2.10 Urban Environmental Design

A. Problem

Few federal programs recognize the importance of urban environmental design management -- the process by which a city incorporates design considerations into all development planning activities, enabling it to direct and control growth, to improve its economic viability and to better integrate existing commercial residential and public amenities. Other federal programs which seek improvements in the urban environment, such as the Highway Beautification Program, have generally been under-funded and financially burdensome to state and local governments. Additionally, federal construction projects have largely ignored urban design considerations, resulting in structures which detract from a city's urban environment.

B. Goal

Federal, state and local programs should foster a balancing of the development needs of a city with the need to create an attractive, well designed urban environmental design at the local level through its various programs, regulations and policies and should encourage good design practices in its own construction projects.

C. Policies

The federal government should encourage improved urban environmental design by: allowing cities to use appropriate federal funds to achieve more effective design administration; requesting those federal agencies involved in physical development in cities to evaluate the social, economic, and cultural effects of completed projects on urban areas; increasing the funds presently available for design management activities in cities; promoting more research into the effects that well designed and local design management can have on the urban community; increasing the city official's role in the planning and siting of federal construction projects to promote design excellence and utilizing good design practices in the development of federal construction projects; and discouraging federal subsidies that enable large commercial developments to locate on the fringes of urban areas, thus contributing to sprawl and a weakening of existing urban development.

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