As someone who has been working in the planning profession for over a decade I can honestly say I had never heard of Agenda 21. The first time I got wind of this was when I received a link to Glenn Beck's website from a friend. I have been going to planning conferences for years and this Agenda 21 never came up. I certainly wasn't brain-washed in school, either, since I pretty much rejected everything they taught me. I went my own way then, and am pretty much the same today.
So how did I become associated with New Urbanists and Smart Growthers if I didn't drink the Kool-Aid? Pretty simple. I was a cul-de-sac kid living in a modern house that left the nest and found a way of living that I liked better. I grew up watching Home Time and This Old House and loved the traditional design and workmanship more than my modern environs. I was much happier in a place where I could get around easily, meet friends, have a drink, get my errands done, and never have to worry about finding a parking spot. There are plenty of places like this all over America. This is what traditional town planning and architecture is all about. So I signed up and loved it. Every now and then, though, I would encounter certain attitudes from my contemporaries that didn't quite jive with my line of thinking. I didn't see anything nefarious in this. It was simply a different approach to the same design problem. Then I discovered the disconnect. The plans were designed in such a way that you couldn't keep a boat or RV on your property. The rules were written so you couldn't have a work truck in your driveway or a flagpole in your front yard. It wasn't the planners doing this, it was the attorneys writing the HOA bylaws and the developers looking to increase the number of lots. The HOA turned into a major profit center for developers, it's a business that can be bought and sold on the open market. Increased density gave the developer more lots to sell and lowered the cost of entry. More product at a better price, but you'd get nickeled and dimed to death with fees, extra taxes, and the costs of storing your toys somewhere other than your yard. Keep in mind density is relative and doesn't mean everything has to be like Manhattan. We were designing residential neighborhoods of the size and scale of great American places like Arlington, VA and Key West, Florida. These places are more compact than a lot of suburban development, but aren't anywhere near the density of cities like Manhattan and Chicago. What our plans did is lower the cost per lot allowing expensive parcels of land to be developed that would otherwise sit empty. This didn't mean the houses were cheap, but it did shave off quite a bit from the sales price. So is it all "greedy developers"? No. Not in the least. While the projects I worked on drew inspiration from the great American towns of the past I met plenty of practitioners who harbored fairly serious contempt for people that didn't buy in to their vision. We always had many different sizes. Want a big house? Sure. Want a small house? Sure. Prefer a condo? Got that, too. Something in-between? Maybe you'd like a townhouse. We had it all. But not everybody shared our 'take all comers' approach. Certain things had to be banned. They disapproved of certain aspects of the American lifestyle. They didn't bother to try to understand that lifestyle, they just knew better. There was no convincing them otherwise. RVs are evil, you don't need a boat, they consume too many fossil fuels. Do we really want those people living here? I was offended. They used more fossil fuels on one trip flying to this town than I've ever put into my motorhome just so they can tell me I'm a dirtbag for having a motorhome. Really?Guess what, I have a design where I can fit my house, two cars, and a motorhome and it achieves the same density that their plans do. I won't have to pay storage fees, won't have to pay HOA fees, and will still get to live in a compact walkable environment. I walk to where I need to go because that's my choice, not because I have no other option. I like having a front porch so I can relax and talk to my neighbors. Having the porch doesn't make me do it, it just gives me the opportunity to do so. I like having the RV because I can use it to visit all the wonderful small towns of America with my family and my dog for a lot less money (and a lot less fuel) than flying about. That's the vision I bought into and the one I'm sill pursuing. I'm not an apparatchik of Agenda 21, I just like traditional American towns. That's not to say there are those who relish the opportunity to control how other people live, but there is a big difference between us. Don't lump me in with them, I don't like 'em, either.
