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AIA headlines this week include:

• Pursuing Regional Sustainability in Stanwood, Washington

• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Seeking Architects’ Input

• Controversial Maryland Plan Uses Incentives to Encourage Local Land-Use Policy

• House Committee Approves SBA Size Standard Bill

“In the News” – links to other news sources:

• UK Architects Find Business Opportunities in China

• Examining the Benefits of the New Green Code

This week, the Center for Communities by Design launched a Sustainable Design Assessment Team (SDAT) project in Stanwood, Washington.

Lee Quill, FAIA, is serving as team leader for the project. Quill previously served as team leader for the Pikes Peak Region SDAT project in 2011. During the visit, the team toured the region, met with local officials, business leaders, local architects, downtown organizations, and media representatives. The Center will return with an interdisciplinary team in the summer to hold an intensive community planning process on the future of the greater Stanwood region.

Stanwood is a traditional rural village of 6,000 residents in Snohomish County, Washington -- 44 miles north of Seattle. The town developed around agriculture and family farming over 100 years ago. Today, it is facing a range of challenges regarding sustainable growth and development. As one local architect described it, Stanwood represents “the polar opposite of a sustainable community.” Some of the key challenges identified for the team include the constraints imposed by an existing flood plain that impacts the downtown, a state-mandated urban growth boundary and existing zoning framework that is forcing a change in thinking about development, a weak urban core that is “under stress,” a low per capita income and high percentage of seniors, scarce public funds, and a regional population shed of over 50,000 that draws on resources in the city. As the city’s application states, “The development patterns of the last two decades combined with the current energy and consumption levels of American culture resulted in an imbalance in this small region.”

Stanwood produces a limited number of jobs, and mainly serves as a bedroom community for larger regional employment centers in Everett and Seattle. Nearby Camano Island was described as an “island cul-de-sac,” and the entire region is dependent on automobiles. The SDAT project will seek to build a regional strategy to address these imbalances and facilitate greater cooperation among local jurisdictions.

As Mayor Diane White stated, “The expertise and technical assistance that this program will bring to our region will significantly help to further develop our efforts toward conservation and economic development.” The Stanwood SDAT will build on the outcomes of a 2003 local design assistance project led by Jerry Ernst, FAIA. That project focused on urban design strategies to strengthen the downtown.

For more information about the Stanwood SDAT, please consult the SDAT application. For information about the 2003 local DAT, consult the final report.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has issued a survey to help it understand what services architecture and engineering firms can provide to the Corps.  This is an important opportunity for architects to provide data for the Corps regarding the profession’s capabilities to provide services.  The survey should take approximately 10 minutes and is open until April 3.

For more information and to take the survey, click here .

In December, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley (D) approved PlanMaryland, a controversial measure that aims to concentrate growth in established communities with existing infrastructure. PlanMaryland, for which planning guidelines are to be completed this spring, hopes to promote smart-growth principles ahead of a projected residential boom in the state.

Maryland is projected to gain 1 million new residents and more than 400,000 new households over the next 25 years. Under current development patterns, this growth would result in the loss of 300,000 acres of farmland and forest. PlanMaryland is designed to encourage local governments to make land-use decisions that increase density by allocating state funds to projects that fit smart-growth principles. The Maryland Department of Planning estimates that PlanMaryland will save up to $1.5 billion in infrastructure costs.

Critics of PlanMaryland argue that it wrests the power to make land-use decisions away from local governments, while encouraging development patterns that are unfavorable to the preferences of many rural communities. As states continue to grapple with the high cost of infrastructure, more efforts to coordinate land-use policy between state and local governments are likely to surface in growing states.

The AIA will continue to track the progress of land-use policies in Maryland and other states and localities. Continue to visit the AIA’s Issues & Advocacy website to get more information.

The House Small Business Committee approved legislation last week that would prevent the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) from implementing massive size standard changes like their recently proposed $19 million threshold for architecture firms.

The Small Business Protection Act of 2012 (H.R. 3987) was unanimously passed out of the committee; the next step is for the House to take it up later this year. This bipartisan bill prohibits the SBA from forcing any profession into a group size standard unless the individual size standard fits that profession. Effectively, it would prohibit the SBA from trying to force architecture and engineering into one common size standard. 

The sponsor of the bill, Rep. Joe Walsh (R-IL), noted during the committee’s deliberations that AIA’s 2011 testimony on the proposed architecture size standard was the rationale for the bill. Last year, the SBA proposed raising the standard from $4.5 million to $19 million, which would make more than 97 percent of U.S. architecture firms qualify as a small business. Walsh noted that “I think we can all agree that situations like this are not in the best interests of small businesses.”

The AIA is working with both the House and Senate to gain support for this bill.  Keep checking the AIA Issues and Advocacy page for more updates.