revised and reorganised to relate better to
European conditions. An Australian organisation, Australian Council for New
Urbanism has since 2001 run conferences and events to promote new urbanism in
that country. A New Zealand Urban Design Protocol was created by the Ministry
for the Environment in 2005.

There are many developments around the world that follow New Urbanist
principles to a greater or lesser extent:

• Orchid Bay, Belize is one of the largest New Urbanist projects in Central
America and the Caribbean.
• Val d'Europe, east of¨Paris, France. Developed by Disneyland Resort Paris, this
town is a kind of European counterpart to Walt Disney World Celebration City.
• McKenzie Towne is a new urbanist development which commenced in 1995 by
Carma Developers LP in Calgary and has an expected completion of 2011.

• The Alta de Lisboa project, in north Lisbon, Portugal, is one of the largest new
urbanist projects in Europe.
• The structure plan for Thimphu, Bhutan, follows Principles of Intelligent
Urbanism, which share underlying axioms with the New Urbanism.
• Jakriborg, in Southern Sweden, is a recent example of the new urbanist
movement.
• Other developments can be found in Heulebrugge, the Netherlands; Knokke-
Heist, in Belgium; and Fonti di Matilde, Italy.

There are several such developments in South Africa. The most notable is Melrose
Arch in Johannesburg. The first development in the Eastern Cape, one of the lesser
known provinces in the country, is located in East London. The development,
announced in 2007, comprises 30 hectares. It is made up of three apartment
complexes together with over 30 residential site as well as 20,000 sqm of
residential and office space. The development is valued at over R2-billion ($250
million).

Abuja, Nigeria

Abuja, Nigeria is the new capital city of Nigeria. This is a city that has its concept
has far back as 1976 during Late General Murtala Muhammed. The capital city of
Nigeria was finally located in the year 1997 when General Ibrahim Babangida
became the Head of State. It was a modern city with world class facility. The
initiative mind is to decongest Lagos and to serve as the administrative center as
Lagos remained the commercial center of Nigeria.

2.3 New Urbanist Organizations

The primary organization promoting the New Urbanism in the United States is the
Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU). The Congress has met annually since
1993 when they held their first meeting in Alexandria, VA with approximately 100
attendees. By 2008 the Congress was drawing 2,000 to 3,000 attendees to the
annual meetings. The Congress began forming local and regional chapters circa
2004 with the founding of the New England and Florida Chapters. By 2009 there
were 12 official chapters and interest groups for 11 more.

While the CNU has international participation, sister organizations have been
formed in other areas of the world including the Council for European Urbanism
(CEU), the Movement for Israeli Urbanism (MIU) and the Australian Council for
the New Urbanism.

By 2002 student chapters referring to themselves as Students for the New
Urbanism began appearing at universities including the University of Georgia,
Notre Dame University, and the University of Miami. In 2003, a group of younger
professionals and students met at the 11th Congress in Washington, D.C. and
began developing a "Manifesto of the Next Generation of New Urbanists". The
Next Generation of New Urbanists held their first major session the following year
at the 12th meeting of the CNU in Chicago in 2004. The group has continued
meeting annually as of 2009 with a focus on young professionals, students, new
member issues, and ensuring the flow of fresh ideas and diverse viewpoints within
the New Urbanism and the CNU. Spin off projects of the New Generation of the
New Urbanists include the Living Urbanism publication first published in 2008.

The CNU has spawned publications and research groups. Publications include the
New Urban News and the New Town Paper. Research groups have formed
independent nonprofits to research individual topics such as the Form-Based Codes

Institute, The National Charrette Institute and the Center for Applied Transect
Studies.

In the United Kingdom New Urbanist and European urbanism principles are
practiced and taught by the The Prince's Foundation for the Built Environment.
Other organisations promote New Urbanism as part of their remit, such as
INTBAU, A Vision of Europe, and others.

The CNU and other national organizations have also formed partnerships with like-
minded groups. Organizations under the banner of Smart Growth also often work
with the Congress for the New Urbanism. In addition the CNU has formed
partnerships on specific projects such as working with the [United States Green
Building Council] and the National Resources Defense Council to develop the
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development
standards and with the Institute of Transportation Engineers to develop a Context
Sensitive Solutions (CSS) Design manual.

2.4 New Urbanism in Film

The 1998 fantasy comedy-drama film The Truman Show uses the real life New
Urbanist town of Seaside, Florida as the setting for a perfect, fictional town
constructed as a set for a television show. The 2004 documentary The End of
Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream argues that the
depletion of oil will result in the demise of the sprawl-type development. [9] New
Urban Cowboy: Toward a New Pedestrianism, a feature length 2008 documentary
about urban designer Michael E. Arth, explains the principles of his New
Pedestrianism, a more ecological and pedestrian-oriented version of New

Urbanism. The film also gives a brief history of New Urbanism, and chronicles the
rebuilding of an inner city slum into a model of New Urbanism.

2.5 Criticisms

New urbanism has drawn both praise and criticism from all quarters of the political
spectrum. Some libertarians and fiscal conservatives view new urbanism as a
collectivist plot designed to rob Americans of their civil freedoms, property rights,
and free-flowing traffic.

Perhaps the most frequent criticism of the movement is that the most famous and
highest-profile projects most associated with the movement (primarily Celebration,
Kentlands, and Seaside) are all greenfield projects built on what was previously
open space and therefore are just another form of sprawl. (The city of Hercules on
the other hand is developing its New Urbanism communities on brownfields.)
Critics react to this as a controlled sprawl that assumes that social situations can
and should also be controlled, such that preconceived rules of what a town need be
are first worked out on paper and then acted out in real space. Often the results are
elitist and exclusionary, and are almost always conservative in nature.

Although the current use of non-mixed ghettoed social housing projects have been
a dismal failure, critics claim that the effectiveness of the New Urbanist solution of
mixed income developments lacks statistical evidence. However, numerous studies
by independent think tanks provide support to the basis for addressing poverty
through mixed-income developments, because these developments facilitate the
bridging of social capital, and thus provide for a higher shared quality of life across
socioeconomic cleavages.

A stream of thought in sustainable development maintains that sustainability is
based primarily on the combination of high density and transit service. Critics
claim many new urbanist developments fall short of being truly sustainable, to the
extent that they rely on automobile transport, and serve the detached single family
housing market. Many new urbanists claim that this is an incentive that prepares
people in transition from conventional suburban living to going back to downtown
living.

The New Urbanist preference for 'permeable' street grids has been criticized on the
grounds that it gives private motor vehicles an advantage over walking, cycling
and public transport. The transport performance of some New Urbanist
developments, such as Poundbury has been disappointing, with surveys revealing
high levels of car use. The alternative view, termed 'filtered permeability' (see
Permeability (spatial and transport planning)) is that to give pedestrians and
cyclists a time and convenience advantage, they need to be separated from motor
vehicles in places.

A forthcoming rating system for neighborhood environmental design, LEED-ND,
being developed by the U.S. Green Building Council, Natural Resources Defense
Council, and the Congress for the New Urbanism [1], should help to quantify the
sustainability of New Urbanist neighborhood design. New Urbanist and board
member of CNU, Doug Farr has taken a step further and coined Sustainable
Urbanism, which combines New Urbanism and LEED-ND to create walkable,
transit-served urbanism with high performance buildings and infrastructure. While
New Urbanism seeks to create walkable communities, it lacks an emphasis on
requiring these communities to participate in the green building movement.

2.6 Multiple Listing Service

A Multiple Listing Service (MLS) (also Multiple Listing System or Multiple
Listings Service) is a suite of services that (1) enables brokers to establish
contractual offers of compensation (among brokers); (2) facilitates cooperation
with other broker participants; (3) accumulates and disseminates information to
enable appraisals; (4) is a facility for the orderly correlation and dissemination of
listing information to better serve broker's clients, customers and the public. A
multiple listing service's database and software is used by real estate brokers in real
estate (or aircraft broker[citation needed]
in other industries for example), representing
sellers under a listing contract to widely share information about properties with
other brokers who may represent potential buyers or wish to cooperate with a
seller's broker in finding a buyer for the property or asset. The listing data stored in
a multiple listing service's database is the proprietary information of the broker
who has obtained a listing agreement with a property's seller.

There is no single authoritative "MLS", and no universal data format. However, in
real estate there is a data standard - Real Estate Transaction Standard - that is being
deployed among many[who?] MLS's in North America.[1] The many local and private
databases—some of which are controlled by single associations of realtors or
groupings of associations (which represent all brokers within a given community
or geographical area) or by real estate brokers—are collectively referred to as the
MLS because of their data sharing or reciprocal access agreements.

Seen most widely in the US and Canada but spreading to other countries in a
variety of forms, the MLS combines the listings of all available properties that are
represented by brokers who are both members of that MLS system and of NAR or
CREA, (the National Association of Realtors in the US or the Canadian Real
Estate Association).

The primary purpose of the MLS is to provide a facility to publish a "unilateral
offer of compensation" by a listing broker, to other broker participants in that
MLS. In other words, the commission rate that is offered by the listing broker is
published within the MLS to other cooperating brokers. This offer of compensation
is considered a contractual obligation, however it can be negotiated between the
listing broker and the broker representing the buyer. Since the commission for a
transaction as well as the property features are contained in the MLS system, it is
in the best interests of the broker participants (and thereby the public) to maintain
accurate and timely data.

The additional benefit of the MLS system is that an MLS subscriber may search
the MLS system and retrieve information about all homes for sale by all
participating brokers. MLS systems contain hundreds of fields of information
about the features of a property. These fields are determined by real estate
professionals who are knowledgeable and experienced in that local marketplace.
Whereas public real estate websites contain only a small subset of property data.

In North America, the MLS systems are governed by private entities, and the rules
are set by those entities with no state or federal oversight, beyond any individual
state rules regarding real estate. MLS systems set their own rules for membership,
access, and sharing of information, but are subject to nationwide rules laid down
by NAR or CREA. An MLS may be owned and operated by a real estate company,
a county or regional real estate board of realtors or association of realtors, or by a
trade association. Membership of the MLS is generally considered to be essential
to the practice of real estate brokerage.

2.7 Limitations Of Access To The MLS

Most MLS systems restrict membership and access to real estate brokers (and their
agents) who are appropriately licensed by the state (or province); are members of a
local board or association of realtors; and are members of the trade association
(e.g., NAR or CREA). However, access is becoming more open as internet sites
offer the public the ability to view portions of MLS listings (see below).

A person selling his/her own property - acting as a For Sale By Owner (or FSBO) -
cannot generally put a listing for the home directly into the MLS. An example of
an exception to this general practice is the MLS for Spain, [AMLASpain], where
FSBO listing are allowed.) Similarly, a properly licensed broker who chooses to
neither join the trade association nor operate a business within the association's
rules, cannot join the MLS.

However, there are brokers and many online services which offer FSBO sellers the
option of listing their property in their local MLS database by paying a flat fee or
another non-traditional compensation method.

2.8 MLS Systems in North America

Canada

In Canada, MLS is a cooperative system for the 82,000+ members of the Canadian
Real Estate Association (CREA), working through Canada's 99 real estate boards
and 11 provincial/territorial associations.

The Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver (REBGV) claims to have pioneered
the first MLS in Canada.[4]

A publicly accessible website (at realtor.ca, formerly mls.ca) allows consumers to
search an aggregated subset of each participating board's MLS database of active
listings, providing limited details and directing consumers to contact a Realtor for
more information.

United States

The largest MLS in the United States is currently the Washington, DC region's
Metropolitan Regional Information Systems, Inc (MRIS) covering Washington
DC, most of Maryland (including the Chesapeake Bay counties) and suburban
Virginia counties, and parts of West Virginia and Pennsylvania. As of late May
2008, it has about 55,600 active members, according to the public access sections
of its website,[6] although numbers vary according to when accessed.

New York City

Although the other boroughs and Long Island have an MLS, MLS has never taken
hold in Manhattan. A small group of brokers formed the Manhattan Association of
Realtors and operate MLSManhattan.com. MLSManhattan has a small fraction of
the total active inventory in Manhattan. The Bronx Manhattan North MLS also
offers coverage in Northern Manhattan. It too has failed to acquire widespread
adoption by brokers.

The prevalent database is operated by the Real Estate Board of New York
(REBNY), a non-Realtor entity that suceded from the National Association of
Realtors in the 1980s. REBNY operates a database called RLS which stands for
REBNY Listing Service. A predecessor of RLS was marketed as R.O.L.E.X

(REBNY Online Listing Exchange), before Rolex Watches claimed trademark
infringement.

Unlike MLS, RLS does not have under contract, sold or days on market data, nor
does it have rental listings. RLS is more of a Gateway of Active listings. There is
no single database. The RLS gateway is populated by several private databases that
include Online Residential (OLR) and Realplus a proprietary database exclusive to
a few large Manhattan Brokers. These databases exchange data continually
effectively creating several separate systems with essentially similar data. Another
vendor, Klickads, Inc D/B/A Brokers NYC, owned by Lala Wang sued in 2007 to
be included in the list of firms permitted to participate in the Gateway.

Most Manhattan brokerages are members of REBNY. The REBNY RLS requires
all listings to be entered and disseminated within 24 hours (Until 2007 72 Hours to
accommodate agencies without weekend data
entry)https://members.rebny.com/jsp/member/docs/manual/Residential_Resolution
.pdf

2.9 Policies on Sharing MLS data in the USA

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) has set policies that permit brokers to
show limited MLS information on their websites under a system known as IDX or
Internet Data Exchange. NAR has an ownership interest in Move Inc., the
company which operates a website that has been given exclusive rights to display
significant MLS information. The site is Realtor.com.

Using IDX search tools available on most real estate brokers' websites (as well as
on many individual agents' sites), potential buyers may view properties available
on the market, using search features such as location, type of property (single

family, lease, vacant land, duplex), property features (number of bedrooms and
bathrooms), and price ranges. In some instances photos can be viewed. Many allow
for saving search criteria and for daily email updates of newly-available properties.
However, if a potential buyer finds a property, he/she will still need to contact the
listing agent (or their own agent) to view the house and make an offer.

The U.S. Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit in September 2005
against the National Association of Realtors over NAR's policy which allowed
brokers to restrict access to their MLS information from appearing on the websites
of certain brokers which operate solely on the web.[7] This policy applied to
commercial entities which are also licensed brokerages, such as HomeGain, which
solicit clients by internet advertising and then provide referrals to local agents in
return for a fee of 25% to 35% of the commission.

The DOJ's antitrust claims also include NAR rules that exclude certain kinds of
brokers from membership in MLSs. NAR has revised its policies on allowing
access on web sites operated by member brokers and others to what might be
considered as proprietary data.[8]

The case was settled in May 2008, with NAR agreeing that Internet brokerages
would be given access to all the same listings that traditional brokerages are.[9]

2.9 Origin of the MLS

According to the National Association of REALTORS:

"In the late 1800s, real estate brokers regularly gathered at the offices of their local
associations to share information about properties they were trying to sell. They
agreed to compensate other brokers who helped sell those properties, and the first

MLS was born, based on a fundamental principal that's unique to organized real
estate: Help me sell my inventory and I'll help you sell yours."

Alternatives And Changes To The MLS System

Up until 1968 almost all brokers involved in transactions represented the seller,
either as the seller's agent or as the sub-agent of the listing broker. The seller paid
the listing broker who, in turn, was responsible for compensating the broker
working with the buyer. The MLS was intended to be a simple system that
benefited everyone, including both the buyers and sellers.

The 2005 Justice Department antitrust lawsuit against the National Association of
Realtors threatens the exclusivity MLS services in the US. If this case undermines
MLS exclusivity, open internet MLS systems may begin to thrive, perhaps
combined with Web 2.0 technologies such as social networking, allowing buyers
and sellers to interact without the need for an agent.

MLS Systems Worldwide

Although many countries are lacking regulations regarding real estate transactions,
lately there are attempts to align with those in developed markets. A special case
may be Italy which is developing the first international MLS. Its multilingual
interface, which translates property details and all the web pages instantly and
automatically into 8 languages, allows estate agents to share their property listings
with other estate agents around the world. The platform links over 1000 real estate
agents and over 40000 offers from 16 countries worldwide.

Europe

In certain European countries, most notably in Spain. The Spanish MLS website is
www.mls.es[3]

Real estate agents pay subscription fees to an MLS company which then allow
property listings to be uploaded onto their servers. Also, all subscribing real estate
agents create a property search link on their own websites which links directly to
the MLS service. Thus, any site visitor to any of the subscribing agents' sites will
be able to find all properties listed on the MLS servers, even though they are
visiting the website of a single agent. In effect, every single subscribing real estate
agent appears to be offering exactly the same properties for sale, not unlike the
situation with IDX systems in the United States.

When buyers use the internet to find property, often using Google, the search
results usually provide a list of real estate agents’ websites in the locality which is
being searched. The buyer clicks through the various websites and starts browsing
properties of interest, although every site visited is offering the same properties
because they are all linked to the same MLS server.

The buyer then has to choose an agent (again, not very different from elsewhere),
but it does force the buyer to make a decision, since all agents in the area have
access to all properties and the seller's agent will benefit regardless of who brings
the buyer, again very like the US.

Although there are currently no regulations in Europe in relation to MLS, it may be
a matter of time before its use may be viewed as a restrictive practice designed to
benefit real estate agents, rather than consumers.

Chapter Three: Principles of Intelligent Urbanism

3.1 Introduction

Principles of Intelligent Urbanism (PIU) is a theory of urban planning composed of
a set of ten axioms intended to guide the formulation of city plans and urban
designs. They are intended to reconcile and integrate diverse urban planning and
management concerns. These axioms include environmental sustainability,
heritage conservation, appropriate technology, infrastructure efficiency,
placemaking, "Social Access," transit oriented development, regional integration,
human scale, and institutional integrity.

The PIU evolved from the city planning guidelines formulated by the International
Congress of Modern Architecture (CIAM), the urban design approaches developed
at Harvard's pioneering Urban Design Department under the leadership of Josep
Lluis Sert, and the concerns enunciated by Team Ten. It is most prominently seen
in plans prepared by Christopher Charles Benninger and his numerous colleagues
in the Asian context (Benninger 2001). They form the elements of the planning
curriculum at the School of Planning, Ahmedabad, which Benninger founded in
1971. They were the basis for the new capital plan for Thimphu, Bhutan.

3.2 Axioms

Principle One: A Balance with Nature

According to proponents of Intelligent Urbanism, balance with nature emphasizes
the distinction between utilizing resources and exploiting them. It focuses on the
thresholds beyond which deforestation, soil erosion, aquifer depletion, siltation and
flooding reinforce one another in urban development, saving or destroying life
support systems. The principle promotes environmental assessments to identify
fragile zones, threatened ecosystems and habitats that can be enhanced through

conservation, density control, land use planning and open space design (McCarg:
1975). This principle promotes life cycle building energy consumption and
pollutant emission analysis.

This principle states there is a level of human habitation intensity wherein the
resources that are consumed will be replaced through the replenishing natural
cycles of the seasons, creating environmental equilibrium. Embedded in the
principle is contention that so long as nature can resurge each year; so long as the
biomass can survive within its own eco-system; so long as the breeding grounds of
fauna and avifauna are safe; so long as there is no erosion and the biomass is
maintained, nature is only being utilized.

Underlying this principle is the supposition that there is a fragile line that is
crossed when the fauna, which cross-fertilizes the flora, which sustains the soil,
which supports the hillsides, is no longer there. Erosion, siltation of drainage
networks and flooding result. After a point of no return, utilization of natural
resources will outpace the natural ability of the eco-system to replenish itself. From
there on degradation accelerates and amplifies. Deforestation, desertification,
erosion, floods, fires and landslides all increase.

The principle states that blatant "acts against nature" include cutting of hillside
trees, quarrying on slopes, dumping sewage and industrial waste into the natural
drainage system, paving and plinthing excessively, and construction on steep
slopes. This urban theory proposes that the urban ecological balance can be
maintained when fragile areas are reserved, conservation of eco-systems is
pursued, and low intensity habitation precincts are thoughtfully identified. Thus,
the principles operate within the balance of nature, with a goal of protecting and
conserving those elements of the ecology that nurture the environment. Therefore,

the first Principle of Intelligent Urbanism is that urbanization be in balance with
nature.

Principle Two: A Balance with Tradition

Balance with Tradition is intended to integrate plan interventions with existing
cultural assets, respecting traditional practices and precedents of style (Spreiregen:
1965). This urban planning principle demands respect for the cultural heritage of a
place. It seeks out traditional wisdom in the layout of human settlements, in the
order of building plans, in the precedents of style, in the symbols and signs that
transfer meanings through decoration and motifs. This principle respects the order
engendered into building systems through years of adaptation to climate, to social
circumstances, to available materials and to technology. It promotes architectural
styles and motifs designed to communicate cultural values.

This principle calls for orienting attention toward historic monuments and heritage
structures, leaving space at the ends of visual axis to “frame” existing views and
vistas. Natural views and vistas demand respect, assuring that buildings do not
block major sight lines toward visual assets.

Embedded in the principle is the concern for unique cultural and societal
iconography of regions, their signs and symbols. Their incorporation into the
spatial order of urban settings is promoted. Adherents promote the orientation and
structuring of urban plans using local knowledge and meaning systems, expressed
through art, urban space and architecture.

Planning decisions must operate within the balance of tradition, aggressively
protecting, promoting and conserving generic components and elements of the
urban pattern.

Principle Three: Appropriate Technology

Appropriate technology emphasizes the employment of building materials,
construction techniques, infrastructural systems and project management which are
consistent with local contexts. People's capacities, geo-climatic conditions, locally
available resources, and suitable capital investments all temper technology. Where
there are abundant craftspeople, labour intensive methods are appropriate. Where
there is surplus savings, capital intensive methods are appropriate. For every
problem there is a range of potential technologies, which can be applied, and an
appropriate fit between technology and other resources must be established.
Proponents argue that accountability and transparency are enhanced by overlaying
the physical spread of urban utilities and services upon electoral constituencies,
such that people’s representatives are interlinked with the urban technical systems
needed for a civil society. This principle is in sync with "small is beautiful"
concepts and with the use of local resources.

Principle Four: Conviviality

The fourth principle sponsors social interaction through public domains, in a
hierarchy of places, devised for personal solace, companionship, romance,
domesticity, "neighborliness," community and civic life (Jacobs:1993). According
to proponents of Intelligent Urbanism, vibrant societies are interactive, socially
engaging and offer their members numerous opportunities for gathering and
meeting one another. The PIU maintain that this can be achieved through design
and that society operates within hierarchies of social relations which are space
specific. The hierarchies can be conceptualized as a system of social tiers, with
each tier having a corresponding physical place in the settlement structure.

A Place for The Individual

A goal of Intelligent Urbanism is to create places of solitude. These may be in
urban forests, along urban hills, beside quiet streams, in public gardens and in
parks where one can escape to meditate and contemplate. According to proponents,
these are the quiet places wherein the individual consciousness dialogues with the
rational mind. Idle and random thought sorts out complexities of modern life and
allows the obvious to emerge. It is in these natural settings that the wandering mind
finds its measure and its balance. Using ceremonial gates, directional walls and
other “silent devices” these spaces are denoted and divined. Places of the
individual cultivate introspection. These spaces may also be the forecourts and
interior courtyards of public buildings, or even the thoughtful reading rooms of
libraries. Meditation focuses thought and sharpens one’s control over the conscious
world. Intelligent urbanism creates a domain for the individual to mature through
self-analysis and self-realization.

A Place for Friendship

The axiom insists that in city plans there must be spaces for “beautiful, intimate
friendship” where unfettered dialogue can happen. This principle insists that such
places will not exist naturally in a modern urban fabric. They must be a part of the
conscientious design of the urban core, of the urban hubs, of urban villages and of
neighborhoods, where people can meet with friends and talk out life’s issues,
sorrows, joys and dilemmas. This second tier is important for the emotional life of
the populace. It sponsors strong mental health within the people, creating places
where friendship can unfold and grow.

A Place for Householders

There must be spaces for householders, which may be in the form of dwellings for
families, or homes for intimate companions, and where young workmates can form
a common kitchen. Whatever their compositions, there must be a unique domain
for social groups, familiar or biological, which have organized themselves into
households. These domestic precincts are where families live and carry out their
day-to-day functions of life. This third tier of conviviality is where the individual
socializes into a personality.

Housing clusters planned according to this axiom create a variety of household
possibilities, which respond to a range of household structures and situations. It
recognizes that households transform through the years, requiring a variety of
dwellings types that respond to a complex matrix of needs and abilities, which are
provided for in city plans.

A Place for The Neighborhood

Smaller household domains must cluster into a higher social domain, the
neighborhood social group. These are social groups where everyone recognises one
another. Festivals are celebrated in neighborhoods, and one may be passively
drawn into local functions without any proactive effort.

In rural settings these are clusters of houses in hamlets, formed of large extended
families, where everyone knows each other, recognizes all of the good and bad
qualities of each person, and where social patterns of behavior are enforced
without written codes, or oppressive regimentation. In contemporary social settings
the neighborhood takes on some of the roles that were once sponsored by hamlets
composed of familiar members.

In an urban neighborhood each individual knows each other’s face, name, special
characteristics, strengths and weaknesses. In an urban village, the “eyes of the
street” provide protection and reassurance.

Neighborhoods built according to Intelligent Urbanism should accommodate play
areas for children, small hang-out places for pre-teens and common facilities like
post boxes and notice boards where people can meet casually.

Good city planning practice sponsors, through design, such units of social space. It
is in this fourth tier of social life that public conduct takes on new dimensions and
groups learn to live peacefully among one another. It is through neighborhoods that
the “social contract” amongst diverse households and individuals is sponsored.
This social contract is the rational basis for social relations and negotiations within
larger social groups. Within neighborhoods basic amenities like creches, early
learning centers, preventive health care and rudimentary infrastructure are
maintained by the community.

A Place for Communities

The next social tier, or hierarchy, is the community. Historically, communities
were tribes who shared social mores and cultural behavioral patterns. In
contemporary urban settings communities are formed of diverse people. But these
are people who share the common need to negotiate and manage their spatial
settings. In plans created through the Principles of Intelligent Urbanism these are
called Urban Villages. Like a rural village, social bonds are found in the
community management of security, common resources and social space. Urban
Villages will have defined social spaces, services and amenities that need to be
managed by the community. According to proponents of Intelligent Urbanism

these Urban Villages optimally become the administrative wards, and therefore the
constituencies, of the elected members of municipal bodies. Though there are no
physical barriers to these communities, they have their unique spatial social
domain. Intelligent Urbanism calls for the creation of dense, walkable zones in
which the inhabitants recognize each other’s faces, share common facilities and
resources, and often see each other at the village centre. This fifth tier of social
space is where one needs initiative to join into various activities. It is intended to
promote initiative and constructive community participation. There are
opportunities for one to be involved in the management of services, and amenities
and to meet new people. They accommodate primary education and recreation
areas. Good planning practice promotes the creation of community places, where
community based organizations can manage common resources and resolve
common problems.

A Place for the City Domain

The Principles of Intelligent Urbanism call for city level domains. These can be
plazas, parks, stadia, transport hubs, promenades, "passages" or gallerias. These are
social spaces where everyone can go. In many cities one has to pay an entrance fee
to access “public spaces” like malls and museums. Unlike the lower tiers of the
social hierarchy, this tier is not defined by any biological, familiar, face-to-face or
exclusive characteristic. One may find people from all continents, from nearby
districts and provinces and from all parts of the city in such places. By nature these
are accessible and open spaces, with no physical, social or economic barriers.
According to this principle it is the rules of human conduct that order this domain’s
behavior. It is civility, or civilization, which protects and energizes such spaces. At
the lower tiers, one meets people through introductions, through family ties, and
through neighborhood circumstances.

These domains would include all freely accessible large spaces. These are places
where outdoor exhibits are held, sports matches take place, vegetables are sold and
goods are on display. These are places where visitors to the city meander amongst
the locals. Such places may stay the same, but the people are always changing.
Most significant, these city scale public domains foster public interaction; they
sponsor unspoken ground rules for unknown people to meet and to interact. They
nurture civic understanding of the strength of diversity, variety, a range of cultural
groups and ethnic mixes. It is this higher tier of social space which defines truly
urbane environments.

Every social system has its own hierarchy of social relations and interactions.
Intelligent Urbanism sees cyberspace as a macro tier of conviviality, but does not
discount physical places in forging relationships due to the Internet. These are
reflected through a system of ‘places’ that respond to them. Good urban planning
practice promotes the planning and design of such ‘places’ as elemental
components of the urban structure.

Principle Five: Efficiency

The principle of efficiency promotes a balance between the consumption of
resources such as energy, time and fiscal resources, with planned achievements in
comfort, safety, security, access, tenure, productivity and hygiene. It encourages
optimum sharing of public land, roads, facilities, services and infrastructural
networks, reducing per household costs, while increasing affordability,
productivity, access and civic viability.

Intelligent Urbanism promotes a balance between performance and consumption.
Intelligent urbanism promotes efficiency in carrying out functions in a cost

effective manner. It assesses the performance of various systems required by the
public and the consumption of energy, funds, administrative time and the
maintenance efforts required to perform these functions.

A major concern of this principle is transport. While recognizing the convenience
of personal vehicles, it attempts to place costs (such as energy consumption, large
paved areas, parking, accidents, negative balance of trade, pollution and related
morbidity) on the users of private vehicles.

Good city planning practice promotes alternative modes of transport, as opposed to
a dependence on personal vehicles. It promotes affordable public transport. It
promotes medium to high-density residential development along with
complementary social amenities, convenience shopping, recreation and public
services in compact, walkable mixed-use settlements. These compact communities
have shorter pipe lengths, wire lengths, cable lengths and road lengths per capita.
More people share gardens, shops and transit stops.

These compact urban nodes are spaced along regional urban transport corridors
that integrate the region’s urban nodes, through public transport, into a rational
system of growth. Good planning practice promotes clean, comfortable, safe and
speedy, public transport, which operates at dependable intervals along major origin
and destination paths. Such a system is cheaper, safer, less polluting and consumes
less energy.

The same principle applies to public infrastructure, social facilities and public
services. Compact, high-density communities result in more efficient urban
systems, delivering services at less cost per unit to each citizen. There is an
appropriate balance to be found somewhere on the line between wasteful low-

density individual systems and over-capitalized mega systems. Costly, individual
septic tanks and water bores servicing individual households in low-density
fragmented layouts, cause pollution of subterranean aquifer systems. The bores
dramatically lower ground water levels. Alternatively, large-scale, citywide
sewerage systems and regional water supply systems are capital intensive and
prone to management and maintenance dysfunction. Operating costs, user fees and
cost recovery expenses are high. There is a balance wherein medium-scale
systems, covering compact communities, utilize modern technology, without the
pitfalls of large-scale infrastructure systems. This principle of urbanism promotes
the middle path with regard to public infrastructure, facilities, services and
amenities.

When these appropriate facilities and service systems overlap electoral
constituencies, the “imagery” between user performance in the form of payments
for services, systems dependability through managed delivery, and official
response through effective representation, should all become obvious and
transparent.

Good city planning practices promote compact settlements along dense urban
corridors, and within populated networks, such that the numbers of users who
share costs are adequate to support effective and efficient infrastructure systems.
Intelligent Urbanism is intended to foster movement on foot, linking pedestrian
movement with public transport systems at strategic nodes and hubs. Medium-
scale infrastructural systems, whose catchment areas overlap political
constituencies and administrative jurisdictions, result in transparent governance
and accountable urban management.

Principle Six: Human Scale

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