Cool Spots, bright idea

New Urban News Article with images, 1/1/2008

As new urbanists struggle to find ways to publicize the environmental advantages of walkable land-use patterns, a planning technology is taking shape that could make that case on a wider scale.

Eliot Allen of Criterion Planners in Portland, Oregon, calls the idea “Cool Spots,” a catchy name with a double meaning — it refers to compact, transit-oriented nodes that are both trendy and friendly to the climate.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) is working with Allen to refine Cool Spots and is looking to complete a paper in 2008 that will bring the idea to policy analysts, environmental groups, and government officials, says Kaid Benfield, NRDC senior attorney and director the group’s smart growth program.

Benfield acknowledges that New Urbanism and smart growth have not gotten the recognition they deserve relative to their potential for reducing per capita energy use. “To some extent it is our fault in the environmental community,” he says. “We have not recognized and promoted it. Part of the problem is that [benefits from land use changes] are more difficult to quantify than changes in vehicle fleet efficiency.”