Other cities take hardline stance on zoning changes

By Joe Schoenmann (contact)

Sunday, April 20, 2008 | 2 a.m.

In Lake Oswego, Ore., it’s the city’s way or the highway.

Denver reached out to thousands of residents to figure out how many pawn shops could spring up next to quickie check-cashers — or not.

And Sacramento examines planning issues through intense and numerous meetings with residents.

Development and growth in cities throughout the West vary greatly. What’s clear from talking to officials in a few cities, however, is that citizen involvement is the ultimate key to good planning.

“If a community clearly articulates its vision for the future, and it does so in a comprehensive plan ... all land-use decisions can then consult those plans,” said Julius Zsako, Denver Community Planning and Development spokesman.

In Denver, those aren’t just words.

In 2002 the city enacted Blueprint Denver, a months-long effort involving 2,000 residents who defined, as Zsako put it, “what we want and where we want it.”

A city of roughly 560,000, with a metropolitan area population of more than 2 million, Denver is considered one of the nation’s most livable large cities. Its citizen-involved planning also seems to have helped its business climate. This month, Fortune Small Business magazine ranked it the nation’s seventh best place to “launch (a business) and live.”

Lake Oswego, a wealthy Portland suburb of 35,000, is considered one of the most well-planned communities in an area renowned for planning. In Lake Oswego, the city’s code is law.

“A zone change in this community is really difficult,” said Dennis Egner, the city’s assistant planning director for long-range planning.

“It’s a completely different approach in philosophy. Here, the plan is supported very much by a lot of the neighborhood groups. And they are always very concerned about increases in density and in larger-scale commercial development. So they’re monitoring it like hawks all the time.”

David Kwong, planning manager for Sacramento, Calif., said his department “doesn’t recommend denials that often, because most of the work is done beforehand.”

“With big track developments, we can go six to eight meetings if not more” before the proposal ever enters the city political arena. He estimated that before approval was made on a $200 million urban hospital on just eight acres, developers and city officials held 25 to 30 meetings with neighbors.

“This is a very active city, we have some of the most educated and sophisticated residents in the state here,” he said. Those residents, he said, expect time and care to go into development decisions.