Example New Instrument: Zoning Overlays – an Instrument for Cross Capital Incentives
Example New Instrument: Zoning Overlays – an Instrument for Cross Capital Incentives
To address the need for a more integrated approach that emphasizes cross-capital incentives within an overlay zone and outlines how the Living Systems Tetrad—Ground, Instruments, Goals, and Direction—can be applied for their implementation, let’s structure the example with a focus on overlay zone incentives that promote regenerative development across multiple capitals. This approach ensures that the incentives not only encourage investment and development within the overlay zone but also guide the specific applications of the Tetrad to achieve comprehensive, regenerative outcomes.
Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone – Modernize Zoning Models
Direction:
Modernize zoning models to encourage sustainable urban development, aiming to improve ecological health, foster community well-being, and enhance economic vitality through eco-innovation.
Ground:
Conventional zoning practices insufficiently incentivize or facilitate sustainable development and are cumbersome and time consuming to meet modern development needs.
Goals:
Implement an Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone to catalyze sustainable development practices across the city.
Actions & SCARF Application:
In the pursuit of sustainable urban transformation, the Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone represents a pioneering model that seeks to modernize traditional zoning practices to better align with regenerative development principles. This model is composed of a suite of strategic components designed to incentivize and facilitate eco-friendly development practices, enhance community engagement, and promote economic resilience within urban environments. The Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone leverages tax incentives, density bonuses, expedited permitting processes, grants and funding opportunities, and technical assistance as key instruments to drive meaningful change. Each component is meticulously crafted to address specific aspects of urban development, encouraging projects that not only meet current sustainability benchmarks but also push the boundaries of innovation in green building, renewable energy, and community-centric design. By delineating the framework and goals for the Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone, we lay the groundwork for a comprehensive action plan that integrates the Systems-Centric Adaptive Regenerative Framework (SCARF) principles, ensuring adaptability, systemic thinking, and a focus on regenerative outcomes. Through this model, the overlay zone becomes more than a set of guidelines; it transforms into a dynamic tool for catalyzing sustainable urban ecosystems that thrive socially, economically, and environmentally.
Tax Incentives
Plans: Design a comprehensive plan detailing the criteria for reduced property taxes, identifying benchmarks in sustainability, community engagement, and green job creation that developments must achieve.
Policies: Formalize policies to implement these tax incentives, ensuring they are aligned with broader city sustainability goals and the Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone’s objectives.
Participation: Engage with developers, community organizations, and environmental groups to refine the benchmarks and ensure the incentives are attractive and attainable.
Potential: Explore the potential for these incentives to spur innovative green building designs and technologies, encouraging developments that go beyond current sustainability standards.
2. Density Bonuses
Plans: Establish a detailed zoning amendment process to allow for increased density bonuses, setting clear guidelines for projects that incorporate green infrastructure, public amenities, and affordable housing.
Policies: Develop policies that outline the conditions under which density bonuses are granted, ensuring they contribute positively to the urban fabric and community needs.
Participation: Conduct public forums and workshops with community members and developers to gather input on the design and implementation of density bonus programs.
Potential: Identify opportunities for density bonuses to facilitate mixed-use developments that enhance community connectivity and access to amenities, fostering vibrant urban spaces.
3. Expedited Permitting
Plans: Create an expedited permitting plan for projects demonstrating a commitment to local biodiversity, community health, and economic resilience, including a streamlined application and review process.
Policies: Enact policies that specify the criteria for expedited permitting, ensuring projects align with the city’s regenerative development goals.
Participation: Work closely with project developers and community stakeholders to ensure the expedited process is transparent, fair, and supports projects with genuine sustainability impacts.
Potential: Investigate how expedited permitting can encourage more developers to integrate regenerative practices into their projects, potentially setting new industry standards.
4. Grants and Funding
Plans: Develop a funding strategy that includes grants and low-interest loans for projects focused on renewable energy, sustainable transportation, and ecosystem restoration.
Policies: Implement financial support policies that detail eligibility criteria, application processes, and project evaluation metrics.
Participation: Involve local entrepreneurs, environmental NGOs, and community groups in designing the grants program to ensure it meets the city’s sustainability needs and priorities.
Potential: Explore the potential for funded projects to serve as pilot studies or demonstrations of innovative sustainable solutions, providing valuable insights and models for broader adoption.
5. Technical Assistance
Plans: Outline a program to offer technical assistance from city planning and sustainability experts to projects, focusing on integrating regenerative practices.
Policies: Create a policy framework for the technical assistance program, including the scope of support, eligibility criteria, and application process.
Participation: Develop partnerships with academic institutions, industry experts, and professional associations to provide a pool of expertise for project support.
Potential: Look for opportunities to use the technical assistance program to foster innovation in sustainable urban design and construction, potentially leading to new standards and practices in regenerative development.
By weaving the SCARF elements into the action plan for developing and implementing the Eco-Innovation Overlay Zone instrument, we ensure a holistic, adaptive approach that captures the interconnectedness and potential for innovation within urban systems. This detailed plan showcases the potential for meaningful, sustainable transformation through collaborative, informed actions, setting a precedent for future regenerative urban development initiatives.
The Future City Platform – instrument to aide cities in tracking and collaboration
Regenerative Development Corp is building a Future City Platform that makes Regenerative City management seamless and easily reachable from one mayor to the next. This ongoing capacity and capability is taken over by the community as after a three to five-year collaborative engagement. The tools include the use of Artificial Intelligence, social measures, sentiment, and quality of life metrics – impacts can be measured over time and become indicators and predictors of future life.
Introduction to the Future City Platform
An AI based technology platform that connects the ecosystem with the community, city and real-estate developers to build sustainable projects with lasting impact using a Single AI integrated Ontology and Data Architecture for the whole city, business and citizens. This model protects privacy, removes bad actors, prevents tracking and sources all information using a trust protocol developed to allow self-governance and give the not only the citizens and communities a voice but the natural capital as well through tokenizing natural resources (e.g., lakes, forests, watersheds). Let’s get started:
Create a digital twin of managed areas
Explore data and information about all aspects of the city through the five capitals
Customized website views for police/fire, city planners, elected officials and citizens
Collaboration and Connection
Connects stakeholders together to create a shared vision for the community Inventory resources including the physical ecosystem, population, community interest groups and physical assets
Enables long-term co-evolution of ideas and models
Regenerative process, tracking and refinement
Goals and outputs are established, outcomes are measured, and impact is assessed and refined where the process restarts
The established metrics can be displayed in dashboards for constituencies
Support for modern zoning overlays, sustainability goals and tracking across a broad set of categories.
Prebuilt templates can be created to be shared across cities where similar needs may exist to guide in the development of measurements, indicators, goals, tools and instruments necessary to accomplish the desired impact. As a living measurement system, it must be adaptable to change and purpose. The portal supports continuous updates and sharing across all places for nominal costs.
