If You Want Safe Streets, Buy a Better Fire Engine

That lesson was brought home, once again, by the Opticos team’s work on a recent downtown plan. Our team had encountered a typical American conflict. Many community members wanted walkable streets, with wide sidewalks, protected bicycle lanes, slow-moving traffic, and ample room for trees, flowers, and sidewalk cafés. The fire department wanted wide, unobstructed swathes of asphalt. This conflict between community members’ desire for low-speed streets, with a high level of traffic safety, and a fire department’s desire for wide, high-speed roads is frequent in the United States. But in Europe, it is rare.

Form-Based Code Cartoon Series

Designer Beth Cichon, with the help of Associate Erick Bernabe and Sr Associate Tony Perez, has been illustrating a cartoon series about Form-Based Codes. The cartoons take a fun approach to educating readers on how FBCs can help improve your city or neighborhood.

Tactical, High-Impact Improvements for a Small Town Main Street

Not all planning projects are costly or take years to complete and/or implement. Small, tactical moves can make a big impact in a small amount of time. The Main Street Concept Plan for the City of Colfax, California is an example where simple tactical design concepts were successfully used to improve a historic small town Main Street. What began as a quick solution to a short-term problem, evolved into the possibility of a safer, more vibrant downtown – with expanded outdoor dining, more thoughtful use of irregular and underutilized space, and improved community gathering spaces that will help businesses thrive.

An Agile, Cost-Competitive, Alternative Approach to Class A Multifamily Living Using Missing Middle Housing, Part 2

This is the second part of a two part series, based on recent conversations with our current client, Gerald S. Reimer from Urban Waters based in Omaha, NE, to discuss the Missing Middle neighborhood we planned for him. The first post introduced the project and discussed the benefits of this Missing Middle approach to a multifamily including tiered financing, tiered occupancy, and reduced absorption risk. This post will cover yield to cost efficiencies, flexible programming, and what lies ahead for Missing Middle Housing, especially in our post-pandemic world.

Building Types in Zoning, Part 2: Where?

As established in Part 1 of this series, we understand why it’s important to use building types. Now, let’s get into the next question: where? This post focuses on where building types are most effective, where they could be helpful but aren’t necessary, and where they are not necessary and should not be used.