Former Indy Mayor Says Density Is Key In Modern Land Use

GOSHEN - The message from Washington is density, according to former mayor of Indianapolis William Hudnut III.

Now a resident fellow of the Urban Land Institute in Washington, D.C., and vice-mayor of Chevy Chase, Md., Hudnut was guest speaker during the Indiana Land Use Consortium conference Thursday at the Elkhart County Fairgrounds.

Hudnut said the new ethic of land use and development is to create better communities, not larger suburbs.

"We have to learn to redensify and revitalize downtowns by renewing, re-engineering and redesigning," he said, during a talk punctuated with humorous stories to illustrate his point. "There's going to be more money in rehabilitation and redevelopment in this century."

The return to town is a reversal of housing trends begun after World War II, which continue today. The result has been people without roots, teenagers whose main aim is to visit the mall, increased demands on resources as subdivision residents demand city services and gridlocks as workers drive into the city for work.

One California city provided municipal employees with $100,000 interest-free loans for housing if they moved back to town. Across the nation, he said, 90 percent of the workforce lives "out on the edge."

Using Indianapolis as a typical example, Hudnut said, the capital has grown by 82 percent from 1950 to 1990. Land use increased 356 percent.

"Now the focus is shifting back," he said. "Now the priorities are smaller lots and higher density. There's nothing wrong with planned unit developments, suburbs and greenfields, but we have to have more choices."

The mission of the Urban Land Institute is to look at the deeper dimensions of land use issues and foster responsible leadership to enhance the environment.

Telling a story about his father, an avid chess player, Hudnut illustrated the kind of thinking necessary to house the next generation.

One day his father was admiring a marble chess set in a shop window and the proprietor came out and asked if Mr. Hudnut played. He said he did and the owner invited him to a game.

Mr. Hudnut, a good player used to competitions lasting half an hour or more, was checkmated in seven minutes. Astonished, he asked the man from the shop how he was beaten.

"'I begin at the end of the game and work backward,' he told my dad," Hudnut said. "And that's how we must look at land use from 20 to 30 years out.

"The problems are coming and our job is to anticipate them. It's not to OK one development after another. Plan for 20 to 30 years so you have communities you love, not communities you hate."

Showing refurbished apartment complexes and multi-use commercial and residential buildings from across the country, he said walkable neighborhoods are being created with redesign, protecting habitat, recreation areas and agricultural resources.

In addition to density, another component for future housing is affordability.

Population projections for 2020 show 60 million more people in the United States than in 2000, translating into a need for 16 million more housing starts this decade and 18 million more beginning in 2010.

Projected demographics predict Hispanic residents will comprise 30 percent of the population by 2030, compared to 11 percent now.

Hudnut said 14 percent of American families have severe housing needs and the problem is more severe in the suburbs than in the cities. More than four million moderate income families, "who work and play by the rules," pay more than 33 percent for housing or live in dilapidated homes.

Multi-story buildings with retail uses below and apartments above are one solution, along with local ordinances allowing for compact development.

"Density by design" is the way you lick NIMBY (people opposed to change or who say "not in my backyard"), Hudnut said.

Editor's note: More articles on the conference will appear on Wednesday's Farm pages.