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Creation Care for Neighborhoods: The Quest for Bayview Village Sherman Lewis, PhD. Copyright 2013 Sherman Lewis Smashwords Edition *** This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re- sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author. *** Table of Contents Preface The Foundation Creation care: the evolution of culture and the need for inspirational language Evolution of thinking The Whole Economy and Values Chapter 1 Transportation Pricing Reform: Paying Directly for Driving Carism Definition Specific Transportation Pricing Reforms 12 topics Involving People in Parking Policy Mode diversity and the locational decision The Shuttle Land-based shuttle finance Conclusion Chapter 2 Neighborhood Systems Density details Suburbia, a wonderful failure Six goals for neighborhood systems Affordablity; Sustainablity; Mobility; Health/Saftey/Security; Design; Community Low productivity consumption Smart Growth Functional density Grocery Store Trip Short Corridor Systems Optimal Building Design Floor plans Water and landscaping Energy Analysis and assessment Chapter 3 Going Dense Old and dense in Europe New and semi-car free in Europe Old and dense in America Relevance for other places Chapter 4 A Freeway Dies, An Idea Is Born Early history 7 sections named by dates 2013 Chapter 5 Bayview Village Project Summary Location Map Planning Tools Chapter 6 Project Description Site, Properties, Conditions Geotechnical Engineering Site Plan Bayview Village Center Circulation Parks and Recreation Acres summary Grading Utilities Engineer’s report Related Development Chapter 7 Green Building Affordability Unit types and floor plans Elevation issues Building costs Green Building Specifications Chapter 8 Green Energy Green Energy Cost Green Energy Specifications Chapter 9 Green Water and Landscaping Chapter 10 Green Mobility Walking and cycling The Village Bus Parking Car share/rental Other mobility Travel time and cost budgets Chapter 11 Green Jobs and Economy Chapter 12 Design Chapter 13 Community Pets HOA Services Chapter 14 Regulation a. California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) b. City of Hayward General Plan and Zoning Ordinance c. C.3 Provisions d. Green Building Code e. Inclusionary Housing Ordinance f. ADA and Fire Requirements Chapter 15 Evaluation Evaluation Affordability Sustainability Mobility Security, Health, and Safety Design Community Related Evaluation Systems LEED and Green Point Rated International Living Future Institute Litman Chapter 16 Markets and Marketing Supply and Demand Market Research The Market Buyer Profiles Pricing and Comparables Rent, Lease to Buy, Buy Buying Energy Point of Sale Choices Transitional Parking Advertising and Buyer Education Initial Services Implementation Chapter 17 Financing Financing Financing Overview Financing Details Other Financial Analyses Village Bus Chapter 18 Stages Chapter 19 Risk Factors Chapter 20 The LLC Option The LLC Option a. Investor accreditation b. Investors and the LLC c. The Board of Directors d. Management e. Accounting/Reporting f. LLC Definitions End Note Preface This book aims to move thinking forward on one of the most important places we take for granted: our neighborhoods. Bayview Village needs financing. Unless an investor takes it seriously, it is not going to happen. The Hayward Area Planning Association, which I lead, has been planning the project for ten years and has spent over a year seeking financing, without success. HAPA seeks someone to take over the project and work with us to make it happen. At a few places in this book, I mention what I don’t know––a Beta version comment. This eBook is a draft for electronic circulation. All this work needs to be made available now, yet also needs more work. Further, an auction of an important property within the site is being sold at auction on March 13, and the position of the new owner will be of major importance for whether Bayview Village succeeds or fails. I do not have connections to investors or developers. I suspect that the few hundred parties I have sent information to have not responded because they don’t do anything close to what HAPA is proposing, their corporate investment policy is not flexible, they have a short-term, three to five years, time horizon to get their money out, real estate development is in a major slump, the project is too big for them, the property is not on the market yet, they are not looking for projects, or, if all that were not enough, the proposal has very limited parking, only 100 spaces for 1,000 units. It has been hard to figure out who to ask to invest, given the unusual nature of the project. Organizations like Smart Growth America, which has some developer involvement through its LOCUS program, have not helped, and are not set up to help. Many financial firms invest in existing real estate but not development. Firms that develop commercial properties don’t do residential. Large residential developers concentrate on large car-oriented subdivisions; a few are doing smaller condo projects. Affordable housing agencies depend on tax subsidies and do not do market-oriented projects. Bayview is much bigger than their usual projects. HAPA has tried going outside the development investment network to reach other kinds of investors. Most never answer my email, mail, or calls. Some have told me they like the project but never invest outside the area they know about. A few say, in effect, “Go away.” I suspect they may see Bayview Village as just another real estate development, or think it won’t work because of the lack of parking, if they get that far in looking at the idea. I need to do more to get attention, to climb over the wall that seems to make Bayview invisible to those who should think about it, i.e., green patient investors. Hence, this book. You will find the project carefully thought out, but that does not get us all the way there. The crucial ingredient for investors is intuition, that extra entrepreneurial insight that comes after extensive knowledge. The plan of the book starts off with a philosophical non-chapter, The Foundation, discussing creation care, evolution of thinking, and the whole economy and values. For a summary of the proposal, go to Chapter Five. Chapters One and Two have policy analysis that lay out the framework for sustainable neighborhood development. Such development involves six systems and goals, and how they reinforce each other to achieve the goals of each system:— affordability, sustainability, alternative mobility, health and security, good design, and community. Chapter One covers Transportation Pricing Reform, the biggest missing policy to create a level playing field in the whole economy. Chapter Two focuses on neighborhood systems, short corridors, and functional density. Chapter Three covers existing dense neighborhoods, consisting of certain older European neighborhoods, newer European car-free neighborhoods, and certain old American neighborhoods. Chapter Four covers the unusual historical circumstances that stopped an ill-fated freeway and saved a large property near California State University East Bay in Hayward (CSUEB Hayward) long enough that it may be possible build a new, progressive neighborhood system. The main part of the book starts with a summary of the Bayview Village plan in Chapter Five, then Chapters Six to Eighteen cover various aspects of the plan. These chapters should be of interest to those considering investing in the land or the project, those who are planning a sustainable community and would like specific ideas about how to do it, and those with an interest in the environment and sustainable cities. Chapters Six to Eighteen cover a myriad of details on many subjects relating to Bayview: 6: project description, 7: buildings, 8: energy, 9: water and landscaping, 10: mobility, 11. jobs and economy, 12: design, 13: community, 14: regulations, 15: evaluation, 16: markets and marketing, 17: financing, and 18: staging. The Foundation While this book is primarily about how to implement a sustainable neighborhood using a specific example, those ideas result from a framework of supporting ideas. This introduction covers ideas fundamental to the whole sustainability movement, using three major topics. Creation Care covers the religious or spiritual basis, the deepest, most profound feeling and thinking we can do about life and existence in general. This topic is strenuously avoided by secular academics, but I want to make clear that our eventual discussion of details springs from the most important issues of our age or any age. Evolution of thinking discusses how our thinking about how we think has been revolutionized by scientific discoveries about our brains, the biological basis of culture, the power of culture to override facts, and how culture frames policy. The whole economy and values discusses how some cultures value monetized transactions as a dominant reality, other cultures value non-monetized reality, both sides fail to recognize the arbitrariness of their values, and the need to integrate both values. Creation Care Creation Care is a term used by religious progressives who care about our stewardship over the earth which God, or some similar source of meaning, created for our enjoyment and entrusted into our care, with the long term enjoyment depending of the quality of care. Secular environmentalists and other progressives use a different kind of language for similar underlying ideas, often creating a gulf between religious and secular progressives. The term “creation care” is not used by secular environmentalists, but their term, “environmentalism,” does not frame the issue in a compelling way. Secularists can be uninformed about, and uneasy with, “religion,” and often can’t tell the difference between religious progressives who use science, as opposed to doctrinaire ideologues who command the attention of a benighted mass media. The media covers the zealots and not the poets, sectarianism and not spirituality, the conflicts that divide us and not poetry than can bring us together. In California, religious progressives have a coalition, California Interfaith Power and Light: “A group of religious groups that seek to respond to global warming through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.” (http://interfaithpower.org) Their leaders: Let me also introduce Richard Cizik and his New Evangelical Partnership for the Common Good. He says, [I believe] “that ultimately evangelicals will themselves be persuaded by the evidence of the argument, and people change their minds. I changed my mind, and I used to be part of the group of people that are advocating for cutting Title X funding. I changed my mind because the evidence indicated that I needed to change my mind.” Title X funds services like Planned Parenthood. Cizik was an early advocate for creation care, which, for him, is of one piece with science, climate change, population stabilization, status of women, health care, reproductive services, synergy among progressive policies, and Christianity. (http://grist.org/climate- energy/evangelical-leader-says-we-need-family-planning-to-help-fight-climate-change, Grist, Dec. 10, 2012) With the human habitability of the earth at stake, how we talk about sustainability needs to embody its emotional centrality, not just its rational pragmatism, in order to inspire the deepest motivations of a rising generation with a transforming purpose. Hence, I use the term creation care to frame the issue in stronger spiritual language. Framing is important. Poetic language, secular or religious, reaches other people outside the choir. Poetic language educates and persuades others using words that are meaningful to them. Too often, environmentalists and secularists use a language of facts, analysis, and pragmatism that fails to inspire. Lots of facts are, in fact, my personal predilection, as most of this book will prove. (We can’t all be John Muir.) The challenges of creation care cover a wide range of policies, a number of which come together in neighborhoods. Neighborhoods as social places get a lot of attention, but hardly any attention as systems needing a lot of creation care. This needs to change. Neighborhoods are the major missing ingredient in the debate on creation care and sustainability. Changing how neighborhoods work is essential for slowing and reversing the environmental devastation of the earth, for gross domestic happiness (also known as the economy), and for social equity. HAPA is looking for investors who want to invest carefully but also want to make a difference on one of the most important challenges facing humanity. Bayview Village is not just about a real estate investment; it is about entrepreneurship. Evolution of Thinking Humanity is in a bit of a bind. Our lop-sided skill set is really good at analysis and tool use, which has allowed us to revolutionize technology. On the other hand, our brains as evolved to date are not really good at moving beyond tribalism, broadly defined as the us-versus-them mentality. Tribes here include corporations, nations, sects, and other reasons for dehumanizing, hating, robbing and killing other people. This genetic predisposition, which is as natural as cooperation, makes people compete with each other in “tribal” groups, in ways often devastating to the tribes. Their competition in today’s world is devastating to nations, and, with atomic weapons, possibly huge parts of the earth. The path away from nuclear war, climate change, and other environmental devastation must be to reduce tribalism or, much the same idea, to expand the tribe. Tribes in the old-fashioned sense still-exist off in isolated rural and wild areas, are politically weak, and suffer at the hands of the big tribes, with their nationalisms, corporate power, agribusiness, mining, ethnic cleansing, mega-capital mega-projects, and various kinds of oppressive dictatorships. Those little tribes, which are sustainable by nature, and those of us in the modern world who are trying to get there, are being overwhelmed. The thinking styles of our species naturally spread along a spectrum from doctrinaire ideological thinking concerned with narrow values at one end, to pragmatic, scientific, tolerant, complicated thinking concerned with many values at the other. Doctrinaire ideological thinking as used here does not refer to various philosophies of government, opinions, and values, but to asserting one’s own facts unsupported by the rules of evidence and science. The Pope once had more power than Galileo, and today Grover Norquist has more power than pragmatic moderates. Historically, the Age of Enlightenment did not achieve much in society as a whole. The enlightenment went only a little bit forward, with too few people and just the start of science. Ideological thinking is not related to intelligence or information. There seems to be some period of adolescence and early adulthood when individuals acquire the interests that shape their careers and social action. Some individuals internalize an ideology of some kind, grab the information that reinforces their ideas, and ignore the rest, often with some, if selective, intelligence. Ideologues by nature can out-yell the pragmatists. Their advocacy can pull the uninformed into their camp along the fault lines of ignorance and fear in our culture. [...]... evidence from the earth confirms the science, we tend to believe it It is hard for us to deal with the ignorance of the many and the bias of the ideologues A few skeptics are jeopardizing the future, not of the planet, but of its human habitability for their own children Unfortunately, so far, science understands the earth better than it understands why we think the way we do about it The human genome... sometimes before the highway is built, changing the assumptions used by the traffic planners and their models Traffic increases as home buyers go further out to optimize the value of the house versus the length of the commute, resulting in longer, higher-speed commutes of about the same duration: the new road allows a commute of about the same elapsed time at a higher speed over a longer distance than the. .. to the high cost of driving for free” on freeways Tolls raise equity questions In first instance, the wealthy can price the poor off the road But there are countervailing considerations The vast majority of poor do not use freeways for commuting, or much else Many can’t afford cars to begin with, and they can’t afford to spend much time or expense getting to work The toll removes traffic from the. .. does not lend itself in any simple way to market reform The victims can’t be identified before the fact, and the culprits cannot be identified after the fact The road kill problem is highly localized For the most part, nature just regenerates enough wildlife to maintain populations, with a dip in the census along the road, except for vultures and maggots The problem is found along only a few stretches... http://www.vtpi.org/health.pdf The major policy for getting markets to consider non-monetized value is to change prices, to be discussed Chapter Two, Transportation Pricing Reforms This topic and dense neighborhoods are the analytical basis for the details of Bayview Village Chapter 1 Transportation Pricing Reform: Paying Directly for Driving Car users pay for some of their costs directly, out of pocket,... benefit to the community We do not yet have much useful scientific understanding of the social and physiological bases for this kind of thinking (It also exists on the left.) Speaking for the pragmatists, we try to understand science When the vast majority of hundreds of scientists from all over the world tell us much the same thing for about 20 or 30 years, we tend to believe them When all the evidence... and other systems that cost more than they benefit The whole economy can decline while the money economy grows Sustainability requires “growth without growth”: there is no reason the money economy cannot continue to grow in ways that grow the whole economy, while the negatives decline It is not a question of reducing consumption, but changing consumption to be sustainable It is not a question of the. .. hit the back right car door, and spun off the road on to the other side, down and out of sight, to an unknown fate, leaving some fur in a crack in the back door It took less than a second, but it was memorable, and I carried the tuft of fur in my overcoat pocket for many years The Audubon Society and Defenders of Wildlife care about this problem The dead include porcupines, armadillos, Florida panthers,... Pricing Reforms The many different specific transportation pricing reforms need to be linked as tightly as possible to the particular cost being internalized Some studies have lumped all the costs into a tax on gasoline, but this grossly oversimplifies the complexity of the situation, and in many cases a gas tax wouldn't work These subsidies and reforms tailored for each are discussed here Then, we... where there was congestion does have some benefit, but the question is whether it is worth the cost That question leads to another, compared to what? A cost can be assigned to congestion delay, and the cost compared to policies of doing nothing, building more capacity, having some congestion charge, and investing in alternative modes The cost of more capacity needs to include not only the cost of the . Creation Care for Neighborhoods: The Quest for Bayview Village Sherman Lewis, PhD. Copyright 2013 Sherman. you for respecting the hard work of this author. *** Table of Contents Preface The Foundation Creation care: the evolution of culture and the need for