"If you leave developers alone, they're like hogs"

While it makes sense to reduce recreational space requirements for multiunit buildings in particular places in the city, such as downtown (see "D.C. drops rule for builders" from the Washington Times, it doesn't make sense to (1) not make any provisions for recreational space for downtown residents at all; or (2) not do broader planning for recreational amenities for residents in dense areas; and (3) require developers pay into a common fund for the creation and maintenance of such amenities.

Recreational space is a collective good, and it makes sense to provide it collectively. It just doesn't make sense to let developers off the hook in terms of funding.

Vancouver, BC, not DC, knows how to do this right. From the article "“Living First” in Downtown Vancouver":

Organizing Principles for Downtown Housing Vancouver’s “living first” success, however, is not just the result of favoring housing and changing the zoning to allow it to happen. Nor is it just the result of a vibrant market. The secret lies in a comprehensive integrated strategy: pushing for housing intensity; insisting on housing diversity; structuring for coherent, identifiable, and supportive neighborhoods; and fostering suitably domestic urban design and architecture.

Lacking few contemporary examples to emulate, Vancouver has framed a made-at-home urban model founded on basic organizing principles for downtown housing...

Another basic principle has been to develop a complete neighborhood unit at a pedestrian scale with mixed use, an infrastructure of necessary utilities and amenities, an associated local commercial high street, and phasing to make ancillary amenities available as people move in and need them. It was necessary to include what sociologists call the essential “third places,” after home and work, where people gather to create the tangible society of their neighborhood. ...

A related principle is that open space and green linkages bring both amenity and image to each neighborhood. A high park standard has led to 65 acres of new parks being added in the Downtown Peninsula over the last decade. Everything is tied together by a spectacular walkway/bikeway system. The water’s edge must be dedicated to the public, at the time of zoning approval, and must be delivered fully developed for recreational use. This is Vancouver’s single most popular civic initiative, now stretching over 20 kilometers, out from the core.

It is absolutely necessary to ensure that the cost for public utilities and facilities will be borne primarily by the development that must be served. In principle, the city avoids burdening the existing taxpayer with the costs of this growth. Otherwise, we would have seen a taxpayers’ revolt, closing the door on housing growth.
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Provision of public recreational space should have been considered as part of the planning process for the old Convention Center site. Other spaces should have been identified as well.

Instead, the Zoning Commission only addresses 1/2 of the issue--that providing recreational space on a building by building basis can be inefficient--not looking to broker a solution to provide recreational space overall in an efficient and logical fashion.

Also see "Graceful growth in Vancouver," from the San Francisco Chronicle. From the article:

"If you leave developers alone, they're like hogs," says Nat Bosa, a Vancouver member of the breed. "They need discipline. Rules have to be enforced." ...

"I have a tremendous respect for developers," says senior central area planner Michael Gordon, a self-described socialist known for arriving at public hearings on a skateboard. "As long as you lay out clear, strong rules, they can be very creative. Their ego's involved."

And hey: They're picking up most of the tab for the amenities everyone loves. "When you're talking density, more people, the cost of enhancing the public domain becomes relative," says Richard Henriquez, one of Vancouver's leading architects. "It's a small investment that improves the quality of life of the entire neighborhood."

Index Keywords: urban-design-placemaking