Online Land Planning

24th European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference & Exhibition

2009-10-09T05:29:00Z

The world’s largest solar PV conference was held September 21-25, 2009 in Hamburg, Germany. I had a chance to attend and used the event as an opportunity to understand the key players, learn about new technology, latest trends and assess the current state of the industry. Here are a few impressions of what I heard and saw:

1. The solar PV industry appears quite mature and poised to launch in dramatic fashion once global capital markets rebound and cash becomes available. Japan, Germany and the US remain the technology leaders. But now, there is overcapacity. So the goal is to maintain margins as prices get cut based on competition.

2. Solar PV manufacturers are being cautious about expansion and instead are focused on building market share. They are strategically looking for new opportunities in the 50-100 MW range.

3. The United States is considered a huge potential market for solar PV, but government policies are inconsistent and do not appear to support rapid growth. European manufacturers are quite interested in the DOE loan guarantee programs.

4. India will announce its National Solar Plan in November – 20 GW domestic need by Y2020. This should cause ripples through the solar PV Industry. To achieve this, 5MW would need to be produced every day until the deadline. Although, the perception is that conducting business in India is still confusing and difficult.

5. To offset this concern and meet the pressing demand, a special ‘solar economic zone’ where a public – private partnership offers a business park setting, shared resources, tax and trade credits, green jobs, training and no government interference throughout the entire value chain - was proposed by India.

6. China appears to be successful in getting established as solar PV manufacturing force and has been gaining market share. They don’t appear to be adding any new, meaningful technology. Instead, they are concentrating on completing the value chain, improving quality, building sales channels through mass production and lowering costs by selling modules at a discount to throughout the US, Europe and Japan.

7. Governments trying to lure solar PV business into their regions have plenty to choose from as new competition enters the industry. As a result, third-party industry experts are now being asked to make independent evaluations on business plans to determine which companies will get government incentives.

8. Japanese solar PV manufacturers are starting to set up capabilities in the United States in order to preserve their intellectual property rights. They preferred the US patent system.

9. Oregon established the first statewide feed-in tariff in the US for solar PV. This state is also preferred because it has large, natural deposits of silicon ingots - the raw material used to produce solar cells, along with an educated, green collar workforce.

10. Grid parity is still considered a nearly a decade away. But when it occurs, the solar PV industry is considered boundless in terms of financial potential, thus the continued investments to reach this milestone.

11. Spain, once the envy of the world because of their commitment to solar PV applications of all types, has been hampered since the government no longer provides wide ranging subsidies.

12. Solar PV farms, consisting of different applications including condensers, modules and reflective mirrors are the most ubiquitous large-scale applications. In populated areas and small countries, they take up a large amount of land, require constant maintenance and have poor visual quality.

13. Still, solar PV makes the most sense to alleviate ‘brown outs’ in many parts of the world where the demand for electricity is highest during the day and correlates to when the sun is shining.

14. Solar PV manufacturers are beginning to include vertical integration into their business models such as developing utility size power plants to capitalize on their output as they predict the future of the energy market and how power will be distributed.

15. The biggest technology drawback to solar PV is that the power produced must be used right away. It cannot be stored efficiently and affordably.

16. No significant new solar PV innovations at the exhibition were highlighted that have been field-tested and proven. Rather a maturation of existing technologies was the norm.

17. Low cost, thin film flexible solar cells (CIGS) caught my attention. They are durable, lightweight and require no glass. Cell strips can be glued onto existing house roof tiles and boat decks. When accompanied by a portable solar charger they can be applied to camping tents, backpacks and clothing.

18. Uncertainty of the market has made leading solar PV companies unwilling to share lessons learned and competitive data with the industry.

Rick Abelson
Director - Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com
www.onlineurbanplanning.com

Portland: A Rose By Any Other Name

2009-08-12T00:09:00Z

Every real estate developer and urban planner knows that Portland, Oregon rocks. It is probably our best civic example in the United States of defining a comprehensive growth strategy for its citizens and staying true to the vision. The result is an authentic, creative, smart, home grown, artsy, sustainable, eco-friendly, colorful, self sufficient, vibrant, athletic, outdoorsy, walking, biking, multi-generational and experimental lifestyle downtown community where buildings, transit, waterfront festivals, park blocks, fountains, theaters, bookstores, galleries, music, crafts, food, wine, beer, coffee and people all blend together perfectly. It really works here. But one thing was never done properly and needs to be changed to capture this spirit – the name of the city.

Portland. How dull.

Decided by a coin toss in 1845, the city’s founding fathers, Lovejoy and Pettygrove, agreed to name this new city after the winner’s respective home town. Their surroundings didn’t seem to influence them. Not the aromatic rhododendrons, crystal water, majestic snow capped mountains, abundant Willamette River salmon and ever presents rain. On the final flip, Pettygrove gave his distinctive Maine smile. Portland won over Boston.

Through the generations, colloquial taglines have been added - the City of Roses, Bridgetown, P-Town, PDX, Rip City and Stump Town. Yet, none seem to pick up the essence of what makes this city so special and why the world has embraced it.

But surely, Portlanders understand that the brand is often the name itself. This is the home of Nike. So why doesn’t Portland step up and solve its identity crisis like other well known cities. Mumbai (Bombay), Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Beijing (Peking), Jakarta (Batavia) all decided to rewrite their history.

Renaming Portland would be an event. A very Oregonian approach.
The new name should ensure consensus comes easily. Something forward looking - and timeless. A name for not only the 21st century, but the 22nd century as well.

When author Ernest Callenbach wrote his 1975 cult novel, Ecotopia about a northwest sustainable society, it seems strange how relevant certain passages have become. Today, Portland continues to inspire the world. What it still needs is a name that captures this reality, encourages people to visit and inspires them to learn, grow and thrive.

Please send comments or new names for Portland to help this great city explore its true brand essence.

Rick Abelson
Director of Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com
www.onlineurbanplanning.com

Potential Energy & Renewable Resource Mapping - PERRM™

2009-06-08T18:40:00Z

One important planning approach for sustainable living is how to locate and integrate the natural and man-made attributes of the land to configure a low-carbon site for large scale development. Steven Kellenberg’s, Urban Land Green article, "Ten Keys to a Low-Carbon Community", http://www.uli.org/ResearchAndPublications/Magazines/UrbanLandGreen.aspx offers an excellent primer on the symbiotic relationship between a variety of planning and design principles that provide measurable solutions for sustainable growth.

Online Land Planning http://www.onlinelandplanning.com has deepened the analytical process of qualifying low-carbon sites through an integrated strategy for sustainable site development called Potential Energy & Renewable Resource Mapping, or PERRM™.

PERRM™ assists property owners identify and document the inherent surface and subsurface resources available on their land to create synergy and an energy efficient infrastructure between the natural and man-made environment to provide an affordable strategy for low carbon development. Our goal is to save energy costs for the property owner, the inhabitants and the planet by lowering greenhouse gas emissions and promoting a carbon neutral environment. The objectives are to leverage financial incentives, create steady, ancillary revenue sources and foster entrepreneurial cooperation based on a framework of low carbon development and energy efficiency.

In the past developers often ignored potential energy & renewable resources or left them independent. The data collected by civil and geotechnical engineers was primarily used to identify build /no build areas or close gaps in the traditional infrastructure owned by public utilities. Today, property owners have found PERRM™ to be valuable for establishing energy usage and efficiency criteria required to for new community development, renewable energy tax credits, revenue negotiations, formation of municipal utility districts, lease strategies, partnering with emerging technology companies, energy legislation and jurisdictional approvals and new federal and state incentive programs,. Also, PERRM™ is useful to communicate the ‘uniqueness of the land’ as a branding opportunity, since the process and results are inherently interesting to the public.

PERRM™ identifies and explores the potential for integrated strategies between crude oil, natural gas, landfill, wastewater treatment, hydro, solar, wind, geothermal, water wells, rain harvesting, conventional power grids CH&P, desalinization, biomass agriculture, bioremediation and potential for loop optimization to fulfill a variety of outcomes.

For instance, a slope analysis study, often used only to identify buildable areas are being reexamined using PERRM™ as locations for thermal radiation collection based on solar and surface geothermal (GHPs) potential.

PERRM™ may not make sense everywhere. Scale is important and large properties benefit. Some of the overlapping tasks that need to be performed in a PERRM™ study include:

1. Preparation of a 1:1000 base map and aerial photo by civil & geotechnical experts.

2. Agree on the purpose and goals for the PERRM™.

3. Complete the PERRM™ Energy Questionnaire

4. Compile a first-level PERRM™ based on local knowledge of existing conditions.

5. Locate available public and private data such as specific plan documents and internal technical reports. Plot all relevant information on the first-level map (wastewater and soils, etc).

6. Overlay initial PERRM™ results to determine opportunity and constraints.

7. Evaluate overall energy requirements for the property.

8. Develop second and third-level PERRM™ criteria for collecting data on solar, thermal heat, wind studies, etc.

9. Begin informational meetings with companies that have products and services that rely on renewable resources. Build consensus on overall community energy infrastructure planning, micro grids, SMART Home technology, timing and costs.

10. Begin jurisdictional meetings with state and federal agencies regarding tax credit, application requirements, expediting, costs and public relations.

11. Prepare a cost benefit analysis and infrastructure savings report for negotiations during land sales.

PERRM™ has resulted in a several low carbon development criteria that the property owners once thought were unattainable. First, striving for 80% of peak energy demand with renewable resources is realistic. Second, developers should keep the carbon reduction credits in anticipation of a future cap and trade strategy being initiated by the US government. Finally, while mineral rights are important - so are air rights. Developers should keep the air gap rights above the roof lines on all new structures for future renewable potential which they can use or sell.

PERRM™ studies ultimately leads to a myriad of new questions and scenarios that need to be solved on a case by case basis. The methodology also involves engaging new disciplines and energy experts to cooperate on this breakthrough process. PERRM™ creates a new value proposition from how land planning and development has been approached before in order to create a low carbon environment to help us all.

Rick Abelson, RLA CLARB
Director
Online Land Planning

The Future of the Highway Trust Fund

2009-05-05T06:48:00Z

HTF money should not be used for implementation of non-highway transportation projects at this time.

Instead, we should allocate a portion of the Fund to identify and purchase right-of-way corridors for future transit projects that can be developed over the next twenty years. This thinking was employed during the planning of the Century Freeway (I-105), an important part of the 1960’s master plan prepared by Caltrans for the Southern California freeway system, which didn’t open until 1993. Today, the median serves at the main rail corridor for the Metro Green Line that links the airport and downtown Los Angeles. It took time, but it was done once and it was done right.

Therefore, until we know what non-highway transportation projects have the most impact, make the most fiscal sense and can be replicated nationally, we should be prepared for the following:

1. Diminished fuel tax revenues due to decreased driving that continue to hamper the HTF budget in the short term.

2. The HTF allocations should be used to maintain existing highways and bridges while mandating results on efficient roadway construction methods and materials that reduce the effects of vehicle weight and weather.

3. Alternative fuels eventually become readily available that reduce emissions by at least 30% and give the public confidence that driving is affordable and environmentally ‘under control’.

4. All fuels become taxed at the same rate to stabilize the HTF budget.

5. By 2025, the majority of the Boomer Generation is too old to drive and demand alternative non-highway transportation projects to be implemented.

6. Right-of-way corridors that were purchased twenty years earlier using the HTF finally become ‘necessary’ and reduce the impact on the traditional highway system.

7. Younger generations, who made the shift away from driving years before, already live within relative walking distances to fit their lifestyles as telecommuting increases throughout the nation.

Rick Abelson, Director
www.onlinelandplanning.com
www.onlineurbanplanning.com

The Hornery Institute & Inner-Urban Suburbs

2009-04-08T22:03:00Z

On a recent business trip to Australia, I had the opportunity to visit with an interesting group of social planners called The Hornery Institute. Specifically, their charter is "to assist communities in becoming better places to live, learn, work and play." The Hornery Institute http://www.horneryinstitute.com/hornery/home/Default.aspx was established in November 2000, in recognition of Lend Lease’s Chairman, Stuart Hornery and his commitment to community and people. To mark his retirement, the shareholders and employees of this great company formed a not-for-profit organization that allowed Hornery and his dedicated, hand-picked staff to continue working on independent projects to make communities more fulfilling. http://www.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/money/story/0,26860,24379922-5015795,00.htm

The Hornery Institute’s (THI) office is located in a wonderful success story they helped create called the Kelvin Grove Urban Village. Situated within short walking distance of Brisbane’s CBD, the Village is a 16 hectare (40 acre) public/private master planned community anchored by the campus of Queensland University of Technology, the adaptive reuse of the Gona Army Barracks and Parade Grounds and supported by the Government of Queensland Department of Housing. The project brings together residential, educational, retail, health, recreational, business and creative industry uses, while respecting the site and its history. The Parade Grounds serve as urban plazas and the Turrbal people, who were the traditional owners of the land had input into landscaping and public art features throughout. For both visitors and residents, the planning and design of the Village feels both fluid and inviting from almost every direction. http://www.kgurbanvillage.com.au/

THI characterizes the Kelvin Grove Urban Village as being different from other ‘inner-urban suburbs’. This unique term is not part of the planning vocabulary used in the United States and appears to be authentically Australian. Also, this community type appears to blur divergent lifestyles and land uses in a new way. According to Delfin, Lend Lease’s community development division, inner-urban suburbs fulfill a niche based on research that shows "people looking for an inner urban lifestyle, but are deterred by limited housing choice, lack of privacy and the hassles which come with city living."

The formal written goals for the Kelvin Grove Urban Village go beyond Delfin’s definition by creating a broader appeal to the inner-urban suburb model by:

• engendering a strong sense of community and a safe environment;

• being a visually interesting and attractive place, with its own distinct character, different from other inner-urban suburbs;

• integrating a range of uses together into one exciting environment, rather than separating them out into different land use precincts;

• blending with the existing and evolving Kelvin Grove neighborhood, and allow growth and change over time;

• redefining relationships between the university and the community, including businesses; and

• demonstrating greater physical, social and economic sustainability.

Besides the planning efforts that created the Kelvin Grove Urban Village, I was very impressed by the some of the wonderful people that keep it on track. Stuart Hornery, Kate Meyrick and Jennifer Michelmore are just a few of THI’s social planners that do much more than conduct research and write reports. They roll up their sleeves and are passionate and confident stewards who participate in its real daily life by getting coffee and cake each morning, strolling through QUT classrooms, talking with seniors at the new indoor community pool, engaging students about their day, creating evening seminars programs, shopping at the neighborhood butcher shop and making sure the entire precinct continues to thrive.

I suspect that they do this for several reasons. First and foremost, it’s clear that they love what they helped create and want to see it succeed. Second, by living this social experiment each day, they can recognize what works and respond quickly to what needs adjustment. Third, the Village is about healthy experiences and relationships - where seniors and preschoolers, college students and researchers, merchants and patrons rely on each other. By nurturing the community, THI can reinforce and learn that this prudent way of life truly works by enriching each generation and social class. Finally, it’s a platform for urban success that can be replicated from scratch or merely fine-tuned in areas which may be lacking only a few key ingredients.

The Hornery Institute has proven that planners and architects need to go beyond admiring their finished work from a distance and actually participate in its daily life by becoming part of the communities that they help create.

Rick Abelson
Director of Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com
www.onlineurbanplanning.com

How Slumdogs Can Influence Millionaires

2009-03-09T06:26:00Z

About ten year ago, while in Mumbai for a large urban planning assignment, my client’s car was about to round the bend on an elevated road along the outskirts of the city. It was getting near sunset. He told me to prepare myself to see "the largest shanty town in the world." I didn’t have enough time. As we turned, I was transfixed by the brilliant sunlight glistening off an endless sea of corrugated metal and tarp roofs almost to the horizon line. The sight was breathtaking. I felt exhilaration in the sheer magnitude and at the same time an overwhelming helplessness that trying to rid the world of poverty was futile. There was no way that something this vast could be mitigated.

Then a strange feeling came over me. I wanted to go down there and walk inside. My interest was from an urban planning perspective. How do so many people live together in such an informal manner? What sort of social and physical order exists? Is there a main street? Can you ‘buy’ rice from a corner store? Is cooking done communally? How is this place lit at night? Why is the roof form maintained at such a consistent height? Was the flooring just mud? How is solid waste handled? Are there districts and neighborhoods? Can families move and ‘sell’ their space to others?

I imagine the dusty tarps being lifted off and daylight streaming in for the first time. Looking down at an organic maze, I think about the lessons urban designers can gather from this stripped down, but complex environment that barely supports the necessities of life.

I asked my client if the Indian government or nearby universities had ever documented shanty town ethnocentric patterns and what research were available. Having been told studies do exist, I have never been able to find anything comprehensive.

Obviously, places like this are very dangerous. A cavalier journey with digital camera and notepad would most certainly invite serious health problems and bodily harm. Yet, I always remember this slum with fascination rather than disdain or sympathy. They need to be eradicated, but they have also have a sustainable purpose. By studying the physical manifestation of squalor, we might actually help improve the way we all live.

http://www.onlinelandplanning.com

Retrofit Neighborhoods – Not Just Infill

2009-02-09T18:48:00Z

While the Government stimulus package calls for massive upgrades and retrofits to make hundreds of thousands of buildings more energy efficient, we should take time to look out these windows before loosening the frames to add a triple glaze.

Surely, our viewshed needs to clear out. For instance, it’s fortunate that the credit crunch has stopped the proliferation of soulless commercial strip centers. They will continue to ruin the visual quality of our communities for years to come. Poor designs and lack of enforcement have left neighborhoods with inferior building colors and materials, cluttered storefronts, overt signage and lighting, inadequate parking and retail redundancies of coffee, fast food and drugstores.

The shift towards urban infill allows us to forget our mistakes in the suburbs and the lure of TOD and affordable housing are questionable right now. Los Angeles is a good example. Inexpensive land is a motivator, but there is virtually no environmental mitigation that can be crafted for the cumulative effects on people regarding summer heat, urban glare, wind, shadow and noise. Or on social issues with the lack of urban recreation (other than private gyms), availability of healthcare and school choices, concern for personal safety, garden space and owning a pet. You either accept it or you don’t.

Look out an airplane window and see the quiet solitude of people living throughout the land that are already untethered - but connected. To preserve and enhance this choice, now is the time to retrofit suburban communities that we’ve already built - not abandon them. New ones, age-in-place ones, ethnic ones, wealthy ones, underprivileged ones - you name it. To start, there needs to be neighborhood based micro-economies for home offices, small businesses and telecommuters so they can centralize locally, share services and connect through today’s ubiquitous technology. This will immediately reduce transportation demand.

Second, we need to retrofit existing neighborhoods so people can get access to affordable primary health care, health insurance and a variety of nearby school choices for all types of learning within walking distance from where they live today. We pay for this by having developers, homebuilders, insurance companies, schools and our government work together by:

• Building affordable SMART homes and passing the energy savings on to homeowners;

• Using a portion of the first-time home buyer tax credit to purchase health savings accounts;

• Creating a ‘quality of life retail mix’ based on health, business and education;

• Limiting unnecessary earth moving, grading and infrastructure to design with nature

• Living within our means for a decade or so and realizing that ‘small is the new big’;

It’s time that planners, developers, home builders and community agencies peek out of their own business silos to think about how to retrofit neighborhoods so people can incubate, launch innovation and stay healthy - all with a few steps of their front door.

RICK ABELSON
is a Director at Online Land Planning, LLC and a ULI Council Member

Charter Schools - A Worthy Tenant for Empty Department Stores

2009-01-08T21:45:00Z

With the 2008 – 2009 demise and eventual transition of several anchor department stores in large regional shopping centers, it was interesting to have a conversation with Dr. Chris Jones, an administrator with the Wiseburn School District in Los Angeles County, California who asked me whether I thought these spaces would make good sites for charter schools and did I know of any precedent that was worth investigating. We both agreed that as bricks and mortar retailing was poised for a decline, that charter schools were an interesting project type that has all sorts of possibilities. The idea makes a lot of sense because like Charter Schools are very business plan oriented - something that mall developers will appreciate.

Charter Schools

Charter Schools are basically a school of choice and are free from many of the regulations that apply to traditional public schools. Charter Schools tend to be small with a median enrollment is 250 students compared to 550 in traditional public schools and serve different communities with a wide variety of curriculum and instructional practices. Charters are granted for a particular period of time, usually for 3-5 years, which are renewed after the end of the term. Charters do not charge tuition, and are funded according to enrollment. They also do not receive capital funds for facilities – so renovation opportunities make sense. Federal legislation provides grants to help charters with start-up costs. In this way, Charters are fit the retail tenant profile pretty well. They function like a business and are beholden to their granting entity under a performance contract that is similar to a business plan. Like any business, they are under constant pressure to perform well, both financially and academically under the terms of the charter contract.

Shopping Malls

Shopping Malls are generally centrally located with good transit connections and often serve as the hub for social and cultural activity in most American cities. Sensing that malls and schools have common features, some architects have used the commercial aesthetics of shopping malls as inspiration for new secondary school designs to provide spaces for young people to be together, to talk, to play, to socialize and to exercise some independence. http://www.edutopia.org/mall-architecture-school-design.

Several years ago, the Los Angeles Forum for Architecture and Urban Design held a Dead Mall Competition that challenged designers to rethink underperforming shopping centers and reassess the role these structures play in civic life with the possibility of converting them into other uses to invigorate communities across America. Unfortunately, like many design competitions, the final results steered from the pragmatic and schools missed the cut with the judges. http://retailtrafficmag.com/development/renovation/retail_visions_future/.

Since 1998, The Simon Youth Foundation, started by the shopping center developer, Simon Group of Companies has taken a lead to provide a variety of alternative classroom spaces in their projects to help disadvantaged youth get the opportunity to learn in small groups, alternative settings and hopefully graduate. Many of the programs are affiliated with local school districts and Simon provides scholarships to worthy students trying to make the grade. http://www.edutopia.org/mall-school.

Economic Stimulus and Accountability

But Dr, Jones’ point is understandable. There is not enough precedent yet since the predicament of the empty department store- the anchor- is hard for mall developers to fathom. It will take vision to adjust and change traditional retail models and reassess lease agreements, hours of operation, maintenance, adjacencies and security. But the future will be better if it works. The new Administration promises a federal stimulus package to help create choice and to hold business, educators and government accountable for their actions to insure a prosperous next generation and beyond. This might be one opportunity for mall developers to help a worthy tenant succeed.

Written by Rick Abelson, Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
http://www.onlinelandplanning.com

Clustered Neighborhood Home Offices (NHO)

2008-12-23T23:04:00Z

Between the Home and the Office
According to author and syndicated columnist, Ilyce Glink, today about 20 percent of Americans work from home and that number is expected to double very shortly. http://www.thinkglink.com/How_Home_Offices_Affect_A_Neighborhood.htm. In fact, I think we are already there. With workplace transformations takes place all over America, millions of workers who are either laid off, retire or decide to create their own ‘4-hour work week’ now rely on home offices more than ever. Yet, home office aesthetics are coffee table book fodder and the dynamics of working from home have been dissected at length on demographics, productivity, efficiency, security, technology, travel time and even dress code. If we lifted the roofs off these homes, we would peer in to see aspiring entrepreneurs cramped onto kitchen counters and dining room tables, in spare bedrooms, backyard sheds and chilly garages.

And we are not connecting with our most valuable source of new business – our own neighborhood. Face to face business meetings are rarely held in one’s home, in fact they are avoided. Starbucks, FedEx, Kinko’s, local internet providers have become the binding infrastructure. CNN, Fox and C-Span are links to the global economy, news and events. We know this is a huge market. Politicians at all levels campaign on the importance of the small business entrepreneur, promising them tax breaks and incentives to keep going. Real estate developers, merchant home builders, architects, interior designers and retailers respond by making home office improvements a multi -billion dollar industry that continues to grow exponentially.

It Can All Be Yours - At No Extra Cost
One social, sustainable and physical planning strategy being discussed for new communities is the creation of detached neighborhood home offices (NHOs) that are clustered remotely from each individual’s property but are still privately owned as part of your home mortgage. Essentially you own your home along with a typical 250 square foot detached home office that is located within walking distance in a designated neighborhood business compound. By clustering NHOs a number of benefits arise immediately. Technology, services and resources can be shared and costs saved. Collectively, neighborhood business people and their families interact to form a unique collaborative environment, without compromising the spirit and individuality of why home offices exist in the first place.

Green design and business practices flourish through appropriate NHO structures that are solar oriented and clustered. Recycled construction materials, community gardens, greenhouses, alternative energy practices, renewable technologies and waste loop optimization reduce costs and foster community pride.

Local business support services found in town also find a new sources of revenue and a concentrated point of purchase by offering routine deliveries to NHOs that respond to the exact needs of each NHO cluster, while reducing vehicle trips.

Moving On
Homeowner deciding to sell their homes, they are obligated to leave the HNO to the next buyer as part of the sale. Subleasing is not allowed and design guidelines offer enough flexibility to foster innovate, but maintain the overall integrity of the NHO environment to eliminate creating storage units and vacancies.

By Rick Abelson, Director
Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com

Online Land Planning Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under Most Innovative Category

2008-12-01T15:34:00Z

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Dalan Garcia, Brand Management
Online Land Planning, LLC
001 (909) 6311
garcia@onlinelandplanning.com

StartupNation Honors Nation’s Top Home-Based Businesses

Online Land Planning Wins Top Honors in Business Competition under Most Innovative Category

DECEMBER 2, 2008 - REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA - Online Land Planning, LLC has been recognized by StartupNation www.startupnation.com as one of the top businesses in its annual Home Based 100 competition under the category of Most Innovative.

http://www.startupnation.com/homebased100/honorary/1339/index.php

The thousands of submissions to the StartupNation Home-Based 100 Competition reveal that many business owners are bucking the current economic downturn and finding business success in these tight times. Historically, some of today’s most well known businesses started in a downturn, including Microsoft and General Electric.

"The 2008 rankings show that the home-based business is more relevant than ever. The current resecession has spurred a new wave of home based businesses as a response to loss of jobs, the need for supplemental income and the sheer passion for blazing your own trail and running your own show," said Rich Sloan, co-founder of StartupNation.com, one of the leading small business networking and advice websites. "Home based businesses are the biggest block of all businesses in existence and we expect numbers to grow ever greater as extra bedrooms, kitchen tables, basements and garages become host to the innovative thinking and pursuit of success by millions of Americans."

"We are building the next great land planning business not only for the 21st Century, but the 22nd as well. We are talking quantum leaps forward in the way real estate development is done. We are using the home office and the internet in a unique way to reduce the inefficiencies and lower the costs of land planning, while allowing for flexibility in the future," stated Rick Abelson, Director of Online Land Planning.

"This has never been the approach of the architecture and urban planning professions in the past. We accept the challenge. For example, big planning firms usually have expensive office space in downtown areas and are disconnected from most land owners, who are remote and have limited time, finances or personnel to make informed decisions about their property.

"Online Land Planning broadens the opportunity for land owners, developers, communities, businesses and government agencies throughout the world to take advantage of our network of renowned planning experts for advice on urban design, sustainability renewable energy and even disaster relief that can be assembled quickly, without costing a fortune and put proven results to their hands in three weeks. We are revolutionizing both the land planning delivery system and the real estate industry at the same time by making it available and affordable for everyone."

The StartupNation Home-Based 100 highlights an interesting category list making it not just your ordinary business ranking. From the wackiest, to the most innovative, to the best financial performers – this unique and diverse list highlights that home-based businesses play a vital role in the economy today. The ten categories for 2008 include:

• Best Financial Performers
• Most Innovative
• Boomers Back in Business
• Greenest
• Yummiest
• Wackiest
• Grungiest
• Recession Busters
• Most Slacker-Friendly
• Most Glamorous

In addition to StartupNation staff, judges for this year’s Home-Based 100 ranking included Adam Lowry co-founder of Method Products, Howard Behar, former President of Starbucks North America, John Jantsch, founder of Duct Tape Marketing, Mel Robbins, host of Make It Happen radio show.

About Online Land Planning, LLC – Revolutionizing the Land Planning Industry
Incorporated in 2008, OLP specializes in reaching out to provide expert advice and affordable solutions on sustainable design and urban planning issues to stakeholders that limited access to professional services. In many cases, our initial concept planning booklets become the catalyst for civic revitalization and our early participation and strategic forward-thinking can add immediate financial value to properties seeking optimum land definition..http://www.onlinelandplanning.com

About The StartupNation Founders – The Sloan Brothers
StartupNation co-founders and ‘chief stratupologists," Rich and Jeff Sloan, are two of the country’s leading small business experts and ran their business from home for eight years. The Sloan brothers speak frequently at entrepreneurial forums and act as sources for top media venues nationwide. They are authors of StartupNation: Open for Business, published by Doubleday, and provide their insight online at www.startupnation.com. The Sloan brothers are regularly quoted and featured in media such as The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune Small Business, Entrepreneur Magazine, CNN, CNBC, MSNBC, FOX News and many others.

An Optimistic Future for New Homes

2008-11-19T01:08:00Z

Next round for home builders. The land development industry was one of the first to feel the effects of the US recession as home builders quickly dumped all of their raw property almost a year ago. But within the coming months, some will strategically begin buying it back and planners will soon be getting calls again to pull out their pens. How do I know? Because with today’s roller coaster stock market, well located and entitled land is still a fairly rational bet for investors. And with so many architects on the brink, how much could it really cost to get a few good ideas down on paper? When this happens, here’s a key breakthrough that should be made:

Once automakers get their bailout, home builders will be asking next. Whether they get help or not, home builders should rethink their business model and offering. Like the auto industry, they need to retool. Now is the time to transform the production home to include the necessary, affordable technologies and innovations based on the way families aspire to live. Home builders need to start fresh and break their long-held sourcing relationships that have precluded more efficient and lower cost products and services from getting through the door. If they do get federal money, here’s how to use it:

Home builders should embrace everyday technology. Amazon sells unlimited music downloads for a monthly fee. Apple rents videos the same way. BASF markets their ‘hybrid home.’ Google builds community faster than any city government. Microsoft’s HealthVault sends secure data from home medical devices to doctors and insurers. GE offers home energy technologies and maintains them. IBM is able to transform, store and deliver information with infinite capabilities that can be customized and managed to link homes and neighborhoods together.

A new set of standard home features. On many levels, the retooling of the production home should be pretty easy. Smart homes around the country showcase and demonstrate pre-wired, affordable solutions for energy demand reduction, health monitoring, business services, school curriculum, remote security and more. All of this can now be included as part of any basic home.

If home builders continue to be the gatekeeper for new communities when buying the most significant purchase of a lifetime, then it seems appropriate that they help provide choices that are more relevant for families than picking granite table tops.

Rick Abelson
Director - Online Land Planning, LLC.
www.onlinelandplanning.com

Lessons on Sustainability from Samso Island’s Energy Academy

2008-10-13T23:00:00Z

In such downtrodden times, we find ourselves at a confluence of daily headlines on energy and economy. But for now, this information just seems to flow by and barely touch. I have been wondering how we can merge them into a meaningful and proven way to create a positive change to uplift and rally our communities. And now, I have found the right precedent to consider.

Just as every town needs its fire station and library, we also need a new and relevant type of community land use - an Energy Academy and Park. I first saw the manifestation of this idea on Samso Island, Denmark (set in the Kattegat Strait) about two years ago. I was struck by its simplicity and also the unique story behind it. In 1997, Soren Hermansen, now Director of the Energy Academy realized that the summer tourist destination where he and his family lived full time was dead most of the frozen year. The local economy didn’t amount to much and the farmlands and powerful winds that wrapped the island had more potential if they somehow could be harnessed in a symbiotic way. His definition of sustainability for Samso’s future was not merely about energy efficiency, but also self sufficiency. So after reading about a contest sponsored by the Danish Ministry of Environment and Energy, he mobilized his neighbors to enter.

Over the next ten years, Samso Island residents banded together on evenings and weekends, brought baked cookies and pies to community meetings, watched instructional films, invited sustainability experts, filled out forms, invested their own money, studied prototypes, applied for government grants, had ground breakings and supported each other through many very cold nights, all the while learning about renewable energy, especially wind, solar and biofuel – of which they had plenty. You’ll have to do your own research to learn all the intricacies of how it happened, but the conclusion to the story is that Samso Island now receives international recognition for leading the world in sustainable alternative energy, producing 10% more than its 6,000 residents use each year and became carbon neutral in 2007. They export wind power to Norway and have created a variety of new jobs for themselves. Some residents even travel the world to help erect wind turbines and large solar installations based on what they have learned. Basically, they went from nothing to everything.

The Samso Island Energy Academy is the pinnacle of their efforts. The roughly 640 square meter building designed by Copenhagen’s Arkitema Architects, functions as the Island’s symbolic hub. It’s Samso’s unofficial international visitor center, meeting hall and a research office for six dedicated staff. Learn more about it at http://www.energiakademiet.dk/front_uk.asp?id=35

But the most interesting thing that Mr. Hermansen said came at the end our day together. As the sun began to set on a frosty day in February, he told us that of the many countries that have sent research teams from around the world to visit and learn from Samso’s sustainable success story – that my colleague and I were the only Americans to have actually visited (except for one reporter from the New Yorker a few months earlier). I felt a bit embarrassed. Luckily though, others have discovered what’s happening and Soren is getting the recognition he deserves by being named a TIME Magazine 2008 Hero of the Environment.

Here’s my point. What Soren did seems simple. We should use Samso as a case study of what we can do right here for ourselves – but only in reverse. We can start by building hundreds of Energy Academies throughout our country as a catalyst to meet and educate ourselves about sustainable lifestyles. Americans are receptive to making a positive change for themselves and their environment. The Academies can serve as job centers for training and placement, where relevant information and civic opportunities can be shared. Like Samso, our communities need to find and hire experts like Mr. Hermansen, of which there are plenty in the United States.

Organizers with heart, passion and desire to interpret each community’s unique surroundings, draw out its essence and motivate others to get involved. And we need inspiring simple structures like the Samso’s Energy Academy to symbolize a respite, foster the inspiration, demonstrate possibilities and provide a visual icon that reminds us that change is worth having. Adding a complimentary Energy Park is my idea. The prototype is planned for a similar project in La Plata, Missouri. All told, it takes about an acre and a half and surrounds the Energy Academy. When finished, I’ll leave it up to the community to build consensus about what should be put in it.

For more on how Online Land Planning can provide sustainable solutions for you visit our sites at www.OnlineLandPlanning.com or www.OnlineUrbanPlanning.com.

Written by:

Rick Abelson
Director
Online Land Planning

www.OnlineLandPlanning.com

A Huge Urban Planning Gap Exists in Our Country. Here Are the Facts to Prove It:

2008-09-26T19:09:00Z

Major Uses of Land in the United States in 2007

According to the US Department of Agriculture, the United States’ land area totals nearly 2.3 billion acres.

- 2% (56M acres) of US lands are in trust by the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

- 60% (1.4B acres) of US lands is privately owned.

- Only 12% (162M acres) of privately owned lands are in non-agricultural uses

- There have been no major aggregate ownership changes from 1997-2007

There remains is a tremendous opportunity to develop raw land in the United States to its highest and best use.

Relevant Statistics about Land Planning:

According to the US Department of Labor, local government employed 68% of the 34,000 urban and regional planners in 2006. The majority of the other 10,800 are in large private practices near major employment areas.

The Dilemma

With over twenty years of professional urban and land planning experience, I believe that there is a huge disconnect between where the vast majority of property owners live that need expert advice and where meaningful land planning actually takes place.
The ‘marketing sphere of influence’ that planning firms target based on the geography of their office locale most certainly will leave most of the country out. Instead, only established land development companies that can pay consistent consulting fees are preferred clients and as a result, millions of acres of private land will never get planned beyond their municipal zoning classification.

Next Blog: How to Close the Gap

For more information about Urban Planning Service visit our site at www.onlineurbanplanning.com.

Rick Abelson,

Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
www.onlineurbanplanning.com

Urban Recreation - A Whole New Game

2008-09-15T08:34:00Z

City parks and recreation along with economic development departments need to challenge developers and encourage new variations of traditional forms of recreation to fit into our downtowns.

Trends have shown that since the end of World War II, families initially left the central city to search for the "American Dream" in suburbia. Families wishing to escape the inconveniences and high costs of city life were able to find more spacious living, while the wage earners commuted to support the household. Some of the factors motivating the move from the city were the ease in which families could find opportunities for recreation and social life. The backyard, the school’s extracurricular activities, the neighborhood parks, golf and tennis clubs – all of these are the rewards for an extra few hours of travel.

Current trends are much different. Gasoline prices are forcing families closer to the wage earner’s livelihood. The mortgage crisis is causing people to lose their homes and find smaller apartments until they can straighten out their finances. The single parent family is prevalent and baby boomers, which comprise 77% of the US wealth and are aging at a rate of 10,000 a day for the next twenty years are downsizing. The traditional "American Dream" has been supplanted by transition and uncertainty.

So, cities are making resurgence. This time, developers have created a more sophisticated lifestyle and mixed of uses to choose from. Cultural centers, entertainment districts, public markets, waterfront developments, loft living, historic preservation and renovation, quick and convenient mass transportation are contributing factors to the return to city living. Denver, Portland, Los Angeles and Dallas are experiencing rapid economic downtown growth. Yet, something is being overlooked.

Is it possible to bring some of the better elements that comprised suburban living back to the city with these families? Can the best of both worlds be captured in an urban setting?

With this in mind, I feel that urban recreation will become increasingly pertinent, as our newly minted, ‘energy and green living’ urban areas are forced to seek their diversions closer to home and leisure time increases. At present, we spend more on leisure than on defense. According to Richard Miller, principal researcher for the 2008 Leisure Market Research Handbook, the annual U.S. leisure market is assessed at $2.4 trillion. Fueled predominantly by baby boomer spending, significant growth in the leisure marketplace is expected for the foreseeable future. One analyst forecasts that by the year 2015, a new age of leisure will dawn when more than half of the nation’s GNP will be generated from the entertainment and leisure industries.

So here’s the dilemma - there is a close relationship between leisure and recreation, whether indoor or outdoor. As leisure time increases, urban dwellers need new variations of outdoor recreation brought to their doorstep. They are already increasing the demands on existing facilities, such as the YMCA, private health facilities and club sports – so new types of many kinds will need to be accommodated and constructed.

For instance, let’s focus on one of the largest man made recreational landscapes - the golf course. Golf is extremely popular and people wait as long as 3 to 4 hours to tee off on weekends. Obviously, most cities feel that the land required for a golf course and the limited number of people that can enjoy the game at once, make this an activity that is not likely to be expanded within urban boundaries. But therein, lays the challenge.

The National Golf Foundation promotes the sport as "a game for a lifetime’ – meaning that all ages can enjoy it. The true slogan is really "a game for a lifetime if you live near large areas of available open land and you have time and money."

Shouldn’t there be a way to extract the important elements of how golf is played, while eliminating other less important facets. Is it possible to maintain the same ambiance and dignity of the sport, but eliminate the walking and thereby reduce the land coverage? I’m not against walking, that’s not the point – it’s simply the need for so much valuable land and requisite maintenance that goes along with it. Without it, does this really detract from the essence of the game? I am not talking about a fenced driving range on electronic golf from some office building. Instead, can a new and meaningful version of the game of golf be played on 12 acres instead of 200, thereby creating a new urban recreational opportunity and reaching a greater segment of the population? For some recreational activities, this has already been accomplished. Indoor tennis centers, running tracks, swim stadiums, mega athletic clubs and even professional football and soccer practice facilities have become are common features in cities.

By bringing recreational opportunities like golf within urban boundaries, two important results occur. New urbanites will enjoy the some of the aspects they left from suburbia. More important, lower and fixed income families, the elderly, infirm, disabled and disadvantaged youth will have a chance to experience a new versions of suburban recreation that are currently out of reach.

Rick Abelson

Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
www.OnlineUrbanPlanning.com

We’re Catching On.

2008-09-08T06:39:00Z

I am pleased to see that we have some garnered some recognition from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

According to their website, "Wikipedia is written collaboratively by volunteers from all around the world. Since its creation in 2001, Wikipedia has grown rapidly into one of the largest reference Web sites, attracting at least 684 million visitors yearly by 2008. There are more than 75,000 active contributors working on more than 10,000,000 articles in more than 250 languages."

The keywords, Online Land Planning seem to have a relevant scholarly background and some fine source material is referenced along with a link to our website. Most of the wiki research and implementation of programs cited in the article are in the public realm and outside the US, mainly in Australia, Great Britain and Africa - which is why we maintain a global focus.

If you have a chance, take a look to learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Land_Planning

Resort Development Made Easy

2008-08-22T21:30:00Z

Mr. Clive Jones, Principal of Knowledge Based Consulting Group in San Francisco, which specializes in economics of destination resorts encouraged me to write a few lines about the tourism industry and how Online Land Planning strategies might apply.

Imagine This.

A close knit Italian family that owns 400 hectares in the wine province of Avellino, a Sierra Leone businessman who wants to develop a unique tourist resort around the diamond industry to boast his country’s economy, a reclusive rancher who discovered water on his property and wants to create an sustainable guest experience in New Mexico and a small village near Jiamusi, China trying to get a micro loan for a cultural tourist destination to host international artists. These opportunities all exist. But unless these property owners have a simple and affordable way to assimilate into the seemingly huge resort industry mainstream, they will be forever discouraged.

Awakening Opportunity.

My sense is that there are literally thousands of individual property owners around the world who believe that they own a ‘sure fire’ resort destination attraction. Often they already possess a ‘big vision’ for what success looks like , but lack the real estate development experience, financial resources and access to professional land planning services to get started. Most will wander onto internet intermittently looking for help, but then will eventually realize without a simple and affordable approach that their land is probably destined to remain fallow and underutilized.

Land. Plan. Test. Fit.

Without spending a ton of money or getting involved in a complicated and overbearing development process, let’s make it easy to get to the first step. A simple site plan and program with area tabulations can often unlock immediate financial value and become a catalyst for investor participation. With some basic site information provided by the property owner, a skilled land planner and graphic designer can accomplish a good portion of this initial work remotely using the internet, email, Google Earth, Skype, and the telephone. At Online Land Planning we do this successfully on a regular basis. By manifesting salient land plan in a recognizable and credible way that can be shared with bankers, investors, developers, operators, contractors and government agencies – a definitive process of moving forward can be quantified and the next steps of the project can be handled locally adding to the economy and creating jobs.

Rick Abelson

Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
www.onlinelandplanning.com

The Four Key Questions That We Ask Property Owners

2008-08-06T15:29:00Z

It’s a two way street. Property owners ask us questions, yet architects and planners have a few of our own.

Each week at Online Line Land Planning, we have our skype telecon to share leads and support each other in securing new work. Because of the unique nature of our internet business approach, we constantly have new property owners throughout the world with whom we have never met or worked with before - so pre-qualifying them quickly and efficiently is especially important.

We are excited about each potential opportunity, willing to put forth the time and effort to answer questions, provide advice and information to determine if there is a match between us. In many cases, we get offered the assignment which could be doomed from the start. Here’s why.

Disappointment for us begins when we realize that the property owner is not really prepared. We know this because we have casually mixed in four key questions throughout our casual, conversation that helps build the initial relationship, but in the end we must reveal our honest opinion.

To begin, we need an affirmative answer for all of the following. If one ‘yes’ is missing, it’s over.

1. Do you own the land now?

Answers such as, "We’re in escrow", "We have several candidate sites" and "Our partner is the government" all spell quick trouble.

2. Do you have the money to do the project?

"We are selling our non-strategic properties to fund this", "We have a line of credit with our bank", "It’s a joint venture between us and several other parties", "The money is coming from overseas investors" mean that this project has a limited chance of moving forward.

3. In general, do you have any idea for the property before contacting us?

This is about passion. Property owners may change their direction completely once we begin, but answers such as "That’s why I’m paying you" or "Let’s see some good ideas and I’ll tell you if I like them" show a lack of commitment.

4. Do you have a good team on your side to get this done?

We rely on good communication and feedback to get our work done expeditiously. If we hear, "My secretary will get you what you need", "I’m in town every other week so I’ll handle this myself," or "I’m hiring a project manager soon", you can bet frustration will set in quickly for everybody.

The best course of action may be to advise the property owner to wait until all four questions can be answered in the positive. It may hurt us a bit in the short term but we’ve found that property owners almost always respect us for being candid and generally will come back more prepared than before.

A fifth question is looming, especially in today’s tumultuous economy, which we feel still needs more research before it make the list. In the meantime, we ask silently on the property owner’s behalf, "Is the timing right?" On a few occasions, the four questions were answered to our satisfaction and yet the project stalled, wasn’t sold or took a longer than expected to get absorbed into the marketplace.

At Online Land Planning, we will continue to ask these four key questions at the earliest stages, so that we know if we can add value when necessary at the start or instead, advise property owners to be better prepared before we spend their money.

Rick Abelson
Director - Online Land Planning
www.onlinelandplanning.com

Site Visits are Overrated

2008-07-24T15:22:00Z

University of Washington Professor Richard Haag, the noted landscape architect and designer of Gas Works Park in Seattle, insists on seeing each site before starting any project, and often sleeps there overnight to understand its true dynamics. In full academic pursuit, I agree with him. But in twenty years of private practice, I have created significant master plans for many properties that I have never set foot upon. I’m not alone. Excuses are rationalized daily throughout the ranks of design firms worldwide:

- The fee is small and the owner doesn’t want to pay.
- We have enough base map information for now.
- The property is near the other site, no need to go again.
- This is exactly the same as the last project we did.
- The owners know what they want. We’re just drawing it up.
- The deadline is short, so we don’t have time to go.
- Let’s take a stab at it first and field check it later.
- We were there five years ago and remember it pretty well.
- The owner doesn’t speak English.
- There’s nothing really to see anyway.
- It’s not safe to travel there right now.
- The flight was cancelled.

Given all that, is it acceptable for professionals to bypass a site visit and prepare a salient master plan based on creativity, past experience, other resources and today’s incredible internet tools like Google Earth, flickr, blogs, local and regional websites and present a property owner with a viable concept vision for their land?

Frank Gehry refers to the critical second before a paint brush touches a pure white canvas. He calls this the artist’s ‘moment of truth’. It is a decisive time when the emotional and rational process coalesces to create a potential masterpiece. In most cases, the artist is not under contract and their work is sold later. Planners on the other hand are being paid from the start and often create their masterpieces in less dramatic fashion with simple road layouts and building patterns drawn to scale in an informed manner to invigorate a property owner and give them the sense of relief and confidence to begin a much anticipated dialogue about the initial results. So how off base are we without a site visit?

Our online land planning business actually discourages site visits. This is because many properties we study are in locations where planners never dwell. What would we learn that the property owner can’t tell us, especially if we ask the right questions? Context, as we normally understand it often does not exist. Test this out the next time you fly across the country. Look down and what do you see – mostly nothing for as far as the eye can see. Yet, these properties are subdivided and owned by thousands of private individuals that live outside the mainstream. They have no physical access to metropolitan planning firms and they are generally not familiar with traditional planning processes. There is usually no long term relationship to be forged. It’s usually a one time deal.

As professionals, should we turn our backs on this constituency and lift our noses or should we modify our approach and reach out to fulfill their needs? My answer is simple. Send your base maps and some photographs and let’s get on the phone. Site visits are overrated.

Rick Abelson,

Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
www.onlinelandplanning.com

New Urbanism Is Dead

2008-06-16T06:47:00Z

It’s time to move on and create a green land plan that and has never seemed to emerge in total.

Remember the first time you saw the master plan for Seaside, Florida? The street patterns drew you close to ask, "How does this community work?" Answers about front yard porches, a return to pedestrian scale, building setbacks and history began to tell an ‘authentic story’ of a slower and meaningful family lifestyle.

In the same spirit of ingenuity, we now have a chance to create land plans based on true green living. Like Seaside, it’s easier to start from scratch on raw land to get the full power of the concept. But unlike the principles set forth in new urbanism, the green land plan’s shapes and patterns will look unfamiliar based on locale. To make it ideal, land planners will need to string together a salient framework of green principles beyond the obvious solar orientation, water recycling, architecture and technology. Where is the creativity?

Mr. George King, a former Director of the Houston Advanced Research Center (HARC) and now the developer of the new windgen hybrid low impact wind turbine is an important scientific resource for planners trying to envision what a green land plan might look like. Mr. King is an expert on renewable energy and believes that we should look back at the Native American Indians to identify some of the ‘natural gadgets’ this culture offers that have little to do with modern technology, but rather the positioning of objects in the landscape.

One fascinating example is heat sink islands, which helped stem the amount of natural hot air that blows across the southwest landscape in a very predictable manner. According to Mr. King, the Native American Indians perfected the concept of planting very dense stands of trees in one acre patches in the path of the prevailing winds to collect the heat and transfer it upwards - away from their settlements. This process, repeated several times within the primary breezeway often caused a ‘natural ventilation system’ that could reduce the air temperature by as much as 20 degrees. By using this exact same green land planning principle today as the backbone for a new community, electricity costs in some of the hottest areas of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, Nevada and Southern California could be reduced significantly.

Will new community developers be brave enough to fully explore and dedicate property in a beneficial way to create a true green land plan? If so, a new paradigm will emerge that is both familiar and unusual - like the first time you saw New Urbanism.

Rick Abelson

Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
www.OnlineLandPlanning.com

Land Auctions Need to Get a Lot Better in Order to Help Us Get Out of the Recession

2008-06-11T00:15:00Z

The importance of land auctions can not be more important than they are right now to the real estate market in general and more specifically to the recovery of the US economy. Since investment banks and the federal government can’t determine the ‘true bottom’ of what land is worth, than significant, well orchestrated land auctions over the next several months can yield a benchmark indicator based on consistent sales results of true valuation. From there, economist can prepare their charts and can reasonably predict our climb out of the cellar and get going again. To do this, the auction process itself must become more credible and distinguished to earn the right as a benchmark indicator. Here’s why, followed by what needs to be done:

Typically, when the general public hears or sees anything about land auctions today, the word foreclosure is close behind. Television infomercials advertise bank owned properties available at low ball bids and portray previous owners as losers that left lenders holding the bag. Although often true, this perception of mistrust permeates throughout the industry and leaves the impression of a depressing atmosphere to buy and sell property.

The frightful image of an auction event set up in a mediocre hotel ballroom hosted by a cigar chopping auctioneer in suspenders, flanked by two fold up projection screens showing aerial photographs of one property after another must be supplanted with a dignified process that aspires to the highest level of what an auction can be.

Instead, auction houses should use property sales as an opportunity to celebrate. The notion that the seller somehow failed and that the auction house will manage the process of buyers expecting a feeding frenzy based on low bids must be dispelled. Simply portraying individual properties as "a once in a lifetime chance to buy" is not the answer either.

Get the results of the auction published in a national business magazine. Three or four portfolios of important properties owned by credible land development companies or owners make news versus a typical auction of many small individual properties that have been cobbled together.

Auction properties must be of high quality, significant scale and recognizable to the general public based on name and location. This is important in order to draw the attention of the purveyors of the US economy and make a meaningful statement of land value.

The auction event itself should be unique and adopt a new format. The process should be slowed down to a cozy, casual and comfortable pace, by eliminating pressure and allowing a chance to get a deeper understanding of the significance of the sale. Therefore, don’t rush it – savor it for as long as possible. Make the auction event business friendly and engage not only the bidders, but also invite curious real estate industry leaders to watch and even participate in the process with informed opinions and knowledge.

One example would be to change the graphic format altogether. Instead, allocate a portion of the auction marketing plan budget to engage land planners to draw simple site plans or sketches for each property to show a vision of what is reasonably and physically possible, supported by market conditions and may return the highest values. A picture paints a thousand words.

Another example would be to create an overall theme and brand for important auctions. Words like ‘Worldwide’ or ‘Florida’s Biggest’ miss the point. By engaging the services of graphic designers that specialize in branding and not relying on the auction house’s in house staff that is use to template, each auction becomes unique with properties sharing a common, positive identity. By adding a level of emotion and vision, it may be easier to attract other sellers and buyers to participate that share the same values.

Last, when auction houses use related professional services to change the marketing and event atmosphere two important results occur. First, the quality of the event itself will become relevant to the general public and allows the auction house focus on what they do best, which is the technical nuances of property disposition. Second, the circle of opportunity widens for the auction house in the future – more informed industry people become advocates of the auction process and talk about the success, more leads are generated and depending on the caliber of the professionals engaged, more investment banks and government regulators are interested in the results.

Rick Abelson,

Director
Online Land Planning, LLC
www.onlinelandplanning.com