Orlando Urban Planning News & Developments

[prahaboheme]

I don't expect any progressive anti-sprawl action out of Rick Scott. Teresa Jacobs is more encouraging for Orange County.

[DeepEyez]

Baldwin Park realty office shuttered

New Broad Street Realty closed its office in Baldwin Park on Nov. 17 and plans to remain active until its remaining 50 home listings are sold.

The 3-year-old realty firm, which specialized in residential sales and leasing in the 1,100-acre master-planned community of Baldwin Park, struggled with operations out of its 5,000-square-foot office in the Baldwin Park Village Center, which was set up to handle at least 100 more listings than it currently has. But the real estate slowdown severely affected the business model, which had about 40 percent of all the community’s listings, said David Pace, president of parent company New Broad Street Cos.

“Only about 2.5 percent of all the community’s homes are listed for sale, but a normal would be 15-20 percent,” Pace said. “We’re a victim of our own success in Baldwin Park. The speculative investors have all been flushed out. What’s left is homeowners who want to stay there.”

Read more: Baldwin Park realty office shuttered {sodEmoji.|} Orlando Business Journal

[prahaboheme]

So are we to assume that Baldwin Park is a victim of its own success? Perhaps this is a token to the viability of new urbanism and sustainable communities.

[alex]

Maybe some of you have seen this already, but I just found a set of articles TIME Magazine put up last month about intelligent cities.

The main article, "City Centered" gives a really great summary of all the reasons cities (especially in the US) are so important in economics and science. It also supports industry clusters and urban areas and shows the reasons why sprawl and lack of transportation are putting us behind. (Which makes me think we (or our government) are doing a lot of things horribly wrong: refusing transportation initiatives, sprawling housing all over the place, putting Medical City and other clusters almost outside of our city limits...)

"We mythologize the benefits of small-town America, but it's the major metros that make the country thrive... Yet the U.S. has been slow to recognize and build on the power of its metropolitan economic engines. A powerful segment of our popular culture and political leadership still paints us into the corner of quaint small towns rather than embracing a network of dominant metro economies."

[DeepEyez]

Florida Growth Not So Slow After All

A year ago, the news in Florida couldn't have been more dire. On top of the housing bust and an unemployment rate topping 12 percent came the news that Florida's great economic engine -- growth -- had ground to a halt. For the first time since the end of World War II, Florida lost population -- some 50,000 people, estimates showed.

"We've got rooftops to spare. We just don't have the bodies to put in them,"said Sean Snaith, an economist at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, at the time.

It turns out that Florida's future may not be so bleak. It remained one of the fastest-growing states in the past decade, in spite of the recession, new census data show. The Sunshine State added 2.8 million people, enough to win two new seats in Congress and assure that Florida remains on track to overtake New York as the third most populous state in the 2020 census.

http://www.aolnews.c...l-census-shows/

[DeepEyez]

Grant helps fund new architecture degree

Dr. Phillips Charities has awarded the University of Florida College of Design, Construction & Planning $140,000 to develop a master’s degree in architecture using Citylab-Orlando, an architectural design laboratory inside the University of Central Florida’s Emerging Media Center.

The collaboration provides a two-year associate’s degree in architecture from Valencia College, a two-year bachelor’s degree in architecture design from UCF and a two-year master of architecture degree from UF.

“In the past, local architecture students had to leave Central Florida to receive their education,” said John Ehrig, vice president of the Orlando-based architectural firm HHCP, who helped craft the UF, UCF and Valencia College partnership. “Now, through this partnership, students can remain here.”

Read more: Grant helps fund new architecture degree {sodEmoji.|} Orlando Business Journal