I have long argued that increasing gas prices, the costs of road construction, the degradation of the environment and natural resources like water, and changing standards about what Americans want from their residential communities (alternate transportation, walkability, mixed-use, etc.) will doom many exurbs. And there was never a strong case to make that the suburbs would inevitably reach the exurbs, as many municipalities, planners, and developers have assumed.

A couple of reasons why that was a weak case: 1) any cities have lost population and can accommodate far more residents, easily, than they currently hold and 2) by mid-century the number of white Americans — the demographic group that has fueled exurban growth — will level off.

Let me emphasize that I’m not talking here about relatively close suburbs, which are near transit hubs and have easy access to a wide range of services. With a little more attention and a long-range plan, some of Savannah’s Southside neighborhoods could flourish as walkable, sustainable places to live with a much richer culture of place. (In the absence of a clear plan, attention, and money, I’m quite concerned about the Southside’s fate decades from now.)

Anyway, I just ran across a great piece going into much more detail about some of these issues, balanced by various counter-arguments, in the Philadelphia Inquirer from a week ago: Changing Skyline: Suburbia’s outer ring losing shine, some economists say by architecture critic Inga Saffron.

From the piece:

Is Oakcrest [a zombie subdivision on the fringe of the Philly suburbs where homes aren’t even selling for their replacement cost] a sign that the region’s suburban sprawl has finally reached its limit, or is it just a casualty of the housing bust?

Back then, experts maintained that the relentless march of suburbia would resume just as soon as the overstock of houses was exhausted. But five years after the market seized up, planners and economists aren’t so sure, and they’ve begun to ponder a previously unthinkable notion: The heyday of the suburbs may be over.

Not for every suburb, of course. The original, close-in, commuter suburbs, such as those on the Main Line, aren’t likely to lose their luster anytime soon. The next ring of suburbs can probably survive, too, if they make some structural adjustments, such as adding more townhouses and apartments. It’s low-density, fringe exurbs like Oakcrest, beyond the orbital pull of the big city, that may not have much of a future.

Saffron then cites Joel Kotkin’s counter-arguments and moves deeper into the issue.

The piece is highly recommended.

In his book The Great Good Place, Oldenburg demonstrates why these gathering places are essential to community and public life. He argues that bars, coffee shops, general stores, and other “third places” (in contrast to the first and second places of home and work), are central to local democracy and community vitality.

I talked about third places in relation to The Sentient Bean at the southern edge of Forsyth Park. The Bean’s 10th anniversary celebration is Friday evening, September 30th.

I also mentioned Oldenburg in a recent post here that includes a link to a guest column I wrote for The Inkwell, the student newspaper at Armstrong Atlantic Satate University.

In my life, the closest rival as a third place is the bar at American Legion Post #135, which is right around the corner from and the landlord of The Sentient Bean.

I have heard from a couple of readers who live in neighborhoods lacking such third places. I hope it’s something we’ll focus on as we continue to rethink how we live and where we live.

Yesterday I went out again to Green Bridge Farm for the open house for Clayton Homes’ i-house, a zero energy home that utilizes a variety of sustainable technologies. It seems like kind of a no-brainer that we’ll see A LOT more homes like this in the future.

From the Clayton Homes press release for the event:

The August 12th and 13th open house will highlight the sustainable features that make the Green Bridge Farm i-house a net zero energy residence, the homeownerâ€s brand new Chevrolet Volt and Earth Comfort System of geothermal heating and cooling. Open house guests will also receive a tasting of the sustainable community projectâ€s fresh produce and a tour of the farm.

Claytonâ€s ENERGY STAR® qualified i-house recently arrived in the Savannah area and can now be viewed, toured and purchased at Green Bridge Farm. The eco-friendly i-house launched nationally in 2009 when Warren Buffett unveiled the i-house to Berkshire-Hathaway Shareholders Meeting attendees.

While its sleek design and modern furnishings make the i-house easy on the eyes, its main attraction for home buyers are the sustainable options the home boasts, such as:

* Up to 30% reduced energy use
* Solar panels
* Rainwater collection systems
* Low-e windows
* Tankless water heaters
* Low-flow faucets
* Renewable bamboo flooring

Clayton Homes says energy costs for the i-house are less than $70 a month, but that figure drops to less than one dollar per day when the optional solar panel system is installed. By utilizing all available energy-saving features and Earth Comfort Systemâ€s geothermal HVAC system, the Green Farms i-house will have no electric bill.

There’s lots more about the i-house here at Clayton Homes.

I could totally live in a house of this design and construction. There are a variety of sizes and configurations possible — and expect Clayton and other companies to expand their offerings dramatically in the years ahead.

A few shots:

A photo I took a few weeks ago of the i-house exterior. "It looks like a trailer," people say, and it obviously has that sort of shape since it's essentially mobile.

The main entrance, which would typically face north. Note the western wall with few windows. That's perfect for avoiding hot, late afternoon sun, but the facade is definitely not one of the home's better architectural features. I could imagine trying to do some sort of green wall there, with vines climbing a frame.

I love the little guest suite, spare bedroom, potential office, etc. It's just off the same porch as the main building. This one is set up as a bedroom, with its own full bath.

Great porch atop the cube-shaped building. It's easy here to see the butterfly roof of the main building that makes it easy to capture rainwater funneled to an underground cistern. Those are solar panels to the left side of the roof.

Here and below: a few shots in the main portion of the i-house

I like the effect created by the butterfly roof.

Part of the energy monitoring system -- it's easy to see how much energy is being used in real time.

i-house resident Charles Davis, president of the Earth Comfort Company, Inc., discusses the home's elements with a guest at the open house.

Davis' Chevy Volt being charged from a station at the i-house.

• the shaky status of the I-16 flyover removal, which didn’t quite make the cut for funding via the proposed sales tax for transportation that is part of the state’s new funding method for regional projects.
• and the serious doubts about whether those referendums will actually pass in 2012, when they are certain to run up against all sorts of anti-tax opposition.

I am not going to recap all those complex issues here.

But I do want to make another point. The funded projects, which can be found in detail in this document (no, it’s here) on the Metropolitan Planning Commission website, include some that would sure benefit urban Savannah residents, such as millions for transit funding (both new busses and operational funding for them). Improvements to West Bay and West Gwinnettand 52nd St. are also slated for funding. And who doesn’t think we need new bridges with safe shoulders on Highway 80 between Savannah and Tybee?

Still, look at this map this map from the Transportation Improvement Program:

There are no projects in the center of the city (beyond some of the transit funding mentioned above). The one major proposed project — the removal of the I-16 flyover that did not make the short list the TIA shortlist and that is not on the TIP map — is an anomaly in some respects. It doesn’t involve increasing capacity, but reworking the end of I-16 in ways that will help restore a neighborhood.

And, as Chatham County commissioner Pat Shay mentioned in the email I cited in the column, the bulk of the projects on the above map deal with suburban-style development — with “automobility.” “Cheap” suburban living brings incredibly high public costs to maintain and to create transportation infrastructure to handle traffic at peak commute times. And not enough suburban residents factor in the gasoline costs that they’ll face for those long commutes.

I don’t know whether T-SPLOST could pass in November 2012, but I’m certain it would fail in July 2012 during the Republican primary (the current scheduled date). And I fundamentally reject the cynical ploy of referendums like this to fund infrastructure that is allegedly “critical”. If the work needs to be done, then it’s the job of government officials to do it — and to convince voters that it is needed. Nevertheless, this is the system we’ve been given, so I’m not going to say no just on political principle.

While there are lots of uncertainties in all this, I’m quite certain that I’ll vote against the T-SPLOST next year if the I-16 flyover removal is not part of the list.

Michael Maddox’s family has owned the property since the 18th century, and he’s now crafting the acreage into a small sustainable community with a shared organic garden, plus covenants protecting trees and encouraging other sustainable practices. From my 2008 column:

“Sustainability” may be the buzzword of the moment, but it’s certainly no passing fad for Maddox, who has been planning this communal “homestead” since first reading the books of Ken Kern more than 20 years ago.

“This may not be the wave of the future, but a wave of the future,” said Maddox, whom many of you may know as an organic gardener, musician or landscape supervisor for the city of Savannah.

Maddox envisions “more and more little developments that are more and more self-sufficient.” It’s a simple idea to “bring people to the food rather than food to the people.”

I was already friendly with Maddox when I did that piece, but have become better friends with him in the time since. I was among those invited for a celebration of the recent harvest of corn — and I got to Green Bridge Farm to find that it was also time for the blueberry harvest.

I was especially anxious to get out to the property off Zittrouer Road to see the new i-House, a zero-energy structure from Clayton Homes. It uses geothermal, solar panels, and a wind turbine to put power back onto the grid as often as it pulls power from it. There’s an open house coming up in August that I’ll be sure to attend — I can’t wait to see the interior and get a closer look at the various systems.

As I suggested back in 2008, while the housing market hardly needs new lots or new construction, there is a clear demand for alternatives to the prevailing housing model of high-maintenance suburban homes.

Enjoy a few pics:

One of the large organic beds

The zero-energy i-House

Grapevines and large blueberry bushes in the foreground

Django (silent D) on the porch of Maddox's existing home

The new road between homesites

Part of the silver queen harvest

Sylvie has a pretty good life

For more information, check out the Green Bridge Farm website.

Check out this fascinating AP piece: “Aging boomers strain cities built for the young“.

Apart from some painful prose — like “silver tsunami” to describe the growing ranks of seniors — the piece covers some interesting details, especially efforts in NYC:

Last year, East Harlem became the city’s first “aging improvement district.” Sixty stores, identified with window signs, agreed to put out folding chairs to let older customers rest as they do their errands. The stores also try to keep aisles free of tripping hazards and use larger type so signs are easier to read. A community pool set aside senior-only hours so older swimmers could get in their laps without faster kids and teens in the way.

On one long block, accountant Henry Calderon welcomes older passers-by to rest in his air-conditioned lobby even if they’re not customers. They might be, one day.

“It’s good for business but it’s good for society,” too, he said.

And this:

More than 200 times, school buses have taken older adults from senior centers to supermarkets in different neighborhoods. It’s just one of a variety of initiatives begun in 2009 by the New York Academy of Medicine and the city’s government to address the needs of older residents. Already, they’re showing results.

A city report found the number of crashes has dropped at busy intersections in senior-heavy communities where traffic signals now allow pedestrians a few more seconds to cross the street.

Benches have been placed in nearly 2,700 bus shelters to give waiting seniors a place to rest.

The city’s aging taxi fleet is scheduled to be replaced by a boxier model designed to be easier for older riders and people with disabilities to open the doors and slide in and out.

On the Upper West Side, seniors snapped up a report card of grocery stores deemed age-friendly because they offer deliveries, have public bathrooms — a rarity in the city — and sell single portions of fresh meat, poultry or fish, important for people who live alone.

Artists volunteer to teach at senior centers in return for space to work on or display their own creations.

And a “Time Bank” is letting hundreds of people of different ages and with different skills essentially barter services.

The AP piece also pays some attention to similar efforts in Atlanta, for example:

The Atlanta Regional Commission’s Lifelong Communities Initiative is pushing communities that help people age in place. Efforts are under way in six metro areas, including work to adapt zoning codes to allow more of a walkable mix of housing and retail.

Interesting stuff.

But I’m betting that the end result won’t be Paula Deen — or anyone else in the County — being forced to get rid of backyard chickens. Instead, we’ll see a change in zoning to allow certain numbers of hens under certain circumstances. There seems to a pretty broad public consensus that homeowners should be applauded if they’re keeping chickens, which is one of the most obvious ways of supporting the movement toward a culture of local food and sustainability.

Still, there are some interesting questions. In the Savannah Morning News a couple days ago, Mary Landers explored some of the differences between city and county zoning, including: “Savannah allows residents to keep up to five hens on their property, with stipulations about how far the animals must be kept from occupied buildings.”

But is five too low a limit? I know people who have more than five hens and who obviously aren’t creating any sort of problem for their neighbors. What types of buffering are really necessary?

It’s interesting that this debate about chickens is beginning at the same time that Metropolitan Planning Commission planners have released, after years of work, the draft of the Unified Zoning Ordinance, intended in large measure to streamline and simplify zoning in the city of Savannah and unincorporated portions of Chatham County. The full draft document is available on the UZO website.

I’m a big fan of the UZO, largely because I saw the intelligence behind it month in and month out when I was on the technical committee reviewing early drafts of various sections. I wrote about the UZO in my column Tuesday:

Right now we have conflicting language for the city of Savannah versus the unincorporated county. We have 126 zoning districts, far more than much larger cities. Some current development requirements do not work for urban settings, which results in an inordinate number of appeals for variances.

And too many property and business owners simply can’t find their way easily through the complex documentation and bureaucracy.

The cumbersomeness of the current zoning ordinances has certainly hurt economic development. No doubt about that.

But I’m worried that we won’t see the forest for the trees — that we’ll get sidetracked by small issues that can be easily remedied. Backyard chickens seems like an easy issue to solve.

And I sure hope that members of City Council and the County Commission who might be voting on the UZO as early as this fall won’t get sidetracked by irrational objections. The Thomas Square rezoning a few years ago was nearly derailed by a small number of people who didn’t ever seem to understand what the ordinance meant for them. And that was just one neighborhood.

I have followed housing issues primarily over the last few years, but the commercial market has been tough too. Take a look at another great graph from Calculated Risk; this one shows the lag between residential and commercial values:

No one is immune, not even Georgia Senate Banking Committee Chair Jack Murphy. According to the AJC:

State Sen. Jack Murphy, R-Cumming, owns a one-acre tract along Tribble Gap Road in downtown Cumming that has been listed for foreclosure on July 5, according to a legal notice published earlier this month in the Forsyth County News.

The loan was originally issued for about $228,000 by Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, which failed in 2008 and where the senator was once a director. Investors later bought the loan.

Murphy, in an email, said he acquired the property in 2005 with plans to build an office building. He said its value has since dropped to 35 percent of the purchase price.

Murphy’s problems with banks and business deals don’t end there:

In January, Murphy was appointed chairman of the Senate panel that considers changes in banking law.

Later that month, the FDIC sued Murphy and seven other insiders of the failed Integrity Bank, accusing them of various breaches of fiduciary duties, including violations of state lending limits. The suit seeks more than $70 million in damages.

The Integrity co-defendants are fighting the suit. Murphy and three other Integrity insiders have cast blame at the FDIC for the bankâ€s failure.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in February that Murphy also had been sued in recent years for defaulting on other bank loans. Murphy has said he settled debts with one, an Alabama bank that said he owed about $50,000.

Atlantaâ€s Silverton Bank also sued Murphy, claiming he owed $193,000 on a loan. Silverton failed in 2009 and the case was taken over by the FDIC. Murphy has sought to dismiss the Silverton case.

That suit was moved last month from Forsyth County Superior Court to federal court in Atlanta, according to court records.

Does the Republican leadership of the state Senate think he’s an appropriate choice to head the banking committee?

Here in Savannah, Calvary Baptist Temple, which planned a massive relocation and expansion of its Waters Avenue campus, is dealing with foreclosure of 200-plus acres off Veterans Parkway, according to the Savannah Morning New today.

Another SMN story — Pirate’s Cove water park still planned for this year — has a hopeful headline and includes the following:

Martin had expected to be putting in slides by now, but said Thursday that rainy weather delayed work last winter and design changes have prevented work this spring.

Financing is in line, he said, and the park will be built.

But the delays can hardly be seen as a hopeful sign.

And it’s not like there’s a shortage of construction labor: construction jobs have continued to dwindle in Georgia.