Ignite High Point’s eagerly awaited master plan has been released. New urbanist planner Andres Duany wants HP to become, well, new urbanist. For that to happen, you have to draw the entrepreneurial spirit of the younger generation. Unfortunately, something stands in the way:
The onerous process of bureaucratic approval cannot be amortized by the small developer with the meager value of what the down – town is originally worth, so today everything is done by bigger developers.
For this we propose a “Pink Code” to lighten the red tape. A code should be part
of the solution.It is a code that knows what the city wants to be, so that it thereby becomes thin. A fat, unwieldy code, that is a code that hedges the bets. It is for a leadership and a profession that is scared to decide.
(But it makes the consultants happy because they can only be interpreted by lawyers or architects.)
Yes!Weekly says HP should give the hipsters a chance, but doesn’t mention the Pink Code.
I have no doubt there is a younger generation out there with an intolerance for red tape. But for the most part seems to me the majority of them are all too willing to be spoon-fed the Obama’s administration’s ‘government is good’ baby food –Obama can’t believe he’s still got at least one easy audience out there.
