Selected Articles and Papers

Below are select articles and papers authored by Camiros staff. This section will be periodically updated with newer material as it is released.

Corridors to Assets: Community Branding

Conventional wisdom dictates that much of the land use planning that assists municipalities and private investors in corridor planning should implement the economic goals of the corridor. These include goals and policies directed at improving traffic operations and parking, retaining and attracting businesses, reducing land use conflicts, and improving the appearance of these often hard-used landscapes...

Strong Visions Create Strong Downtowns

The popular press seems to have recently rediscovered downtown. Overshadowed by the growth of strip centers, regional malls and big-box retailers, many have considered downtown passé - perhaps a location for offices or government, but no longer the center of town. But times have changed. Older malls and strip centers are now experiencing vacancies, while many downtowns are enjoying a renaissance...

Implementing Hamtramck’s Move Forward

With the issuance of a partial consent judgment in 1981, the hope was that the long-standing urban renewal and civil rights action involving HUD, the City of Hamtramck, Michigan, and the citizens displaced by urban renewal action in 1965 would be resolved. The judgment included a two-pronged corrective action - first, to rebuild the Grand Haven neighborhood, which had been substantially cleared through urban renewal, with new and rehabilitated housing and, second, to provide housing for minorities on scattered sites throughout the city...

The Continuing Evolution of Development Controls

Cities across the country continue to update zoning ordinances to meet the demands of contemporary living. Changes in technology, concepts of family, and real estate development trends require adjustments to zoning ordinances that, in many cases, were drafted 25 or more years ago. For example, major growth areas such as Clark County (Las Vegas), Nevada, maturing suburbs such as Barrington, Illinois, and mature cities like Chicago, are all updating their development controls...

Broadening Our Urban Options

The economic success of the 90s has helped our major cities. Many of them, from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles, show a rekindled interest in central city living, the growth of good job opportunities, reduction in overall crime and an aura of vibrancy. New attention is being paid to how best support our cities’ principal strength - their people - by finding ways to maintain good paying jobs and improve the quality of their neighborhoods...

Fire and Ice: Grand Forks' Rebirth

In the winter months leading up to April 20, 1997, seven blizzards pummeled Grand Forks, North Dakota with a record 98.6 inches of snowfall and a winter of blistering winds over 35 mph. As the snow melted, the Red River kept rising, flooding the town despite residents’ exhaustive efforts to hold it back. Finally, fire ravaged the downtown, gutting eleven buildings...

A Note on Public Participation

Any planning program has to make sure that the public is involved. However, the degree of citizen input and the approach to obtaining it can vary widely. Different techniques and levels of involvement are necessary to fit the scale of the community and the issues being debated...

The Camiros Approach to Tax Increment Financing

Tax increment financing (TIF) is a technique that many communities use to promote economic development. While there are a number of technical requirements for establishing a tax increment financing district, the main objective is to take a project from the drawing board to completion in order to eliminate blight and enhance the economic strength of the community...

Using Consultants for Community Comprehensive Planning

When a community decides to develop or update its comprehensive plan, it is immediately plagued by a number of decisions regarding how should they develop it, what should be contained in it, how professional assistance should be used, and what form it should take...

Using Consultants to Revise Your Zoning Ordinance

As a city's key land use control, a zoning ordinance significantly influences public decision-making, private market location, land value, and real estate investment decisions. Hence, when a community considers updating this document it should recognize that the new ordinance should reflect the issues and development realities of the city as well as its traditions of land use control...

Approach to Land Planning

Good land planning is commonly held to be the result of balancing the suitability of the site with the development programming needs against creating a high quality environment. However, successful land planning requires a third component - the integration of the project into broader plans for the surrounding area...