The most challenging piece of the Amador Proximo charrette with Placemakers was figuring out how to deal with an unfortunate arterial street bordering the 60+ acre infill site on the West. This street could be anywhere in the US.  Chuck Marohn calls these unlovable high speed thoroughfares "Stroads".  Neither a road between towns or a street in town.

Link to "Stroads" at StrongTowns.org

Our proposed solution was two  11' through lanes in each direction with a center median with turn pockets and two low speed side drives providing access to the parcels along the boulevard with a median separating the through lanes from the side drives.  The side drives would allow businesses along the boulevard to stay in operation while the center lanes and medians were being constructed.

We heard from serious local cyclists that a dedicated cycle track in the side drive median would be preferred over cyclists sharing the slower speed side drive, so we modified the section.

This approach has a shot at getting built, as the state DOT is in the process of negotiating an agreement with the city of Las Cruces to turn this section of the State Highway over to the city and the DOT has allocated funds to do some improvements to the current "stroad before turning it over.    A good deal for everyone.  The Boulevard will produce much higher economic value for the adjoining properties and the traffic capacity and safety of the arterial street will be significantly improved.

If you are interested in this approach to taming unfortunate streets, I recommend The Boulevard Book by Allen Jacobs and Elizabeth McDonald.

Link to the Boulevard Book on Amazon

The August Boot Camp is full and we are closing the Registration.  Monte Anderson has a great venue for us in the heart of Duncanville's Main Street, but we are limited to 100 people.  Folks who have registered will be receiving advance materials via email (homework).  We will post that material on the CNU Incremental Development Resources webpage so others can get get a flavor of things as we head into the first of what looks like 6 Boot Camps this year.  Many thanks to the local crew of Wana Smith, Cindy Copeland, Donna Harris, Daniel Flores, and Monte Anderson for pulling the logistics of the Duncanville effort together, and to Chuck Marohn and Jim Kumon at Strong Towns.org.

I got a phone call today from Eric Brown, a colleague in Savannah.  Eric is a long time CNU member and member of the New Urban Guild. He said he would really try to make it to the Small Developer Boot Camp in Duncanville in August, Atlanta in October for sure.  He told me about the "missing tooth" sites he sees everyday in Savannah, the spots that just need one or two straightforward buildings to transform the block.  Eric has designed a lot of those "workhorse buildings" over the years.  I'm a big fan of his work as an Architect.

He said that he wants to start putting some of those buildings out as open source building types, similar to what David Kim and I have been doing with the 4F and the Single Stair Walk-up.  Eric recognizes that there is a big demand for incremental development if folks can work out the business model that lets them make a living working at a smaller, more local scale and he is stepping up to help them figure it out.

A bright spot in what had been a tough day.  So here's to Eric Brown, a real stand up guy.  If you see him at the Dallas or Atlanta Boot Camps, please buy him a beer.